In the following sections we will focus on games through the lense of Game Design Schemas. In Rules of Play Salen and Zimmerman introduces a framework which allows us to explore games through different perspectives.

As previously mentioned, defining games can be a difficult endeavour because different definitions focus on different aspects in and around games. In order to allow us to talk about different aspects of games and the playing of games, Salen and Zimmerman introduces the framework of Game Design Schemas. These schemas are basic lenses through which games can be approached (and which encompasses the above-mentioned definitions):

• The rules (the design of a game - intrinsic mathematical structure of a game)
• The play (the human experience of playing the game - the player’s interaction with the game and other players)
• The culture (the larger contexts engaged with and inhabited by the game - the cultural context into which the game is embedded)

Salen & Zimmerman’s Game Design Schemas as three different perspectives on games

Read through the slides below for a more in depth understanding of what happens when we look at the game of Chess through the three perspectives offered by Salen and Zimmerman; Rules, Play and Culture.

The core takeaway here is that the game design schemas are hierarchical in nature and the different layers intermingle. This means that “when you are designing a game you are not designing just a set of rules, but a set of rules that will always be experiences as play within a cultural contest. As a result you never have the luxury of completely forgetting about context when you are focusing on experience,, or on experience and culture when you are focusing on a game’s formal structure” (Salen & Zimmerman, 2004, p. 52).


Reference

• Salen, K. & Zimmerman, E. (2004). Rules of Play. Game Design Fundamentals. MIT Press, Cambridge.