Part

System dynamics

You might say: the larger loops underneath

System dynamics are interacting loops of resources and rules—sources, drains, converters, traders and feedback—that shape play over time.

What it does

Turns repeated actions into growth, pressure, scarcity and counterplay.

Ask

Which resource flows amplify, brake or constrain the core loop?

Parts

• Boosting engine: This game's boosting engine turns some resource now into greater future capacity or flow.
• Braking engine: This game's braking engine drains a resource or reduces its future rate so another loop does not run away.
• Economy: This game's economy generates, destroys, trades or converts resources into value or capability.
• Ecology: This game's ecology is a set of parts whose resource exchanges constrain or counterbalance one another.
• Reinforcing loop: Positive feedback makes an increase feed the next increase, so capability or reward can snowball.
• Balancing loop: Negative feedback counters a change and tends to move the system toward an equilibrium or bounded range.

Sources

1. Michael Sellers, Advanced Game Design: A Systems Approach, ch. 7, p. 236Each system works with resources as described earlier: the parts’ behaviors typically involve the increase, decrease, flow, and/or conversion or exchange of resources between parts; this is what creates the systemic loop.
2. Ernest Adams and Joris Dormans, Game Mechanics: Advanced Game Design, ch. 5, p. 80These feedback structures determine much of the dynamic behavior of game economies.
3. Ernest Adams and Joris Dormans, Game Mechanics: Advanced Game Design, ch. 6, pp. 113–117: closed circuits, positive and negative feedbackThe structure of a game’s internal economy plays an important role in a game’s dynamic behavior and gameplay.
4. Michael Sellers, Advanced Game Design: A Systems Approach, ch. 5, pp. 175–184you need to get to the point where you have fully defined the parts, the loops, and the whole of your design.
5. Ernest Adams and Joris Dormans, Game Mechanics: Advanced Game Design, ch. 4, pp. 59–70Feedback systems based on relationships between two players can produce effects that keep games close
6. Tynan Sylvester, The Simulation Dream, “Player Model Principle”; “Drowning in Complexity”; “Story-Richness”The simulation does the logistics and generates some random outcomes, while the player adds the meaning and pathos.
7. Daniel Cook, Value chains – A method for creating and balancing faucet-and-drain game economies, ch. 1 “Basic structure of a value chain”; ch. 2 “Balancing value chains”Value chains are one way of structuring your game’s internal economy
8. Ian Schreiber, Game Design Concepts, Level 5: Mechanics and Dynamics, The Process of Design; The Process of Play; Feedback Loops; EmergenceGenerally, emergence describes a game with simple mechanics but complex dynamics.
9. Tynan Sylvester, The Simulation Dream, opening ecology example; Player Model Principle; Drowning in Complexity; Creating Story-RichnessThe simulation does the logistics and generates some random outcomes, while the player adds the meaning and pathos.

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