Every page on this site is generated from YAML records in the repository. The same records project into tables, a graph, a wiki, the paper, and this site, and a validator keeps them consistent.
make checkvalidate every rule, every report and record assertion, and the generated docs
python scripts/find.py production chainsearch before you create a record
python scripts/new.py run my-run --kind catalogopen a run before you edit data
make buildbuild dist/ locally, including this site; CI builds and publishes it
make sqlitequery everything with SQL
research log
30 runs, newest first
2026-10-25
maintenance2026-10-25-website · Publish the report as a website (sim.yohei.me) with five interactive figures, styled with the Register design system.agent
2026-10-25
maintenance2026-10-25-review-round · Fix what an independent review found in the contract 1.1 change (run 2026-10-25-contributor-readiness, commit a88eca7).agent
2026-10-25
maintenance2026-10-25-contributor-readiness · Prepare the repository for outside contributors, human and AI, by fixing the review's must-fix findings and adding guardrails (ADR-0004, conagent
2026-10-24
technique2026-10-24-techniques-world-models · Research and record generative world model, neural rendering, 3D generation, and learned animation techniques that change simulation game meagent
2026-10-24
technique2026-10-24-techniques-sim-math · Research and record simulation acceleration, learned physics, artificial life, and mathematical techniques that change simulation game mechaagent
2026-10-24
technique2026-10-24-techniques-rl-design · Research and record reinforcement learning, game-theoretic, procedural generation, and automated design and playtesting techniques that chanagent
2026-10-24
technique2026-10-24-techniques-llm-agents · Research and record LLM agent, dialogue, social simulation, speech, and on-device inference techniques that change simulation game mechanicsagent
2026-10-24
technique2026-10-24-technique-links · Link existing techniques to the mechanics added by the taxonomy triage runs, so new mechanics are not reported as untouched by techniques onagent
2026-10-24
taxonomy2026-10-24-taxonomy-triage-b · Taxonomy triage: create accepted new mechanics proposed by earlier runs (logistics, automation, conflict, physics, risk, multiplayer, world-agent
2026-10-24
taxonomy2026-10-24-taxonomy-triage-a · Taxonomy triage: create accepted new mechanics proposed by earlier runs (agents, social, economy, governance, population, progression familiagent
2026-10-24
taxonomy2026-10-24-taxonomy-m7 · Taxonomy run: complete the mechanic analyses for the risk-failure, narrative-generation, world-generation, multiplayer-persistence, conflictagent
2026-10-24
taxonomy2026-10-24-taxonomy-m6 · Taxonomy run: complete the mechanic analyses for the information-legibility, control-automation, and progression-goals families.agent
2026-10-24
taxonomy2026-10-24-taxonomy-m5 · Complete the mechanic analyses for the environment-ecology, biology-health, and time-pacing families.agent
2026-10-24
taxonomy2026-10-24-taxonomy-m4 · Complete the mechanic analyses for the space-construction and physics-materials families.agent
2026-10-24
taxonomy2026-10-24-taxonomy-m3 · Complete the mechanic analyses for the agents-behavior, social-relations, and population-lineage families.agent
2026-10-24
taxonomy2026-10-24-taxonomy-m2 · Complete the mechanic analyses for the economy-finance and governance-policy families.agent
2026-10-24
taxonomy2026-10-24-taxonomy-m1 · Complete the mechanic analyses for the resources-production and logistics-networks families.agent
2026-10-24
synthesis2026-10-24-synthesis · Integrate parallel runs, add the global synergy and tension pass, synthesize opportunities, compute analysis, and write the report.agent
2026-10-24
maintenance2026-10-24-review-fixes · Apply fixes from an independent review of the report and dataset (coding gaps, clustering and white-space artifacts, prediction falsifiabiliagent
2026-10-24
catalog2026-10-24-catalog-gi · Verify, characterize, and decompose grand-strategy, political, military, and MMO-world simulations into mechanics.agent
2026-10-24
catalog2026-10-24-catalog-gh · Verify, characterize, and decompose factory-automation and programming games into mechanics.agent
2026-10-24
catalog2026-10-24-catalog-gg · Verify, characterize, and decompose space, physics-sandbox, construction-engineering, and sandbox-world games into mechanics.agent
2026-10-24
catalog2026-10-24-catalog-gf · Verify, characterize, and decompose job, medical, vehicle, and flight simulation games into mechanics.agent
2026-10-24
catalog2026-10-24-catalog-ge · Verify, characterize, and decompose management, tycoon, business, transport, and sports-management games into mechanics.agent
2026-10-24
catalog2026-10-24-catalog-gd · Verify, characterize, and decompose artificial-life, ecosystem, and AI-native games and research demos into mechanics.agent
2026-10-24
catalog2026-10-24-catalog-gc · Verify, characterize, and decompose life-sim, farming, virtual-pet, and social-sim games into mechanics.agent
2026-10-24
catalog2026-10-24-catalog-gb · Verify, characterize, and decompose colony, survival, and god games into mechanics.agent
2026-10-24
catalog2026-10-24-catalog-ga · Verify, characterize, and decompose city-builder lineage games into mechanics.agent
2026-10-24
catalog2026-10-24-catalog-additions · Add catalog games requested by technique runs so that deployed_in edges can point at shipped deployments.agent
2026-10-23
bootstrap2026-10-23-bootstrap · Create the repository contract, schemas, vocabularies, rubrics, validator, build, and the seed taxonomy of mechanics and catalog of games.agent
vocabularies
closed; add terms through an ADR
actor
Who performed a research run.
