Concepts

Cross-game design patterns. Each concept page is pattern-first — a one-line lemma, a contrast table showing how multiple games instantiate the same idea, when to use, pitfalls. Curated by hand; a pattern earns a concept page once two or more games tag it.

Loadout & inventory

• Loadout as budget — power lives inside a fixed budget; spatial, numeric, and combinatorial flavors.
• Grid inventory — items live on a 2D grid; where you place them shapes what they do.
• Opportunity-cost loadout — equipping power for X means not equipping power for Y.
• Subtractive deckbuilding — fewer, tighter cards beats more cards. Skipping is a power move.
• Fusion economy — multiple low-tier items consolidate into higher-tier items.

Maps & encounters

• Branching DAG map — partially-visible directed graph of node types; player picks the run's shape.
• Bonus with drawback — game-defining items pair real upside with real cost.
• Handcrafted-PCG hybrid — author the units, randomize the layout.
• Tile-shuffled world — hand-craft tiles, shuffle the layout. Specific spatial flavor of handcrafted-PCG.
• Enemy intent telegraph — show what's coming so combat is a decision, not a coin flip.

Run shape & meta

• Bounded roguelite — a roguelite that ends.
• Meta as variety, not power — unlock options, not strength.
• Nested progression graph — long-running games stack orthogonal progression axes; new systems layer in rather than replace.
• Late-introduced mechanics — major systems unlock 5–60 hours into the game; engagement past hour 30 comes from learning new mechanics, not just more content.

Crafting & economy

• Currency as crafting — drop "gold"; every currency is a consumable that does something. Inflation control as a property of the system.
• Aspirational crafting — perfect items must be reachable but rarely reached. Determinism is a bug to nerf.
• Random perfect-roll economy — multi-axis affix rolls × trade = per-item market commodities.

Studio philosophy

• Vision-driven iteration — balance decisions driven by stated philosophy vs. by player metrics. PoE vs. Slay the Spire.

Fiction & feel

A lens, not a pattern: a question to hold against any mechanic on the site.

• Ludonarrative resonance — do the mechanics affirm the fiction, or just sit alongside it? Per-game readings live in each game's folder; this page is the framework + index.