### ----------------------------------------------------
### -- MUGS
### -- Licenses: Artistic-2.0
### -- Authors: Geoffrey Broadwell
### -- File: docs/design/dial-a-game.md
### ----------------------------------------------------
% Dial-A-Game

*Reviewed 2021-03-03 by japhb*

**NOTE: COMPLETELY ASPIRATIONAL RUMINATION**


It may be possible to design a game engine -- not just a graphics rendering
engine or a physics simulation, but a full-stack engine -- that supports
multiple different completely different-flavored games.  If the engine could
be tuned across many different axes at once, while having most of the variant
space represent valid games, a player or gaming group could dial up exactly
the game they want to play.

Some example tuning axes, each with some possible values:

  * General mood: fantastic, utopian, campy, neutral, thrilling, gritty, horrific
  * Tech levels: prehistoric, ancient, medieval, modern, near future, far future
  * Challenges: everyday, small scale, turning point, epic, mythic
  * Character growth: player skill, quests, relationships, levels, points, skills
  * Violence: none, negotiation, intimidation, unarmed, armed, gory
  * Groups: solo, free for all, cooperative, teams, tribes/armies, alliances
  * Genre: exploration, survival, puzzle solving, searching, building, strategy, battle, intrigue
  * Openness: rails, nodes, rooms, free movement, world-spanning, galactic
  * Mutability: none, self, plot, objects, environments, rules
  * Abstraction: mathematical, symbolic, representational, simulation
  * Determinism: deterministic, initially random, chaotic, free
  * Groundedness: underground, indoor, outdoor, airborne, space-faring
  * Religion: none, superstition, occult, animist, polytheist, monotheist
  * Magic level: none, rare/minor, common/major, everpresent/omnipotent
  * Magic systems: inate, psionic, alchemic, runic, linguistic, clerical, dimensional
  * Complexity: trivial, party, relaxing, complex, combinatoric, unbounded
  * Player time: unbounded turns, timed turns, timed game, pausable, realtime, warpable


