You can’t go far without basic concepts like mechanics, gameplay, and UX. Here, we clarify these fundamental ideas that help you navigate the world of game development and communicate effectively with your team.

Understanding the theory behind these concepts is essential. A solid grasp of theory leads to better, more consistent practice — it helps structure your design thinking, spot weak points early, and make intentional decisions instead of relying on guesswork.

That said, theory alone is not enough. That’s where Analysis comes in: it teaches you how to interpret, critique, and reflect on game systems in context. The more precisely you can analyze, the deeper your understanding of theory becomes.

Origin of this model

This model — Player | Structure | Cognition | Dynamics | Perception — emerged as a response to the limitations of MDA (Mechanics–Dynamics–Aesthetics).

While MDA breaks down the structure of gameplay, it abstracts away the flow between layers and largely ignores how the player perceives and internalizes systems.

This framework expands MDA by:

– making the player a starting point, not an endpoint;

– explicitly modeling structure as the layer that governs intention and causality;

– including perceprtion as the final output — how the system speaks back to the player.

The goal is to clarify the full cycle of interaction: from player need & context → to action determined by sctructure & UX → to systemic processing → to perceptual feedback — and back again.

It’s not just a model of what a game is, but of how a game is experienced and understood.

Licensed under CC BY 4.0. You may use, adapt, and share this game model as long as you provide proper attribution with a link to Game Design Guide.