[ { "_derived": { "cluster": "C12", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "governance-policy": 2, "multiplayer-persistence": 3, "resources-production": 3 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "natural-language-legislation" ] }, "mechanic_count": 8 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "aliases": [ "ATITD" ], "core_loop": "gather wood, stone, flax, and other materials -> craft tools and build production structures -> pass discipline tests, many involving other players -> propose petitions and vote on laws -> build monuments -> the Telling ends and the world resets", "design_notes": "ATITD has no combat; competition runs through seven tests in each discipline, some of which require cooperation, voting, or mass participation, and through player-written law. Seven Monuments built by players who reach Oracle rank end the Telling, after which the world is wiped and the next Telling can change the rules. Discipline tests and periodic world resets are not yet mechanics in the taxonomy (proposal seasonal-world-reset).", "developer": "eGenesis", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "none", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "a-tale-in-the-desert", "influence": 2, "mechanics": [ { "id": "player-legislation", "note": "Laws use a controlled variant of Nomic: players write petitions that need a set number of signatures before a vote, and passed laws can restrict options, change ownership, or ban players; an elected Demi-Pharaoh can ban up to seven characters.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "persistent-world", "note": "The world runs in Tellings that average about a year and a half and end in a full wipe; disciplines with 127 participants can propose a new test for the next Telling.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "elections", "note": "A Demi-Pharaoh is elected roughly monthly through the Test of the Demi-Pharaoh.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "resource-extraction", "note": "Players gather wood, mine, and harvest flax.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "hand-crafting", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "production-chain", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "player-organizations", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "seasonal-world-reset", "note": "The world runs in Tellings that average about 18 months and end in a full wipe, and what players achieved shapes the rules of the next Telling.", "role": "core" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "persistent-mmo" ], "name": "A Tale in the Desert", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "third-person", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "inhabitant", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gi" }, "sim_domain": [ "social-interpersonal", "political-governance", "economic" ], "sim_scale": "region", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-a-tale-in-the-desert" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "mmo-world", "summary": "A combat-free MMO set in ancient Egypt in which players gather, craft, and build, pass tests in several disciplines, and govern the world through player-written petitions and votes, with the world wiped and restarted at the end of each Telling.", "time_model": "asynchronous-persistent", "type": "game", "win_structure": "completion", "year": 2003 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C17", "core_count": 4, "family_profile": { "economy-finance": 1, "environment-ecology": 1, "governance-policy": 1, "information-legibility": 1, "population-lineage": 1, "progression-goals": 2, "resources-production": 1, "risk-failure": 1, "space-construction": 1, "time-pacing": 2, "world-generation": 1 }, "mechanic_count": 13 }, "agency_model": [ "zoning-placement", "policy-parameter" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "core_loop": "embark with three species and a few goods -> build camps, production, and housing in a cleared glade -> meet each species' needs to keep it content -> complete orders and open glades for reputation -> win before the Queen's impatience fills -> carry rewards to the Smoldering City", "design_notes": "Against the Storm compresses a city builder into short runs: each settlement is a fresh generated map with a race between two gauges, reputation that the player fills and the Queen's impatience that fills on its own, and earning reputation also lowers impatience. Each village hosts three of seven species with distinct housing, food, luxury, and recreation preferences, so the same production network must serve conflicting demands. Rewards carry over to upgrade the Smoldering City between runs, a meta-progression system the taxonomy lacks (see run proposal).", "developer": "Eremite Games", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "hard-restart", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "against-the-storm", "influence": 2, "mechanics": [ { "id": "crisis-countdown", "note": "The Queen's Impatience gauge fills over time and recalls the player when full; recurring storms raise pressure between calm periods.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "scenario-objectives", "note": "Each settlement is won by filling the Reputation gauge through orders, villager contentment, and opened glades.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "production-chain", "note": "Production buildings convert goods by recipes such as raincoats, ale, and pies, chosen from a run-specific building set.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "citizen-satisfaction", "note": "Contentment per species responds to met needs; discontented villagers leave and content ones raise reputation.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "population-strata", "note": "Seven species with distinct preferences; three per village.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "procedural-terrain", "note": "A new map is generated for each settlement across six biomes.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "seasons", "note": "A calm building period alternates with the storm.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "fog-of-war", "note": "Forest glades stay hidden until cut open and may hold boons or threats.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "adaptive-threat-scaling", "note": "Forest hostility rises as the settlement cuts trees and opens glades.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "tech-tree", "note": "Meta-progression resources upgrade the Smoldering City between runs.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "trade-routes", "note": "A visiting trader's wares change each year.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "free-placement", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Against the Storm", "narrative_mode": "hybrid", "perspective": "isometric", "platforms": [ "pc", "console", "handheld" ], "player_role": "planner-mayor", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-ga", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "urban", "economic" ], "sim_scale": "settlement", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-against-the-storm", "src-pcgamingwiki-2026-against-the-storm", "src-steam-2026-against-the-storm" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "city-builder", "summary": "A roguelite city builder in which each settlement must fill a reputation gauge before the Queen's impatience runs out, balancing three villager species' needs while opening dangerous forest glades under a recurring blightstorm.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "scenario-goals", "year": 2021, "year_full_release": 2023 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C08", "core_count": 2, "family_profile": { "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "narrative-generation": 1, "social-relations": 1, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "deploys": [ "llm-game-master" ] }, "mechanic_count": 4 }, "agency_model": [ "conversational" ], "agent_count_order": "none", "aliases": [ "AI Dungeon 2" ], "boundary_case": true, "core_loop": "choose a setting -> type a Do, Say, or Story input -> model continues the text from recent story and pinned memory -> player undoes, retries, or edits the output -> next input", "design_notes": "At runtime the model does all the work: each turn, the game assembles a prompt from the scenario premise, player-pinned memory, and recent story text, and a language model (GPT-2 with 1.5 billion parameters in AI Dungeon 2, GPT-3 through OpenAI's API for the premium Dragon model from July 2020) generates the next passage. There is no separate world state, inventory, or rules engine, so consistency lasts only as long as facts stay in the context window, and undo, retry, and edit are the player's tools for steering. Nick Walton built the first version at a BYU hackathon on a 126-million-parameter GPT-2 and released it in May 2019; Latitude relaunched it in December 2019. It is a boundary case: no system is simulated outside the model's text.", "developer": "Latitude", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "none", "fidelity": "abstract", "id": "ai-dungeon", "influence": 3, "mechanics": [ { "id": "generative-content", "note": "A language model continues the story text from a prompt of scenario, pinned memory, and recent turns; the See input generates an image that does not change play.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "natural-language-interaction", "note": "Free-text input typed as Do (action), Say (dialogue), or Story (narration or facts), with blank input asking the model to continue.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "content-sharing", "note": "Players publish custom adventures and scenarios that others can start from.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "turn-structure", "note": "Play alternates player input and model output; multiplayer (from April 2020) rotates turns among players' characters while the host can edit model output.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "content", "multiplayer": [ "single", "coop", "async-shared" ], "name": "AI Dungeon", "narrative_mode": "generative", "perspective": "text-ui", "platforms": [ "web", "mobile", "pc" ], "player_role": "inhabitant", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gd" }, "sim_domain": [ "social-interpersonal" ], "sim_scale": "individual", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-ai-dungeon" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "ai-native", "summary": "A text adventure in which a large language model continues the story after each player input, so actions, dialogue, and world facts the player types are improvised into narration rather than resolved by authored rules.", "time_model": "turn-based", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2019 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C18", "core_count": 4, "family_profile": { "control-automation": 1, "environment-ecology": 2, "progression-goals": 2, "resources-production": 3, "social-relations": 1, "space-construction": 3, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "agent-ambassadors-async", "content-elastic-events" ] }, "mechanic_count": 13 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar", "zoning-placement" ], "agent_count_order": "10", "aliases": [ "New Horizons" ], "core_loop": "visit the island each real day -> gather wood, fruit, fish, bugs, and fossils -> craft D.I.Y. items and spend Bells and Nook Miles -> donate to the museum and decorate -> island rating rises and unlocks services -> new seasons bring new species", "design_notes": "Time runs on the console clock, and weather, seasons, and species availability follow the hemisphere chosen at start, so a missed month means missing that month's fish and bugs. The developers lowered bank interest and removed waits from landscaping and crafting to reduce the payoff of changing the console clock. The island's one-to-five-star rating gates milestones such as K.K. Slider's concert at three stars, after which the Island Designer lets players add and remove cliffs, water, and paths. The turnip stalk market sells turnips on Sunday mornings, changes buy prices twice daily under one of four weekly patterns, and spoils unsold turnips the next Sunday.", "developer": "Nintendo EPD", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "none", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "animal-crossing-new-horizons", "influence": 3, "mechanics": [ { "id": "real-time-clock", "note": "Game time follows the console clock; days, hemisphere-based seasons, shop hours, and species spawn windows advance while the game is off.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "collection-goals", "note": "Blathers' museum collects fish, bugs, sea creatures, fossils, and art donated by the player.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "hand-crafting", "note": "D.I.Y. recipes turn gathered wood, stone, iron, fruit, and other materials into tools, furniture, and decorations at a workbench.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "free-placement", "note": "Furniture and items can be placed indoors and outdoors anywhere on the island, and the player chooses sites for residents' houses and shops.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "terraforming", "note": "The Island Designer edits cliffs, rivers and ponds, and paths.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "decoration-beauty", "note": "The island rating (one to five stars) reflects development and scenery; three stars triggers K.K. Slider's concert.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "milestone-unlocks", "note": "Island growth brings shopkeepers and services such as Nook's Cranny, the museum, and the Able Sisters.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "seasons", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "weather", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "renewable-regrowth", "note": "Rocks, fruit, fish, and bugs replenish on daily or multi-day cycles, so gathering is a daily routine.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "spoilage", "note": "Turnips bought on Sunday rot the following Sunday while sell prices follow one of four weekly patterns.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "relationship-values", "note": "Villagers' friendship with the player grows through conversation and gifts.