Knob
Prediction depth
You might say: how far ahead I must think
Prediction depth is how many linked effects the player must mentally simulate to compare actions. Tune the interaction chain and preview tools; more steps can create planning depth or simply exceed the available thinking time.
- What it does
- Controls the reasoning burden of a decision independently of the number of buttons.
- Ask
- Can the player predict the important effect in the time allowed, and trace where a failed prediction went wrong?
- Typical
- Inspect immediate effect, next response and later resource or position effects; expose previews for the layers not meant to be the challenge.
- Trouble
- Players understand every local rule but cannot follow their combined effect, or a preview makes all planning automatic.
Connections
- See also: Decision window
- See also: Part interactions
Sources
- Daniel Cook, Building Tight Game Systems of Cause and Effect, Processing Complexity; Indirection; Time Pressure
System requires simulating multiple steps to predict an outcome.
Use it on your project
teardown-apply: hold "Prediction depth" (choice-prediction-depth) 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