“I want to make a game”

A game is a system of parts that lets a player act, see the result and choose again. Its genre and device change the surface, while loops, resources, progression and balance remain underneath. The designer turns those parts into a core loop, tests the resulting experience and iterates. This view starts at a game being played on a screen and opens down to rules and measures.

Product

Game on screen

You might say: a game being played, the finished game

The finished game as a player meets it: a changing scene on a screen, with actions, rules and feedback underneath.

Ask

What does the player see, do and learn in the next minute?

What to look for

1. Changing scene on a screen
2. Actions followed by feedback

Parts

• Presentation: The visible game state and its signs—scene, controls, HUD and feedback—are what the player perceives while acting.
• Player actions: The player chooses inputs and commits actions that change the game state.
• Parts list: A parts list names the entities, resources, values and rules that make the game system concrete, then records the attributes and behaviours that distinguish them.
• Core gameplay loop: The core loop is a repeatable chain in which the player reads a state, chooses an action, sees the system's result and updates their mental model before acting again.
• System dynamics: System dynamics are interacting loops of resources and rules—sources, drains, converters, traders and feedback—that shape play over time.
• Progression: Progression changes what the player can do, understand or afford as play continues.
• Balance: Balance is the relationship between options, costs, benefits, counters and the challenge the player can reasonably meet.
• Level design: Level design plans and builds the playable spaces where a game's rules become movement, navigation and encounters.
• Player experience: Player experience is what a target player perceives, understands, feels and does while interacting with the game, shaped by mechanics, dynamics, information, pacing and presentation.
• Designer loop: The designer's loop sets an intended experience, puts a playable version in front of people, observes the gap and iterates.

Catalogue: Device

• Phone: A small touch screen held close to the player.
• Monitor: A desk display with a wide view for close play.
• TV: A large shared display viewed from across a room.
• Handheld: A self-contained screen with controls on either side.

Catalogue: Genre

• Strategy: Mid-play shows a map, positions and resources that invite a plan.
• Platformer: Mid-play shows a character jumping between platforms towards a goal.
• RPG: Mid-play shows a character, an opponent, choices and a status panel.
• Puzzle: Mid-play shows a bounded board, a pattern and the next deliberate move.

Sources

1. Scott Rogers, Level Up! The Guide to Great Video Game Design, ch. 1, p. 9A video game is a game that is played on a video screen.

Use it on your project

teardown-audit: audit my project against the "Game" teardown at https://teardownatlas.com/game-design/

Paste it into a coding agent that has the teardown skills.

Every part

• Game on screen
  • Presentation
    • Game state on screen
      • Rendered state
    • Feedback signals
      • Result feedback
    • Interface layout
  • Player actions
    • Input action
      • Decision window
        • WEGO plan–resolve cycle
        • Order commitment
        • Simultaneous conflict adjudication
        • Planning information
        • Asynchronous turn deadline
    • Choice space
    • Action resolution
      • Rules evaluation
  • Parts list
    • Game parts
      • Token
      • Rule
    • Part attributes
      • State value
    • Part behaviours
      • Behaviour rule
    • Parts register
  • Core gameplay loop
    • Goal state
    • Choice point
      • Viable alternatives
        • Action availability
        • Dominance check
      • Trade-off structure
        • Opportunity cost
        • Risk and stakes
      • Decision information
        • Information visibility
        • Prediction depth
      • Decision pacing
        • Deliberation time
        • Meaningful decision density
      • Consequential choice
        • Discernible outcome
        • Integrated outcome
        • Decision variation test
    • Action resolution step
    • Feedback step
    • State change
  • System dynamics
    • Boosting engine
      • Investment and capacity
    • Braking engine
      • Drain and stop threshold
    • Economy
      • Resource generation and conversion
    • Ecology
      • Competing parts
    • Reinforcing loop
      • Reward escalation
      • Capability growth
    • Balancing loop
      • Pressure and countermeasure
      • Settled range
  • Progression
    • Progression curves
    • Unlock gates
    • Capability progression
      • New ability
    • Level and experience measure
  • Balance
    • Part interactions
      • Interaction formula catalogue
      • Interaction observation
    • Cost curves
    • Transitive balance
    • Intransitive balance
      • Counter cycle
        • Counter strength
        • Unit role
        • Matchup matrix
        • Mirror match
    • Hits-to-kill
      • Hits-to-kill matrix
      • Damage breakpoints
      • Overkill and rounding
      • Effective health
    • Time-to-kill
  • Level design
    • Experience goal
    • Layout
    • Blockout
    • Flow
    • Critical path
    • Pacing
    • Readability
  • Player experience
    • Player mental model
    • MDA
      • Mechanics
      • Dynamics
      • Aesthetics
    • Felt experience target
    • Narrative design
      • Narrative structure
      • Narrative choice
      • Narrative state
      • Worldbuilding
      • Narrative delivery
      • Agency contract
      • Ludonarrative dissonance
  • Designer loop
    • Design intent
      • Target experience
    • Playtest
      • Playtest session
    • Observed experience
      • Playtest observation
    • Iterate
      • One-change iteration

• Boosting engine
• Braking engine
• Ecology
• Economy

An AI agent wrote this map with the teardown skill. It can contain errors: check the sources before you rely on a part. About and legal