Concept
MDA
You might say: Mechanics, Dynamics, Aesthetics
MDA links designed mechanics to run-time dynamics and then to the aesthetic experience the player feels.
- What it does
- Provides a shared lens for moving between rules, behaviour and experience during design and tuning.
- Ask
- Which mechanic creates which dynamic, and which experience is that dynamic meant to support?
Parts
- Mechanics: Mechanics are the particular rules, data and actions the game affords.
- Dynamics: Dynamics are the run-time behaviours produced by mechanics acting on player inputs and one another over time.
- Aesthetics: Aesthetics are the emotional responses and kinds of fun the game aims to evoke through play.
Sources
- Robin Hunicke, Marc LeBlanc and Robert Zubek, MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research, pp. 1–4
Mechanics describes the particular components of the game, at the level of data representation and algorithms. Dynamics describes the run-time behavior of the mechanics acting on player inputs and each othersí outputs over time.
- Celia Hodent, Cognitive Psychology Applied to User Experience in Video Games, author article: intended experience, player perception and interaction
UX as a discipline incorporates knowledge and methodologies from behavioral sciences
- Ian Schreiber, Game Design Concepts, Level 5: Mechanics and Dynamics, Now, About That MDA Framework Thing…: mechanics, dynamics and aesthetics
The Dynamics emerge from the Mechanics, and the Aesthetics arise out of the Dynamics.
Use it on your project
teardown-apply: hold "MDA" (mda-framework) from the teardown at https://teardownatlas.com/game-design/ against my project
Paste it into a coding agent that has the teardown skills.
An AI agent wrote this map with the teardown skill. It can contain errors: check the sources before you rely on a part. About and legal