From an idea to a game.
With understanding.
Principles that turn working code into a good game. Learn the foundations. Give your AI agent context. Share what you discover.
Learning paths
Lessons, practice and a verifiable outcomeYour first verifiable prototype
One scene: from a question and input to feedback, measurement and reviewing agent work.
Level design
From a rough playable space to readable routes and teaching one mechanic.
Balance and progression
Choice costs, random streaks and upgrades that change player actions.
NPC behavior
What a character knows, how it selects an action and how it reaches a destination.
Game verification
Player observation, behavior acceptance and finding accessibility barriers.
Lessons21
From the fundamentals to practiceResults: 21
Scope and a testable prototype
Choose one question, limit the work, and decide what to do after evaluating a prototype.
The game loop and time
Separate simulation speed from frame rate and verify pauses, frame drops, and focus changes.
Input and feedback
Turn button presses into gameplay intent and show whether an action was accepted, rejected, or completed.
Collision fundamentals
Separate overlap detection, physical response, and gameplay events; check boundaries, fast objects, and repeated damage.
States and transitions
Define legal character states, event priority, and transition checks without a growing tangle of flags.
Game feel: making actions readable
Tune response, emphasis, and effects so players understand an action while staying in control.
A performance budget
Set a measurable target, locate the bottleneck with a profiler, and compare changes under the same conditions.
Developing a game with an AI agent
Write testable tasks, preserve project context, and accept changes based on observable gameplay behavior.
Choice costs and situational value
Compare options through time, resources and context to uncover a dominant choice.
Randomness and unlucky streaks
Separate average probability from a short session and decide whether the game needs limits on outcome streaks.
Basic accessibility across a play session
Find barriers from launch to task completion: controls, text, cues, reaction time and camera motion.
Verifying gameplay behavior
Turn “the mechanic is done” into reproducible scenarios with initial conditions, an action and an observable result.
Blockout: test space before art
Build a rough playable level around actual character dimensions, speed and camera to test a gameplay question.
Making a route readable
Give players landmarks and information for choosing a route while preserving room to explore.
How an NPC selects an action
Separate eligibility, priority and execution so a character makes explainable decisions without rapidly switching between them.
Pathfinding and following a route
Choose a space representation and traversal costs while separating a computed path from actual NPC movement.
NPC perception and target memory
Separate world state from character knowledge: visibility, last observation, forgetting and readable reactions.
Progression: capabilities and pacing
Check whether upgrades change player actions and whether increasing numbers conceal repetition of the same task.
Running a playtest with a concrete question
Prepare a short play session, separate observations from interpretations and choose the next change.
Teaching one mechanic through a level
Build a short sequence in which players try a rule, receive feedback and apply it in a new situation.
From world rules to player actions
Connect a fictional world to actions and consequences, then choose a small situation to test in a prototype.
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Mechanics
All references →Detailed trees of player actions, variants and combinations for game design.
Game design techniques
199 techniques from Game Mechanics: movement, combat, interfaces and environments with linked game examples.
Boss fights
Attacks, arenas, defense and cooperation: 124 techniques with game examples and links to full lessons.
Point-and-click adventures
Exploration, inventory, dialogue, deduction, puzzle systems and uncommon hybrids.
Detective games
Evidence, testimony, alibis, event reconstruction, hypothesis testing and accusation. Game examples and prototype checks.
Puzzles
Pattern recognition, rearrangement, routes, logic, physics, ciphers and rule discovery.
Dialogue
Reply choices, persuasion, deception, interrogation, character memory and conversation consequences.
Visual novels
Choices and consequences, relationships, story branches, repeat playthroughs and reading tools.
Deck building
Acquiring and removing cards, hand management, play costs, synergies and deck development.
Roguelikes and roguelites
Run structure, procedural generation, character builds, risk, death and progression between attempts.
Metroidvanias
Connected worlds, new abilities, access requirements, revisiting familiar places and discovering secrets.
Metroidbrainia
Progress through knowledge: discovering actions, object properties, world systems, languages and hidden rules.
RPG grinding
Repeatable activities, progression, economy, companions and automation: 110 techniques and 330 variants with rewards and constraints.
Children’s games
Open-ended play, toys, movement, creativity, adventures and shared activities for children.
Educational games
Subject tasks, inquiry, instructional support, collaboration and training simulations for children, teenagers and adults.
Drawing
Drawing as an object, route, spell or way to communicate. Precision, color, line physics and collaborative creation.
Investigative vision and perception
Exploratory vision and perception: Actions, options, applications and limitations. Complete list from the discussion, with search and sources.
Engagement, retention and addictive patterns
Engagement, retention, and addictive patterns: Actions, options, applications, and limitations. Complete list from the discussion, with search and sources.
Electronic devices in games
Electronic devices in games: actions, options, applications and limitations. Complete list from the discussion, with search and sources.
Voice and sound
Voice input, auditory perception, sound as material and communication between players.
