Thematic Coherence – Every game is in a genre (or blends several), and the action within the game must be consistent to the theme or model world we develop.

Clear Goal – The player must be presented or discover the goal he or she is trying to achieve within the theme.

Balanced Challenge – An experience that is too simple is not fun, and one that is too difficult is frustrating. As the player improves, the challenge needs to increase appropriately. Then tension should relatively wax and wane while maintaining a steady increase.

Relevance: Action to Domain – The dilemmas and consequent decisions that the player makes must be meaningful in the model world.

Relevance: Problem to Learner – The genre of the game and the story line must be of interest to the player.

Choices of Action – There needs to be (at least a perception of) a variety of choices the player can make at any time.

Direct Manipulation – The player should act directly on the model world through the interface.

Action Coupling – Input-output interreferentiality: the action in the world should cause actions that are represented back to the player by consequences in that world.

Novel Information or Events – The play should include elements of chance that make the play non-deterministic.