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "direct-avatar", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single", "coop" ], "name": "Animal Crossing: New Horizons", "narrative_mode": "hybrid", "perspective": "third-person", "platforms": [ "console", "handheld" ], "player_role": "inhabitant", "production_tier": "aaa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gc" }, "sim_domain": [ "domestic-personal", "social-interpersonal", "biological-ecological" ], "sim_scale": "settlement", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-animal-crossing-new-horizons", "src-nookipedia-2026-stalk-market" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "life-sim", "subgenre_secondary": [ "social-sim" ], "summary": "A Nintendo life sim on a deserted island whose clock, seasons, and wildlife follow the real calendar, built around gathering, D.I.Y. crafting, museum collections, villager relationships, and island design.", "time_model": "real-world-clock", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2020 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C03", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "control-automation": 1, "economy-finance": 1, "logistics-networks": 2, "population-lineage": 1, "progression-goals": 1, "resources-production": 2, "social-relations": 1, "space-construction": 3, "time-pacing": 1 }, "mechanic_count": 13 }, "agency_model": [ "zoning-placement", "direct-unit", "policy-parameter" ], "agent_count_order": "aggregate", "aliases": [ "Anno 117" ], "core_loop": "settle Latium or Albion and house Liberti -> meet categorized needs with multi-island production chains -> residences advance toward Patricians -> schools produce research and temples belief -> ships carry goods on tracked routes -> defend routes and provinces", "design_notes": "Anno 117 loosens the strict tier-need ladder: needs fall into categories that can be partly filled, and each good carries attributes with benefits and drawbacks for population, income, health, and satisfaction. Placement matters more than in Anno 1800 because production buildings help or harm nearby structures, paved roads extend building range, and diagonal placement is allowed. Belief tied to chosen gods grants scaling bonuses, a system with no exact taxonomy match (see run proposal).", "developer": "Ubisoft Mainz", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "anno-117", "influence": 1, "influenced_by": [ "anno-1800" ], "mechanics": [ { "id": "population-strata", "note": "Residences advance from Liberti up to Patricians based on access to goods and on nearby prestige or polluting buildings.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "goods-consumption", "note": "Needs are grouped into categories that can be partly fulfilled; each good's attributes add benefits and drawbacks to population, income, health, and satisfaction.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "production-chain", "note": "Chains span multiple islands and provinces, linked by warehouses, waystations, and hubs.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "adjacency-scoring", "note": "Production buildings have positive or negative effects on nearby structures.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "trade-routes", "note": "Assigned ships carry goods between islands along routes that can be tracked and rerouted.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "vehicle-route-scheduling", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "tech-tree", "note": "Schools generate research points for a tree of over 100 unlocks, including repeatable technologies.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "road-network", "note": "Paved roads extend the range and efficiency of structures.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "unit-commands", "note": "Melee, ranged, and siege units in a rock-paper-scissors system; warships protect routes from pirates.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modular-assembly", "note": "Ships are modular; adding oars or sails changes how they move.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "reputation", "note": "Standing with the emperor's successor Calidus can earn Consul status or Proconsular authority.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "free-placement", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "content", "multiplayer": [ "single", "coop" ], "name": "Anno 117: Pax Romana", "narrative_mode": "hybrid", "perspective": "free-3d", "platforms": [ "pc", "console" ], "player_role": "planner-mayor", "production_tier": "aaa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-ga", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "urban", "economic", "industrial-logistics" ], "sim_scale": "region", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-anno-117" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "city-builder", "subgenre_secondary": [ "transport-logistics" ], "summary": "A Roman-era Anno city builder in which residents advance from Liberti to Patricians through categorized needs, buildings affect their neighbors, schools generate research, and modular ships guard multi-island trade.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2025 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C03", "core_count": 4, "family_profile": { "control-automation": 1, "economy-finance": 3, "logistics-networks": 1, "population-lineage": 1, "progression-goals": 2, "resources-production": 3, "space-construction": 1, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "influenced": [ "anno-117" ], "precedent_for": [ "bottleneck-explainer", "explained-delegation", "parallel-autobalance" ] }, "mechanic_count": 13 }, "agency_model": [ "zoning-placement", "direct-unit", "policy-parameter" ], "agent_count_order": "aggregate", "core_loop": "settle an island and house farmers -> meet tier needs with production chains -> houses advance to workers, artisans, engineers, and investors -> higher tiers need goods from other islands and the New World -> build ships and trade routes -> expand under rival pressure", "design_notes": "Demand is generated by population tiers: basic needs raise how many residents a house holds, luxury needs raise taxes and happiness, and a house advances only when full, supplied, and given construction materials, so each new tier opens a new set of chains. Each tier also staffs its own buildings, so advancing workers to artisans removes labor from worker-tier factories. Old World cities depend on goods from a parallel New World session, so ship routes between sessions are a logistics layer on top of island production.", "developer": "Ubisoft Blue Byte", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "anno-1800", "influence": 2, "mechanics": [ { "id": "population-strata", "note": "Old World tiers Farmers, Workers, Artisans, Engineers, Investors and New World Jornaleros and Obreros; a house advances when full, its basic needs met, and materials available.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "goods-consumption", "note": "Each residence consumes goods per second; basic needs add inhabitants per house, luxury needs add taxes and happiness.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "production-chain", "note": "Fixed-recipe buildings chain raw materials into goods; many chains span islands and both sessions.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "trade-routes", "note": "Ships carry goods between the player's islands, the New World session, and traders.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "vehicle-route-scheduling", "note": "Trade route ships follow ordered stops with load and unload amounts per good.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "labor-market", "note": "Each tier staffs only its tier's production buildings.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "storage-capacity", "note": "Warehouses set island storage limits and pickup range.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "rival-firms", "note": "AI opponents settle the same map and compete for islands and trade.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "milestone-unlocks", "note": "Reaching population thresholds of each tier unlocks buildings.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "blueprints", "note": "Blueprint mode places silhouettes that are built later with one click when resources exist.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "megaproject-sink", "note": "The World's Fair monument is built in stages, each consuming large deliveries of goods, and once complete hosts exhibitions.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "free-placement", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "content", "multiplayer": [ "single", "coop", "competitive" ], "name": "Anno 1800", "narrative_mode": "hybrid", "perspective": "free-3d", "platforms": [ "pc", "console" ], "player_role": "planner-mayor", "production_tier": "aaa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-ga", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "urban", "economic", "industrial-logistics" ], "sim_scale": "region", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-anno-1800", "src-anno1800wiki-2026-population", "src-anno1800wiki-2026-needs" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "city-builder", "subgenre_secondary": [ "transport-logistics" ], "summary": "An industrial-era city builder in which residents advance through five Old World tiers by consuming goods from multi-island production chains, linked to a New World session by trade routes and contested by AI rivals.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2019 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C10", "core_count": 4, "family_profile": { "biology-health": 1, "conflict-defense": 1, "control-automation": 2, "environment-ecology": 2, "multiplayer-persistence": 2, "physics-materials": 1, "progression-goals": 1 }, "mechanic_count": 10 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar", "direct-unit" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "core_loop": "load a scenario or join a server -> move and coordinate as infantry or vehicle crew -> spot and engage under ballistics and recoil -> manage load, stamina, and wounds -> complete objectives or die -> build and share new scenarios", "design_notes": "Arma 3 treats the battlefield as a sandbox: large terrains of up to 163 square kilometers host infantry, vehicles, and aircraft under the same ballistic rules, and scenarios define the war. Much of its life comes from community scenarios and mods built with the Eden editor and SQF scripting, while Bohemia's military consultants reviewed its Tac-Ops missions. Projectile ballistics is not yet a mechanic in the taxonomy (proposal projectile-ballistics).", "developer": "Bohemia Interactive", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "hard-restart", "fidelity": "systemic", "id": "arma-3", "influence": 3, "mechanics": [ { "id": "direct-avatar", "note": "The player is one soldier in first person; clothing and carried equipment add weight that reduces movement speed and stamina.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "military-operations", "note": "Infantry, armor, helicopters, jets, and boats share one large terrain, and weapons are heavily affected by external ballistics and recoil, so range and load-out shape every engagement.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "modding-api", "note": "The Eden 3D editor and the SQF scripting language let players build single-player and multiplayer scenarios and mods, from realism overhauls to new game modes.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "unit-commands", "note": "Squad leaders issue orders to AI subordinates.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "injury-body-model", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "scenario-objectives", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "content-sharing", "note": "Scenarios and mods are shared through the Steam Workshop.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "weather", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "day-night-cycle", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "projectile-ballistics", "note": "Weapons are heavily affected by external ballistics and recoil, so shooters account for drop and travel time at range.", "role": "core" } ], "modding": "total-conversion", "multiplayer": [ "single", "coop", "competitive" ], "name": "Arma 3", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "first-person", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "inhabitant", "production_tier": "aa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gi" }, "sim_domain": [ "military-conflict", "physical-mechanical" ], "sim_scale": "individual", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-arma-3" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "wargame", "summary": "A first-person military simulation on large open terrains in which infantry, vehicles, and aircraft fight under modeled ballistics, recoil, and load-based stamina, extended by the Eden editor, SQF scripting, and a large mod community.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "scenario-goals", "year": 2013 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C19", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 1, "economy-finance": 1, "environment-ecology": 2, "information-legibility": 1, "progression-goals": 1, "resources-production": 2, "risk-failure": 1, "space-construction": 1, "time-pacing": 1, "world-generation": 2 }, "mechanic_count": 13 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-unit", "order-queue" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "aliases": [ "Aurora", "C# Aurora" ], "core_loop": "survey bodies and jump points -> mine Trans-Newtonian minerals and build installations -> research components -> design ship classes -> build fleets and assign officers -> detect and fight with sensors, missiles, and beams -> colonize and expand", "design_notes": "Aurora began as a helper program for the Starfire board wargame and grew into a standalone simulation with no fixed goals. It exposes almost every subsystem as windows of numbers, from mineral accessibility to officer bonuses and ship maintenance. Time advances in player-chosen steps from 5 seconds to 30 days, so the same engine resolves both strategic expansion and individual missile salvos. The Visual Basic 6 original was superseded by a C# rewrite released in 2020.", "developer": "Steve Walmsley", "emergence": 4, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "systemic", "id": "aurora-4x", "influence": 2, "mechanics": [ { "id": "modular-assembly", "note": "Ship classes are designed from researched components (engines, sensors, weapons, armor), and the player sets armor, speed, and range per class; weapons and sensors must themselves be researched and designed first.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "fog-of-war", "note": "Jump points and mineral deposits stay unknown until gravitational and geological survey sensors sweep each body or survey point, and other ships are known only within sensor detection range.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "deposit-depletion", "note": "Eleven Trans-Newtonian Elements sit in finite deposits on planets and asteroids, each with an accessibility rating from 0.1 to 1 that scales mining output; all construction consumes them.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "resource-extraction", "note": "Mines on colonies and asteroid mining extract the minerals.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "tech-tree", "note": "Research labs are assigned to scientists with field specialties.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "agent-skills", "note": "Scientists, administrators, naval officers, and ground commanders gain bonuses and improve over time.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "habitat-suitability", "note": "Colony cost depends on a world's gravity, atmosphere, and temperature.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "planetary-climate", "note": "Terraforming alters a world's atmosphere to lower its colony cost.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "procedural-terrain", "note": "Star systems are randomly generated or built from real star data.