game-system-design

name	game-system-design
description	Design a game mechanic or system around player goals, rules, feedback, progression, balance, failure, and interaction with the broader game loop.

Game System Design

Use when creating or revising mechanics, economies, progression, quests, combat systems, simulation rules, or player loops.

Procedure

1. Define the intended player experience and behavior the system should produce.
2. Specify rules, inputs, state, feedback, rewards, costs, failure, and edge cases.
3. Map how the system enters and exits the larger core loop.
4. Identify dominant strategies, exploits, grind, dead ends, and incentives that may produce unintended behavior.
5. Choose tunable parameters and define what playtest evidence should influence them.
6. Prototype the smallest version that can test the central design hypothesis.
7. Iterate from observed player behavior rather than designer intention alone.

Quality gate

A system design should predict what players will actually do under its incentives and define how the team will validate that prediction.