3 terms
agency_model
How player intent reaches the simulation. A game may use several.
11 terms
agent_count_order
Order of magnitude of individually simulated agents in typical play. Aggregate populations shown as a number but simulated as stocks count as `aggregate`.
7 terms
confidence
Confidence in a specific claim.
3 terms
determinism_impact
Effect on reproducibility, replays, lockstep multiplayer, and save integrity when used at runtime.
3 terms
edge_types
Every typed relation in the graph. Each edge is stored exactly once, on the `owner` side named here. Inverses are computed by the build and never stored. Symmetric edges are stored on the entity whose id sorts first.
13 terms
effect
How a technique changes a mechanic (attribute of the technique→mechanic `affects` edge).
7 terms
failure_model
What happens when the system goes wrong.
5 terms
feedback
Dominant feedback loop polarity the mechanic creates in play.
4 terms
fidelity
How closely the model tracks real-world causal structure. Independent of graphics.
5 terms
horizon
Expected time until meaningful use in shipped simulation games, as judged at the entity's last review date.
4 terms
math_basis
Formal mathematical model a mechanic instantiates, explicitly or implicitly. Used to connect mechanics to research literature.
24 terms
maturity
Adoption maturity of a mechanic across shipped games.
4 terms
mechanic_family
Primary functional family of a mechanic. Exactly one per mechanic. Assign by the state the mechanic owns, not by the genre it appears in.
21 terms
mechanic_role
Role a mechanic plays in a specific game (attribute of the game→mechanic `uses` edge).
2 terms
modding
Depth of player modification supported or widely practiced. `scripting` and `total-conversion` mean the game exposes a modding surface (official, or a de facto loader most modders use), so those games must tag the `modding-api` mechanic; `content` games may tag it when the content arrives through official data definitions (E033).
4 terms
multiplayer
Supported social play modes.
5 terms
narrative_mode
Where story comes from.
5 terms
opportunity_type
Kind of opportunity.
8 terms
perspective
Primary camera or presentation.
7 terms
platform
Platform families a game shipped on at any point.
8 terms
player_interface
How the player touches this mechanic.
9 terms
player_role
The fiction-level role the player occupies relative to the simulation.
13 terms
prediction_outcome
How an opportunity's falsifiable prediction resolved. Set in `falsifiable_signal.resolution` by an independent verification run (E038).
4 terms
production_tier
Production context at release.
5 terms
risk
Primary risks of using a technique in simulation games.
11 terms
runtime
Where in the lifecycle the technique runs.
5 terms
sim_domain
Real-world domain the simulation models. One to three per game.
15 terms
sim_scale
Spatial or organizational scale of the primary simulated unit of play.
10 terms
source_kind
Type of cited source.
11 terms
status
Epistemic status of an entity. Ordered from weakest to strongest support. Status is a claim about evidence, never about importance.
4 terms
subgenre
Design lineage a game belongs to. One primary per game, optional secondaries. Lineage, not marketing label.
31 terms
substrate
Computational representation the mechanic is usually implemented on. A mechanic may have several.
10 terms
technique_category
Research area of a technique or breakthrough.
17 terms
technique_maturity
Deployment maturity of a technique in games specifically (not in general AI).
4 terms
time_model
Dominant relation between simulation time and player time. `real-time-pausable` games must tag the `variable-speed` mechanic and only `real-time-pausable` and `run-on-demand` games may (E033).