Game Design

You can distinguish the core components of a game — mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics — and understand the basic structure of a game design document (GDD). You begin consciously analyzing rules and fun elements while playing existing games. You can organize simple ideas into documents, but cannot yet consider feasibility or balance.

• Can explain the differences between mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics
• Can list the basic sections of a game design document (GDD): overview, mechanics, target audience, etc.
• Can diagram the core loop of at least one existing game
• Can document a simple game idea in a one-page format
• Can describe the characteristics and representative titles of at least three genres (RPG, FPS, puzzle, etc.)
• Can clearly define win conditions and loss conditions for a game

You can quickly realize game ideas using paper prototypes or simple digital tools. You conduct playtests, collect feedback, and revise your designs accordingly. You understand the basics of level design — difficulty curves and spatial layout — and can design simple levels.

• Can create at least one paper or digital prototype and run a test session
• Can conduct three or more playtests and record feedback in a structured format
• Can incorporate playtest feedback to iterate on a design at least once
• Can explain the concept of a difficulty curve and design levels with three or more stages
• Can write a game design document of five or more pages and share it with team members
• Can use basic features of a level editor (e.g., Unity, Unreal) to compose a simple space

You can independently design and document individual systems such as combat, progression, and rewards. You use spreadsheets to create balancing tables and verify results through simulation. You design UX flows that optimize the player's path from entry to the core loop. You can collaborate at a basic level with other disciplines on the development team.

• Can independently design and document at least one system (combat, progression, or rewards)
• Can create numerical balancing tables in a spreadsheet and run simulations
• Can create a UX flow diagram and share it with the team
• Can design a player onboarding (tutorial) sequence and propose churn-rate benchmarks
• Can clearly communicate design intent to programmers and artists and reach agreement
• Can write a comparative analysis report on the same system across three or more competing games
• Can maintain a change log for design revisions and document the rationale for each change

You handle in-game economy (currency flow, production-consumption balance), monetization models, and narrative design in an integrated manner. You use analytics tools to analyze player behavior and design A/B tests to validate design hypotheses. In a live service environment, you can lead season updates, event planning, and balance patches. You anticipate interactions and side effects across multiple systems.

• Can model in-game currency production-consumption flow and control inflation
• Can design a monetization model (free-to-play, battle pass, etc.) and project expected revenue
• Can design narrative structures (branching, world-building) integrated with game mechanics
• Can track core KPIs (DAU, retention, ARPU) using analytics tools (GA, dashboards, etc.)
• Can design A/B tests and make design decisions based on the results
• Can lead at least one full cycle of a live service season update
• Can identify three or more potential side effects arising from cross-system interactions in advance

You lead meta-level design that spans the full game lifecycle — concept, pre-production, production, and live. You mentor junior designers and standardize design processes. You develop content strategies based on player segmentation and determine long-term operational direction through large-scale data analysis. As a cross-functional team leader, you coordinate overall development schedules and priorities.

• Can design the core loop, meta loop, and social loop of a game as an integrated whole
• Can mentor two or more junior designers and lead design reviews
• Can standardize design processes (documentation, review, iteration) and apply them to the team
• Can classify players into three or more segments and produce a content prioritization document based on per-segment retention metrics
• Can establish and manage design milestones from pre-production through live operations
• Can report data analysis results to executives and use them as the basis for strategic decisions
• Can intuitively identify player confusion points within the first 3 minutes of a playtest and share them with the team along with observational evidence
• Can document in advance the potential for a meta-loop change to trigger second-order chain effects (e.g., economic inflation→content consumption acceleration→retention drop)

You have completed a commercially successful game project as lead designer and systematized the design philosophy formed through that process into a methodology. You present at industry conferences (GDC, NDC, etc.) to influence the design community. You architect studio-level design capability frameworks and develop future lead designers. You ship games that differentiate themselves in the market through novel genre combinations or system innovations.

• Can systematize your own design philosophy into a methodology document of ten or more pages and have it adopted as the team's design review criteria
• Can present on game design topics at industry conferences such as GDC or NDC
• Can design competency evaluation criteria and growth paths for a studio design team
• Can analyze conventions of existing genres and propose differentiated system innovations
• Can develop at least one junior lead designer and delegate a project to them
• Can reframe design intent for the concerns of programmers, artists, and executives respectively, and have secured buy-in from all three disciplines on at least one occasion
• Can reverse-engineer the gap between original design intent and actual player behavior from post-launch data, and systematically classify unintended but positive emergent behaviors to inform subsequent designs

You create games that pioneer new genres or fundamentally transform the paradigms of existing ones. Your design philosophy is adopted across the industry and becomes the subject of textbooks and academic research. You leave behind books, lectures, and frameworks that shape the thinking of future game designers. You contribute to cultural and social discourse through the medium of games.

• Can release a game that defines a new genre or fundamentally redefines the rules of an existing one
• Can demonstrate cases where your design methodology is cited in the industry or adopted in educational curricula
• Can publish a book, framework, or official lecture series on game design
• Can demonstrate three or more cases where a released game is cited as a design reference by subsequent titles
• Can demonstrate a project that sparked social or cultural discourse through the medium of games, with at least one press coverage or academic citation
• Can document cases where three or more core concepts from your design methodology have been naturally internalized into the vocabulary and thinking frameworks of junior designers