Game Mechanics — Game Progress

20 min readJan 6, 2025

This text is a part of an ongoing series on game mechanics which have spawned as a result of a course I am giving at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts at the University of Belgrade.

The Journey

Video Games are a peculiar type of play. They often straddle the world of traditional physical games such as sports or board games and the world of narrative play such as theater, film, or TV. What I mean by this is the following.

Typical traditional games tend to keep the gameplay largely static for the duration of the game. The rules of football remain (mostly) unchanged during a match. The rules of Kimble likewise. Note though that, in some of them, there are some specific rules that distinguish the start, the middle, and the end of the game, like the golden goal, tiebreaker rules, etc.

On the other hand, movies, novels, TV shows, etc. tend to follow a narrative arc guiding the observer through the story from its beginning to its end. The characters evolve, their motivations change, new characters are introduced, the setting and the tone of the story change, etc. In other words, a story is a journey.

Of course, this distinction between the two types of play gets blurred in many more complex board games, take for example venerable old Dungeons and Dragons. However, the intertwining of narrative journey and gameplay gets truly elevated in the world of video games.

One very useful way of looking at the game design is from the angle of the so-called Player’s Journey. Without a doubt, you are familiar with the way games usually start, a tutorial at the beginning, which is meant to introduce the basics of the game, perhaps teach the controls and mechanics, give the start of the narrative, and introduce the role of the player or the protagonist character. This is what is known as the First Time User Experience.

Once you pass beyond this initial part of the game the real gameplay starts. The player proceeds to the main part of the game, but the evolution of the gameplay rarely stops there. In most games, the game continues to change. New elements are added, rules change, weapons and items are unlocked, new more fierce enemies appear, the story proceeds through chapters, new characters appear, etc.

Generally speaking, the player’s journey can be divided into three distinct phases. There are various names that can be ascribed to these phases. As a matter of habit, I will call them, early game, midgame, and elder game.

As you can probably guess, the early game includes the already mentioned first-time user experience. This phase involves onboarding the player into the world of the game. At this stage, the player is a novice. The terms applied in gamer lingo are newbie or noob. This can be often perceived as derogatory but it is simply a fact that the player is still not familiar with the game and its intricacies.

During this phase of the game, the duration of the play sessions may vary. Typically, the initial or the first few initial gameplay sessions will be longer than subsequent ones. The player is looking for a natural rhythm that suits its play style.

Player’s jounrey from a noom to a wizard.

In the second phase of the player’s journey the focus shifts. The player is no longer a newbie. The player already understands the basics of the gameplay, and is gradually building up the skills and gets immersed in the narrative. This phase is no longer about onboarding. This phase is about regular gameplay with a steady rhythm of play sessions. The player strives to become an expert in the game.

The last stage of gameplay, the elder game, or the end game is all about mastery. The player has by now mastered the skills necessary to succeed in this game. This phase is all about applying those skills to the maximum of the player’s capabilities. If the player stayed with the game for this long, the player is no doubt an enthusiast.

What is remarkable is that this three-phase division of the player’s journey applies both to premium games and to games that run as a service. It is equally valid for single-player narrative-driven games that have a clear beginning, middle, and end, as well as for free-to-play games that expect to retain the player indefinitely.

The reason why this is so is because this division is not routed in the genre of the game or their monetization model. It is rooted in the player’s level of skill and understanding of the game, the level of mastery that the player possesses.

The Hero

This three-phase journey through gameplay has obvious parallels to another famous journey in narrative theory, that of Monomyth or the Heroe’s Journey as proposed by Joseph Campbell. In his seminal book Hero WIth Thousand Faces, Mr. Campbell claims to have uncovered a universal pattern present in many if not most epic narratives.

