Game design
The play sequence and possible player actions are defined, as well as how the game starts, ends, and win conditions (if any).
During testing, players play the prototype and provide feedback on its gameplay, the usability of its components, the clarity of its goals and rules, ease of learning, and entertainment value.
Many games have ancient origins and were not designed in the modern sense, but gradually evolved over time through play.
The rules of these games were not codified until early modern times and their features gradually developed and changed through the folk process.
[9] Tabletop games played today whose descent can be traced from ancient times include chess,[10][11] go,[12] pachisi,[13] mancala,[14][15] and pick-up sticks.
Similarly, many sports, such as soccer and baseball, are the result of folk processes, while others were designed, such as basketball, invented in 1891 by James Naismith.
For example, accurate topographic maps produced as lithographs and provided free to Prussian officers helped popularize wargaming.
[citation needed] Inexpensive (hollow) lead figurine casting contributed to the development of miniature wargaming.
Games have historically inspired seminal research in the fields of probability, artificial intelligence, economics, and optimization theory.
By learning through play[a] children can develop social and cognitive skills, mature emotionally, and gain the self-confidence required to engage in new experiences and environments.
[23] Key ways that young children learn include playing, being with other people, being active, exploring and new experiences, talking to themselves, communicating with others, meeting physical and mental challenges, being shown how to do new things, practicing and repeating skills, and having fun.
In the case of chess, for example, new variants are developed constantly, to focus on certain aspects of the game, or just for variation's sake.
[1] This is manifested by eliminating elements like randomness and luck to be replaced by skill, strategy, and resource competition, by removing the potential for players to fall irreversibly behind in the early stages of a game, and by reducing the number of rules and possible player options to produce what Alan R. Moon has described as "elegant game design".
For this reason, dice game design often centers around forming scoring combinations and managing re-rolls, either by limiting their number, as in Yahtzee or by introducing a press-your-luck element, as in Can't Stop.
[33] Gambling columnist John Grochowski points to the emergence of community-style slot machines in the mid-1990s, for example, as a successful variation on an existing casino game type.
Successful casino game design works to provide entertainment for the player and revenue for the gambling house.
To maximise player entertainment, casino games are designed with simple easy-to-learn rules that emphasize winning (i.e. whose rules enumerate many victory conditions and few loss conditions[33]), and that provide players with a variety of different gameplay postures (e.g. card hands).
[32][33] To maximise success for the gambling house, casino games are designed to be easy for croupiers to operate and for pit managers to oversee.
Shackleford suggests that the optimum casino game design should give the house an edge of smaller than 5%.
[33] The design of tabletop role-playing games typically requires the establishment of setting, characters, and gameplay rules or mechanics.
Prior to the late-twentieth century, the academic study of games was rare and limited to fields such as history and anthropology.
Using tools and methods such as interviews, ethnographies, and participant observation, researchers have investigated the various roles that games play in people's lives and the meanings players assign to their experiences.
