Portal 2 was an excellent game to play for this unit due to the fact that the main objective of the game relies on the defying usual “graphical logics” and breaking mechanical rules using said Portals. According to Sicart’s article, he defines game mechanics as “methods invoked by agents, designed for interaction with the game state”. Essentially, this can be boiled down to how the player makes the game work or in some cases how the game makes the player work.
In many cases, the game manipulates the player into following the rules of the game using instructions or simply preys on the players reflexes. This is something that Portal 2 does a lot in the beginning, often instructing the player to press a button or move somewhere and promising something in return, yet having that action do something else completely. Like at the start, the little robot instructs you to press the spacebar to speak, when in actuality spacebar works to jump. In these cases, this is more to fuel the narrative storyline than the actual gameplay, but it’s an example nonetheless. In class, we discussed some advice: that to find out what to do to cut down on time [for speedruns], think about exactly what the designer of the game would want you to do at that point and do the opposite. Sometimes following the mechanics of the game will actually slow you down.
In class we also talked about mechanics and rules and how they are expressed in the sense of 5 categories of “Graphical Logics”.
The categories include collision detection, movement, navigation, physics, and pattern matching. These categories are essentially focusing on the surroundings/world of the game and how the player is able to interact with them. For Portals 2, the world essentially functions as the real world does as far as physics and player movement goes. You will fall if there’s no ground, you cannot walk through walls, etc. The exception to this rule, however, is when you are using the portal gun. Now, the portal gun is largely the main point of the game, yet it also completely bends all the original graphical rules of the game. It allows the player to transport themselves around to complete the tasks that will allow them to escape the facility that would otherwise be impossible without it. The puzzle of how and where to place these portals is the main mental stimulation of the game for the player. The realism of the game world allows this fantastic element of a portal gun to bend the laws of physics just enough to make it common sense for the player.
alysse writes about games 