MDA Game Design Framework: Meaning, Model, Examples

MDA is a game design tool that lets game designers examine and analyze games in a scientific, quantifiable way. According to the MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research paper, the tool is specifically meant to let game designers, players, and researchers all share a conversation together in an effective and analytical way. With better communication comes better games.

The MDA game design model seeks to remove subjective game design terms, such as “fun” and “gameplay”, with objective terms, such as mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics, that designers are able to measure. Using objective terms over subjective terms allows game designers to determine whether certain features of a game achieve the type of player experience that the designer is aiming for.

Understanding the MDA game design framework allows designers to apply it to any game, including their own. Application means the designers are able to break down games into understandable and meaningful elements, seeing how each part impacts the next. When a player isn’t having fun, the MDA framework gives designers the tools to determine why.

Read on to learn about the MDA formal approach to game design, what MDA stands for, how to apply the MDA game design model, and run through an example of applying the MDA game design framework to an existing game to understand how to break a game’s design down and measure each element for effectiveness and success.

What does MDA stand for in game design?

MDA stands for Mechanics, Dynamics, and Aesthetics in game design. MDA is a formal approach to game design and game research first introduced by Robin Hunicke, Marc LeBlanc, and Robert Zubek. It’s a scientific process for designing a game by standardizing certain terms and creating a framework that’s applicable to any game, regardless of genre.

The MDA framework for game design was officially published in 2004 after Robin Hunicke, Marc LeBlanc, and Robert Zubek attended the Game Developers Conference in San Jose. The team developed the concept as part of the Game Design and Tuning Workshop at the conference. Hunicke, LeBlanc, and Zubek titled the paper, MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research.

What is the MDA game design model?

The MDA game design model is a framework used to analyze games by formalizing their core properties into three design components: mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics. The MDA approach encourages designers to consider the design from both their perspective and the player’s, pursuing a game design ontology while encouraging constant iteration. Designers use mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics to guide the game’s design.

Mechanics are the rules, structures, and algorithms that determine what players are and aren’t able to do in the game. The MDA game design model uses rules, or mechanics, to bridge the interaction a player has with the game to player experience. A jump mechanic lets players overcome obstacles and makes the player feel satisfied and accomplished by completing the challenge, for example.

According to MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research, dynamics are the run-time behavior that form when the player interacts with the mechanics, and when the mechanics interact with other mechanics. Using the jump mechanic example from earlier, jumping is the mechanic, but how players use the jump mechanic is behavior, or dynamics, as it’s called in the MDA framework. Players use the jump mechanic while traversing the world because they’re bored, for instance.

The aesthetics component of the MDA game design model is about the emotional responses, feelings, and experiences that the player receives while playing the game. Aesthetics doesn’t refer to a game’s appearance or mood, but to the emotional target that game designers want players to experience when interacting with specific gameplay moments or mechanics.

In MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research, the authors use eight standardized terms to break aesthetics down further. The standardized terms help designers target specific experiences or emotions for players to have. The following eight terms help define certain experiences that the game, mechanic, or feature provides or wholly encompasses.

The MDA game design model teaches designers to design a game by considering both the player and designer’s perspective. According to MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research, the game creator’s perspective starts with mechanics, then goes through dynamics, and ends with aesthetics. The player’s perspective has them seeing the aesthetics first, then the dynamics, and then indirectly sees the mechanics. Using this perspective helps the designers create mechanics that encourages certain dynamics, and then drives toward the specific aesthetic the team wants.

Redefining the MDA game design model allows it to be used as a game design ontology. A game design ontology is similar to a map of concepts that defines what games are made of and how their parts relate to one another. The MDA framework is an ontological tool that gives scholars and designers a shared structure and standardized terms for talking about different parts of a game and the ways they interact with each other. When a designer discusses a jumping mechanic not meeting a target aesthetic goal of Sensation, scholars and other designers working on a different game are able to understand what they’re talking about.

The MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research paper emphasizes that using the MDA approach requires the team to constantly iterate. The MDA model gives designers data to analyze when iterating, making their iterations more effective. The designers aren’t throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks. Instead, the designers are able to refine their goals based on the information gained through each different design element of the game.

