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Checkout our lame debug & placeholder art!

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We're in the proof of concept phase focused on designing game features and figuring out what the next thing we should add to the game engine. Everything in the game client is about verifying the behavior of the game engine and exploring if designed game systems are actually interesting.

Design Philosophy

We have 5 core tenets when it comes to designing new game features, mechanics, and systems. These help guide us if we're stuck on a fence between two different options and act as quick litmus tests to make sure it fits the type of game we want to play.

Green Pattern

Intuitive

A system should be easy to learn and hard to master.

  • Can you get a rough idea of the state with a glance?

  • Is it discoverable without reading a guide?

  • Does the complexity ramp over time?

  • Is there a material advantage to understanding the small details?

Clock Gears

Interconnected

A system should interact other systems in the game while having it's own reason to exist.

  • It should impact at least 2 others

  • It should be the primary influence of an aspect of gameplay and minor or indirect impact on others.

  • It should have other systems feeding both in and out of it.

Compass

Strategy Forward

Strategy is more important than tactics.

  • Success should be primarily determined by the better strategy

  • Tactical decisions should exist and have positive impact but the reward or penalty should fade over time.

  • The majority of the players time should be focused on what is the right strategy and not micro-management of systems.

Car Factory

Automation

Any system that scales interaction requirements must have a way to offload the micro-management to an automated system.

  • Only systems that ever increasingly require more and more player interaction.

  • Gates to unlock the automation should occur a little after the system starts becoming unwieldy.

  • Automation must be optin and never forced on the player.

  • Automation can stack. A system can automatically manage an automate system.

  • The automation must never be superior to focused tactical play.

Chess Pieces

Endless

The game never ends. You just stop playing.

  • No arbitrary victory line

  • The game only ends if you lose or feel content with what you've achieved.

  • Victory is whenever you're goal is a foregone conclusion.

  • Steady state should not be easy to achieve.

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