Part
Capability progression
You might say: new things the player can do
Capability progression changes the action set or the player's understanding as progress accumulates.
- What it does
- Keeps the game learning curve and power curve connected.
- Ask
- Does this unlock create a new decision or problem, or only increase a number?
Parts
- New ability: A new ability adds a distinct action, interaction or strategic option to the player's repertoire.
Sources
- Michael Sellers, Advanced Game Design: A Systems Approach, ch. 7, p. 253
As they gain more knowledge of the game world (using knowledge as an in-game resource), a player is able to do more and perform better.
- Ian Schreiber, Level 3: Transitive Mechanics and Cost Curves, cost curves and progression prerequisites
you also spend ADAM to buy new special abilities; higher-level abilities are just better (e.g. doing more damage) than their lower-level counterparts, but they cost more to buy.
- Ernest Adams and Joris Dormans, Game Mechanics: Advanced Game Design, ch. 4, pp. 72–76
Each class should have a unique set of different skills and abilities.
- Raph Koster, Game design is simple, actually, “Variation and escalation”; “Pacing and balance”
What you want is to be able to throw increasingly complex situations at the player. That’s how they climb the learning ladder.
Use it on your project
teardown-apply: hold "Capability progression" (capability-progression) from the teardown at https://teardownatlas.com/game-design/ against my project
Paste it into a coding agent that has the teardown skills.
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