Sarah Lay

Unit 3 Vocabulary

Balance: state of games system as balanced or unbalanced/consistent challenge or too

hard/easy/etc.
Content Design: characters, items, puzzles, etc
CRAP- acronym used to help remember the design principles; Contrast, Repetition, Alignment,
and Proximity.
Dynamics: when rules are put into motion
Failure: proving unsuccessful
Game: interactive challenge opponent-based form of entertainment with rules and an objective
Game Design: process of creating the content and rules of a game
Game Writing: dialogue, text, and story
HATS: other visual design acronym
Iterative Design: game is quickly prototyped, played, and refined again and again before it is
finalized
Level Design: levels in a game
Mechanics: the rules of a game
Pitch: brief speech to a game publisher to get funding for a project.
Playtesting: the testing of gameplay, systems, balance, etc to find issues
System: collection of mechanics that produce a given outcome within a game
System Design: rules and mathematical patterns
User Interface: how players interact with a game and how players receive information from a
game
World Design: overall back story, setting, and theme