Intellectual Production #8:
Working alone–and for some of you this is re-reading (no harm in that!), read chapters 1-3 and do at least 5 of the exercises Fullerton suggests. For those of you who this is not a new reading reflect on your past work, and choose different exercises – you can even branch out if you want into another chapter, just make sure we can follow along. The exercises are mostly quick, some go deeper, but you can pick and choose. The idea is to work with the ideas she is presenting ways to think deeply and productively about your own game design.
Exercise 2.1: Think of a Game Think of a game, any game. Now write down a description of how the game works. Be detailed. Describe how to play the game as if to someone who has never played a game like it before. Now think of another game—a completely different type of game. The more different this game is from the first one, the better. Describe how the game works. Compare your descriptions. Which elements were different and which were similar? Dig deep and really think about the underlying elements of each game. There is no wrong answer to this exercise. The goal is simply to get you to begin thinking about the nature of games and to realize that games, no matter how dissimilar they might seem, do share some common elements. Those common elements are why we recognize certain experiences, and not others, as games, and throughout this book they will form the basis for our study of games and game design.
Candy Crush
Candy Crush was created in 2012 by King.com has evolved over the years from a Facebook game to a game that is played by over 100M users daily (Active Player, 2026). Candy Crush is a match-three puzzle game where the objective is to complete levels with specific goals. The goals include reaching a target score, clearing certain tiles, collecting items, all while having limited resources and a fixed number of moves or a time limit. The core game procedures include swapping candies next to each other to create matches of three or more of the same item. The candies disappear and can trigger cascades of matching candies that also disappear. Specific candy combinations act as power ups that can clear additional rows. The player tries to collect as many points as possible and move to higher levels while the difficulty and challenges increase.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Breath of the Wild (BOTW) is an open-world, action-adventure role playing game (RPG) where the player can explore a large world, gather resources, craft tools, and develop abilities with the end goal of defeating Ganon who seeks to conquer Hyrule. BOTW is part of Nintendo’s Legend of Zelda franchise and was the launch title for the Switch in 2017. Core game mechanics include real-time combat, climbing and gliding, stamina based game play, and physics. A player has to monitor their health, temperature, weather, terrain, and durability of their equipment closely during game play. Players follow procedures, complete quests, solve puzzles, collect hearts, defeat enemies, and upgrade their gear along the way.
Similarities
Both Candy Crush and BOTW have clearly defined objectives, rules, and resources. They are goal-driven games that increase challenges the longer the player plays. Both games require strategic decision making and players get rewarded through scoring, power-ups, and abilities. Players must manage limited resources and follow mechanics to complete tasks. Candy Crush has limited resources such as time and moves, whereas BOTW has limited health, stamina, and weapons.
Differences
Candy Crush is a turn-based game with puzzles and fixed grids. It has rules and constrained player actions with pattern recognition, BOTW is a game that plays in real-time and its open-world system has physics constraints, exploration, and the gameplay challenges emerge over time. BOTW has combat, narrative, discovery, and has many different paths to complete the game. There is no final boss or level to Candy Crush, whereas BOTW has a final boss and the player knows the game is complete when the credits appear on the screen.
Summary of Candy Crush & Breath of the Wild
Exercise 2.8: Story
Have any stories within a game ever gripped you, moved you emotionally, or sparked your imagination? If so, why? If not, why not?
Building Belonging: Story, Character, and Emotional Engagement in Animal Crossing: New Horizons
While “Animal Crossing: New Horizons” (ACNH) does not have a traditional, linear narrative structure, it still engaged me emotionally enough that I felt compelled to spend many hours playing over the years and continue to return to it, even today.
ACNH engaged me using a narrative I could partially control and that emerged over time. Instead of a fixed plot, the story unfolds through everyday experiences on the island. You arrive with nothing and gradually build a life, a home, and relationships with the villagers, shaping the community as you go. This slow progression creates a strong sense of personal investment and attachment, as you are in control of your own world and story. The cute characters and playful design drew me in from the start, and the creative freedom—from shaping rivers and land to choosing the tiles in my bathroom—made it deeply satisfying to design and take ownership of my virtual home.