Regardless of whether Monomyth is a true universal pattern of heroic storytelling common to all human cultures, this book has over the years become so influential that the pattern it presents has been interwoven into numerous works of fiction from film and TV to, yes indeed the video games. So much so, that by now we are dealing with at least a couple of generations of viewers and gamers that have been all but conditioned to expect it. In this respect, Monomyth may have become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

In this framework, the protagonist of the heroic narrative goes on a journey involving a series of distinct steps. These steps can be roughly divided into, you have guessed it, three distinct phases. The first phase of the journey begins from the normal known world, at least known and normal from the perspective of the protagonist. It involves the call to adventure and the initiation of the hero. The second phase represents the descent into the unknown, the proverbial underworld. Here the hero faces the challenges, hones skills, and acquires new allies and helpers. The final phase represents the return to the know, but this time hero is transformed. The protagonist is now transformed and becomes the master of both worlds.

The parallels with the player’s journey are obvious. The first phase, the initiation is equivalent to the onboarding. The second phase is where the player builds up skills and acquires new powers. The final phase, the elder game is one of mastery. The player of the game is the protagonist. This is what we expect out of the games. We expect to be the hero of our own player’s journey and good games provide us with this sensation.

The Call to Adventure

We have already mentioned that the first part of the player’s journey constitutes the first-time user experience. Too often this tends to be equated with the tutorial. Tutorials are meant to teach players how to play the game. By default, they tend to focus on the control mechanisms of a game and try to teach the player the basic set of skills needed to play the game.

However, this is just part of the picture. The player’s journey in most games, AAA premium games in particular starts with something entirely different. They start with at least some type of an intro. These two components of the start of the game, the intro and the tutorial, represent two distinct functions that a good first-time user experience needs to fulfill:

Teach players how to play the game, what are some basic rules, what is the control scheme employed, how to aim, how to overcome obstacles, etc.
To establish the emotional connection between the game and the player, i.e. to answer the question of why should I as a player care about this game.

The relative importance of these two parts of the first-time user experience differs from game to game. On one hand, video games are not a new concept anymore. Back in the 8-bit era each new game needed to deal with the fact that it is most likely the first video game their players have played in their entire lives. Four decades later, most people on this planet have played at least some video game and most people likely to purchase or install a new game are likely to be familiar with the conventions of the genre. Teaching these players how to play is a matter of clarifying the distinguishing differences between this new game and the general genre.

Establishing the emotional connection becomes even more important in this context. Keep in mind that this can be achieved in multiple ways and it does not always require complex and elaborate visuals with high production values. Two of my favorite examples go back to the 16-bit era of gaming.

The intro to Bubble Bobble by Taito consists of just a black screen with minimal graphics and just three sentences of text. Now is the beginning of the fantastic story! Let’s make a journey to the cave of monsters! Good luck! These three simple lines are all that is needed to set the tone and the expectation of the adventure that follows. This is an adventure. It will be fantastic. There will be monsters and danger, so good luck.

Three sentence intor of Bubble Bobble by Taito.

The intro to Another World by Delphine Software Interplay could not be more different. It is almost entirely cinematic with practically no narration. The animations employed were a small miracle for the age. It uses the visual language, minimalist graphics, the framing of the shots, and the pacing to tell its story. This intro too achieves the same purpose as the Bubble Bobble one. We are drawn into the world of this game.

Teaching players how to play the game, i.e. teaching them how to master the controls of the game can still be relevant even in this day and age. Control mechanics can be familiar to players only if they have encountered the devices before. Whenever new types of devices hit the market the need to teach people how to use them arises again. Consider VR games. VR devices are still relatively rare at this time. Most games made for those devices must assume that they are the first VR games that the new players are playing. They are exactly in the same position as pioneering games in the early 90s were, or better yet where games for smartphones were a decade and a half ago, or where Wii games were back in their day.

Progress Through Difficulty

As we move beyond the first-time player experience enter the phase of the game in which the player is expected to improve skill and mastery of the game. Recall the flow theory by Csikszentmihalyi. According to this psychological framework, the optimal state of engagement with any activity, playing video games especially, is a balance between the challenge and the skill of the player. Too big of a challenge and the task becomes frustrating. Too small a challenge compared to the relative skill level and the task becomes boring.

A boring game is an abandoned game. In order to keep the player in the flow games need to adopt the level of the challenge as the player’s skill level rises. Progress through increased difficulty is one of the most common types of progress in games. Simply put, with each new round of gameplay the challenge will become more difficult. This can happen with each new level or when the player reaches the next score milestone.

