By Sebastian, May 17, 2025
Game essence (ゲーム性 or gēmu-sei) was coined by Masahiro Sakurai, the creator of Kirby and Super Smash Bros. The core idea of game essence is tension and relaxation, like dissonance and resolution in music. Game essence is not directly fun, but it can be an important part of fun. A game like Animal Crossing has low game essence. The level of tension in a session remains almost constant. Doom has high game essence, as stressors enter and exit awareness frequently.
Masahiro Sakurai has an excellent series on YouTube about game essence. My article, On Dredge, is a prototype in the analysis of a game through the lens of game essence.
The translation of gēmu-sei is, according to Sakurai's translators, "a tough one". I do not know Japanese, but allow me to try to break it down. ゲーム (gēmu) is a transliteration/borrowing of the English "game." 性 is, approximately, "essence," "characteristic," or "nature." 性 in this case can probably be correlated in this sense with the what-it-is-for-it-to-be, or εἶδος (eidos). This has a common translation as "form," but essence is also sometimes used. It is, if you are unaware, an extremely loaded word with great importance to Western philosophy. Perhaps I will write more about it later.
The idea of game essence as the form of a game qua game is a useful definition, I think. It is, in short, what makes games be games.