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "budget-treasury", "note": "Wealth comes from taxes and exports and is spent on construction, research, and maintenance.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "wear-breakdown", "note": "Ships require maintenance support, which can be disabled in setup.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "turn-structure", "note": "The player chooses each time increment, from 5 seconds to 30 days, and the engine resolves movement, detection, combat, and production for it.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "real-world-data-feeds", "note": "Star systems can be built from real star data instead of generated at random.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Aurora 4X", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "text-ui", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "ruler-statesman", "production_tier": "hobbyist", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gi" }, "sim_domain": [ "cosmic-space", "military-conflict", "industrial-logistics" ], "sim_scale": "interplanetary", "sources": [ "src-giantbomb-2026-aurora", "src-wikipedia-starfire", "src-metafilter-2020-aurora-csharp" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "4x-strategy", "subgenre_secondary": [ "space-sim" ], "summary": "A free space 4X simulation by a single developer in which the player runs an interstellar empire through ship design from components, mineral mining, sensor-based detection, missile and beam combat, and named officers, with time advanced in steps from seconds to days.", "time_model": "turn-based", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2004 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C20", "core_count": 5, "family_profile": { "biology-health": 1, "control-automation": 4, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "progression-goals": 1, "resources-production": 4, "space-construction": 1 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "teachable-sim-companion" ] }, "mechanic_count": 12 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar", "programmatic" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "claims": [ { "confidence": "medium", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-autonauts", "src-steam-2026-autonauts", "src-dekudeals-2026-autonauts" ], "text": "A public demo was released on itch.io on 2017-07-05 and the full PC game on Steam on 2019-10-17; `year` records the 2019 release rather than the demo. Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One versions released on 2022-06-16." } ], "core_loop": "gather sticks and stone by hand -> craft tools and a workerbot -> teach the bot a task by demonstrating it -> edit the visual script into a loop -> chain bots into farming, crafting, and cooking lines -> supply Folk with food, housing, and care -> unlock new buildings and bot parts", "design_notes": "Autonauts, from Denki and designers Gary Penn and Aaron Puzey, makes automation a matter of teaching: the player performs an action while a bot watches, the bot records it as blocks in a Scratch-style visual language, and the player adds repeat loops and conditions so the routine runs unattended. Programs are bounded by bot hardware: the head sets maximum instructions (12 at Mk 0 to 32 at Mk 3, raised by brain upgrades) and search range, the body sets hand, backpack, and upgrade slots, and the drive sets speed, battery, and recharge time, so better routines need better-built bots. Folk are the demand side, consuming food that lasts from 10 seconds for water to 120 seconds for apple pie or cooked fish and needing housing and baths, and they are either fully happy or unhappy. Colonise mode introduces components step by step, while Free and Creative modes unlock everything.", "developer": "Denki", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "autonauts", "influence": 1, "influenced_by": [], "mechanics": [ { "id": "player-programming", "note": "Bots learn a task by recording the player's demonstrated actions as Scratch-style blocks that the player edits into loops and conditions; the bot's head caps the number of instructions at 12 to 32 plus brain upgrades.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "modular-assembly", "note": "Bots are built from a head, body, and drive at Mk 0 to Mk 3 that set instruction limit and search range, hand and backpack slots, and speed, battery, and recharge time, with upgrade slots for brain, sensor, speed, and energy parts.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "production-chain", "note": "Workbenches and crafting stations turn crops, clay, wood, and other materials into tools, pottery, baked food, and clothing through multi-step recipes that bots run in chains.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "goods-consumption", "note": "Housed Folk consume food whose satiation lasts from 10 seconds (water) to 120 seconds (apple pie, cooked fish) and need baths after messy meals; each Folk is either fully happy or unhappy.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "hand-crafting", "note": "The Autonaut harvests sticks and stone and crafts the first tools, workbenches, and bot parts from blueprints before bots take over.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "crop-cultivation", "note": "Bots plant, grow, and harvest crops that feed cooking chains.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "animal-husbandry", "note": "Animal husbandry and fishing supply food and materials alongside farming.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "tech-tree", "note": "Research unlocks new buildings, recipes, and bot parts, and bots can be programmed to do science.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "direct-avatar", "note": "The player's Autonaut walks the map, carries items, and performs each task once so bots can learn it.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "note": "Players share Automods, including bots and scripts, on Steam Workshop.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "execution-budget", "note": "A bot's head caps its program at 12 to 32 instructions, raised by brain upgrades, so longer routines need better-built bots.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "programming-by-demonstration", "note": "Bots watch the player perform a task and record it as Scratch-style blocks, which the player edits into loops and conditions; this teaching step is the game's main interface to automation.", "role": "core" } ], "modding": "scripting", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Autonauts", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "free-3d", "platforms": [ "pc", "console", "handheld" ], "player_role": "programmer", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gh", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-25-contributor-readiness" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "computational-abstract", "industrial-logistics", "biological-ecological" ], "sim_scale": "settlement", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-autonauts", "src-steam-2026-autonauts", "src-scottishgames-2019-autonauts-out-now", "src-autonautswiki-2026-bots", "src-autonautswiki-2026-folk", "src-dekudeals-2026-autonauts" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "programming-sim", "subgenre_secondary": [ "factory-automation", "farming-sim" ], "summary": "A colony automation game in which the player crafts workerbots from parts and teaches them farming, crafting, and cooking routines in a Scratch-style visual language, so that bots supply the food, housing, and care that a growing population of Folk needs.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2019 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C13", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "governance-policy": 1, "information-legibility": 2, "social-relations": 2, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "negotiating-faction-ai" ] }, "mechanic_count": 6 }, "agency_model": [ "policy-parameter" ], "agent_count_order": "aggregate", "core_loop": "review the world map and country data -> commit aid, treaties, and interventions -> rival superpower responds -> contested moves become crises -> escalate or back down -> prestige shifts -> next annual turn", "design_notes": "Crawford built the game around country-level state (alignment, government stability, insurgency) that responds to superpower actions, and around a two-sided crisis exchange in which backing down costs prestige and pushing too far ends the game in nuclear war. Ending the game at nuclear war, rather than letting the war be fought, is its main difference from Bruce Ketchledge's Geopolitique 1990. The crisis escalation exchange is not yet a mechanic in the taxonomy (proposal crisis-escalation).", "developer": "Chris Crawford", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "hard-restart", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "balance-of-power", "influence": 2, "mechanics": [ { "id": "faction-diplomacy", "note": "Each turn the player allocates economic and military aid, support for governments or insurgents, interventions, and treaties to minor countries to pull their alignment; the AI superpower answers, and contested moves become crises resolved by no action, diplomatic notes, or military maneuvers.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "reputation", "note": "Prestige points are the score: winning crises and holding aligned countries raises prestige, backing down in a crisis costs prestige and has political repercussions, and the total after eight years decides the outcome.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "turn-structure", "note": "Eight one-year turns; each turn resolves both superpowers' policies and then presents the year's incidents as crises to settle before advancing.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "stability-unrest", "note": "Minor-country governments face insurgencies whose strength shifts with superpower aid to the government or the rebels.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "alerts-feed", "note": "Incidents and crises arrive framed as newspaper stories.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "data-overlays", "note": "The world map can be shaded by country-level variables such as alignment and insurgency.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Balance of Power", "narrative_mode": "hybrid", "perspective": "top-down-2d", "platforms": [ "pc", "mainframe-early" ], "player_role": "ruler-statesman", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gi" }, "sim_domain": [ "political-governance", "military-conflict" ], "sim_scale": "nation", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-balance-of-power" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "political-sim", "summary": "A Cold War geopolitical sim in which the player, as US or Soviet leader, spends aid, treaties, and interventions on minor countries over eight annual turns and manages escalating crises to gain prestige without triggering nuclear war.", "time_model": "turn-based", "type": "game", "win_structure": "score-ranking", "year": 1985 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C03", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 1, "economy-finance": 1, "environment-ecology": 3, "logistics-networks": 1, "population-lineage": 2, "resources-production": 4, "risk-failure": 1, "social-relations": 1, "space-construction": 1, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "living-workforce-factories" ] }, "mechanic_count": 16 }, "agency_model": [ "zoning-placement", "policy-parameter" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "claims": [ { "confidence": "medium", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-city-building-game" ], "text": "Banished is credited with starting the survival city-builder trend." } ], "core_loop": "assign citizens to gathering, farming, and building jobs -> stockpile food, firewood, and tools for winter -> families form when housing exists and children grow into workers -> aging, disease, and disasters remove citizens -> expand or collapse", "design_notes": "Citizens are the main resource: every worker is a person who was born, ages, needs a house to start a family, and dies, so the town's age structure produces labor booms and busts years after a decision. There is no money and no tech tree; any building is available once its resources exist, and trade is barter with visiting ships that can also bring disease. Designer Luke Hodorowicz cited the Anno series as a big inspiration and left combat out, and the genre literature credits Banished with starting the survival city-builder trend.", "developer": "Shining Rock Software", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "cascading-collapse", "fidelity": "systemic", "id": "banished", "influence": 4, "mechanics": [ { "id": "lifecycle-aging", "note": "Residents are born, age, work, start families, and die; age cohorts create delayed labor shortages.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "seasons", "note": "Crops are planted and harvested on an annual cycle, and winter demands stored food and firewood.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "goods-consumption", "note": "Each household consumes food, firewood, clothing, and tools; shortages lead to cold, illness, and starvation.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "crop-cultivation", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "work-priorities", "note": "The player sets worker counts per workplace and profession; unassigned citizens become laborers.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "hauling-jobs", "note": "Laborers carry resources to stockpiles and construction sites, so their number sets delivery speed.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "renewable-regrowth", "note": "Foresters cut and replant forests; land used for forests or quarries cannot hold housing.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "storage-capacity", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "contagion", "note": "Trade ships can bring illness from abroad.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "trade-routes", "note": "Resources are bartered with trade vessels at a trading post; there is no currency.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "random-disasters", "note": "Fires and tornadoes destroy buildings.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "romance-family", "note": "Couples need an empty house to start a family and have children.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "immigration-attractiveness", "note": "Nomad groups can arrive and ask to join the town.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "free-placement", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "fire-spread", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "content", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Banished", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "free-3d", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "planner-mayor", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-ga", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes", "2026-10-25-store-ids-pilot" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "urban", "biological-ecological", "economic" ], "sim_scale": "settlement", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-banished", "src-steam-2026-banished", "src-wikipedia-city-building-game" ], "status": "sourced", "store_ids": { "steam": 242920 }, "subgenre": "city-builder", "summary": "A survival city builder without money or a tech tree in which exiled families gather, farm, and stockpile for winter while aging, births, disease, and disasters decide whether the town grows or starves.