---
name: gameplay-systems
description: "Design and critique core gameplay loops, mechanics, verbs, systems, dynamics, emergence, and player-facing structure. Use when the task is about what players do, why it stays interesting, how systems interact, or how the loop creates the intended experience. Do not use for engine, rendering, graphics, assets, or code."
---

# Gameplay Systems

Reason about verbs, rules, feedback, uncertainty, mastery, agency, emergence, and loop structure.

## Review Spine

Work from player experience backward:

1. Aesthetic target: intended player feeling.
2. Dynamics: repeated behaviors, tensions, decisions, social moments.
3. Mechanics: verbs, constraints, resources, rules, feedback.
4. Evidence: playtest behavior that would prove or disprove the loop.

Core loop must link intent, verb, uncertainty, feedback, meaningful state change, and reinvestment into new choice/mastery/expression/relationship/risk.

## Systems And Emergence

Check:

- Fantasy implies concrete verbs.
- Primary verbs are few, legible, and expressive.
- Short action cycle connects to longer strategy/progression.
- Fun path is also the strategic path.
- Failure teaches instead of only delaying or punishing.
- Session length is supported without filler.
- Repetition changes meaning through mastery, risk, variation, social context, or stakes.
- Systems affect each other without bespoke scripting where emergence is desired.
- Constraints prevent chaos and dominant exploits.
- Choices have viable alternatives, readable tradeoffs, opportunity cost, learnable consequences, and no universal best option.

## Validation Questions

- What does the player try to do in the first 30 seconds?
- What does the player understand after one loop?
- What new decision appears after five loops?
- What does a skilled player do differently from a novice?
- What surprising but fair interaction could a player discover?
- What player behavior would make the intended aesthetic false?

## Output

Return:

- prose loop diagram;
- mechanics/dynamics/aesthetics mapping;
- highest-impact design risks;
- 3-7 changes or experiments;
- playtest probes and disconfirming signals.

Use `../../references/rubrics.md` for the full systems rubric.