What is an MDA game design example?

An MDA game design example involves applying the MDA game design framework to analyze any game’s mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics. With a roleplaying game like Dragon Age: Origins, examining it as a whole via the MDA game design model means breaking it down into game design elements such as level, character, progression systems, quest, narrative, world-building, combat, exploration, economy, UI design, and by understanding how different elements interact together.

Using Dragon Age: Origins as an MDA game design example, designers first examine the game by breaking it down into its basic components to map it out within the MDA framework. Some of the mechanics of Dragon Age: Origins include magic systems, combat systems, relationship and faction approval systems, and ability systems. A specific mechanic in Dragon Age: Origins is its pausable real-time combat mechanic that lets players pause combat to select actions they want their character and the party to take in combat.

The MDA framework allows the design team to study the dynamics of Dragon Age: Origins. Dynamics in Dragon Age: Origins are elements such as strategic thinking, optimization of class builds, and favoring certain party members. Understanding these dynamics is important because it helps the design team understand how players are playing the game. It tells the designers when they need to revise a certain mechanic to support how players want to play the game.

The MDA framework helps the design team break Dragon Age: Origins down into its aesthetic terms and goals. The aesthetic terms help designers understand and quantify whether the game, mechanic, or feature is achieving its goal of creating a specific player experience. Dragon Age: Origins has several aesthetic terms, with the most prominent being Fantasy, followed by Narrative and Challenge.

The Fantasy aesthetic applies to Dragon: Age Origins because the game is full of make-believe elements. Players take on the role of a Grey Warden, explore an invented world, and have adventures that aren’t replicable in real life. Narrative and Challenge aesthetics apply to the game, too. The plot of the game focuses heavily on drama, with the fate of the world and all those living upon it at stake. The enemies and obstacles standing in the player’s way are complex and engaging, such as the Archdemon final boss, which satisfies the Challenge aesthetic.

Applying the MDA framework to the noble prologue level in Dragon Age: Origins lets the team break it down into its mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics components. After applying the MDA framework, it’s possible to determine whether the design team was effective in designing the noble prologue level based on their target aesthetic goals.

• Mechanics: Enemy and NPC placements, lore pick-ups, environmental hazards, line-of-sight rules, treasure spawns
• Dynamics: Tactical positioning, ambushes, choke-point battles, exploration
• Aesthetics: Tension, challenge, discovery, grief

The design team knew that its aesthetic goals for the noble prologue level in Dragon Age: Origins were to provide Tension, Challenge, Discovery, and Grief to the player. In terms of level design for the first half of the level, this means using mechanics such as lore spawns and NPC placement to create early relationships between the player and the NPCs. In terms of level design for the second half of the level, this means using mechanics such as enemy spawns, tight hallways and alleys to make fights feel claustrophobic, and creating hazards to make the player feel as though they’re really losing their home. Players experienced the aesthetic goals the design team wanted, so their game design was effective.

The MDA game design framework enables designers to use a game, such as Dragon Age: Origins, as an example to analyze its character design. Applying the MDA framework to Dragon Age: Origins’ character design helps designers understand how the design team creates memorable characters. One of the most iconic characters in the Dragon Age franchise is Morrigan, due to her morally grey views that challenge the player character’s beliefs and values, and her deep knowledge of the world, she’s become the franchise’s go-to NPC for delivering exposition. Design teams are able to examine Morrigan’s character design by breaking it down into the MDA model’s components of mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics, such as in the example below.

• Mechanics: Magic system, shapeshifting abilities, romance approval system
• Dynamics: Party optimization, purchasing gifts, approval grinding, attachment
• Aesthetics: Challenge, Expression, Fellowship

The application of the MDA game design framework to Dragon Age: Origins enables designers to study its progression systems. Dragon Age: Origins is a roleplaying game, so progression is a key part of its design. Players expect to grow more powerful as they make their way through the game. To study player satisfaction, the character progression system in Dragon Age: Origins is able to be broken down with the MDA framework in the following way, then examined.

