Formal, Dramatic & Dynamic Elements

The Formal, Dynamic & Dramatic Elements framework was proposed in “Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games” by Tracey Fullerton, Christopher Swain and Steven Hoffman (2nd ed, Boca Raton, FL, Elsevier Morgan Kauffmen, 2008).

This framework breaks games down in to three types of elements.

  • Formal elements: The elements that make games different from other forms of media or interaction and provide the structure of a game. Formal elements include things like rules, resources, and boundaries.
  • Dramatic elements: The story and narrative of the game, including the premise. Dramatic elements tie the game together, help players understand the rules, and encourage the player to become emotionally invested in the outcome of the game.
  • Dynamic elements: The game in motion. Once players turn the rules into actual gameplay, the game has moved into dynamic elements. Dynamic elements include things like strategy, behaviour, and relationships between game entities.

Formal Elements

Under FDDE a game ceases to be a game if the formal elements are removed.
FDDE defines seven formal elements of games.

  1. Player interaction pattern: How do the players interact?
    • Single-player
    • One-on-one
    • Team versus team
    • Multilateral (multiple players versus each other)
    • Unilateral (one player versus all the other players)
    • Cooperative play
    • Multiple individual players each working against the same system
  2. Objective: What are the players trying to achieve in the game? When has someone won the game?
  3. Rules: Limit the players’ actions by telling them what they may and may not do in the game.
    • Many rules are explicit, but others are implicitly understood
  4. Procedures: Actions taken by the players in the game
    • A rule tells the player what to do
    • The procedure dictated by that rule is the actual action of the player
    • Procedures are often defined by the interaction of a number of rules
    • Some procedures are also outside of the rules: Bluffing in Poker
  5. Resources: Elements that have value in the game
    • Money
    • Health
    • Items
    • Property
  6. Boundaries: Where does the game end and reality begin? “A game is a temporary world where the rules of the game apply rather than the rules of the ordinary world” – Johan Huizinga, Homo Ludens (1955)
    • This concept is now known as the Magic Circle
    • In a sport like football or ice hockey, the magic circle is defined by the boundaries of the playing field
    • In an Alternative Reality Game like I Love Bees (the ARG for Halo 2), the boundaries are more vague
  7. Outcome: How did the game end?
    • Both final and incremental outcomes
    • In Chess, the final outcome is that one player will win, and the other will lose
    • In an RPG, there are several incremental outcomes

Dramatic Elements

Dramatic elements of games make the rules and resources more understandable and give players greater emotional investment in a game.

  1. Premise: The basic story of the game world
    • Monopoly: The players are real-estate developers trying to get a monopoly on corporate real estate in Atlantic City, New Jersey
    • Donkey Kong: The player is trying to single-handedly save his girlfriend from a gorilla that has kidnapped her
    • The premise forms the basis around which the rest of the game’s narrative is built
  2. Character: The individuals around whom the story revolves
    • Vary widely in depth
    • The main character of Quake is nameless and largely undefined
    • Nathan Drake, from the Uncharted games, is as deep and multidimensional as the lead characters in most movies
    • In movies, the goal of the director is to encourage the audience to have empathy for the film’s protagonist
    • In games, the player actually is the protagonist character
    • Designers must choose whether the protagonist will act as
    • An avatar for the player
    • A role that the player must take on
      • Most common of the two
      • Much simpler to implement.
  3. Story: The plot of the game
    • The narrative that takes place through the course of the game

Dynamic Elements

Dynamic Elements occur only when the game is played.

The core concept of dynamic elements is emergence.

  1. Emergent Gameplay
    • Simple rules lead to complex and unpredictable behaviour
    • One of a game designer’s most important jobs is to attempt to understand the emergent implications of the rules in a game.
  2. Emergent Narrative
    • Narrative can also be dynamic
    • Narratives can emerge from the gameplay itself
    • One of the central appeals of RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons
    • Different from the narrative embedded in cut scenes and plot
    • Unique to interactive experiences.
  3. Playtesting is the only way to understand dynamics
    • Game systems are unpredictable
    • Experienced game designers can make better guesses
    • But, everyone must playtest to understand a game