Game Mechanics Palette

A vocabulary of game mechanics organized by what the player does — for browsing, evaluating, and creatively combining during brainstorming.

Quick Reference — Mechanics at a Glance

Category	Core Verbs	Representative Mechanics
Movement	Move, jump, traverse	Platforming, flight, teleportation, wall-running, grappling
Combat	Attack, defend, evade	Melee combo, ranged/projectile, parry/counter, stealth takedown, AoE
Building & Crafting	Place, construct, shape	Construction, crafting recipes, terraforming, tower placement, automation
Collection & Resource	Gather, harvest, extract	Looting, fishing, mining, farming, foraging
Cards & Deckbuilding	Draw, play, build	Draw/play cycles, deck construction, hand management
Management	Allocate, optimize, direct	City/base building, unit control, scheduling
Social & Negotiation	Trade, persuade, ally	Trading, diplomacy, recruitment, relationship building
Puzzle & Logic	Solve, match, deduce	Pattern matching, spatial reasoning, physics manipulation, sequencing
Temporal	Time, react, sync	Turn-based, real-time with pause, time rewind, rhythm/timing
Progression & Meta	Unlock, upgrade, evolve	Skill trees, equipment, mutations, roguelike meta-progression

Named strategies for combining mechanics from different categories. Each creates a distinct design space.

Pattern	How It Works	Example Games
Loop Nesting	One genre's mechanics as core loop, another's as meta loop	Slay the Spire (roguelike meta + deckbuilder core), FTL (roguelike meta + management core)
Verb + Context Shift	Familiar mechanic in an unfamiliar setting or genre context	Battle Chef Brigade (cooking + combat), Pyre (basketball + visual novel)
Opposing Forces	Two mechanics that create natural tension by pulling in opposite directions	Fortnite (building + destruction), MGSV (stealth + loud combat), Subnautica (exploration + survival pressure)
Scale Shift	Micro-level mechanic applied at macro scale, or vice versa	Into the Breach (puzzle thinking at tactics scale), Katamari (collection at physics-world scale)
System Merger	Two independent systems that share a scarce resource, forcing trade-offs	Inscryption (deckbuilding + escape room share attention), Hades (combat + relationship building share runs)

Use these prompts to walk through mechanic discovery during brainstorming:

Core Verb Discovery — "What does the player DO most often? Pick a single verb." Start from the action, not the genre.
Palette Browsing — "Here are the mechanics in [category]. Which resonate? Pick 1-3." Start with the category matching the core verb, then offer one adjacent category.
Cross-Genre Raid — "What's a mechanic from a completely different genre that could add surprise?" Pick a category with zero overlap. Use mashup patterns to frame the combination.
Tension Check — "Do these mechanics create interesting friction, or do they fight each other?" Good tension = choices. Bad friction = contradictory player skills. No tension = power fantasy without cost.
Loop Integration — "How do these mechanics feed into each other? Can you trace a core loop?" If a mechanic doesn't connect to the loop, cut it for MLP.
Aesthetic Alignment — "Which MDA aesthetics does this combination serve?" A strong combination serves 1-2 aesthetics. If 4+ directions, narrow down.

(see mechanics-palette/palette.md for all 10 mechanic categories with full tables and design notes)
(see mechanics-palette/mashups.md for mashup pattern deep dive: Loop Nesting, Verb+Context Shift, Opposing Forces, Scale Shift, System Merger)