Part

Part interactions

You might say: how parts affect one another

Part interactions are the causal relationships through which one part changes another part's state, value or available choices.

What it does

Turns a parts list into a system with emergent dynamics.

Ask

Which part changes which other part, under what conditions and with what delay?

What to look for

1. One part changing another's state
2. A value changing after an interaction
3. Available choices changing after an effect

Parts

• Interaction formula catalogue: A catalogue of mitigation formulas compares how armour changes damage taken: subtractive, divisive, percentage and threshold models.
• Interaction observation: Record the outcome of an interaction across representative states, opponents, frequencies and timings; a single stat or duel can mislead.

Sources

1. Ernest Adams and Joris Dormans, Game Mechanics: Advanced Game Design, ch. 5, p. 89State connections indicate how changes to the current state of a node (the number of resources in it) affect something else in the diagram.
2. Ian Schreiber, Game Design Concepts, Level 16: Game Balance, interconnections between systems and second-order effectsLook at the interconnections between systems. If you change one thing, you should know what other things will be affected.
3. Ernest Adams and Joris Dormans, Game Mechanics: Advanced Game Design, Introduction pp. xi–xiii; ch. 1 pp. 1–22; ch. 4 pp. 59–77the mechanisms that govern the relationships between them and how they are produced or consumed.
4. Ian Schreiber, Level 2: Numeric Relationships, Identity and Linear Relationships; Relationships Within SystemsNumbers in games don’t exist in a vacuum. They only have meaning in relation to each other.
5. Ian Schreiber, Game Design Concepts, Level 16: Game Balance, More Game Balance Techniques: interconnections and second-order effectsLook at the interconnections between systems. If you change one thing, you should know what other things will be affected.
6. Tynan Sylvester, The Simulation Dream, opening ecology example; Drowning in Complexity; Creating Story-RichnessEach can work at the fishing pond, the market, the field, the mill.

Use it on your project

teardown-apply: hold "Part interactions" (part-interactions) 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