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2014 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C11", "core_count": 2, "family_profile": { "control-automation": 1, "multiplayer-persistence": 2, "physics-materials": 2, "progression-goals": 1, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "learned-material-surrogates" ] }, "mechanic_count": 7 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar", "policy-parameter" ], "agent_count_order": "10", "claims": [ { "confidence": "high", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-beamng-drive" ], "text": "A free tech demo and paid alpha launched on 2013-08-03 through FastSpring, before Steam Early Access on 2015-05-29; the source reports no 1.0 release." } ], "core_loop": "pick a vehicle and map -> drive, race, or stage a crash -> node-beam structure deforms and parts fail -> inspect the damage -> reset or change vehicle, conditions, or mods", "design_notes": "Vehicles are defined in JBeam, a JSON format of nodes and beams, and the same structure produces both handling and damage: frames flex, doors detach, windows shatter, tires blow, engines degrade, and fuel tanks can explode. Free roam exposes simulation parameters (time, gravity, wind), so much play is experiment rather than goal. Lua scripting and an official in-game mod repository make the vehicle and scenario set community-driven, and BeamNG.tech forks the engine for education and research.", "developer": "BeamNG GmbH", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "none", "fidelity": "high-fidelity", "id": "beamng-drive", "influence": 3, "mechanics": [ { "id": "soft-body-deformation", "note": "Vehicles are JBeam node-and-beam skeletons that flex and deform under impact; damage degrades engines, detaches doors, shatters windows, blows tires, and can make fuel tanks explode.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "vehicle-dynamics", "note": "Handling comes from the same node-beam structure, so suspension, chassis flex, and tires respond to the vehicle's build and its damage.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "embodied-skill-control", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "scenario-objectives", "note": "Campaigns group short races, chases, and stunts, and time trials race against the player's best times.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "note": "The game relies heavily on Lua, and mods add real and fictional vehicles.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "content-sharing", "note": "An official mod repository is browsable from the website and in game, with a manager that keeps mods updated.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "scripting", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "BeamNG.drive", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "third-person", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "operator-pilot", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gf", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "physical-mechanical" ], "sim_scale": "individual", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-beamng-drive" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "vehicle-sim", "subgenre_secondary": [ "physics-sandbox" ], "summary": "A vehicle sim built on soft-body physics in which every vehicle is a node-and-beam skeleton that flexes, deforms, and breaks under impact, played as a free-roam sandbox with scenarios.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2013 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C09", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "control-automation": 2, "multiplayer-persistence": 2, "physics-materials": 2, "progression-goals": 1, "space-construction": 1 }, "mechanic_count": 8 }, "agency_model": [ "design-then-test", "direct-avatar" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "core_loop": "read the level objective -> attach blocks, wheels, hinges, and weapons to a starting block -> bind controls -> run the level and drive the machine -> watch it work, flip, or break apart -> revise the design", "design_notes": "Machines grow from a single starting block, and each attached block is a rigid body joined to its neighbor by a breakable joint; powered wheels, hinges, pistons, and springs are bound to player keys, so a machine is both a structure and a control scheme. Designs fail by tipping, tearing at weak joints, or setting themselves alight, which is much of the appeal. Logic blocks (timers, logic gates, sensors) added later let machines act without input, and the level editor and PC multiplayer turned designs into contests.", "developer": "Spiderling Studios", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "besiege", "influence": 2, "mechanics": [ { "id": "modular-assembly", "note": "Machines are built outward from a starting block using 70+ blocks such as wooden blocks, powered wheels, hinges, pistons, cannons, bombs, flamethrowers, and balloons; block placement sets mass distribution and what each key does.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "rigid-body-physics", "note": "Each block is a physics body connected by joints that break under excess force, so machines buckle, tip, or tear apart while driving and fighting.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "scenario-objectives", "note": "55 campaign levels across four islands set goals such as destroying buildings, defeating troops, or solving puzzles with magical artifacts.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "embodied-skill-control", "note": "The player drives the finished machine in real time with keys bound to its powered parts.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "material-interactions", "note": "Fire spreads across wooden blocks and enemy buildings; bombs and cannons break blocks.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "signal-circuits", "note": "Timers, logic gates, and proximity sensors simulate key presses so machines can automate sequences.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "content-sharing", "note": "Machines and levels are shared on Steam Workshop.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "note": "An in-game modloader supports community mods with new blocks and logic.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "scripting", "multiplayer": [ "single", "coop", "competitive", "async-shared" ], "name": "Besiege", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "free-3d", "platforms": [ "pc", "console", "handheld", "mobile" ], "player_role": "engineer-designer", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gg" }, "sim_domain": [ "physical-mechanical", "military-conflict" ], "sim_scale": "individual", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-besiege" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "construction-engineering", "subgenre_secondary": [ "physics-sandbox" ], "summary": "A physics construction game where the player builds medieval siege machines from blocks, wheels, and weapons, then drives them against castles and armies in objective levels or a sandbox.", "time_model": "run-on-demand", "type": "game", "win_structure": "scenario-goals", "year": 2015, "year_full_release": 2020 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C01", "core_count": 4, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 1, "biology-health": 1, "control-automation": 2, "economy-finance": 4, "logistics-networks": 1, "resources-production": 1, "space-construction": 1, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "human-calibrated-customers" ] }, "mechanic_count": 12 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar", "zoning-placement", "policy-parameter" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "core_loop": "rent a building and renovate it -> buy stock and set prices -> customers visit and buy -> hire staff and managers -> import from the harbour into warehouses -> trucks deliver to stores -> invest profits in more businesses and real estate", "design_notes": "Big Ambitions starts the business at street level: the avatar personally rents, furnishes, stocks, and runs the first store and must also eat, sleep, and stay healthy and happy. Growth comes from replacing the player's own labor with staff and then with managers (HR managers, logistics managers, purchasing agents) who automate hiring, purchasing, and delivery from an HQ. Supply moves through a physical chain from harbour importers to warehouses to stores on delivery trucks. Business types range from gift shops and supermarkets to law firms and web development.", "developer": "Hovgaard Games", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "big-ambitions", "influence": 1, "mechanics": [ { "id": "direct-avatar", "note": "The player walks and drives through New York City to rent buildings, buy stock, restock shelves, and run errands until staff take over.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "customer-value-choice", "note": "Customers decide whether to buy based on the store's prices and the products and service it offers.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "staff-hiring", "note": "Employees are hired with skills and wages for each business, then HR managers, logistics managers, and purchasing agents automate operations from an HQ.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "free-placement", "note": "Rented buildings are renovated and furnished with shelves, registers, and fixtures that set what a store can sell and how many customers it serves.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "storage-capacity", "note": "Stock fills store shelves and warehouses; empty shelves lose sales.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "vehicle-route-scheduling", "note": "Delivery trucks carry goods from harbour importers to warehouses and stores.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "delegation-to-ai", "note": "Managers at the HQ take over hiring, purchasing, and logistics.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "survival-meters", "note": "The avatar must eat food stored at home, sleep, and stay healthy and happy.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "loans-debt", "note": "Bank loans fund early expansion.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "daily-schedules", "note": "Businesses keep opening hours and staff work scheduled shifts.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "advertising-awareness", "note": "Paid marketing campaigns raise customer traffic to the player's businesses.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Big Ambitions", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "third-person", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "manager-owner", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-ge", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "economic", "urban", "domestic-personal" ], "sim_scale": "city", "sources": [ "src-steam-2026-big-ambitions" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "business-economic-sim", "subgenre_secondary": [ "life-sim" ], "summary": "A business life sim set in a simulated New York City in which the player's avatar rents storefronts, stocks and staffs shops, builds warehouse logistics, and grows from one store into a business empire.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2023, "year_full_release": 2026 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C04", "core_count": 4, "family_profile": { "economy-finance": 3, "information-legibility": 1, "logistics-networks": 1, "progression-goals": 2, "resources-production": 1, "space-construction": 1, "time-pacing": 1 }, "mechanic_count": 10 }, "agency_model": [ "zoning-placement", "design-then-test" ], "agent_count_order": "none", "core_loop": "import an ingredient -> route it through machines that change its concentration -> activate cures and remove side effects -> form pills and ship them -> grade and price against market demand and rivals -> research better machines", "design_notes": "Big Pharma's production puzzle is numeric: each ingredient carries cures and side effects that are active only inside concentration windows on a 0 to 20 scale, and machines raise, lower, combine, or transform effects at set concentrations. A line is a sequence of machines on conveyor belts in a fixed floor plan, so the order of operations and the space they take are both constraints. Products are graded from effectiveness, side effects, and market demand, and rival companies release competing drugs that saturate a disease's market. The primary challenge is line layout rather than corporate strategy, which places it in the factory-automation lineage with a business layer.", "developer": "Twice Circled", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "abstract", "id": "big-pharma", "influence": 1, "mechanics": [ { "id": "production-chain", "note": "Machines raise or lower an ingredient's concentration, combine materials, or transform effects; each effect is active only inside its concentration window on a 0 to 20 scale.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "conveyor-transport", "note": "Conveyor belts move materials between machines from intake ports to output ports, and machine order along the belt sets the recipe.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "product-development", "note": "Each finished drug gets a letter grade from its cure strength, side effects, and market demand, and the player names and prices it.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "rival-firms", "note": "Rival companies release competing drugs that saturate a disease's market and cut demand for the player's product.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "supply-demand-pricing", "note": "Price and sales for each cure depend on demand and how crowded its market is.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "free-placement", "note": "Machines are placed on a fixed factory floor where space limits line length.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "tech-tree", "note": "A research tree unlocks better machines and other benefits.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "scouting-knowledge", "note": "Explorers search for new ingredients, and analysis machines reveal an ingredient's effects and maximum potency.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "scenario-objectives", "note": "Scenarios set targets such as a financial milestone within a set number of years, at several difficulties.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Big Pharma", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "isometric", "platforms": [ "pc", "console", "handheld" ], "player_role": "engineer-designer", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-ge", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "industrial-logistics", "economic", "medical" ], "sim_scale": "facility", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-big-pharma" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "factory-automation", "subgenre_secondary": [ "business-economic-sim" ], "summary": "A pharmaceutical factory and business sim in which the player routes ingredients through machines on conveyor belts to push their concentration into the range that activates cures while suppressing side effects, then sells into contested markets.