This form of storytelling is very different from dramatic, plot-driven games like “Life is Strange”. Instead of emotional engagement through tragedy and conflict, ACNH builds connection through creativity, routine, and relationships with your island and its villagers. Your villagers can move away, which can feel either sad or exciting, and they sometimes send heartfelt letters that create a sense of warmth and parasocial connection. Your island also receives ratings from Isabelle, which can feel discouraging if your star rating is low or motivating when you reach five stars. This feedback highlights areas for improvement while also celebrating your progress, encouraging you to keep developing and caring for your island.
Tom Nook is the first guide and he is the project manager for your island when you arrive. He sells you your island package, offers you tools and home loans, and shapes your early experience on the island. He appears as a slightly evil antagonist, but he’s really there to help you get established and help your island develop. Each villager has a different personality allowing you to form relationships with them should you choose. This parasocial relationship you form allows emotional attachment to your villagers that made me want to keep developing my island to create a feeling of harmony on my island. The characters and game world that is presented had enough interesting depth to the story to make it so that I wanted to experience it and experienced satisfaction of building my world.
Exercise 3.2: Three-Player Tic-Tac-Toe Create a version of tic-tac-toe that works for three players. You might need to change the size of the board or other elements of the game to do this.
Tic-tac-toe is a game that has no theme or story, it is a logic game. There is no luck or randomness to the game, and the outcome depends on player decisions. When it is played as a 2 player game, it is a zero-sum game with one winner and one loser; with a 3 player game, it’s no longer zero sum and one player can beat 2 opponents. Players are able to form alliances and the decision making increases when there are 3 players and becomes a multi-player strategy game with balance issues.
I would create a board that is like a hexagonal chess board (“Hexagonal Chess”, 2026). Players would need to connect 4 of their game pieces on any of the 3 axes of the hexagons. I think the hexagonal shape would help the game feel more balanced because there are 3 axes of alignment. One player cannot dominate the centre of the board, and players can think multi-directional. Players need to think more strategically.
Here is my version of the game:
Exercise 3.4: Objectives
List ten of your favourite games and name the objective for each. Do you see any similarities in these games? Try to define the type or types of games that appeal to you.
Top Ten Favourite Games
- Lovers in a Dangerous Space Time – You and up to 3 friends can cooperatively save the galaxy by steering a spaceship and defeating enemies to rescue space bunnies.
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons – You build and design an island by gathering resources, building a house, and becoming friends with your villagers.
- Pokémon GO – Explore the real world while catching virtual Pokémon, battle in gyms, trade Pokémon with friends, and complete your pokedex.
- Super Mario Odyssey – Platforming adventure game where you play as Mario, traveling across different kingdoms while collecting Power Moons, completing challenges, and rescuing Princess Peach from evil Bowser.
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – An open-world, role-playing game where you play as Link, exploring Hyrule to solve puzzles, collect items, defeat enemies, and ultimately confront Ganon to save the kingdom.
- Overcooked – Players work cooperatively to chop, prepare, cook, and serve a variety of menu items by following recipes, communicating with each other, and adapting to increasingly chaotic and changing kitchen environments to fulfill customer orders and earn high scores, all while being timed.
- Candy Crush – A match-three game where you match candies to clear levels, achieve score goals, and progress through puzzles of increasing challenge.
- Goat Simulator – An open-world game where you role play as a destructive goat causing chaos while exploring.
- Katamari – You control a rolling sticky ball that collects objects of increasing size and rebuild the stars by making Katamari grow.
- Splatoon – A fast-paced, team-based (4 on 4) shooter game where players play as ink-shooting characters to cover as much of the level as possible with their team’s colour, using different ink guns, strategy, abilities, and try to out play your opposition.
