Game mechanics blueprints
113 blueprints for things that make a game feel good, explained in plain words, each with a text to paste to your AI.
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Progression
Dynamic Difficulty
Players struggle and coast at different times. Nudging the challenge toward what each player can handle keeps a stuck player in the game and a strong player interested, without asking them to pick a setting.
Combat
Enemy Patrol and Chase
A patrolling enemy gives the player something to read, sneak past, lure or fight. The pause before the chase, the search and the walk home are what make the enemy feel alive instead of like a trap that always knows where you are.
World
Enemy Wave Spawner
Waves give a fight a rhythm of pressure and relief. The player gets time to breathe, spend and prepare, then faces a harder round, and the game can grow in difficulty without anyone placing enemies by hand.
Inventory
Equipment Slots
Slots turn a pile of gear into a set of choices: one helmet, one weapon, a pair of rings. The player decides what to wear, and the game always knows what is worn and where everything else is.
Progression
Experience and Levels
Levels give the player a clear sense of getting stronger and a next goal that is always close. Rising costs keep the early levels quick and the later ones a real achievement.
Progression
Faction Reputation
Reputation makes the world remember. The player's choices change how doors, prices and words are given, so siding with one group has a price, and helping everyone is not free.
World
Fast Travel
Walking the same long road again and again is dull. Fast travel gives the player a way back to places they know, for a price that keeps the world meaningful, and without letting it become an escape button.
Resources
Fuel Gauge
Fuel turns every flight or drive into a trip with a budget. The player plans how far to go, where to refill, and when to push on, so reaching a pump or a pickup feels like a real relief.
World
Gathering Nodes
Nodes put the materials of the world in places the player can find, learn and come back to. They turn walking around into a small hunt, and the limit on pickings and the wait for the node to return keep the world from running dry or being drained in a minute.
Movement
Glide
A glide lets the player cross gaps that a jump cannot, and gives time to aim a landing. It rewards planning, and it forgives a jump that was a little too short.
Movement
Grappling Hook
A hook lets the player cross gaps and pick their own route. It trades the safety of the ground for speed and reach, so catching an anchor has to feel reliable and the pull has to feel the same every time.
Inventory
Grid Backpack
Shape turns carrying into a puzzle. The player decides what to take, and also how to pack it, so a full bag is a question of fitting things together, not only of counting them.