Pyramid of game elements
According to Dr. Kevin Werbach, author of For the Win: How Game Thinking Can Revolutionize Your Business, game elements fall into one of the three categories, making up what he calls the Pyramid of Game Elements as shown in the following screenshot:
The pyramid of game elements is a way of visually thinking about various game elements. Dynamics are about the big picture. They represent the progression through the system, narratives, and overall constraints that the system puts on players. The Mechanics of the system are the verbs of the system. They are elements that move the players along the progression loops. Components are the details. These are things that come to our mind when we think of game elements such as points, leaderboards, badges. Everything that makes up the gamified experience can be categorized in the pyramid of elements.
