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Game concepts, drawn
Short, illustrated explainers of the terms we use when we design games. Free to read and share.
Drawing a 2D world
How a 2D game looks at its world, divides it up, and fits it on a screen.
Camera views in 2D games Top-down, three-quarter, side view, isometric, and eight more, each drawn as the same little scene. 12 viewsInteractive Grids and tiles Square, hex, isometric, lanes, node maps, or no grid: what each does to a single step. 6 gridsInteractive Pixel resolution and scaling 320 × 180 to 640 × 360: how big your sprites look on a real screen, and where borders appear. 6 sizesInteractive
Incremental games
The maths and the pacing behind idle and clicker games: what things cost, starting over, and how often to play.
Cost curves Linear to super-exponential: how the price of each repeat purchase climbs, and what that does to the game's pace. 6 curvesInteractive Prestige and resets Multipliers, shops, challenges, and layers: why idle games ask you to start over, and when to say yes. 6 kindsSimulation Idle versus active play From clicking every second to earning while closed: where the income comes from, and how often it asks you back. 6 designsInteractive
Advanced incremental systems
The maths one level down: generators that make generators, how bonuses stack, softcaps, and numbers too big for a float.
Generator chains Generators that make generators: each tier raises the power of time by one, and an endless chain grows like eᵗ. 6 waysInteractive Stacking bonuses Additive, multiplicative, bucketed, and exponent bonuses, and stacked discounts: what the next one is really worth. 6 waysInteractive Softcaps Hard caps, root and log softcaps, and asymptotes: stopping an effect past a point, or only slowing it down. 5 capsInteractive Big numbers Integers, floats, doubles, and the libraries past 10³⁰⁸: where each runs out, and the coins a float quietly loses first. 6 typesInteractive