Even the earlöies, most rudimentary games such as the Space Invaders and Tetris employed this type of mechanics. The difficulty in these games was adjusted by simply increasing the speed of the game, the speed at which the aliens were moving, or the speed at which the blocks were falling.

Another simple way of increasing the difficulty of the game is by introducing enemies that can sustain more damage before they get defeated. This is a mechanic very common in rogue-like games. Hades and Archero are one of the newer examples.

There are several problems with this simple strategy of game progression. The first and the obvious one is that quite often this cannot be done indefinitely. As the speed increases Tetris, at some point, becomes unplayable. This is not always the case. The ever-increasing health of enemies is usually offset by the ever-increasing power of the player to deal damage, via upgraded weapons, new unlocked skills, etc.

The second problem is that various players increase their skills at a very different pace. Some players will be naturally more adept at playing the game than others. Some players will progress along the learning curve slower than others and need more help along the way.

Some games employ various methods of dynamically adjusting the difficulty of gameplay. To name just a few examples, in Resident Evil 4 enemies become tougher and more numerous if the player consistently plates well. Left 4 Dead uses horde attacks and dynamic placement of enemies to balance out the skill of players. Using stealth effectively in The Last of Us will result in enemies being more vigilant, etc.

Finally monotonously increasing the difficulty of the game, no matter how well-balanced will result in just that, monotony. Most games carefully balance the periods of intense challenge with the calmer periods of less demanding gameplay.

The most direct example of this strategy is the so-called sawtooth difficulty curve employed by many casual level-driven games such as match-3 games. This gameplay mechanic places alters the difficulty of successive levels so that it occasionally drops. A stretch of several levels of increasing difficulty will result in a drop in difficulty. This drop in difficulty is made specifically to give a break and a sense of ease to players. It is again followed by a period of increasing difficulty. The difficulty curve of this type of level progression resembles a sawtooth, as the name implies.

Sawtooth curve of difficulty of a level difficulty in a typical casual game.

Progress By Introducing New Gameplay Mechanics

Keeping players in the flow by just increasing the difficulty of the gameplay is not always feasible. This is why most games, except for the most simple ones, employ other progress mechanics. Another way of keeping the challenge up in the games is by adding new gameplay elements.

Ok, you mastered eliminating the basic type of enemies, you even honed your reflexes to kill them when they start to move faster, but what if they start to zig zag?

This pattern of game design is evident even in games as old as the original Super Mario. In World 1, the player encounters just three types of enemies, iconic Goombas, Koopa Troopa, and Piranha Plants. The World 2 brings in water as a gameplay element and a new set of enemies, such as Blooper, those inky squid baddies, and Cheep Cheep those weird flying fish that jump out of the water. Each subsequent level and World introduces new active elements and enemies into the game.

The gameplay design is akin to a classical musical composition. The basic theme is introduced first. This same basic theme is developed, new elements are added and it evolves as the composition proceeds.

Anyone who plays video games can name any number of similar examples. This strategy is applied to almost all game genres from casual match-3 games to complex Open World MMO RPGs.

Progress By Unlocking New Abilities

Strictly speaking, unlocking new abilities is a subset of the introduction of new gameplay elements. Each new ability is essentially a new element. Still, I want to focus a bit on this particular family of game mechanics. I also want to underline what sets them apart from other similar design patterns.

As we mentioned earlier new gameplay elements can be anything, any feature that constitutes a game. This is an umbrella term that can include new types of enemies, new locations, new twists to the basic gameplay rules or control scheme, entirely new rules, new properties of the world or the character, etc.

New abilities, on the other hand, are focused on the protagonist of the game. They are focused on the player and the characters or objects the player controls directly. Unlocking new abilities implies giving new methods in which players can interact or affect the game world. This, in turn, can include a variety of things. This could be unlocking new skills of the character in RPG games. It can be unlocking and upgrading weapons or other items in the player’s inventory. It can involve unlocking new powerups in match-3 games or new types of buildings in city simulators.

The underlying commonality of all these mechanics is that they allow players to achieve more than previously.

