Measure

State value

You might say: the value right now

A state value is one current reading of an attribute, such as hit points, position, level or resource count.

What it does
Lets the resolver and the player detect change.
Ask
What is the value before and after the action?

What to look for

  1. Hit points shown at their current value
  2. Position changing after an action
  3. Level or resource count updating

Sources

  1. Ernest Adams and Joris Dormans, Game Mechanics: Advanced Game Design, ch. 5, p. 89The state of a Machinations diagram refers to the current distribution of resources among its nodes.
  2. Ian Schreiber, Game Design Concepts, Level 16: Game Balance, Balance Between Game Objects; More Game Balance Techniques: stats, costs, benefits and changing valuesSpreadsheets help you to see causes and effects of changes in the game.
  3. Tynan Sylvester, The Simulation Dream, Eclipse Colony design case study: yield, growth timer and health as state variablesWhen the plant is harvested, the amount of food that appears is based on yield.
  4. Robert Nystrom, Game Programming Patterns, State: current state and transitionsThis maps directly to a state machine: Each room is a state. The room you’re in is the current state. Each room’s exits are its transitions. The navigation commands are the inputs.

Use it on your project

teardown-apply: hold "State value" (state-value) 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