Doug Church on Game Tools/Venturelli's Article on Casual Gaming

    I recently read the article by Doug Church regarding how games differ from books and film and what he considers the tools (or 'Formal Abstract Design Tools, FADT's) used to create games are. I'd actually never really considered how much games compare to either of these media so this article was pretty interesting. Again we had to condense the article into a less wordy nut shell, taking note of the key tools that Church mentioned. So, here are the tools that I found (in bold):

- Control: to allow player expression
- Low/High level Goals: to get players invested and involved to create intention
     There was a quote which I took out of the article to better explain intention...
"...making an implementable plan of ones own creation in response to the current situation in the game world and ones own understanding of the game play options..."
    And as a side note I mentioned Perceivable Consequence : a reaction from the game world to a players actions
- Visible Feedback: Allows players to learn and adapt to shape their play style (which naturally creates a form of learning curve)
- Cooperation, conflict and confusion: I think this was generally talking about adventure games however I think that they can be transferred into other games
- Punishment and Reward

    I don't think there's much to dispute with Church's toolbox, these elements I think it's safe to say are fairly exclusive to games. We also looked at Venturelli's article about the 'space of possibility and pacing in casual game design'. A term was used in the article which I'd never heard before, 'Movement Impetus', which I believe essentially meant a players motivation to continue playing a game, Venturelli linked this in with 'space of possibility', which made reference to the 'pacing' of a game or tempo in which a player has to make significant decisions in order to advance. He touched upon creating small/large spaces of possibility, larger 'spaces' possibly diluting the movement impetus element within a game due to boredom for example on behalf of the player and smaller spaces, increasing tempo however allowing the player to establish play patterns and create methods for overcoming the struggles that a game presents, thus again causing a game to become less stimulating. I read in one of the previous articles, the author I've forgotten now, I'll come back and change this if I ever remember, that the more a designer wishes to create an experience for a player by attempting to control it, he/she is progressively hindering the room for possibility and consequently defeating the point in what they're trying to do, which I thought was a point worth remembering!
    Venturelli moved on to urge that balance is essential, creating a system in which a player has a chance to explore a game however not for too long by presenting them with something new, to prevent 'perceivable patterns' , which I suppose thinking back is what Church was talking about when he mentioned 'confusion'.
    Venturelli also mentioned 'Arches of Pacing', involving an upper and lower arch. Upper I believe referred to long term goals and the longevity of a game in terms of player interest, the lower arch consisting of Movement Impetus, Tension, Threat and Tempo, which sort of all backs up what Church was saying previously.
    The final point on my list was the 'Pick up and Play' aspect of a game, meaning how quickly a player can sit down, learn the rules and play comfortably before it becomes a chore and they lose interest, I think the last time I experienced getting frustrated at a game before I even made my first move was attempting to play Dungeons and Dragons years ago, sitting down to read the instruction manual only to find myself half an hour later sitting there with a blank expression on face with small plastic goblins and board tiles scattered everywhere, perhaps it's about time to give it another go...
   In conclusion I think the tools that Church and Venturelli mentioned are all pretty essential, if not worth remembering in the future in my quest to make badass games.