Process
Rules evaluation
You might say: checking the rule
The resolver checks conditions, calculates effects and records the new state.
- What it does
- Keeps outcomes consistent enough for learning and strategy.
- Ask
- Can a player explain why this result followed?
Sources
- Ernest Adams and Joris Dormans, Game Mechanics: Advanced Game Design, ch. 5, p. 92
Activators connect two nodes. They activate or inhibit their target node based on the state of their origin node and a specific condition.
- Daniel Cook, What are game mechanics?, feedback loops: actions, effects, tokens, causal rules and new actions
The action causes an effect within the simulated game world
- Ian Schreiber, Game Design Concepts, Level 5: Mechanics and Dynamics, Now, About That MDA Framework Thing…: rules, constraints, actions, effects and game state
These are defined by the mechanics.
- Scott Rogers, Level Up! The Guide to Great Video Game Design, ch. 1, p. 8
A rule may be to throw the ball with your right hand and catch it with your left, or to not drop the ball. A victory condition could be that you have to catch the ball ten times in a row. A failure state would be if you violated any of the rules or victory conditions.
Use it on your project
teardown-apply: hold "Rules evaluation" (rules-evaluation) 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