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "scenario-goals", "year": 2015 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C20", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 1, "control-automation": 2, "economy-finance": 2, "resources-production": 1, "social-relations": 1, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "specification-programming-games" ] }, "mechanic_count": 8 }, "agency_model": [ "programmatic" ], "agent_count_order": "none", "boundary_case": true, "claims": [ { "confidence": "medium", "sources": [ "src-bitburner-2026-changelog-v0", "src-bitburner-2026-changelog-v1", "src-steam-2026-bitburner" ], "text": "The earliest dated changelog entry is v0.26.4 on 2017-08-01 and earlier versions are undated, so the 2017 first public web release is inferred; version 1.0.0 is dated 2021-11-10 and the Steam release was 2021-12-10." }, { "confidence": "high", "sources": [ "src-danielyxie-2026-bitburner-repository", "src-steam-2026-bitburner" ], "text": "Bitburner was started by danielyxie and is now developed as open source by hundreds of contributors, with the Steam release credited to Fulcrum Games, hydroflame, and GitHub contributors." }, { "confidence": "medium", "sources": [ "src-mobygames-2026-bitburner" ], "text": "Its listed inspirations are Else Heart.break(), Hacknet, Uplink, and Deus Ex, none of which are in this dataset." } ], "core_loop": "write a script -> gain root on servers -> run hack, grow, and weaken threads -> earn money and hacking experience -> buy RAM and programs -> gain faction reputation -> buy augmentations and install them, resetting progress -> destroy a BitNode for a Source-File and start the next", "design_notes": "Bitburner is an incremental game whose economy is a small numerical model the player automates in code. Each server holds a money stock and a security level: hack() steals a percentage of the money and raises security, grow() multiplies money back and also raises security, and weaken() lowers security toward a floor of max(1, round(starting security / 3)), with hack chance and timing set by security and the player's hacking level. Writing schedulers that balance these three calls across many servers and threads is the main skill. Progress is layered by resets: augmentations bought with money and faction reputation (each purchase doubling later prices) take effect only when installed, which wipes most progress, and destroying a BitNode by hacking w0r1d_d43m0n at hacking level 3000 resets further but grants a permanent Source-File. This prestige-reset structure has no taxonomy entry, so this run proposed one. Later BitNodes add systems such as Bladeburner and sleeves.", "developer": "danielyxie and Bitburner contributors", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "none", "fidelity": "abstract", "id": "bitburner", "influence": 1, "influenced_by": [], "mechanics": [ { "id": "player-programming", "note": "Netscript scripts in JavaScript run on servers whose RAM caps how many threads can run; the TIX API automates stock trading, and a beginner path teaches programming from scratch.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "resource-extraction", "note": "hack() takes a share of a server's finite money that rises with hacking level and falls with security; grow() restores money and weaken() lowers security toward its floor, and both hack and grow raise security, so sustained yield needs a balanced hack-grow-weaken schedule.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "reputation", "note": "Working for factions builds reputation that gates which augmentations can be bought; Daedalus reputation gates The Red Pill needed to end a BitNode.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "agent-skills", "note": "Hacking, combat, and charisma stats rise with use; hacking level raises success chance and money stolen, shortens hack time, and gates which servers can be hacked.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "supply-demand-pricing", "note": "Stock prices move about every 6 seconds by a forecast probability that large trades shift; hacking or growing a company's server can lower or raise its stock's hidden forecast.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "contracts-orders", "note": "Coding contracts found on servers pose programming problems that earn rewards when solved.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "real-time-clock", "note": "Time spent offline accumulates and later speeds stock-market updates from about every 6 seconds to about every 4.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "execution-budget", "note": "Each script has a RAM cost, and a server's RAM caps how many script threads can run on it, so buying RAM and writing lean scripts both raise income.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Bitburner", "narrative_mode": "authored", "perspective": "text-ui", "platforms": [ "web", "pc" ], "player_role": "programmer", "production_tier": "hobbyist", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gh", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-25-contributor-readiness" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "computational-abstract", "economic" ], "sim_scale": "individual", "sources": [ "src-steam-2026-bitburner", "src-danielyxie-2026-bitburner-repository", "src-bitburner-2026-changelog-v0", "src-bitburner-2026-changelog-v1", "src-oddiz-2026-bitburner-docs", "src-mobygames-2026-bitburner" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "programming-sim", "summary": "A free, open-source incremental hacking game in which the player writes JavaScript scripts that hack, grow, and weaken simulated servers for money, then spends it with faction reputation on augmentations that reset progress in exchange for permanent multipliers.", "time_model": "real-world-clock", "type": "game", "win_structure": "campaign", "year": 2017, "year_full_release": 2021 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C14", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 2, "biology-health": 1, "control-automation": 1, "environment-ecology": 1, "information-legibility": 1, "resources-production": 1, "social-relations": 1, "space-construction": 1 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "llm-society-terrarium", "trainable-creatures-revival" ] }, "mechanic_count": 9 }, "agency_model": [ "supernatural-intervention", "caretaking-interaction", "indirect-incentive" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "aliases": [ "Black and White" ], "core_loop": "impress villagers with miracles, help, or fear -> belief grows and worship generates prayer power -> cast miracles with the Hand and gestures -> train the creature with strokes and slaps -> the creature acts on learned desires -> convert rival villages and move to the next island", "design_notes": "Richard Evans built the creature on a belief-desire-intention model after Bratman: beliefs are lists of data about world objects, desires are simplified perceptrons, and opinions are decision trees about how to satisfy a desire; the creature picks the belief with the best opinion for each desire as its intention, and strokes and slaps adjust those opinions by reinforcement. A leash directs the creature's attention so it can learn by observation. The player's actions also move a good-evil alignment that changes the land, interface, music, and followers' view of the god, with a good and an evil advisor arguing each case; alignment has no mechanic id yet (proposal filed). The interface is an animated hand that throws objects and casts gestures instead of icons and panels.", "developer": "Lionhead Studios", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "black-and-white", "influence": 3, "influenced_by": [ "populous" ], "mechanics": [ { "id": "creature-learning", "note": "The creature forms intentions from a belief-desire-intention model with perceptron desires and decision-tree opinions; stroking rewards and slapping discourages the last action, the creature remembers and generalizes these responses, and a leash focuses it on actions the player demonstrates.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "god-powers", "note": "Miracles such as food, wood, healing, shields, fireballs, and lightning are cast from the Temple or Village Centre or by drawing gestures with the Hand, powered by villagers' worship, sacrifices, or one-shot Miracle Dispensers.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "reputation", "note": "Each villager holds a belief level in the player's god, raised by help or intimidation; villagers tire of repeated tactics, and a village converts when enough believe.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "creature-care", "note": "The creature must be fed and taught what and when to eat, and it grows over the game.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "needs-decay", "note": "Villagers need food, healing, and rest before they will worship.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "advisors", "note": "A good and an evil advisor push the player toward each alignment.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "free-placement", "note": "Buildings are placed from Workshop blueprints and built by villagers.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "resource-extraction", "note": "Villagers gather wood and food, for example by fishing.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "weather", "note": "Real local weather can be imported.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single", "competitive" ], "name": "Black & White", "narrative_mode": "authored", "perspective": "free-3d", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "god", "production_tier": "aaa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gb" }, "sim_domain": [ "social-interpersonal", "biological-ecological" ], "sim_scale": "region", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-black-and-white" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "god-game", "subgenre_secondary": [ "artificial-life" ], "summary": "A god game in which the player wins villagers' belief through miracles, help, or fear while training a giant creature whose behavior is learned from the player's rewards and punishments.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "campaign", "year": 2001 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C03", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "conflict-defense": 1, "economy-finance": 3, "environment-ecology": 1, "logistics-networks": 2, "population-lineage": 1, "progression-goals": 1, "resources-production": 3, "risk-failure": 1, "social-relations": 1, "space-construction": 2, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "influenced": [ "pharaoh" ] }, "mechanic_count": 17 }, "agency_model": [ "zoning-placement", "policy-parameter", "direct-unit" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "core_loop": "place housing plots and roads -> walkers from service buildings roam the roads and cover the houses they pass -> houses evolve when food, goods, and services reach them -> taxes and trade fund the city -> raise culture, prosperity, peace, and favor ratings to win the mission", "design_notes": "Coverage is delivered by individual walkers whose routes depend on road layout, so the same buildings serve a block well or badly depending on junctions; the developers cited SimCity's static placement as what they wanted to make less static. In the logic preserved by the Julius re-implementation, a walker sets a house's coverage to 96 and coverage decays by 1 per update, while prefects zero fire risk and engineers zero collapse risk. City and empire share one map, and gods that punish neglect have no matching taxonomy mechanic (see run proposal).", "developer": "Impressions Games", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "caesar-3", "influence": 4, "influenced_by": [ "simcity-1989" ], "mechanics": [ { "id": "walker-service-delivery", "note": "Service walkers leave their building and roam roads; each house passed gets coverage set to 96, which decays by 1 per update until the next visit.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "population-strata", "note": "Housing evolves through levels from tents up to villas and palaces when food, goods, services, and desirability are met, and devolves when they lapse.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "scenario-objectives", "note": "Each assignment sets population and thresholds for four ratings: culture, prosperity, peace, and favor.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "goods-consumption", "note": "Higher houses need food plus pottery, furniture, oil, and wine delivered by market walkers.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "production-chain", "note": "Raw materials such as clay, olives, and timber become pottery, oil, and furniture in workshops.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "trade-routes", "note": "An empire map opens land and sea routes to cities that buy and sell specific goods.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "wear-breakdown", "note": "Buildings accumulate fire and collapse risk that prefects and engineers reset to zero.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "reputation", "note": "Favor with Caesar rises with timely tribute and gifts and falls when requests are missed.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "raid-defense", "note": "Military assignments bring invasions; legions, walls, and towers defend the city map.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "labor-market", "note": "Buildings need workers from housing; shortages idle walkers and industry.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "decoration-beauty", "note": "Gardens, statues, and plazas raise desirability that houses need to evolve.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "road-network", "note": "Walkers and goods move on roads, so road layout sets coverage.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "taxation", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "free-placement", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "fire-spread", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "storage-capacity", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Caesar III", "narrative_mode": "hybrid", "perspective": "isometric", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "planner-mayor", "production_tier": "aa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-ga", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "urban", "economic", "military-conflict" ], "sim_scale": "city", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-caesar-iii", "src-bvschaik-2026-julius" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "city-builder", "summary": "A Roman city builder in which service walkers roam the roads from their buildings, houses evolve only where food, goods, and services actually reach them, and missions are won on culture, prosperity, peace, and favor ratings.