I feel like very often with my ideas I get obsessed over what the characters and mechanics will end up being that I forget how to actually glue them all together in a way that actually makes sense and is fun to the player. How do game developers go aI feel like very often with my ideas I get obsessed over what the characters and mechanics will end up being that I forget how to actually glue them all together in a way that actually makes sense and is fun to the player. How do game developers go about making the loop of their game? I want to learnbout making the loop of their game? I want to learn
How I do it:
I ask myself these four questions:
What is the game system about? What is the game’s experience about? What is the player’s goal (in the system)? What is the player’s goal (in the experience)?
In your case, I’d start with the two experience ones first. Take a look at those characters and the setting and the story and all that. Ask yourself what the game is about. Like, in a high school English essay way. What’s the theme? What is it trying to convey?
Like, if it’s about “overcoming loneliness” and then “by gathering supportive friends.” In a classic RPG it’s “becoming powerful” and “by defeating monsters.”
Then you ask the mechanical ones. Strip away all sense of the theming. Both of those boil down to “hit a target score with a value” — but one is by collecting tokens and the other is by popping bags of XP.
Your core loop has to be a repeatable process that consists of the answers. You have to be able to do the how over and over until you reach the why.
Activities in your game that are not in this core loop are valid, but less important. But don’t be afraid to have your core loop involve multiple steps. It could very well be do X to get Y and do A to get B, to combine Y and B to get C and get to a target value, etc.
I think to achieve an effective game loop, you need to start from the top to iron out any fat. Without a clear context for where you're aiming this, the loops just become random bullet points on a board.
0. Figure the Intention - "Why are you making this game?" Eg. I want to profit.. greatly.
Identify the Market - "Who will this game be for?" Eg. Gamers who enjoy the fantasy rpg genre but are jaded with current rpg offerings because the stories are linear or do not cover extensive branching.
Determine Value Proposition - "What problem for the market does this solve/What unique offering do I want to bring to the audience?" Eg. A familiar take on the rpg genre with a social twist and new technology / A fresh take on the rpg genre by subverting its core pillars to involve social aspects
Determine Tone and Vision - "What is the game about?" Eg. A touching existentialist top down sandbox RPG with LLM driven NPCs who will shape the changes in world over time depending on how you converse with them / A comedic 3rd Person inverse RPG where you play as the DM/Designer who builds the world and scenarios for NPCs to thrive or die in.
Determine Main Pillars - "What are the key parameters surrounding the needs of the vision?" Eg. Sensible Conversation + Strong Sense of Time's Passage + Moldable World / Dark Humor + Relatable Characters + High Environmental Interactivity
Decide core game loop - "What is the one activity that centers around each of the main pillars"? Eg. Survive (the threats and elements) > Explore (the map) > Talk/Influence (people you meet/help/attacked) earning Resources > Grow (your reputation, influence, power with Resources) / Construct (the scenario) > Test (your NPC players) earning Belief points > Upgrade (tools and scenario options with Belief points)
Expand on features.. sub loops etc etc.
Breaking point no.5 down a little further:
The pillars in the game are basically what has been deemed important as an experience in the game.
Take the top down sandbox for example:
it's only because we've identified that the game has to be touching, that we might opt for a loop that highlights conversations and relationship based interactions over combat or magic casting.
doesn't mean we cut out those activities completely but given how the game's fresh appeal is through talking with LLM driven NPC's, Conversation has to be a big part of the game.
systems and features and even subloops could then be built around this activity to support it, for example:
a system for the conversation could involve something similar to each NPC having their own 'wants' and 'desires'. Depending on how the player navigates the conversation, they can influence an NPC to help them do something (rob people, attack the castle, start a farm) in the game by figuring out their wants and desires and using playing around that as leverage.
with that, we can construct a subloop in the conversation where the player has to Identify (an NPC's desires) > Negotiate (with the NPC's) earning Influence points > Inspire Call to Action (to get the NPC to do stuff using Influence points)
Case in point:
getting from step 1 - 6 isn't final.
you might revise your points up the hierarchy or down again but knowing that all planning only affect downwards makes it easier to settle on a conclusion.
the point behind this system is to have a series of actionable steps one can follow to the point of quickly prompting ideas that can be put on paper for review while reducing oversteps and endless back and forths.
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