1. Just Because You Can

  • For roguelikes, players push themselves and the game to the limits, just because they can.
    • Difficulty modifiers, item builds, achievements, all work together to push the player to do this.
  • For the premise of the game, the ASIMs strive to escape the city just because they can.

2. Rule of Cool

  • Designing things that make the player feel awesome. Players are playing this to feel powerful and feel like they’re breaking the game.
  • Player systems follow the Rule of Cool. Enemies follow more brutal systems.

3. Emergent Gameplay

  • Systems interact together to create content.
  • Designing items, characters, abilities to work together to create novel gameplay.