Measure
Dominance check
You might say: is one option always better?
Compare each action's costs and consequences across representative states and player goals. An option is dominated if another is never worse on the relevant criteria and is better on at least one; a popular option alone does not prove dominance.
- What it does
- Finds false alternatives that add menu complexity without a real trade-off.
- Ask
- Can I name a reachable state where each option earns its place?
- Typical
- Record state, goal, costs, exposure and future options; mark a witness state for each viable alternative.
- Trouble
- Experienced players repeat the same action regardless of ammo, threat, position or objective.
Connections
- See also: Transitive balance
- See also: Interaction observation
Sources
- Tynan Sylvester, Decision-Based Gameplay Design, Difficult Decisions; Evaluation; Design: static routes become non-decisions
If you present the player with exactly the same situation over and over, he will learn what the best thing to do is and thus the choice becomes easy.
Unverified: The formal dominance definition and witness-state worksheet are analytical extensions of the essay's discussion, not its terminology.
Use it on your project
teardown-apply: hold "Dominance check" (choice-dominance-check) 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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