Phone touchscreen interactions
Phone touch screen: actions, options, applications and limitations. Complete list from the discussion, with search and sources.
Mouse interactions
Mouse interaction: actions, options, applications and limitations. Complete list from the discussion, with search and sources.
Physical keyboard interactions
Physical keyboard: actions, options, applications and limitations. Complete list from the discussion, with search and sources.
Trackpad interactions
Trackpad Interaction: Actions, Options, Applications and Limitations. Complete list from the discussion, with search and sources.
Phone motion interactions
Phone motion sensors: actions, options, applications and limitations. Complete list from the discussion, with search and sources.
Phone camera interactions
Phone camera: actions, options, applications and limitations. Complete list from the discussion, with search and sources.
Phone microphone interactions
Phone microphone: actions, options, applications and limitations. Complete list from the discussion, with search and sources.
Phone haptics
Phone vibration and tactile feedback: actions, options, applications and limitations. Complete list from the discussion, with search and sources.
Phone flashlight interactions
Phone flashlight: actions, options, applications and limitations. Complete list from the discussion, with search and sources.
Phone magnetometer interactions
Phone magnetometer: actions, options, applications and limitations. Complete list from the discussion, with search and sources.
Activity and profession simulators
Activity simulators turn observation, operation sequences and limited tools into a testable work task.
Automation and programming
Automation moves repeated work into a system; the player builds connections and identifies the limiting stage.
Traditional input devices
Controllers turn physical movement into game parameters; range, neutral position and feedback should agree.
Creativity, construction and free play
Creative mechanics constrain shape, connections and appearance while preserving the player’s choice of a personal result.
Economy and exchange
Economic rules connect production, allocation, commitments and exchange; prices should communicate scarcity and available alternatives.
Exploration and adventures
Exploration connects route choices to observation, new knowledge and the cost of returning.
Goals, difficulty, learning and feedback
Goals and feedback explain the value of an action, the causes of its result and ways to improve the next attempt.
Horror and tension
Horror builds decisions around limited certainty, defensive means and safe recovery time.
Children, education and accessibility
Learning tasks should assess the stated action while accessibility supports different motor and sensory channels.
Melee and combat systems
Contact combat: range, attack commitment, defense, combinations, grapples and managing groups of opponents.
Movement and platforming
Jumping, momentum, parkour, climbing, ropes, flight and swimming: controllable actions, rule variants and prototype checks.
Narrative, dialogue and investigation
Narrative challenges give players grounds for interpretation, observable consequences of choice and ways to revise a hypothesis.
Online worlds and participation
Online mechanics connect individual contributions to shared state, participation timing and explicit commitments between players.
Phones and built-in sensors
Sensors provide device-dependent signals; mechanics must check channel availability and distinguish measurements, noise and missing data.
Progression, rewards and retention
Progression changes player options and goals; rewards should explain new decisions and preserve useful stopping points.
Puzzles and reasoning challenges
Combining objects changes the puzzle board: one move’s output becomes the material for another decision.
Sound, music and rhythm
Musical action connects beat position, movement form and sound selection through shared feedback rules.
Role-playing systems
Role-playing systems connect character identity, party composition, equipment and consequential choices.
Roguelikes and run structure
Run structure connects limited resources, changing capabilities and failure consequences into a complete play cycle.
Organization and settlement management
Organization management allocates space, time, staff and services among competing needs.
Shooting and projectiles
Aiming, range, movement, ammunition and risk across ten forms of shooting games.
Social relationships and shared play
Social mechanics connect participants’ different capabilities through care, trust, coordination and conflicting commitments.
Spatial and alternative interfaces
Spatial and specialized input requires calibration, clear action confirmation and a way to continue after signal loss.
Sports and physical mastery
Sports mechanics connect execution precision to space, participant state and understandable scoring conditions.
Stealth, infiltration and escape
Stealth manages what observers know through visibility, suspicion, traces, decoys and escape routes.
Strategy games
Strategy connects production, territory, information and long-term commitments against an uncertain opponent.
Survival, crafting and construction
Survival connects supply consumption, environmental conditions and preparing a safe return; construction changes that relationship.
Systemic worlds, randomness and NPC behavior
A systemic world applies shared rules to multiple objects so players can predict new combinations from known interactions.
Cards, dice and tabletop mechanics
Tabletop mechanisms allocate limited actions and hidden information through cards, dice, positions and commitments.
Tactics and defense
Tactics and defense turn positioning, action order and preparation into limited resources.
Time, information and world rules
Time and space rules change action causality; the interface must show which state survives a transformation.
Vehicles, racing and machinery
Vehicle mechanics connect controls, momentum, routes and machine condition; the chosen simplifications should stay consistent.
Lenses
Examine one problem from different perspectives and choose the next experiment.
Game-design lenses
117 perspectives for reviewing concepts, player experience and game systems: Schell’s lenses and Deterding’s distinct method.