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "campaign", "year": 1998 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C01", "core_count": 4, "family_profile": { "control-automation": 2, "economy-finance": 4, "progression-goals": 2, "resources-production": 3, "space-construction": 1, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "calibrated-serious-sims" ] }, "mechanic_count": 13 }, "agency_model": [ "zoning-placement", "policy-parameter" ], "agent_count_order": "aggregate", "core_loop": "buy land and place a firm -> lay out its internal units -> link purchasing, manufacturing, and sales units into supply chains -> set prices and advertising -> compete for market share on price, quality, and brand -> reinvest, research, or trade stock", "design_notes": "Trevor Chan's Capitalism models a firm as a small grid of internal units (purchasing, manufacturing, sales, advertising) that the player wires together, so every factory, farm, mine, and store is a layout and logistics puzzle inside a market model. Retail is the main income source: each department store sells up to four products, and customers weigh price, product quality, and brand against competing stores. R&D centers raise product quality over projects lasting from six months to ten years, and AI rivals can be set from aggressive to conservative. An optional stock market allows takeovers, and hired presidents can run divisions. Advertising spend that builds brand awareness has no mechanic in the taxonomy (proposed as advertising-awareness).", "developer": "Enlight Software", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "hard-restart", "fidelity": "systemic", "id": "capitalism", "influence": 2, "mechanics": [ { "id": "production-chain", "note": "Factories turn purchased inputs into products through linked manufacturing units; farms, mines, oil wells, and logging camps supply raw materials.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "customer-value-choice", "note": "City consumers pick among stores by price, product quality, and brand; each department store stocks up to four items.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "rival-firms", "note": "AI corporations with aggressive to conservative management styles compete in the same cities for market share.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "free-placement", "note": "Each firm is a grid of internal units placed and linked by the player; layout decides what flows where.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "quality-tiers", "note": "Product quality comes from input quality and technology level and drives demand and price.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "tech-tree", "note": "R&D centers run projects from six months to ten years that raise technology and unlock new products.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "equity-buyouts", "note": "An optional stock market lets the player buy shares, take over rivals, or be bought out.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "resource-extraction", "note": "Mines, oil wells, farms, and logging camps produce raw materials.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "delegation-to-ai", "note": "Hired presidents can run divisions day to day.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "blueprints", "note": "A layout plan library saves and reuses firm unit layouts.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "scenario-objectives", "note": "Seventeen scenarios set goals such as market-share dominance within a time limit.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "advertising-awareness", "note": "Advertising units inside firms spend money to raise a product's brand rating, which customers weigh with price and quality when choosing among stores.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "content", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Capitalism", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "top-down-2d", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "manager-owner", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-ge", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "economic", "industrial-logistics" ], "sim_scale": "region", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-capitalism-video-game" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "business-economic-sim", "summary": "A corporate business sim in which the player builds retail stores, factories, farms, mines, and R&D centers from internal unit layouts and competes with AI firms on price, quality, and brand across city markets.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "scenario-goals", "year": 1995 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C04", "core_count": 6, "family_profile": { "control-automation": 1, "economy-finance": 1, "environment-ecology": 1, "governance-policy": 2, "logistics-networks": 3, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "progression-goals": 1, "resources-production": 8, "risk-failure": 1, "space-construction": 2, "time-pacing": 2 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "living-workforce-factories" ] }, "mechanic_count": 23 }, "agency_model": [ "zoning-placement", "order-queue", "policy-parameter" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "claims": [ { "confidence": "high", "sources": [ "src-steam-2026-captain-of-industry" ], "text": "Captain of Industry entered Steam Early Access on 2022-05-31 and was still in Early Access in October 2026, with the developers estimating two to four more years." } ], "core_loop": "designate mining and dumping areas -> trucks haul ore and rock -> smelt and refine into goods -> feed, power, and house the population -> satisfied needs generate Unity -> spend Unity and products on research, edicts, and ship expeditions -> expand and terraform", "design_notes": "Captain of Industry joins a factory game to a settlement whose population is both labor and a consumer: residents need housing, food, water, electricity, healthcare, and household goods, each fully satisfied need yields about one to two Unity per month, and Unity buys edicts, outposts, quick trades, instant construction, and emergency repairs. Every working vehicle and many buildings consume crafted Maintenance I, II, or III; below 75% a monthly breakdown roll begins, reaching 50% at zero, so maintenance is itself a production chain whose failure cascades through the economy. Terrain is a stock of materials: excavators dig inside a Mine Control Tower's area, trucks dump rock and dirt that settle at per-material angles of repose (about 42 degrees for loose dirt to 78 for hardened rock), and dumping reclaims ocean for ports. A ship explores a world map for islands, refugees, and trade partners. Unity works like a political-capital currency earned from welfare, which the taxonomy lacks; this run proposed one.", "developer": "MaFi Games", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "cascading-collapse", "fidelity": "systemic", "id": "captain-of-industry", "influence": 1, "influenced_by": [], "mechanics": [ { "id": "production-chain", "note": "Smelters, refineries, chemical plants, food processors, and assembly lines run recipe chains from iron and copper ore to electronics, fuel, consumer goods, and nuclear fuel across 100+ technologies.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "hauling-jobs", "note": "Trucks are assigned to mines, storages, and buildings and automatically deliver products where they are needed, so fleet size and road layout cap throughput before belts and trains replace them.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "terraforming", "note": "Mining designations inside a Mine Control Tower area lower terrain and dumping designations raise it; loose material settles at per-material angles of repose, retaining walls stabilize slopes, and dumping can reclaim ocean.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "goods-consumption", "note": "Residents consume food, water, electricity, healthcare, and household goods; each fully satisfied need yields Unity, and unmet food or health shrinks the population.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "wear-breakdown", "note": "Working vehicles and buildings consume Maintenance I to III crafted at depots (idle at about a third); below 75% maintenance a breakdown is rolled monthly with chance rising to 50% at zero.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "resource-extraction", "note": "Excavators dig ore, coal, limestone, and rock from designated terrain, while oil rigs, quartz and uranium mines, and water pumps work fixed deposits and outposts.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "designation-orders", "note": "The player paints mining and dumping designations, and excavators and trucks assigned to a Mine Control Tower carry out the work inside its area.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "conveyor-transport", "note": "Belts and pipes give high-throughput direct links between machines once truck logistics become a bottleneck.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "power-grid", "note": "Generators up to nuclear reactors feed the settlement and factories, and residents require electricity as one of their needs.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "tech-tree", "note": "Research labs consume products and Unity to unlock over 100 technologies from basic smelting to space flight.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "pollution-spread", "note": "Air and water pollution and unmanaged waste spread disease among the population.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "byproducts-waste", "note": "Production emits slag, waste, carbon dioxide, wastewater, and spent nuclear fuel that must be dumped, treated, recycled, or stored.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "policy-toggles", "note": "Captain's Office edicts change settlement rules, such as raising population growth by tier, for a monthly Unity cost.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "trade-routes", "note": "Ships explore a world map to discover islands and trading partners; quick trades and recurring contracts exchange goods.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "crop-cultivation", "note": "Farms grow crops for food and industrial inputs, fertilizer boosts yields, and greenhouses grow advanced crops.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "storage-capacity", "note": "Storages and loose storage piles buffer materials, and full outputs stall production upstream.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "vehicle-route-scheduling", "note": "Trains move bulk cargo over long distances, and ships run trade contracts between the home island and partners.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "periodic-ticks", "note": "Unity income, population change, edict costs, and maintenance breakdown rolls resolve monthly.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "political-capital", "note": "Each fully satisfied settlement need yields about 1 to 2 Unity per month, spent on edicts, outposts, quick trades, instant construction, and emergency repairs.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "machine-boosting", "note": "Unity is spent on building boosts (0.25 Unity each) that speed up individual buildings.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "free-placement", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "note": "Official C# mod support loads new content and code.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "scripting", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Captain of Industry", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "free-3d", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "engineer-designer", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gh", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes", "2026-10-25-contributor-readiness" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "industrial-logistics", "urban", "economic" ], "sim_scale": "settlement", "sources": [ "src-steam-2026-captain-of-industry", "src-coiwiki-2026-maintenance", "src-coiwiki-2026-unity", "src-coiwiki-2026-population", "src-coiwiki-2026-dumping-designation" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "factory-automation", "subgenre_secondary": [ "city-builder" ], "summary": "An industrial colony builder in which the player reshapes island terrain with excavators and trucks, runs production chains to feed, house, and power a settlement, and spends the Unity its satisfied population generates on edicts, quick builds, and world-map expansion.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2022 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C21", "core_count": 2, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 1, "control-automation": 1, "economy-finance": 2, "operation-procedure": 1, "physics-materials": 1 }, "mechanic_count": 6 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar" ], "agent_count_order": "none", "aliases": [ "CMS 2021" ], "core_loop": "accept a generated customer order -> inspect and test the car -> remove parts in order to reach faulty ones -> buy or repair replacements -> reassemble and test drive -> get paid -> upgrade the garage and restore cars for sale", "design_notes": "The car is a tree of modeled parts (over 4000 across 72 cars) with a removal order, so labor is spent reaching a faulty component before replacing it, the series loop carried over from Car Mechanic Simulator 2018. Customer orders are generated without end, while story missions, car and salvage auctions, barn finds, and a project-car restoration supply variety. A skills and garage-upgrade system gates faster or more capable work.", "developer": "Red Dot Games", "emergence": 1, "failure_model": "none", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "car-mechanic-simulator-2021", "influence": 1, "mechanics": [ { "id": "diagnose-repair", "note": "Orders list symptoms; the player examines engine, suspension, and chassis, removes covering parts in a realistic order to reach damaged ones, replaces or repairs them, and verifies the fix, across over 4000 parts on 72 cars.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "contracts-orders", "note": "An endless supply of generated customer orders plus story missions with their own requirements provide income.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "auctions", "note": "Car auctions and salvage auctions supply restoration projects for resale.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "agent-skills", "note": "Experience feeds a skills and garage-upgrade system.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "vehicle-dynamics", "note": "Repaired and tuned cars can be driven, including time trials on a race track.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "direct-avatar", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "content", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Car Mechanic Simulator 2021", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "first-person", "platforms": [ "pc", "console" ], "player_role": "worker", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gf" }, "sim_domain": [ "occupational", "physical-mechanical" ], "sim_scale": "individual", "sources": [ "src-steam-2026-car-mechanic-simulator-2021", "src-xbox-2026-car-mechanic-simulator-2021", "src-wikipedia-car-mechanic-simulator-2018" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "job-sim", "summary": "A first-person garage sim in which the player diagnoses and repairs customer cars part by part, restores auction and barn-find cars, and expands the workshop.