---
name: game-design
description: Use when shaping or changing a core loop, mechanic or rule set, writing a design brief, or deciding what to prototype next. Produces a testable design with clear player goals, rules, feedback and success measures.
---

# Game design

Draft from the Game studio skills library by THE DREAMING JESTER. Adapt it to your game, team and engine.

## Goal

Turn an idea into a design that can be built, played and judged quickly. A good design states what the player does, why they want to, and how you will know it works.

## Before you start

- Read the existing design notes, the current build and any playtest or analytics findings.
- Identify the target player, platform, session length and the experience the game promises.
- Ask what decision this design needs to support: prototype, commit, cut or change.

## Process

1. Write the core loop in one sentence per step: what the player sees, decides, does and receives.
2. List the player's goals at three timescales: the next 30 seconds, the session, and the long term.
3. Define each mechanic by its inputs, rules, outcomes and the feedback the player gets.
4. Name the interesting decisions. If a choice has an obvious best answer, it is not yet a decision.
5. Identify the riskiest assumption and design the smallest prototype that tests it.
6. Set success measures before building: what playtest behaviour or metric would confirm or reject the idea.
7. Record what is deliberately out of scope.

## Quality bar

- Someone new can explain the loop back after reading one page.
- Every mechanic has visible feedback and a reason to exist in the loop.
- Numbers are placeholders with ranges and the reasoning behind them, not false precision.
- The design names how it will be tested and what would change it.

## Output

A one-page design brief: player fantasy, core loop, mechanics, key decisions, risks, prototype plan and success measures. Link to deeper documents rather than growing the brief.

## Avoid

- Feature lists without a loop that connects them.
- Designing for an imagined player instead of observed players.
- Locking numbers before anything is playable.