Game design

Game design is the design of games. It is the art of elaborating rules to facilitate interaction between players, for playful, educating or simulation purposes. Game design can be applied to different media, such as board games, card games, casino games, role-playing games, video games, war games or to itself, an example of metadesign. It is scientifically underpinned in game theory.

Board games
Board games like mancala or chess are hundreds or thousands or years old; yet in the case of chess new variants are developed constantly, to focus on certain aspects of the game, or just for variation's sake. A modern adaptation of figure games are miniature wargames like Warhammer 40,000. Traditional boardgames like Monopoly date from the XIXth or early XXth century. A recent development in modern board game design is the increased popularity of "German-style board games", or "Eurogames".

Card games
The design of card games is constricted by the type of the deck of cards, like Tarot or the four-suited Latin decks. Card games can be played for fun, like Go Fish, or for profit like Poker.

A sub-type of wargames are card-driven games.

Magic: The Gathering was the first collectible card game (or "trading card game") in 1993.

Casino games
The central aim of casino game design is to optimise the house advantage and maximise revenue from gamblers.

Role-playing games
Gary Gygax designed the first role-playing game, Dungeons & Dragons, in 1974.

Video game design
An important aspect of video game design is human-computer interaction

War game design
The first military war games, or Kriegsspiel, were designed in Prussia in the XIXth century to train staff officers. They are also played as a hobby for entertainment.

Modern war games are designed to test doctrines, strategies and tactics in full scale exercises with OPFORs at venues like the NTC, JRTC and the JMRC, involving Nato countries.