Knob

One-change iteration

You might say: change one thing at a time

Change one important rule or value before the next comparison so the result can be attributed.

What it does
Preserves causal learning during tuning.
Ask
Which single change will teach us the most?
Typical
one rule, one value or one interaction at a time

Sources

  1. Ian Schreiber, Game Design Concepts, Level 16: Game BalanceMake one change at a time. We’ve said this before, but it bears repeating.
  2. Tracy Fullerton, Playcentric Design (ACM interactions, 2008), Playcentric Design, pp. 42–47: integrate feedback and test againCalled ‘playcentric’ design, it involves setting interesting player-experience goals, building a rough paper or digital prototype that attempts to achieve those goals, testing the prototype with players, evaluating the results and integrating feedback, and then doing it again.
  3. Ian Schreiber, Game Design Concepts, Level 16: Game Balance, Make one change at a time; playtest againMake one change at a time. We’ve said this before, but it bears repeating.
  4. Ian Schreiber, Game Design Concepts, Level 5: Mechanics and Dynamics, Homeplay: change one rule; predict, play again and compareadd, remove, or change one rule in order to remove the effect of the positive feedback loop
  5. Ian Schreiber, Game Design Concepts, Level 16: Game Balance, More Game Balance Techniques; Homeplay: make one change and playtest againMake one change at a time. We’ve said this before, but it bears repeating.

Use it on your project

teardown-apply: hold "One-change iteration" (change-one-rule) from the teardown at https://teardownatlas.com/game-design/ against my project

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

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