Consider for example unlocking new cards in a card battler game such as Heartstone. Each new card adds to the player’s abilities. If you play as a Mage, unlocking Fireball allows you to deal direct damage to the opponent while Polymorph, a card that transforms a minion into a 1/1 Sheep, allows you to control the battlefield more effectively.

Unlocking new characters in games such as Braw Stars serves the same purpose. Unlocking Nita, a character who can summon a bear, introduces a summoning mechanic into the game while unlocking Leon allows players to deploy clones during a match.

In Royal Match, a typical match-3 games powerups are unlocked gradually. Rocket gives the player the ability to clear one specific row of tiles. The TNT barrel unlocked next allows the player to destroy an area of 3x3 tiles on the board. The Propeller destroys tiles of a specific color no matter where on the board they are located etc. Each new power-up adds a new tactical ability to the player.

Multiple powerups in action in Chrome Valley Customs.

Unlocking new abilities is often paired with unlocking new types of enemies, environmental traps, or new challenges in general. This lock and key mechanic helps balance the players’ abilities versus the challenge and keeps players in the flow.

What is more important each new ability adds another skill that the player needs to master. This learning process is what our brain is seeking from the games and the dopamine hit we get when we successfully execute a new skill is our reward.

Progress Through The Game World

Games are virtual worlds. Granted, some of these worlds can be very minimalistic, such as the world of Flappy Bird. Others can be incredibly intricate such as the world of Witcher 3. Unless we are dealing with the simplest of games the world in which the game takes place rarely remains unchanged throughout the game.

This change can sometimes be almost purely cosmetic. The scenery changes even in the original version of Angry Birds. Sometimes, this change of scenery is purely cosmetic. Other times it serves as an illustration or justification for the introduction of the new gameplay elements. Recall once again the changes between worlds in Super Mario games. Each new world brings along new scenery, as well as new enemies and gameplay twists such as elevators, bouncing mushrooms, and similar.

In many games exploration of the world is at the core of the gameplay. Consider various biomes in Minecraft, each with its own distinct set of materials that can be collected.

In general, progress through the game world can take place in either a linear or non-linear manner. The order of unlocking of worlds in Super Mario games or the order in which new arenas are unlocked in Clash Royale is an example of linear world progression. This is also the case in many Zelda games or classical Lucas Arts point-and-click adventures in which locations are usually unlocked in precise other. Other games employ more non-linear world exploration.

Map of an the first island in the Cuirse of Monkey Island.

Exploring the world is another one of the main motivators in many games. Games such as Outer Wilds and No Man’s Sky are examples of this. The gameplay in No Man’s Sky revolves around procedurally generated worlds giving the player the ability to explore an immense number of worlds and gradually upgrade and unlock new abilities.

The gameplay of Outer Wilds is based on the exploration of interconnected worlds each with unique gameplay mechanics.

In many games, world exploration serves as a part of the narrative. Exploring the world of Red Dead Redemption 2 or Horizon Zero Dawn leads the player to random encounters that gradually fill in the narrative of the game.

Progress Through Narrative

Exploring the world of the game or simply traveling through it is an example of environmental storytelling, but many games employ more direct ways of conveying their narrative. Simply following the story in such games is an example of gameplay progression.

This is how narrative-driven single-player games are structured. Games are above all meant to be an interactive medium. Storytelling on the other hand involves a passive viewer. Narrative-driven games employ a variety of mechanics. Typically such games employ bits of gameplay intersected with predefined cut scenes that tell bits of the story. Such stories can be arranged in chapters. Games such as The Last of Us, Fire Watch, What Remains of Edith Finch, etc. are classic examples of this.

Once again, storytelling in these games can be linear or nonlinear. Examples are plentiful. The RPG games such as Disco Elysium, or aforementioned Red Dead Redemption 2 or Witcher 3 are typical of nonlinear narrative games.

One of possible scenes in Disco Elysium.

In addition of explicitly telling the story via cut scenes many of these games employ additional ways of storytelling. For example in Bioshock Infinite, the city is full of propaganda posters and statues, and automated announcements that reflect its society’s values and racism. Bloodstains and toppled furniture in certain areas suggest recent conflicts or violent events. Lutece twins’ chalkboards and cryptic messages hint at the game’s central themes of alternate realities and time manipulation.

