Hi may name is Jake Randall, i am a university student at UCS (University Campus Suffolk) studying Computer Game Design BA (Hons) and I'll be providing information on this blog about game design.
This blog will not only contain information on video games, but board games and other non-digital games as well.

First off i'll start with the Tools for Creating Dramatic Game Dynamics by Marc LeBlanc

In the introduction part of the article, LeBlanc talks about the narrative in game design compared to the other normal narrative forms like TV, film, prose and theater is become thinner and that in this new age of gaming, games and stories are now much closer together then before. 
           He provides a few examples of games that back up this point. The first game he mentions is a game named Zork, a text adventure game created in the 1970s and 80s, on how it combines play with prose. He then goes on to say how the games like Zelda and Grand Theft Auto have effects like sounds, characters, plots, visuals and more, that could be expected of in a film. LeBlanc goes on to say after this that because of the similarities between modern games and traditional stories, that game designers would naturally look for ways to include the techniques and tools of storytelling into game design.
           Later on in the introduction LeBlanc mentions the ancient game Senet played in ancient Egyptian times and how a lot of games since Senet have had many diverse fictional meanings and metaphors, like games about warfare and conquest, courtly intrigue and even about nothing at all. He also talks about how the works of fiction that incorporate games as narrative devices, like how a movie culminates in a climactic bike race or in game of chess. He mentions how these examples of stories about games, no longer relies on the metaphor of the game, but on the actual events of the game like bluffs and strata-grams and the plans and gambits, it then becomes a climatic struggle that builds up to an appeasing conclusion, it is dramatic in other words, he goes on to say. 
           In the last few sections he says that, players seek out that drama, the dramatic parts in games that is the primary motive for playing the game, the desired quality of games. He mainly goes onto say that as game designers, we have to 'strive to imbue drama into our creations' and how challenging, creating drama within a game is combined by the limited control over the games we designers can create. He then goes onto say that we can not simply create the game's drama itself, but only the circumstances that can make drama emerge.

In the next part of the article he talks about the Mechanics, Dynamics and Aesthetics. He says how these three are the core framework that will help guide us about drama, and that 'these three aspects as the game play experience, or as perspectives from which a game can be viewed'.
           He starts with Mechanics first as that we are referring to all of the necessary pieces as parts of the game play experience or as the perspectives from which a game can be viewed as. He also says that, in this context, the mechanics, refer to the equipment, the venue and even the very rules itself, as well as anything else that is necessary for playing the game itself.
           Next he goes onto the Dynamics and on how it is the behavior of the game, in other words, the actual events and phenomena that happen in the game that is played. He says later on in the section that when we look at a game in the terms of its dynamics, we look at 'What happens when the game is played?'. He also says that it'll be very hard to find out the difference between the dynamics and the rules of a game as the dynamics are not controlled by the rules of the game. Lastly on dynamics he says that the relationship between it and mechanics is emergence, where in, the dynamics emerge from the mechanics of the game.
           On aesthetics LeBlanc comments that it is the emotional content of a game, the very desirable emotional responses we have when we play the game and the fun that come from playing the game. He says that games can challenge us, mentally or physically or both, that it can stimulate imagination or foster social interaction and that these and more are all properties of aesthetics of a game. The aesthetics emerge from the dynamics of a game and how the game behaves determines how the game makes players feel, he goes on to say. Lastly he mentions that one of the greatest challenges of a game designer is understanding how to evoke the specific emotional responses. 
            In the next paragraphs hes summaries the three by saying that the mechanics exist even when not being played as they are always there, the dynamics only manifest when the game is be played and lastly that the aesthetics depend on how we gather the content when playing it and how we bring the dynamics to life.
            Lastly in this section of the article talks about how it is our objective to create the aesthetic content that players play the game for. LeBlanc goes onto say that what we have to do is the opposite, we have to work backwards starting with a set aesthetic objectives, the 'emotional responses we hope to evoke in the  players', then determining what if dynamics will accomplish our chosen aesthetic objectives and then the mechanics the will make those dynamics.