What is the MDA Framework?

The MDA framework is an important framework for thinking about games from both a designer’s and the players’ point of view and was developed by Marc LeBlanc and Robert Zubek. It’s a helpful framework to understand when developing and designing games or even introducing gamification elements to your product.

Mechanic

The mechanics can be thought of as the ‘verbs’ of the game. From a designer’s point of view describe the particular components of the game, at the level of data but from a player’s point of view describe the things you can do in the game for example how much health you have or your ability to jump or shoot.

Dynamics

Dynamics can also be thought of as the "rules" of the game. Dynamics from a designer’s point of view describe the run-time behaviour of the mechanics acting on player inputs and each other’s outputs over time. But from a player’s point of view, it describes the rules of the game for example your current status, win conditions and variables of the game.

on how objects interact with one another in terms of movement, force, friction, etc. These rules help dictate what happens when objects come into contact with one another or when one object applies force to another object.

Aesthetics

Aesthetics describes how users perceive and interact with a game itself as in the actual subjective user experience of the player.

There are many types of aesthetics, including but not limited to the following eight stated by Hunicke, LeBlanc and Zubek:

Sensation (Game as sense-pleasure): The player enjoys memorable audio-visual effects.
Fantasy (Game as make-believe): Imaginary world.
Narrative (Game as drama): A story that drives the player to keep coming back
Challenge (Game as obstacle course): Urge to master something. Boosts a game's replayability.
Fellowship (Game as a social framework): A community where the player is an active part of it. Almost exclusive for multiplayer games.
Discovery (Game as uncharted territory): Urge to explore the game world.
Expression (Game as self-discovery): Own creativity. For example, creating a character resembling the player's own avatar.
Submission (Game as a pastime): Connection to the game, as a whole, despite of constraints.

Here is an example of how PUBG aesthetics game shape might look like

Source Here

Other theories and frameworks

The Meaningful Play Framework: The Meaningful Play Framework was developed by Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman, who was influenced by MDA but wanted a more holistic approach. They argue that game designers need to consider not just mechanics and aesthetics but also what they call "ludemes" (rules) and "playstyles" (players).

Patterns approach: One alternative is the game design patterns approach. This approach focuses on the patterns that emerge from different types of games rather than attempting to classify them into specific categories. It's more flexible than MDA, and it allows you to account for more complex situations in your analysis.

The Magic Circle Theory: The Magic Circle Theory describes the boundary between play and non-play and how we suspend disbelief while playing games (e.g., we don't mind dying in World of Warcraft because we know it isn't real).

Conclusion

The MDA framework is a useful systems design framework that can be utilized to help create games and game-like software with an emphasises on core play elements and player experiance. It can help designers to get a good understanding basic fundamentals of creating a good gaming experiance.

The Mechanics, Dynamics, and Aesthetics Framework