One of many cryptic messasges in Bioshock Infinite.

Even more casual games such as escape room, or hidden object games employ explicit storytelling as a progress mechanic. A good example of this is June’s Journey a hidden object game that unfolds like an Agatha Christe novel. The protagonist, June, tries to unravel a murder mystery and the game unfolds in a series of chapters. Each chapter is a self-contained storyline that fits into the overarching mystery of the game.

Progress Vectors and Progress Indicators

The next important topic that we need to address in this text is the notion of progress vectors. A progress vector is any of the mechanics that we have mentioned earlier. This can be a list of levels organized linearly. It can also be a sequence of story chapters. It can also be a ladder of leagues or a roster of characters that can be unlocked, or a card collection.

In short, a progress vector is anything that can be quantified or at least measured that can show how far or how deep the player has advanced in the game. The progress vector also indicates goals that the player has already reached and ones that the player can still pursue.

Games can include more than one progress vector. In games such as Clash Royale, the arena ladder is one progress vector, and another progress vector is the collection of unlocked cards. The level of each individual card in this card collection is another progress vector, etc.

In general, any stat of the character in an RPG game is another separate progress vector. Some games are veritable layered cakes of stacked and interconnected progress vectors. The idea behind the introduction of multiple progress vectors is to ensure the player’s progression even after the player gets stuck on one of the progress vectors.

In games employing a linear level progression, if a player gets stuck on a particularly hard level, this will lead to frustration and eventual abandonment of the game. If the player instead has an alternative path of progress the frustration might be avoided at least for the time being.

The progress indicator is the embodiment of the progress vector. It is the visual representation of a player’s progress along a certain progress vector. The most banal example is the score number. Another progress indicator is the player’s position on the leaderboard. A sage map in games such as Candy Crash is also an example of a progress indicator, as is the overworld map in Super Mario games.

Furthermore, in many games operated as a service, these limited-time events come packaged with their own progression vectors and indicators. A great example of this is limited-time premium pass features very common in many free-to-play games. The sequence of reward tiers is the progress vector in this case and the score of season points that the player collects, and the last unlocked tier are the associated progress indicators.

Conclusion and Key Takeaways

The Three Phases of Progression:

Video games follow a structured progression path: onboarding (early game), skill development (midgame), and mastery (elder game).

The Double Role of First-Time User Experience (FTUE):

Tutorial: Teaches players controls, mechanics, and gameplay basics.
Intro: Establishes emotional connection and narrative engagement, motivating players to care about the game.

Progress Through Difficulty:

Games balance challenge and skill to maintain player engagement (flow theory).
Difficulty can be scaled dynamically (e.g., Resident Evil 4) or balanced with periods of ease (sawtooth difficulty curve).

Progress Through New Mechanics:

Introducing new gameplay elements (e.g., enemies, mechanics) adds variety and maintains interest.
Similar to musical compositions, games build on foundational themes, evolving them throughout gameplay.

Progress Through Unlocking Abilities:

Unlocking new skills, items, or power-ups empowers the player to achieve more.
These new abilities create additional layers of challenge and mastery (e.g., new cards in Hearthstone or power-ups in Royal Match).

Progress Through the Game World:

Evolving environments provide fresh visual and gameplay experiences, whether linear (e.g., Super Mario) or non-linear (e.g., Minecraft).
Exploration is often tied to unlocking new challenges or enhancing the narrative (e.g., Outer Wilds).

Progress Through Narrative:

Stories drive progression, structured in chapters or unfolding through exploration (e.g., The Last of Us, Red Dead Redemption 2).
Environmental storytelling enhances immersion, as seen in Bioshock Infinite.

Progress Vectors and Indicators:

Progress vectors (e.g., levels, skills, collectibles) define measurable paths of progression.
Visual indicators (e.g., maps, leaderboards, event progress bars) provide players with feedback on their advancement.

Layered Progression:

Games combine multiple progression types (difficulty, mechanics, abilities, narrative, and exploration) to ensure sustained engagement and cater to diverse player motivations.