Fullerton's Formal Elements
Fullerton's Formal Elements is a theory that games must have eight different mandatory building blocks.
- Players: Every game must have an avatar that the player controls, with responsibilities and capabilities. This also includes the number of players and their interaction with each other (co-op, pvp).
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- Objectives: The goals or instructions that make the player engage with the game, and how it feeds from the game's narrative. There are a number of common examples like Capture (take something or defend something from an opponent), Race (reach a destination quicker than an opponent or Chase (run away from or catch an opponent).
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- Procedures: Similar to dynamics. Who does what, when and how, and how the game's systems work together and the methods in which players achieve objectives. This could also mean the player's input.
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- Rules: Similar to mechanics. Rules often define (statistics, objects and concepts), restrict (establish what can't be done) and effects (what happens as a result of something).
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- Resources: Resources are items or conditions that are used to create challenge, complete objectives and provide rewards. They can be Durational (Lives, Time, Health), expendable (Items, Currency, Actions, Units) or Enhancements (Power ups, Terrain).
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- Conflict: What the player must contend with to achieve objectives. These are often obstacles, opponents or dilemmas.
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- Boundaries: The game's restrictions in theme, rules, scope and practicality.
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- Outcome: The game's conclusion or outcome. This can be winning or loosing, or something different like score, or nothing at all.
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Comparisons to Deus Ex
Players: The player controls the avatar of J.C. Denton. The game is single player and the game's objectives are based on Denton's responsibilities.
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Objectives: The player is given objectives as part of missions, which are often received from NPCs or as the narrative progresses. These mostly involve reaching a specified area in a level.
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Procedures: The game is an FPS where the player must navigate levels and complete objectives. There are many mechanics that the player can use to accomplish this, such as a violent approach using weapons or a silent approach using sneaking, hacking and incapacitating guards silently.
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Rules: General FPS rules apply, such as weapons doing a certain amount of damage, the player's walking speed and environmental restrictions of where the player can and cannot go. There are also restrictions relating to skill points, such as having a high enough hacking level to access different options or having the resources available to perform actions like blowing open doors or eliminating enemies.
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Resources: The player has health and energy (to use abilities) bars. The game also has an inventory system with items that can be picked up and used in different situations. These include weapons, explosives, health/energy replenishment and a currency system.
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Conflict: The game has enemies that must be avoided or eliminated that will attack and kill the player. This also includes boss fights where the player must defeat the enemy to progress. The player must also find methods of bypassing environmental obstacles such as locked doors using keys, computers and the player's hacking or resources. There are also a few choices to be made that affect the narrative or the outcome of events.
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Outcomes: There is no way to loose the game besides dying (which reloads the last save). The game is linear in how it progresses and has an ending at the end of the narrative.
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