one dataset · paper, tables, graph, wiki
simgrammar the grammar of simulation

downloads

generated projections, published beside this site
dist/simgrammar-dist.zip

everything below in one archive (assembled by the Pages workflow)

dist/tables/

one flat table per entity type, edges.csv, game_mechanic_matrix.csv

dist/entities/

full records with computed fields under _derived

dist/graph/

nodes, edges, Cytoscape, GraphML

dist/analysis/

every statistic, and every analysis table as csv

dist/wiki/

one markdown page per record and vocabulary, with backlinks

dist/paper/

the paper as markdown with its bibliography

dist/manifest.json

per-record and dataset sha256, schema and vocab hashes

commands

from the repository root
git clone https://github.com/yoheinakajima/simgrammarget the repository
pip install -r requirements.txtpinned dependencies
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).

6 terms
win_structure

How play is bounded and evaluated.

7 terms