Open referencePublic edition v1.0
A searchable field guide of 143 engine-agnostic principles—built for developers who need clarity and AI collaborators that need structure.
Keystone principle
“The game is the experience it produces in the player — not the intent in the designer's head. Judge every decision by the experience it actually creates, and let observed player experience, not authorial intent, be the final arbiter.”
The whole craft, mapped
Every principle belongs to one domain, carries an evidence-strength score, and states where it applies—and where it does not.
Player-centered decisions, agency, depth, and meaning.
8 principles FEELGame Feel & JuiceResponsiveness, impact, control, and tactile feedback.
8 principles SYSSystems & MechanicsRules, loops, emergence, and interacting systems.
8 principles PROGProgression & RewardMastery curves, unlocks, rewards, and difficulty.
6 principles ECONEconomy & ResourcesSources, sinks, scarcity, trade, and value.
6 principles BALBalance & TuningViable choices, fairness, challenge, and curves.
6 principles LEVELLevel & World DesignSpace, guidance, pacing, encounters, and exploration.
8 principles NARRNarrative & StorytellingAgency, worldbuilding, pacing, and interactive story.
6 principles UXUX & AccessibilityClarity, onboarding, controls, and inclusive access.
7 principles MPMultiplayer & SocialFairness, cooperation, competition, and community.
5 principles MONMonetization & EthicsRespectful value exchange without manipulation.
5 principlesCode and systems designed to change safely.
6 principles TECHTechnical Art & RenderingVisual ambition shaped by real-time constraints.
5 principles ANIMAnimationMovement, readability, timing, and responsive performance.
5 principles AUDIOAudio DesignSound and music as feedback, space, and emotion.
6 principles CONTENTContent Pipeline & ToolingReliable workflows that multiply creative output.
5 principles PERFPerformance & OptimizationBudgets, profiling, bottlenecks, and scalability.
5 principles QATesting & Quality AssuranceRepeatable confidence under real conditions.
5 principles PROTOPrototyping & IterationAnswering the riskiest questions quickly.
6 principles PLAYTESTPlaytesting & ResearchLearning from behavior, evidence, and representative players.
6 principlesRisk, milestones, cutting, and sustainable delivery.
6 principles VISIONCreative DirectionPillars, coherence, identity, and decision authority.
5 principles TEAMTeam & CollaborationTrust, feedback, communication, and healthy culture.
5 principles SHIPShipping & Live OperationsLaunch readiness, support, preservation, and endings.
5 principlesBuilt to survive context
Advice becomes useful when it carries its boundaries. Every entry separates durable guidance from implementation and preserves legitimate disagreement.
See how the constitution worksThe guidance, stripped of story.
The mechanism that makes it hold.
The conditions where it is useful.
When to ignore or invert it.
The real tension, kept intact.
Evidence strength, not enthusiasm.
Three places to begin
The game is the experience it produces in the player — not the intent in the designer's head. Judge every decision by the experience it actually creates, and let observed player experience, not authorial intent, be the final arbiter.
The purpose of a prototype is to find the fun as fast as possible. Before investing in content, art, story, or supporting systems, build the smallest playable thing that answers "is the core actually fun?" If the fun isn't there in the prototype, it will not appear later with polish.
The core of playtesting is observing behavior. What players do — where they hesitate, get lost, fail, quit, or light up — is more reliable evidence than what they say, because people rationalize, forget, and tell you what they think you want to hear. Treat observed behavior as primary data and stated opinion as secondary.
One corpus, two readers
Search by the problem in front of you, follow connected ideas, and keep the portable field guide nearby.
Get the PDFUse stable IDs, structured metadata, explicit exceptions, JSONL, and source keys without flattening context.
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