• Mechanics: Leveling system, gear upgrades, skill trees
• Dynamics: Class build optimization, party synergy. Immersion
• Aesthetics: Expression, Discovery, Fantasy, Strategy

Analyzing the MDA components indicates that a key target aesthetic for character progression in Dragon Age: Origins is Fantasy. The design team knew it needed to make armor, spells, abilities, and skills that reinforce the Fantasy aesthetic goal. They knew that players enjoy trying on new types of armor and looking more formidable as a result. The design team then created mechanics to lead to those goals. Gear upgrades that look cooler, a leveling system that grants players new abilities and spells, and skill trees that allow them to differentiate one character from the next are mechanics that support those goals.

Using the Dragon Age: Origins quest, the Tower of Ishal, as an example, designers are able to examine how BioWare structured and designed the quest to determine whether it meets their aesthetic goals for player experiences. Breaking down the quest via the MDA framework provides the following concepts and terms.

• Mechanics: Combat systems, enemy placement, level design, approval meters, branching dialogue
• Dynamics: Strategic combat, negotiation
• Aesthetics: Challenge, Narrative, Fellowship

Designers are able to analyze the Tower of Ishal quest with the MDA model to define its target aesthetic goals, which are Challenge, Narrative, and Fellowship. To satisfy those aesthetic goals, the design team has to create mechanics. To overcome the obstacles, the design team implemented various enemies, including a boss. The design team also included cutscenes to push the story forward. Each mechanic supports an aesthetic goal, making the quest design effective.

Using the MDA game design framework enables designers to examine a game, such as Dragon Age: Origins, to analyze its narrative design. The narrative design must make players feel as though they’re part of something grand and that their actions are changing the world in some way. To determine how successful Dragon Age: Origins is with its narrative design, design teams must break down its narrative design with the MDA model, such as in the example below.

• Mechanics: Branching story structure, origin paths, dialogue options, approval meters
• Dynamics: Replayability, divergent storylines, character relationship development
• Aesthetics: Fellowship, Narrative, Expression, Love, Tragedy

After breaking down Dragon Age: Origin’s narrative design into MDA terms, it’s possible to study and understand it has a Narrative aesthetic goal because its story is dark and full of dramatic moments and high stakes. Dragon Age: Origins has an aesthetic goal of Expression because it allows players to make choices based on their own or their character’s morals. Fellowship is another goal because the game allows players to romance party members. The design team achieved these aesthetic goals by designing dialogue trees that allow players to try different ways of negotiating with NPCs or to get to know party members better.

Using Dragon Age: Origins as an example for MDA framework application, design teams are able to examine its world-building design for effectiveness. World-building design for a roleplaying game such as Dragon Age: Origins must be immersive since players expect it. Design teams are able to analyze the world-building design of Dragon Age: Origins by breaking it down into its mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics as seen in the example below.

• Mechanics: Codex entries, lore spawns, environmental storytelling triggers
• Dynamics: Players piece together history, compare factions, roleplay within cultures based on lore information
• Aesthetics: Fantasy, Expression, Discovery

Through examination via the MDA game design model, designers are able to understand that Dragon Age: Origins uses several strategies, or mechanics, for its world-building design. These strategies, or mechanics, were designed to achieve the aesthetic goals of Fantasy, Expression, and Discovery. To achieve the Discovery aesthetic goal, the design team created lore spawn mechanics, such as codex entries, that players are able to find and collect in the game’s world.

Examining Dragon Age: Origins as an MDA game design example allows designers to break down the game’s combat design. Determining what makes combat satisfying isn’t always clear, unless the design team uses the MDA framework to quantify it. Quantifying the combat design of Dragon Age: Origins starts by breaking the combat design down into the three components that make up the MDA framework, such as in the example below.

