Game Characteristics

Games can be characterized as having "perfect" or "limited" knowledge. Also, they can be "deterministic" or "random".

Another important aspect of a game is what sort of "models" one must build for your opponents (and what is the cooperation model).

Chess is a deterministic game of perfect knowledge. So are: tic-tac-toe, checkers, and go. These games are of limited interest to me, because they are effectively searches of a state space. This limits the opponent model to estimating how well they can search the state space. The simplest being, "assume they can search the space as well as I can". This makes the game no different from playing oneself.

Most games include a random element (usually dice, cards, or a spinner). The simplest games are entirely random (they could be reduced to a coin toss to determine the winner). Examples of these are Candyland and Chutes and Ladders, which are really just tools for teaching game mechanics to children.

The only example that comes to mind of a deterministic game of limited knowledge is Stratego.

Also worth mention is Poker, which is often entirely random (stud vs. draw) and may have zero public information (a counter example is Texas Hold'em). Here the outcome of a player model is boolean (bluffing or not bluffing), but coming to that decision requires great skill.


A complex game will include all of these elements: combinations of public and private information, randomness and certainty, complex models of player behavior (driven by a wide choice of possible moves at any point) and player cooperation.

A good game can be built from a simpler set, but this space tends to be better explored (will you make a chess analogue?)