I have a small gap in my game that requires some sort of skill based mechanic to fill the hole. I've been thinking lately about other games and what mechanics would work well in mine. What I mean by "mecanics" are things like;

hitting a button at the right time to dodge, or

running and collecting (whatever) for a bonus, or

sliding the blocks into the right places to allow the character to escape,

etc, etc

Oviously these 3 are all very different, and would fall under different categories, some are more thinking orientated, others are more dexterity/reflex oriented. I was thinking it would be awesome to have like a large compilation of different game mechanics that designers could use as a starting point, or inspiration for filling in the gaps in their design. 

A list like this could even be used for inspiration for new types of games by combining different mechanics together in new ways. Eg what kind of game could I get if I combined a resource management mechanic with a balancing (staying up-right) mechanic?

Does anyone know of a list like this? If there's nothing available, would anyone be interested in helping me compile one?

The subject of game mechanics is very very vague, nebulous, and abstract. Trying to compile a complete list of game mechanics is like trying to compile a complete list of feelings, a person can feel.

A much better approach would be to try to explain the anatomy of a game mechanic. What exactly is the definition of a game mechanic, what are it's constituent parts, how do they work together. How can new game mechanics be made out of such parts?

Heres something I wrote a while back, I am unsure of my sources however :

The Components of Game Mechanisms
  Gametime
    A section of ambiguous time that a game spans, a unit of which does not necessarily correspond to a unit of real time.
  Gamespace
    The collection of entities the game encompasses.
  Turn
    Gametime is subdivided into atomic moments heretofore called a turn, in which the player may have an affect on the gamespace and the interactions and relations therein.
  Chance
    Where an actions outcome is not deterministic but subject to probability.
  Resource
    A resource is anything that is collected, used or traded in a game.
  Points
    A type of resource, atomic and indistinguishable from others of it's kind, a collection of which represents an accumulated quantity of the resource they represent.
  Resource Exchange/Elimination
    The Exchange or destruction of resources, either to fill conditional obligations of victory or to acquire other resources.
  Catchup
    The more progress is made the harder it is to progress, to allow players lagging behind to catch up and also allow the player to feel that he is achieving something by progressing.
  Movement
    When resources share a relationship, and there exists an action to modify the relationship, the action is reguarded as "movement" since the most common usage of this component is spacial relationship modification by physically moving resources.

Common Victory Conditions
  Loss Avoidance
    There exists a condition of loss, and the player who does not reach this condition before the end of the game wins.
  Capture / Elimination
    The condition of victory is the capture or elimination of a subset of resources in the gamespace.
  Structure Building
    The condition of victory is to establish a relationship of resources that is a winning structure, or the stronger structure by some criteria designated by the game.

Addictive Mechanisms
  Collection
    Where gathering of a set of resources and showcasing them might lead to bragging rights
  Feedback
    Progress of Success marked with some punctuating fanfair to serve as positive reinforcement
  Exchange
    Players given the option to engage socially to communicate trade etc with other players
  Customization
    Allowing the player to personalize the gamespace and possibly share it with others.

These are just some scattered notes in my journal and I know they all don't apply but I feel they are interesting to note. Hope this helps in some way. Trying to define game mechanics is like trying to define what philosophy is, or ethics.

It's interesting what you have, and I agree that it's very slippery trying to define game mechanics. That's why in many ways a large list of pre-existing game mechanics could be so useful, just like we have books of pre-developed philosophy and ethics ideas... A student of philosophy will study these before constructing ideas of his/her own.

There are a number of books and whatever. the thing to do is not look at it as an engineering problem where I plug mechanic x here, but try and creatively think of something new and interesting to do. Maybe even something someone has not seen or some idea used in a different way.

Realistically, the problem is that Game Mechanisms are a much less studied subject than philosophy and ethics. No one really has come in and given a good way to define, categorize and scrutinize them. The problem is that there are no people or works that everyone or even large groups believe in.

Simply listing different Examples of Game Mechanisms has it's problems too, how do you quality one game mechanism as being different from another? If there are two mechanisms that are similar are their differences worth noting? What IS a game mechanism? How do we qualify some aspect of a game that we enjoy a game mechanism and not just an artifact product of the interaction of the game and the player... or is that what a game mechanism is? No one has a straight answer. But hey if you just want a huge list of random stuff... go nuts, but I don't think it will help as many people as you think.

PS. My journal entry text in the above post is provided simply because I've sort of been waiting for a use for it. I do not claim to be any sort of Game Mechanism expert. It is just a list of things I noticed among game mechanisms as I identify them, and some bits and bobs I've absorbed over the years. I first jotted it down in my journal about a year ago, and have yet to find a good use for it.... maybe I'll write a book entitled The Philosophy of Game Mechanism Design (joking).

Big Daddio:

There are a number of books and whatever. the thing to do is not look at it as an engineering problem where I plug mechanic x here, but try and creatively think of something new and interesting to do. Maybe even something someone has not seen or some idea used in a different way.

Okay, lets dissect Super Mario Bros for Game Mechanisms

Movement:
1) Player can move left or right to move himself across a platform
2) Player can jump
3) Player can jump from one platform to another platform
3) Player can jump over or on top of an obstacle
4) Player can duck to avoid being struck due to his stature (if "big")
5) if player has a fireflower powerup player can throw projectile fireballs.

Interaction
1) jumping on an enemy may kill it unless it is invulnerable to being jumped on where upon the player may sustain damage.
2) jumping up to strike a brick when "big" will cause the brick to break, and or possibly yield coins, power ups, and points.
3) collect 100 coins to gain a free life
4) collect 1,000,000 points to gain a free life
5) collect a mushroom to become "big"
6) collect a fireflower to be able to throw a projectile fireball
7) if player sustains damage while big, he is made small, however if player sustains damage while small he dies.
8) projectile fireballs bounce along the ground until they collide with an enemy where upon the enemy sustains damage unless the enemy is invulnerable to fire.
etc, etc, etc

Goals:
1) don't die
2) reach flag poles / axes without dying
3) rescue princess by attaining goal 2... like 30 times or something, while maintaining goal 1 enough of the time such that you do not run out of lives.

Yeah, this probably isn't what you want is it? But these are all game mechanics. So yeah there are plenty that I skipped. The list arguably could go on for pages and pages and pages JUST about what stuff goes on in SMB let alone GAMES en mass. A list of game mechanisms is not very practical, but there's my contribution.

I would disagree with trivializing the identification of core game elements, especially when designing with a team or doing research.

A good place to start would be to google LUDEMES
Read anything by Raph Koster or any of the other game designers who have been working hard to formalize game design
Take a look at http://kevan.org/ludeme and start building your own for a more specific video game genre

I'm sorry if anyone thought I was out to trivialize the identification of core game elements. My point was that a list of examples of game mechanics is ineffective, and impractical. Reading books about game design, is much more effective. Examples can be cited of mechanisms that work or have been used, but they don't really help you understand what it is about them that makes them fun, how to construct new mechanisms, etc.