• Mechanics: Hybrid pause-and-play system with real-time combat, ability bars with cooldowns, enemy AI routines and behavior, damage formulas, critical hit chances
• Dynamics: Party synergy, strategic trade-offs (potion use), encounter pacing, player-driven tactics
• Aesthetics: Challenge, Fellowship, Fantasy

Through the analysis of the combat design in Dragon Age: Origins with the MDA game design model, the combat design’s aesthetic goals are clearly Challenge, Fellowship, and Fantasy. Focusing on Fellowship, the design team knew that Dragon Age: Origins was going to use a party-based combat system. Including a party of NPCs to help the player overcome challenges, and designing mechanics for each party member to be an effective member in combat, satisfies the Fellowship aesthetic goal.

Using Dragon Age: Origins as an MDA game design example, designers are able to learn how BioWare approached their exploration design for the game and how effective their design choices are. Applying the MDA framework to Dragon Age: Origins’ exploration design allows designers to break it down into its core components for analysis.

• Mechanics: World map, level maps, travel rules, hidden areas, codex entries
• Dynamics: Players explore areas, discover lore, feel immersed
• Aesthetics: Discovery, Immersion

Studying Dragon Age: Origins’ exploration design with the MDA framework indicates that the aesthetic goals are Discovery and Immersion. Dragon Age: Origins isn’t an open-world game, so to move from one area to the next, players have to select a location from an overworld map. Immersion is one of the aesthetic goals that the design team needed to achieve. The design team achieved this aesthetic goal by having random encounters occur as players traveled along the overworld map, making them feel engaged with the world.

The MDA game design framework enables designers to use a game, such as Dragon Age: Origins, as an example to help designers understand effective economy design. Applying the MDA framework to examine Dragon Age: Origins’ economy design allows designers to take effective design strategies and apply them to their own game. Designers must first break down the economy design of Dragon Age: Origins by its mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics, and then analyze them.

• Mechanics: Currency, shop inventory, crafting recipes, weight/carry capacity
• Dynamics: Scarcity loops, item prioritization, saving for better items
• Aesthetics: Expression, Submission

Examining the economy design of Dragon Age: Origins with the MDA framework indicates that the design team focused on the aesthetic goals of Expression and Submission. Expression refers to how effectively players are able to customize themselves to their satisfaction. The design team achieved the Expression aesthetic goal by designing currency, shop inventory mechanics, and creating armor and weapon types that please players based on their visuals and stats.

Studying Dragon Age: Origins as an MDA game design example allows designers to determine how effective the UI design from Dragon Age: Origins is. Roleplaying games use UI to communicate information to players, and ineffective UI design complicates or frustrates players. To determine the effectiveness of Dragon Age: Origins’ UI design, designers must break it down via the MDA framework, and then analyze the UI design through it.

• Mechanics: Dialogue wheels, branching choices, progression UI, maps, party portraits, codex
• Dynamics: Players pause and take a breather, consider dialogue options strategically, educate themselves through codex entries, compare gear
• Aesthetics: Discovery, Expression

Examining the UI design of Dragon Age: Origins with the MDA framework indicates that the design team focused on the aesthetic goals of Discovery and Expression. Discovery refers to how easily players are able to find the information they’re seeking. The design team achieved the Discovery aesthetic goal by making clear dialogue wheel mechanics, menu titles, and categories.

Applying the MDA game design framework to different game design elements of Dragon Age: Origins enables design teams to study how its different game design elements work together. When something isn’t working how the design team wants, they’re able to understand all the different parts that are affecting the end result, which saves them time on troubleshooting. Below are some examples of how different design elements of Dragon Age: Origins are able to be studied together through the MDA game design model.

• Combat + Narrative: Narrative mechanics, such as approval meters or branching dialogue options, lead the player to failing to convince a NPC to ally with them. Instead, the NPC is enraged and fights the player. The combat mechanics are then used to fend off the angry NPC.
• Progression + Loot Systems: A progression system that uses XP allows the player to hit new levels at certain milestones. A new level means that the player is able to use all the weapons that require that level. A certain sword requires the player to be level six, for example.
• UI + Approval Systems: Players are able to give gifts or choose certain dialogue options that make a NPC approve or disapprove of them. Players are able to track the approval meter of a NPC through their character information UI.
• Exploration + World Building: Players explore and discover codex entries that provide them with information about the world.