3 P's - A More Accurate way to Compare Games

Much video game discourse is based on genre, but genres are notoriously ambiguous. Genres are cultural categories that games are sorted into after they're made, which is useful for marketing, but not so much for development. Inspired by a recent video on competitive games by Surnex, I wondered if there are other good ways to compare games besides player skill. After some thinking I've come up with the 3 P's for comparing games generally: premise, play, and presentation.

The premise is the idea behind the game - the 1-2 sentence description of what it's about. My definition of premise doesn't include the genre or style labels that people often use. for example, Super Mario Bros' premise is 'italian plumber must jump past obstacles to save princess' --- not '2d retro platformer featuring italian plumber saving a princess'.

Play is the simulation of the game and how the player interacts with it, minus any visuals, audio, or narrative. this is the grey-box version of the game, which for Super Mario Bros might look like the game without any of its spritework or sound effects. the developers are tuning the running, jumping, and levels to be difficult but satisfying.

Presentation is visuals, sounds, narrative, or anything else not part of the core gameplay simulation. With presentation Mario now looks like a plumber, there are bricks and koopas, coins go 'ding!', and there is dialogue with Peach when you defeat Bowser.

Even a game as simple as simple as Pong has premise, play, and presentation.

Games can excel due to any of the 3 P's.

As a game developer I worry about whether my premise is strong enough, whether my play is unique and fun, and whether my art is visionary - but it's important to remember that a game can have a really boring premise, uninspired gameplay, or nonexistent art and still be fun (ideally not all 3 though).

To demonstrate, here are a few great games that excel on some of the P's but not others:

Meccha Chameleon

Premise - ⭐⭐⭐
Hide and Seek but you can paint yourself to blend in. Awesome premise! You can already imagine the fun and possibilities just from the premise, and it's totally unique to games.

Play - ⭐⭐
Timed rounds where you can play with your friends, regular and infection modes, walking/climbing on walls, painting yourself, posing, a handful of maps. It's nothing mindblowing but it has everything you need and the game is some good fun.

Presentation - ⭐
Messy UI, asset pack everything, text can be hard to read. Sloppy presentation.

Vampire Survivors

Premise - ⭐
You're a vampire hunter(?) who gains power ups to survive an ever-growing tide of monsters. Although the 'being a vampire hunter' and 'needing to survive' sound kinda cool, the premise lacks context as to why you're doing any of this and really just sounds like an arcade game (which it is) so I'd say it's a generic premise.

Play - ⭐⭐⭐
The progression, slew of achievements, and wading through hordes of monsters is very well designed to make the game quite addictive - you feel like you're always on the brink of becoming more powerful or unlocking something new. Great play.

Presentation - ⭐⭐
The retro sprites, fonts, and music are charming, but of course the juice really gets poured into the 'opening a chest' gambling animation. Decent presentation overall.

Kindred: High Tide

Premise - ⭐⭐
You're a pirate hired by a secret organization to investigate anomalies at sea, those anomalies may be hunting you too. Spooky and interesting premise, I like it.

Play - ⭐
Visual novel gameplay where you read dialogue, sometimes making choices from 2-4 options which sometimes matter. It's basic, mostly clicking through dialogue.

Presentation - ⭐⭐⭐
Detailed illustrations for every moment so you can see what's happening as the action unfolds, and the narrative asks the player whether to trust their crew or not. Good UI and audio, great presentation overall.

this is my friend's game and is a banger, check it out!

As you can see, games can stand out in some areas and not others and still be fun. Most games strike a balance, but you can decide what to focus on.

Genres are an easy way to start game discussions with, but I find the 3 P's useful for further comparison. It's easier to talk about how games are similar or different, identify your particular taste, or figure out what exactly makes a game so good.

This topic is a bit abstract, so thanks for sticking around. Thinking about it helped me understand how games can be good for many different reasons, and I hope you got something useful from it too.

Thanks for reading! If you have any questions or comments, email me or message on discord - andrewdunne.gamedev@gmail.com | @oatvercast (discord).