Knob
Information visibility
You might say: shown, hinted or hidden
Visibility rules determine which relevant facts are public, privately known, hinted at or hidden. A deterministic game can still have uncertainty because the opponent's state or intentions are unknown.
- What it does
- Sets what kind of inference, scouting or bluffing the choice requires.
- Ask
- Which fact am I hiding, and what playable way does the player have to reduce that uncertainty?
- Typical
- Choose visibility per fact, not one visibility setting for the whole game.
- Trouble
- A computer adaptation silently hides rules players could inspect on the tabletop, or an exact preview destroys the intended deduction.
What to look for
- Current ammunition or legal moves shown directly
- Footsteps hinting at an unseen enemy
- An opponent's intended action withheld
Catalogue: Visibility policy
- Explicit: Show the fact directly, such as current ammunition or legal moves.
- Clued: Give indirect evidence, such as footsteps suggesting an unseen enemy's position.
- Concealed: Withhold a fact such as an opponent's intended action; let prediction, discovery or bluffing matter.
Connections
- See also: Rendered state
- See also: Planning information
Sources
- Daniel Cook, Building Tight Game Systems of Cause and Effect, Hidden information; Social Complexity
Visible sequences that are readily apparent.
Use it on your project
teardown-apply: hold "Information visibility" (choice-visibility) 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