4.2. Objectives¶

What is the object of the game? What are the players trying to do? This is often one of the first things you can ask yourself when designing a game, if you’re stuck and don’t know where to begin. Once you know the objective, many of the other elements will seem to define themselves for you. Some common objectives (again, this is not a complete list):

• Capture/destroy Eliminate all of your opponent’s pieces from the game. Chess and Stratego are some well-known examples where you must eliminate the opposing forces to win.
• Territorial control The focus is not necessarily on destroying the opponent, but on controlling certain areas of the board. RISK and Diplomacy are examples.
• Collection The card game Rummy and its variants involve collecting sets of cards to win. Bohnanza involves collecting sets of beans. Many platformer video games (such as the Spyro series) included levels where you had to collect a certain number of objects scattered throughout the level.
• Solve The board game Clue (or Cluedo, depending on where you live) is an example of a game where the objective is to solve a puzzle. Lesser-known (but more interesting) examples are Castle of Magic and Sleuth.
• Chase/Race/Escape Generally, anything where you are running towards or away from something; the playground game Tag and the video game Super Mario Bros. are examples.
• Spatial alignment A number of games involve positioning of elements as an objective, including the non-digital games Tic-Tac-Toe and the video game Tetris.
• Build The opposite of “destroy” — your goal is to advance your character(s) or build your resources to a certain point. Examples with a strong build focus include Sim City or the board game Ticket to Ride.
• Negation of another goal Some games end when one player performs an act that is forbidden by the rules, and that player loses. Examples are the physical dexterity games Twister and Jenga.

Of course many games mix these objectives. In the Civilization game, the player can win by destroying her opponent, building to a certain level of technology or by building control over the map through influence.

Games may also have different objectives at different time scales. A player in a Multi-play Online Battle Arenas like Leage of Legends may have a short term race to a resource, a mid term goal of building up their character and a long term goal of destroying the other team’s base.