Similarities in these Games
My top 10 favourite games share several common characteristics:
+ Playful and visually engaging, with bright and friendly art styles
+ Generally do not require a huge time commitment (with the exception of *Breath of the Wild*)
+ Include a mix of cooperative/social games and solo experiences
+ Offer clear goals while allowing freedom in how those goals are achieved
+ Provide constant feedback and a strong sense of progress
+ Avoid intense violence or high-conflict themes
+ Emphasize creativity and approachable problem-solving
+ Involve systems thinking, multitasking, and strategic decision-making
In summary, my favourite games have elements of exploration, cooperation, creativity, and mastery, rather than competition or violence. This aligns well with my identity as a coach, and educator, and a designer who values learning, growth, community, and cooperation.
Exercise 3.9: Resource Types For each of the resource types just described, create a list of your favourite games that use resources of that type. If you can’t think of any games that use a particular type of resource, research games that do and play several of them.
Linking my lived gaming experience to formal game design theory – here is a list of resources used in my top 10 favourite games:
Lives
- Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime – Shared lives
- Super Mario Odyssey – Limited lives per world
- Splatoon – Enemies can kill you, then you have to wait to respawn
- Goat Simulator – You “respawn” after destruction
Units
- Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime – Crew members operating ship stations.
- Katamari – uses units as a resource by giving you a set of playable characters
- Splatoon – Team members function as a coordinated unit
- Overcooked – Each chef is a unit with a specialized role
Health
- Breath of the Wild – Heart containers and stamina wheel
- Pokémon Go – Pokémon HP restored with potions and revives
- Splatoon – Ink damage reduces health; hiding restores it
- Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime – Ship health
Currency
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Bells and Nook Miles, items for trading at the shop
- Mario Odyssey – Coins and regional currencies like shells, hats, etc
- Breath of the Wild – Rupees
- Candy Crush – Gold bars and boosters as premium currency
Actions
- Splatoon – Ink supply limits shooting and movement
- Candy Crush – Limited moves per level
- Overcooked – Time-limited actions per shift
- Breath of the Wild – Stamina restricts climbing, gliding, swimming, and attacks
Power-Ups
- Mario Odyssey – Capture abilities from enemies, Super Star, hearts, super mushroom
- Splatoon – Special weapons (Inkzooka, Booyah Bomb, Splatroller, etc)
- Candy Crush – Striped, wrapped, and color bomb candies
- Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime – Temporary weapon and shield upgrades
Inventory
- Breath of the Wild – Weapons, food, armour, materials
- Animal Crossing – Furniture, tools, clothing, crafting items, food, bells
- Pokémon Go – Poké Balls, berries, potions, eggs
- Katamari – Objects collected become your rolling inventory of mass
Special Terrain
- Splatoon – Inkable surfaces control movement and strategy
- Breath of the Wild – Climbable cliffs, shrines, weather zones
- Overcooked – Moving platforms, conveyor belts, collapsing kitchens
- Katamari – Object density by area determines growth opportunities
Time
- Overcooked – Countdown timers per level
- Candy Crush – Timed levels and life regeneration
- Animal Crossing – Real-world clock governs events and resources (ie: New Year’s celebrations, etc)
- Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime – Survival time during combat waves
AI Disclaimer: ChatGPT was used to assist with idea generation. All ideas and final edits are my own.
References
Active Player. (2026). Candy Crush Saga Live Player Count and Statistics. https://activeplayer.io/candy-crush-saga/
Candy Crush Saga. (2026, January 21). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candy_Crush_Saga
Fullerton, T. (2014). Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games, NY: Taylor & Francis (CRS Press).
Hexagonal Chess. (2026, January 6). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexagonal_chess
OpenAI. (2025). ChatGPT [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. (2026, January 17). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legend_of_Zelda:_Breath_of_the_Wild