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2021 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C13", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "biology-health": 1, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "physics-materials": 2, "risk-failure": 1, "social-relations": 2, "time-pacing": 1, "world-generation": 2 }, "incoming": { "deploys": [ "wave-function-collapse" ] }, "mechanic_count": 10 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "boundary_case": true, "claims": [ { "confidence": "high", "sources": [ "src-steam-2024-caves-of-qud" ], "text": "Early access began 2015-07-15 and 1.0 released 2024-12-05, published by Kitfox Games." }, { "confidence": "medium", "sources": [ "src-gumin-2016-wavefunctioncollapse" ], "text": "Caves of Qud is among the shipped games listed as using wave function collapse." } ], "core_loop": "explore generated and handmade zones -> fight, trade, and talk with faction members -> mutate and equip -> uncover generated history -> go deeper", "design_notes": "A roguelike included for its simulation layers: faction reputation that every creature carries, liquids that mix and flow, body-part anatomy, and procedurally generated sultan histories that the world refers to. It is a frequently cited example of wave function collapse in a shipped game.", "developer": "Freehold Games", "emergence": 4, "failure_model": "permadeath", "fidelity": "systemic", "id": "caves-of-qud", "influence": 2, "mechanics": [ { "id": "reputation", "note": "Every creature belongs to factions; the player's standing with each faction decides who attacks, trades, or talks.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "history-generation", "note": "Generated histories of past sultans are written into the world as lore, shrines, and quests.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "procedural-terrain", "note": "Zones mix handmade and procedural maps; some generators use wave function collapse.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "fluid-gas-simulation", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "material-interactions", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "injury-body-model", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "permadeath", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "turn-structure", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "faction-diplomacy", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "note": "XML data files and C# scripting mods, distributed through Steam Workshop.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "scripting", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Caves of Qud", "narrative_mode": "hybrid", "perspective": "top-down-2d", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "inhabitant", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-additions", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-25-contributor-readiness" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "social-interpersonal", "biological-ecological", "physical-mechanical" ], "sim_scale": "individual", "sources": [ "src-steam-2024-caves-of-qud", "src-gumin-2016-wavefunctioncollapse" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "rpg-sim", "summary": "A science-fantasy roguelike RPG with simulated factions, liquids, body parts, and procedurally generated histories, built partly with wave function collapse.", "time_model": "turn-based", "type": "game", "win_structure": "campaign", "year": 2015, "year_full_release": 2024 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C07", "core_count": 4, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 1, "economy-finance": 1, "governance-policy": 1, "logistics-networks": 6, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "population-lineage": 2, "progression-goals": 1, "resources-production": 1, "space-construction": 2, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "influenced": [ "cities-skylines-2", "paralives" ], "precedent_for": [ "calibrated-serious-sims", "language-modding", "mean-field-crowds", "participatory-planning-sandboxes", "symbolic-sim-neural-render" ] }, "mechanic_count": 17 }, "agency_model": [ "zoning-placement", "policy-parameter" ], "agent_count_order": "10k-plus", "claims": [ { "confidence": "medium", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-city-building-game", "src-wikipedia-cities-skylines" ], "text": "Cities: Skylines is credited with reviving the SimCity style of city builder after SimCity (2013)." } ], "core_loop": "draw roads and zone along them -> citizens move in, commute, and shop along computed routes -> population milestones unlock services and map tiles -> set district policies, taxes, and budgets -> fix traffic with road hierarchy and transit -> expand", "design_notes": "Colossal Order carried the road and transit systems of its Cities in Motion series into a full city builder, so every citizen and vehicle is an agent taking the fastest route and congestion is read directly from visible jams. Zoning cells are generated along whatever road geometry the player draws, freeing layouts from a fixed grid, and districts let the player apply policies and tax rates to painted areas. Paradox approved the project after the reception of SimCity (2013), the game was built for Steam Workshop mods, and widely used mods replace core systems such as traffic rules.", "developer": "Colossal Order", "emergence": 4, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "systemic", "id": "cities-skylines", "influence": 4, "influenced_by": [ "simcity-4" ], "mechanics": [ { "id": "zoning", "note": "Zoning cells follow the shape of drawn roads; residential, commercial, industrial, and office zones develop and level up.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "road-network", "note": "Road type sets lanes, speed, and zone frontage; network geometry such as interchanges and one-way systems decides throughput.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "traffic-congestion", "note": "Each citizen takes the fastest route to work or other destinations; poor road design shows up as visible jams that delay services and deliveries.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "public-transit", "note": "Player-drawn bus, tram, train, metro, ferry, and taxi lines carry passengers, cut congestion, and earn fares.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "agent-pathfinding", "note": "Citizens and vehicles path individually through roads, paths, and transit.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "milestone-unlocks", "note": "Population milestones unlock services, zoning types, policies, and purchase of up to 25 map tiles.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "policy-toggles", "note": "District policies restrict development types, set district tax rates, or make transit free.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "power-grid", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "fluid-pipe-network", "note": "Water and sewage pipes; sewage released upstream contaminates downstream intakes.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "service-coverage", "note": "Service buildings reach buildings by network distance and dispatch vehicles.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "education-workforce", "note": "Elementary (300), high school (1,000), and university (4,500) capacities move citizens through four education levels that higher-level jobs require.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "lifecycle-aging", "note": "Citizens age and die; an initial cohort moving in together can age into a wave of deaths that overloads hearses.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "land-value", "note": "Services and parks raise land value, pollution and noise lower it, and land value helps buildings level up.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "note": "Steam Workshop and a mod-friendly architecture; mods add assets, maps, and new behavior.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "travel-mode-choice", "note": "Citizens choose between walking, driving, and the player's bus, tram, train, metro, ferry, and taxi lines when routing to destinations, so new lines shift demand off roads.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "free-placement", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "scripting", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Cities: Skylines", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "free-3d", "platforms": [ "pc", "console", "handheld" ], "player_role": "planner-mayor", "production_tier": "aa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-ga", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes", "2026-10-25-store-ids-pilot" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "urban", "economic" ], "sim_scale": "city", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-cities-skylines", "src-paradoxwikis-2026-skylines-education", "src-wikipedia-city-building-game" ], "status": "sourced", "store_ids": { "steam": 255710 }, "subgenre": "city-builder", "subgenre_secondary": [ "transport-logistics" ], "summary": "A city builder in which road-following zones, agent citizens who route to work along computed paths, district policies, and player-drawn transit lines make traffic flow the central design problem.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2015 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C07", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 1, "economy-finance": 2, "environment-ecology": 3, "logistics-networks": 4, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "progression-goals": 2, "resources-production": 1, "risk-failure": 1, "space-construction": 2, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "deploys": [ "neural-rendering-shaders" ], "precedent_for": [ "causal-why-query", "learned-build-assist", "mean-field-crowds" ] }, "mechanic_count": 18 }, "agency_model": [ "zoning-placement", "policy-parameter" ], "agent_count_order": "10k-plus", "core_loop": "zone and draw roads -> citizens choose homes, jobs, and routes by cost, time, and comfort -> taxes and fees fund services -> milestones grant development points and map tiles -> unlock transport and services -> expand", "design_notes": "Route choice is a weighted cost over time, comfort, money, and behavior, so parking fees, transit fares, and lane choice shift where agents go, and the first game's cap of about 65,000 rendered citizens is replaced by a hardware limit. One in-game day and night stands for a month, so daily traffic rhythms and seasonal climate run on different scales. The launch drew criticism for performance and its economy simulation, console versions were delayed indefinitely in 2024, and development moved from Colossal Order to Iceflake Studios after a November 2025 announcement.", "developer": "Colossal Order (Iceflake Studios from 2026)", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "systemic", "id": "cities-skylines-2", "influence": 1, "influenced_by": [ "cities-skylines" ], "mechanics": [ { "id": "zoning", "note": "Residential, commercial, industrial, and office zones along roads, with signature buildings unlocked at milestones.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "traffic-congestion", "note": "Vehicles spread across lanes, parking fees enter route cost, and accident checks run per road segment.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "agent-pathfinding", "note": "Citizens compare driving, transit, and walking with a cost combining time, comfort, money, and personal preference.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "public-transit", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "tech-tree", "note": "Development points are spent in a tree to unlock transport options and services.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "milestone-unlocks", "note": "Milestones grant development points and map tiles, from 9 starting tiles up to 441.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "seasons", "note": "Each map has a preset climate; winters bring snow.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "random-disasters", "note": "Floods, forest fires, and tornadoes, mitigated by disaster response services.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "day-night-cycle", "note": "Each day and night cycle equals one simulated month.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "land-value", "note": "Signature buildings and services change land value in their zone.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "taxation", "note": "Tax rates, fees, and ordinances fund the city.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "service-coverage", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "note": "Paradox Mods since 2024-03-25; mods can override game code.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "travel-mode-choice", "note": "Citizens compare driving, transit, and walking using a cost of time, comfort, money, and personal behavior, and parking fees enter the driving cost.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "free-placement", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "power-grid", "note": "Generation, a connected grid, and batteries; solar output varies with weather and time of day and wind with wind strength.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "weather", "note": "Weather and seasons affect solar and wind output and climate conditions.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "scripting", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Cities: Skylines II", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "free-3d", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "planner-mayor", "production_tier": "aa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-ga", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "urban", "economic" ], "sim_scale": "city", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-cities-skylines-2", "src-paradox-2023-cs2-traffic-ai", "src-paradox-2023-cs2-electricity-water" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "city-builder", "subgenre_secondary": [ "transport-logistics" ], "summary": "The sequel to Cities: Skylines, with citizens choosing routes by time, comfort, and money, a tech tree of development points, preset climates with seasons, and maps of up to 441 tiles.