The atomic game design methodology will require for you to clarify what are the skills that you want to challenge to the player. This is what will define your game experience from the player point of view. Don’t forget, you don’t make a game for yourself, you are making a game for players that will play it.

By clearly identify them in your design, you will structure the design of your game in a way that even your development team will have a hard time challenging your design. It will bring your game design to a next level.

I have identified three different categories of player’s skill.

Physical skills

We can define the physical skills by the way the player interacts with a game controller or interact with the surface of a phone or a tablet. Those player’s skills are used in action game or arcade style game.

Example: Measurement, Endurance, Precision…

  

Mental skills

Mental skills were defined by the one that the player use his brain for the input. Those player’s skills are the most abstracted one and are hard to define and understand by some people.

Example: Strategy, Tactic, Observation….

Social skills 

The social skills are the one that implies any type of social interactions.

Example: Leadership, Negotiation, Persuasion…