Game Mechanics

Game Mechanics are the tools and features within a game that allow it to function.

Rolling a Die
This is used to give a random value from 1 to 6 (can be more with the more dice used) which can be used for multiple things such as moving a player’s counter, deciding who goes first or even points, the randomisation from dice is a very popular game mechanic to cause various possible events into every gameplay.
For example Snakes and Ladders which uses a die for the players to move across the board, because of the use of a die the player winning or not is entirely random from the chosen rolls.

Hunting and defending is a game mechanic that works by having the players using their counters to destroy or steal their opponent’s counters while also defending their own. A good example of this is Chess which the two players must move each of their various counters each turn to trapped their King.

This is the only Level

This game uses the exact same level design with the same character and the same goal, the player must guide the little elephant through the platforms avoiding the spikes, hitting the button to unlock the door and then escape to there to head to the next stage. The only thing that changes within each stage is the mechanics which manipulates the player’s strategy to completing the stage, the first stage the character uses the arrow keys in it’s typical format to move the elephant, in the second stage the left and right arrow keys are reversed which takes the player by surprise at first because of the sudden change in the system, but the player quickly adapts to the change as it gets worked out in their head that they must now press the opposite keys to complete the level.
This game helps show how there are so many different game mechanics which can easily change the game play experience and difficulty.