Elemental tetrad

The elemental tetrad is a conceptual framework used in game design. Based on mechanics, aesthetics, stories and technology.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]

Description

Mechanics describe the rules of the game, what players can and cannot do, while trying to achieve the game's goal and what happens when they try.

Story some sort of sequences of events that unfolds in a game and that can be linear and pre-scripted, or non-linear or even random.

Aesthetics define how the game looks, sounds and feels. Aesthetics has the most direct relationship to the player’s experience.

Technology is what makes the game work, as an essential medium in which other parts of tetrad work: where the aesthetics take place, in which the mechanics will occur, and through which the story will be told.

References

^ "An introduction to the elemental tetrad". Simoose (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 2020-07-16. Retrieved 2020-07-16.
^ Antona, Margherita; Stephanidis, Constantine (2019-07-10). Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction. Theory, Methods and Tools: 13th International Conference, UAHCI 2019, Held as Part of the 21st HCI International Conference, HCII 2019, Orlando, FL, USA, July 26–31, 2019, Proceedings, Part I. Springer. ISBN 978-3-030-23560-4.
^ Korn, Oliver; Lee, Newton (2017-03-29). Game Dynamics: Best Practices in Procedural and Dynamic Game Content Generation. Springer. ISBN 978-3-319-53088-8.
^ Bond, Jeremy Gibson (2017-08-17). Introduction to Game Design, Prototyping, and Development: From Concept to Playable Game with Unity and C#. Addison-Wesley Professional. ISBN 978-0-13-465988-6.

[1] "An introduction to the elemental tetrad". Simoose (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 2020-07-16. Retrieved 2020-07-16.

[2] Antona, Margherita; Stephanidis, Constantine (2019-07-10). Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction. Theory, Methods and Tools: 13th International Conference, UAHCI 2019, Held as Part of the 21st HCI International Conference, HCII 2019, Orlando, FL, USA, July 26–31, 2019, Proceedings, Part I. Springer. ISBN 978-3-030-23560-4.

[3] Korn, Oliver; Lee, Newton (2017-03-29). Game Dynamics: Best Practices in Procedural and Dynamic Game Content Generation. Springer. ISBN 978-3-319-53088-8.

[4] Bond, Jeremy Gibson (2017-08-17). Introduction to Game Design, Prototyping, and Development: From Concept to Playable Game with Unity and C#. Addison-Wesley Professional. ISBN 978-0-13-465988-6.

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