Game Objectives

A game objective is what a player is trying to achieve in order to win. They provide challenges, set the tone of the game, affect formal game systems, and affects game dramatics.

Categories of Game Objectives

Capture

The objective is to take or capture something of the opponent’s while avoiding being captured or killed.
The concept of capturing or killing the opponent’s forces in one ingrained in games.
Real-time strategy games.

Examples: Checkers, Chess, Battleship, Capture the Flag, and Civilization.

Chase

Catch or elude an opponent
Can be single-player vs game, player vs player, or unilateral competition.
Determined by: Speed or physical dexterity, stealth and strategy, or logic and deduction.

Examples: Tag, Fox and Geese, and Maximum Chase.

Race

Reach a goal – physical or conceptual.
Determined by physical dexterity or by a mix of strategy and chance.

Examples: Monopoly, Uncle Wiggily, and Backgammon.

Alignment

Arrange your 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, and chance opportunity.

Examples: Bejeweled, Connect Four, Jenga, Tic-Tac-Toe, and Tetris.

Rescue Or Escape

Get a defined unit or units to safety, or escape from a boundary or mental challenge.
Can be combined with other partial-objectives.

Examples: Super Mario Bros, Great Dinosaur Rescue, and Turtix Rescue Adventure.

Forbidden Act

Get 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.

Examples: Twister, KerPlunk, Operation, and Pick-a-stick.

Construction

Build, maintain, or manage objects
May be directly competitive or indirectly competitive.
Often make use of resource management or trading as a game element.

Examples: SimCity, Civilization, Animal Crossing, Second Life, and Magnext.

Exploration

Explore game areas – usually combined with a competitive objective.
Sometimes multiple objectives such as exploration, puzzle solving, and combat intertwine to form multifaceted gameplay.

Examples: Zelda, EverQuest, and Goldland.

Solution

Solve a problem or puzzle before your opponents or against the computer.

Examples: Myst, World of Goo, and Pipes.

Outwit

Gain and use knowledge in a way that defeats the other players.
Sometimes “extra-game” knowledge comes into gameplay.
May provoke interesting social dynamics.

Examples: Trivial Pursuit, Survivor, Turn the Tide, and Jeopardy.

Google Sites

Report abuse