Thais Arrias Weiller
This article investigates the relationship between systems thinking and game design practices in order to relate current uses with theory, identify gaps and propose new methodologies. To do so, we understand games as human built systems regulated by rules and guided by one or a collection of users (players), who steer the system’s functioning by their interaction. A complex dynamic emerges from the complicated relationship between the player and the videogame system, one that is hard to grasp if we ignore the interconnectedness of both entities and their intricacies.
Systems thinking proposes that, instead of interpreting real-world complex situations as the totality of its parts, to rather approach the dynamic relationships between its elements. Such approach is also useful for ever-changing systems such as videogames, as one gets a clearer picture when concentrating on the relationships and their movements instead of trying to find to carve out its chunks. This work focuses in particular on the area of the system that resides in the game, but it is directly perceived and manipulated by the players, an area broadly known as a game design.
A videogame’s design is composed by the not so clear-cut elements afforded to the player to act upon and the reactions that the player can elicit from the videogame’s code by these actions. The systemic nature of games is a long-held creed in the game studies area, but a systematic understanding of game design is a proposition that has not been explored to its limits yet. We propose not only that system theory is particularly well suited for game design creation, but also for academic analysis. To do so, the parallels between systems theory from Systems Oriented Design from Sevaldson are drawn.
This work compiles what has already been proposed in applying Systems Thinking to game design and proposes Systemic Game Design approaches and practices in an attempt to deepen the conversation between these two fields and suggest areas for growth.
Keywords: videogames, videogame design, game design, game system, gameplay, systematic game design, design process