Loop Summary
Explore → Overcome Challenges → Gather Rewards → Develop Your Character → Push Further
Step-by-Step Loop
- Explore — Discover new areas, resources, enemies, secrets, and points of interest.
- Overcome Challenges — Face combat, hazards, exploration obstacles, bosses, and other challenges.
- Gather Rewards — Acquire resources, equipment, abilities, knowledge, and other rewards.
- Develop Your Character — Improve your character through levels, equipment, skills, classes, and builds.
- Push Further — Use newfound capabilities to reach new areas and take on greater challenges.
Secondary Loops
To be defined as individual gameplay systems are designed.
Player Motivation
The player is motivated by:
- Discovery — Curiosity about what lies beyond the next horizon.
- Growth — The satisfaction of becoming increasingly powerful and capable.
- Mastery — Learning to overcome increasingly difficult challenges.
- Expression — Creating a unique character and build that reflects how the player wants to play.
- Achievement — Accomplishing difficult goals and earning meaningful rewards.
Progression
The player’s capabilities grow over time, allowing them to overcome greater challenges and access new possibilities.
- Character: Levels, classes, skills, and abilities increase the player’s capabilities.
- Equipment: New and upgraded equipment enables stronger or more specialized builds.
- Build: Players shape their character toward a chosen playstyle through their class, skills, equipment, and other choices.
- World: Progression grants access to new areas, resources, challenges, and discoveries.
Rewards
Short-Term
Immediate rewards that make individual actions satisfying.
- Resources and crafting materials
- Experience and currency
- Loot and equipment
- Discoveries and useful information
Medium-Term
Rewards that improve the character or expand their options.
- New equipment and upgrades
- New abilities and build possibilities
- New crafting options and services
Long-Term
Major rewards that open up new possibilities.
- Access to new areas and biomes
- Major progression milestones
- Unique equipment and abilities
- Major discoveries and achievements
Failure States
Failure should create setbacks without discouraging experimentation or exploration.
- Death: The player is defeated and must recover from the consequences of dying.
- Failed Challenge: The player is unable to overcome a challenge and must reconsider their approach, equipment, or build.
- Resource Loss: Certain failures may cause the player to lose or risk resources.
- Exploration Setback: The player may be forced to retreat from areas they are not yet prepared to handle.
Player Choice
Players should have meaningful freedom in how they approach the world and develop their character.
- Explore: Choose where to go and what challenges to pursue.
- Build: Choose a class, equipment, abilities, and playstyle.
- Approach: Decide how to overcome challenges.
- Prioritize: Choose between exploration, combat, progression, building, crafting, and other activities.
Loop Evolution
The core loop remains consistent throughout the game, but the player’s capabilities and available choices continually expand.
- Early Game: Explore nearby areas, gather basic resources, learn the world, and establish the character’s initial build.
- Mid Game: Access new regions, stronger equipment, more abilities, and more specialized builds. Challenges become more varied and require greater preparation. Early-game bosses are introduced.
- Late Game: Explore dangerous areas, tackle increasingly powerful bosses, refine highly specialized builds, and pursue difficult optional challenges.
- End Game: Continue developing builds, discovering rare content, overcoming challenging encounters, and pursuing personal goals within the sandbox.
Design Goals
- Always Give the Player Something to Pursue — The player should always have a meaningful reason to explore, improve, experiment, or take on a new challenge.
- Make Progress Feel Meaningful — Progression should noticeably expand the player’s capabilities rather than simply increase numbers.
- Reward Curiosity and Experimentation — Exploring, experimenting, and trying unconventional approaches should be worthwhile.
- Keep the Loop Satisfying — Exploration, challenges, rewards, and progression should each feel rewarding while naturally feeding into one another.