Game Design
Game design involves planning rules, goals, characters and levels, then building and testing the game with players.
▶ Interact
Play with the controls to see the idea in action.
📘 Learn
Game design involves planning rules, goals, characters and levels, then building and testing the game with players.
- Define the game loop
- Balance difficulty
- Playtest and improve
🧠 Quick quiz
Three questions. Score 2 or more to complete the topic.
What is Game Design?
Within Computer Science, which covers algorithms, programming, data, networks, hardware and safe, responsible use of technology, this topic explains Game Design. Computing topics explain how software, hardware and data work, with diagrams and models that show each step in order.
Check that you can explain Game Design in your own words and give one example from everyday life. If you can do that, you have understood the core idea.
Understanding Game Design helps you design, test and explain programs, websites and systems, from small projects to exam questions.
Game Design in detail
Game design involves planning the rules, goals, challenges and experience of a game. Key elements are the concept and genre, the story, characters, levels, mechanics (what the player can do), rewards and difficulty progression, and the user interface and feedback such as scores.
Development stages include brainstorming, a design document, prototyping, programming, art and sound, testing and improvement from player feedback. Programming skills include events, variables for scores and lives, loops, collision detection and randomness. Games are a fun way to learn computational thinking, and the industry employs designers, programmers, artists and testers.
How the interactive helps you understand Game Design
Click a step, or use the Previous and Next buttons, to move through the sequence one stage at a time. Auto-play moves on for you.
Before you change anything, predict the result. Then change one value at a time and check whether your prediction was right. This is a quick way to build a correct mental model of Game Design.
Real-life uses and examples
- Explain Game Design to someone new to computing by comparing it to a familiar process.
- Trace through a process that uses Game Design to check what it does step by step.
- Recognise Game Design in an app or device you use every day.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Using the term without being able to say what the computer actually does.
- Testing only the normal case and forgetting the edge cases.
- Learning the definition without testing it. Use the quiz and the interactive to check that you can apply the idea.
Frequently asked questions about Game Design
What is Game Design?
Game design involves planning rules, goals, characters and levels, then building and testing the game with players.
What are the most important points about Game Design?
The main points are: Define the game loop; Balance difficulty; Playtest and improve.
Why is Game Design useful?
Understanding Game Design helps you design, test and explain programs, websites and systems, from small projects to exam questions.
How can I practise Game Design?
Open the interactive at the top of this page and change the controls one at a time. Predict the result before each change, then take the three-question quiz. A score of two or more marks the topic as complete on this device.
Which topics are related to Game Design?
Related topics in Computer Science include Accessibility in Technology, Search Engines and Information Literacy, Virtual and Augmented Reality.