Games MDA

This week as a part of the reading task I read Design, Dynamics, Experience (DDE): An Adventure of the MDA Framework for Game Design and I watched Explaining the MDA Design Framework | Video Game Design.

After reading the paper Design, Dynamics, Experience (DDE): An Adventure of the MDA Framework for Game Design by Wolfgang Walk, Mark Barret and Daniel Gorlich, and watching Explaining the MDA Design Framework | Video Game Design by The Last Bacon it is evident that they identifies many interesting points throughout the paper including all about the MDA framework and the DDE framework. In this Blog I aim to address these points in greater detail.

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Caption: MDA Framework

To begin the authors begins to define what the MDA framework is they state that it was designed and introduced by Robin et al. They state that it was introduced to “clarify and strengthen the iterative process of developers, scholars and researchers alike”. The MDA framework has become the main approach to game design. It is something that is “well cited” and seen a lot in academia. MDA stands for Mechanics, Dynamics and Aesthetics. Mechanics meaning particular components of games, dynamics is the run-time behaviour of said mechanics acting on player inputs and aesthetics are the desirable emotional response.

The MDA framework was criticised and challenged in 2015 and 2016. The different authors that posted these papers identified two major weaknesses, “It neglects many design aspects of games, focusing too much on game mechanics. It is (therefore) not suitable for all types of games, including particularly gamified content or any type of experience-oriented design (as opposed to functionality-oriented design)” (Walk, Barret and Gorlich). MDA also fails to provide a coherent approach for narrative design. This is because design cannot fit underneath any of the terms (MDA).

In the paper they proposed a new framework called DDE. It is three new pillars of Design, Dynamics and Experience. The DDE framework is an attempt to overcome several weaknesses of the MDA framework. With three main categories and many subcategories which are based on what needs to be “produced during the design and development of a computer or video game as well as what the role of any produced asset will be during the production process or game experience.” (Walk, Barret and Gorlich).

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Caption: DDE Framework

The Design category will include Blueprint, mechanics and interface. Blueprint has the world descriptions, style and prototypes. Mechanics have the game code. Finally, the interface has functional and content. The DDE framework is still being work on. It will go through further changes in the future. “If Design involves planning all of the parts of a car, as well as assembling those parts, Dynamics defines what happens when the engine start sand all of those parts work together: the pistons, crankshaft and valves of the motor; the gearbox; the suspension and springing of the seats–even the road, weather, driving style, tremor of the steering wheel, mechanical noises, and the song on the car stereo are part of the Dynamics” (Walk, Barret and Gorlich). Finally, for Experience, the experience could begin as early as when the player first learns about the game or even when they instal it. Experiences include such subcategories as senses which has an organoleptic journey, cerebellum which has an emotional journey, cerebrum which has an intellectual journey. They all then go to Play-subject which has a first receptionist and then that goes to Perception which has gameplay, personal challenge, fun, beauty, story and leisure time.

This is a link to a third article that might be an interesting read also to do with similar topics! 

-Megan