1. Game Art and Design Unit 3 Lesson 2 Objectives
International Technology Education Association

2. Big Idea
Knowledge of the basic skills and components of any field makes one uniquely prepared to perform at a high level in that area.

3. Game Objectives

4. Game Objectives
A game objective is what a player is trying to achieve in order to win.
Consider these questions
What are some of the objectives of games you have played?
What are the players trying to do?
How do you win?
These are questions a designer asks about a game objective.

5. Game Objectives Examples
Clue: Be the first player to deduce who, where, and how a murder was committed

6. Game Objectives Examples
Battleship: Be the first player to sink all five of your opponent’s battleships

7. Game Objectives Examples
Connect Four: Be the first player to place four units in a contiguous line on the playing grid

8. Game Objectives Examples
Chess: Checkmate your opponent’s king (cannot move without being captured)

9. Game Objectives Examples
Super Mario Brothers: Rescue Princess Toadstool from the evil Bowser by completing all eight worlds

10. Game Objectives Examples
Civilization: Conquer all other civilizations on the board

11. Game Objective Categories
Capture
Chase
Race
Alignment
Rescue or Escape
Forbidden Act
Construction
Exploration
Solution
Outwit

12. Game Objective: Capture
Take or capture something of the opponent’s while avoiding being captured or killed.
Includes games like checkers and chess.
Also in this category are real-time strategy games.
The concept of capturing (killing) the opponent’s forces in very common in games.

13. Game Objective: Capture
Example includes Quake, SOCOM II, and WarCraft.

14. Game Objective: Chase Catch or elude an opponent.
Chase games can be structured as single-player vs. game, player vs. player, or unilateral competition.
Chase games can be determined by
speed or physical dexterity
Stealth and strategy
Logic and deduction

15. Game Objective: Chase
Examples include Fox & Geese, Assassin, and tag

16. Game Objective: Race
Reach a goal – physical or conceptual – before the other players.
Examples could be a footrace, a board game like Uncle Wiggly or Parcheesi.
Can be determined by physical dexterity.
Can also be determined by a mix of strategy and chance – like Backgammon.

17. Game Objective: Race
Examples include Backgammon, Gran Turismo, and Sorry

18. Game Objective: Alignment
Arrange game pieces in a certain configuration or create conceptual alignment between categories of pieces.
Often puzzle-like because they require “solving” spatial or organizational problems.
Determined by:
Logic and calculation
Chance opportunity

19. Game Objective: Alignment
Examples include Tic-Tac-Toe, Bejeweled, Solitaire, Connect Four, and Tetris

20. Game Objective Rescue
The objective is a rescue or escape game is to get a defined unit or units to safety.
The objective is often combined with other partial objectives.

21. Game Objective Rescue
Examples include Super Mario Brothers, Prince of Persia, and Emergency Rescue.

22. Game Objective: Forbidden Act
The objective in a forbidden act game is to get the competition to “break the rules” by laughing, talking, letting go, making wrong moves, or doing something they shouldn’t.
Not often found in digital games.
Sometimes involves stamina or flexibility.

23. Game Objective: Forbidden Act
Examples include Twister, Ker Plunk, Pick up Sticks, and Operation

24. Game Objective: Construction
The object in a construction game is to build, maintain, or manage objects.
May be directly competitive or indirectly competitive.
Games with a construction objective often make use of resource management or trading as a game element.

25. Game Objective: Construction
Examples include Civilization, SimCity, and Mouse Trap

26. Game Objective: Exploration
The object in an exploration game is to explore game areas – usually combined with a competitive objective.
Sometimes multiple objectives such as exploration, puzzle solving, and combat intertwine to form multifaceted gameplay.

27. Game Objective: Exploration
Examples include Zelda and EverQuest

28. Game Objective: Solution
The object in a solution game is to solve a problem or puzzle before the competition.

29. Game Objective: Solution
Examples include Sudoku and Clue

30. Game Objective: Outwit
The object in a game of wits is to gain and use knowledge in a way that defeats the other players.
Sometimes “extra-game” knowledge comes into gameplay (Jeopardy or Trivial Pursuit).
This type of game may provoke interesting social dynamics.

31. Game Objective: Outwit
Examples include Trivial Pursuit, Jeopardy, and Survivor.

32. Big Idea
Knowledge of the basic skills and components of any field makes one uniquely prepared to perform at a high level in that area.

33. Game Art and Design Unit 3 Lesson Objectives Images student work, photos by Phyllis Jones, and clipart
International Technology Education Association