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2023 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C05", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "conflict-defense": 2, "economy-finance": 1, "governance-policy": 3, "information-legibility": 2, "logistics-networks": 1, "progression-goals": 1, "social-relations": 1, "time-pacing": 1, "world-generation": 1 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "negotiating-faction-ai", "scientists-not-tech-trees" ] }, "mechanic_count": 13 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-unit", "policy-parameter" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "aliases": [ "Civilization", "Civ" ], "core_loop": "explore with units -> found and grow cities -> allocate production and research -> unlock advances and wonders -> expand, trade, or fight rivals -> win by conquest or the space race", "design_notes": "Meier and Shelley combined the technology tree of Francis Tresham's board game with Empire's exploration and conquest and Railroad Tycoon's idea of several interacting systems managed at once; a SimCity-style zoning layer in an early prototype was dropped. Each city works surrounding terrain tiles for food, production, and trade, a worked-tile yield model the taxonomy does not yet name (proposal worked-tile-yields), and battles resolve from unit attack and defense values (proposal stat-combat-resolution). Wonders exist once per world, so building one denies it to every rival.", "developer": "MicroProse", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "hard-restart", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "civilization", "influence": 5, "influenced_by": [ "simcity-1989", "populous", "railroad-tycoon" ], "mechanics": [ { "id": "tech-tree", "note": "Advances are researched one at a time through a prerequisite graph adapted from Tresham's 1980 board game, from Pottery and the Wheel to Nuclear Fission and Space Flight; each unlocks units, city improvements, wonders, or governments, so research order shapes the game.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "turn-structure", "note": "Turns run from 4000 BC to as late as AD 2100; each turn every city produces and every unit moves, against two to seven AI civilizations.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "fog-of-war", "note": "The map starts hidden and is revealed by exploring units; barbarians emerge from huts, unclaimed land, and the sea, and become rarer as exploration proceeds.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "faction-diplomacy", "note": "Relations with rival civilizations lead to alliances, peace, or war.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "policy-toggles", "note": "Government forms unlocked by research change the economic and military rules of the civilization.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "taxation", "note": "The player sets tax rates and the share of trade spent on research.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "citizen-satisfaction", "note": "Cities track content and unhappy citizens; luxuries, temples, and wonders keep cities out of civil disorder.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "road-network", "note": "Settlers build roads and later railroads that speed movement between cities.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "procedural-terrain", "note": "Random worlds are generated for each game, with an alternative Earth map.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "advisors", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "corruption-leakage", "note": "Corruption removes part of each city's trade, rising with distance from the Palace and depending on government type; a Courthouse reduces it.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "territorial-control", "note": "Cities are captured by moving a military unit into them, transferring the city and its worked tiles to the conqueror.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "stat-combat-resolution", "note": "Combat compares the attacker's attack value with the defender's defense under terrain and fortification modifiers and a random draw, and the loser is destroyed.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Sid Meier's Civilization", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "top-down-2d", "platforms": [ "pc", "console" ], "player_role": "ruler-statesman", "production_tier": "aa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gi" }, "sim_domain": [ "political-governance", "military-conflict", "economic" ], "sim_scale": "nation", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-civilization", "src-wikipedia-technology-tree", "src-wikipedia-sid-meier" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "4x-strategy", "summary": "A turn-based 4X game in which the player guides a civilization from 4000 BC toward the space age by founding cities, researching a technology tree, building one-per-world wonders, and competing with rival civilizations by diplomacy or war.", "time_model": "turn-based", "type": "game", "win_structure": "competitive-victory", "year": 1991 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C10", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "conflict-defense": 1, "control-automation": 2, "environment-ecology": 1, "information-legibility": 2, "multiplayer-persistence": 2, "physics-materials": 1, "progression-goals": 1, "time-pacing": 1 }, "mechanic_count": 11 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-unit", "order-queue" ], "agent_count_order": "1k", "aliases": [ "CMO" ], "core_loop": "read the scenario briefing -> set doctrine, emissions control, and weapon release authority -> assign units to patrol, strike, and support missions -> sensors detect and classify contacts -> weapons engage under doctrine -> adjust missions as detections and losses accrue", "design_notes": "CMO simulates the sensor and weapon chain rather than abstract unit strengths: detection depends on radar propagation, terrain, thermal layers, and weather, and engagement depends on database specifications and doctrine. The player works mostly at mission and doctrine level and lets tactical AI fly and fight, so one player can run scenarios from patrol-boat skirmishes to global war. The Command engine also has a Professional Edition with full database editing, umpire-controlled multiplayer, and Monte Carlo analysis, sold to defense organizations.", "developer": "Warfare Sims", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "professional", "id": "command-modern-operations", "influence": 2, "mechanics": [ { "id": "military-operations", "note": "Every platform's sensors and weapons come from a database of tens of thousands of real systems; radar propagation, sensor degradation, terrain masking, sonar thermal layers, weather, jamming, and anti-radiation strikes are modeled for thousands of active platforms in real time.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "fog-of-war", "note": "Each side sees only what its sensors detect; emission control (EMCON) policies trade a unit's own detection range against revealing it to enemy passive sensors.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "delegation-to-ai", "note": "Units are assigned to patrol, strike, and support missions and executed by tactical AI under doctrine settings such as weapon release authority and EMCON.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "scouting-knowledge", "note": "Contacts begin unidentified and are classified as sensor data accumulates.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "unit-commands", "note": "Direct orders override a unit's mission behavior.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "note": "Scenarios lasting hours to days of game time run with time acceleration and pause.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "scenario-objectives", "note": "Over 600 official and community scenarios plus a quick battle generator.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "note": "A Lua scripting engine and scenario editor let players build custom operations.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "content-sharing", "note": "Scenarios are shared through the Steam Workshop.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "weather", "note": "Weather degrades sensors and affects engagements.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "projectile-ballistics", "note": "Ballistics are among the modeled effects alongside sensor propagation, so weapon flight and impact follow database specifications.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "scripting", "multiplayer": [ "single", "competitive", "coop" ], "name": "Command: Modern Operations", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "top-down-2d", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "commander", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gi" }, "sim_domain": [ "military-conflict" ], "sim_scale": "region", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-command-modern-operations", "src-steam-2019-command-modern-operations" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "wargame", "summary": "A real-time operational military simulation in which the player commands air, naval, and land units drawn from a database of tens of thousands of real platforms, sensors, and weapons on a map of Earth, managing doctrine, emissions control, and missions.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "scenario-goals", "year": 2019 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C15", "core_count": 2, "family_profile": { "conflict-defense": 1, "control-automation": 1, "economy-finance": 1, "narrative-generation": 1, "operation-procedure": 1, "world-generation": 1 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "generated-inspection-shifts" ] }, "mechanic_count": 6 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar" ], "agent_count_order": "10", "core_loop": "check documents -> search the vehicle with UV light and tools -> extract contraband or approve -> arrest or chase fleeing smugglers -> earn cash -> upgrade the post, cars, and defenses -> story missions and raids", "design_notes": "It moves the Papers, Please inspection loop into a 3D first-person space: document discrepancies are found on paper, but contraband is found physically by examining the vehicle with a UV flashlight and extracting it with tools. The number of documents per entrant grows over time, raising the error rate at constant attention. Inspection income funds post upgrades whose maintenance costs rise, while authored special assignments, chases, and gang raids interrupt the shift loop.", "developer": "Crazy Rocks Studios", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "contraband-police", "influence": 1, "influenced_by": [ "papers-please" ], "mechanics": [ { "id": "rule-checking-inspection", "note": "Drivers present documents whose number grows over the campaign; small discrepancies require refusal, and suspicious vehicles are searched with a UV flashlight before tools extract hidden goods.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "direct-avatar", "note": "The player walks the post in first person, opens and searches vehicles, drives upgradable police cars in pursuits, and uses firearms in shootouts.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "budget-treasury", "note": "Cash from inspections, foiled smuggling, and interventions pays for upgrades while post maintenance costs rise over time.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "raid-defense", "note": "Gang attacks on the post are countered with purchased defense upgrades.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "triggered-event-chains", "note": "Special assignments and story decisions shape the fate of Acaristan and lead to multiple endings.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "procedural-characters", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Contraband Police", "narrative_mode": "hybrid", "perspective": "first-person", "platforms": [ "pc", "console" ], "player_role": "worker", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gf" }, "sim_domain": [ "occupational", "political-governance" ], "sim_scale": "individual", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-contraband-police", "src-steam-2026-contraband-police", "src-twinfinite-2023-contraband-police" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "job-sim", "summary": "A first-person border-post sim set in 1981 in which the player checks drivers' documents, searches vehicles for hidden contraband, chases smugglers, and upgrades the post against gang attacks.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "campaign", "year": 2023 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C14", "core_count": 4, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 2, "biology-health": 1, "environment-ecology": 1, "information-legibility": 1, "multiplayer-persistence": 2, "population-lineage": 2, "risk-failure": 1, "social-relations": 1, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "trainable-creatures-revival" ] }, "mechanic_count": 12 }, "agency_model": [ "caretaking-interaction", "indirect-incentive", "conversational" ], "agent_count_order": "10", "aliases": [ "Creatures 1" ], "claims": [ { "confidence": "medium", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-creatures-series" ], "text": "Norn genetics are haploid, with no dominant or recessive genes and no recombination between loci, and mutation can disable organs or produce Norns that cannot see or hear." } ], "core_loop": "hatch eggs -> Norns act on biochemical drives -> player rewards, punishes, and teaches words -> neural weights shift toward drive-reducing actions -> Norns breed and pass mutated genomes -> next generation behaves differently", "design_notes": "Steve Grand built each Norn as a stack of coupled models rather than a scripted pet: a neural network whose sight neurons are grouped one per object type, a biochemistry of chemicals and organs that sets drive levels, and a haploid genome with no dominance that codes for both. Learning is behaviorist: high drive levels act as punishment and reductions as reward, so the player's tickles and slaps only matter through the same chemistry. Because the genome builds the brain and body, mutations produce Norns that cannot see, lack organs, or never die, which the online breeding community catalogued and traded. Norns live about 40 hours, short enough for many generations.", "developer": "Millennium Interactive / Cyberlife Technology", "emergence": 4, "failure_model": "permadeath", "fidelity": "systemic", "id": "creatures", "influence": 3, "mechanics": [ { "id": "creature-learning", "note": "A neural-network brain maps sensed objects and drives to actions; drive reduction reinforces the action that preceded it, and the hand's tickle and slap act as reward and punishment through the same pathway.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "trait-inheritance", "note": "Haploid digital genomes with no dominant or recessive genes encode brain wiring, biochemistry, and organs; offspring genomes mutate, and every boxed copy shipped a unique starting set of egg genomes.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "needs-decay", "note": "Drives such as hunger and tiredness are concentrations in a simulated biochemistry that rise over time and fall when actions such as eating or resting succeed.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "creature-care", "note": "The player's hand pointer feeds Norns, shows them objects, and tickles or slaps them; neglect leads to hunger, disease, and death, but care shapes behavior only indirectly through learning.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "natural-language-interaction", "note": "Players teach nouns by naming objects a Norn is looking at and verbs with a learning computer, then type instructions that the Norn may choose to obey.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "lifecycle-aging", "note": "Norns hatch, grow, breed, and die within roughly 40 hours of play.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "contagion", "note": "Grendels steal food, injure Norns, and carry diseases that sicken the population.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "agent-inspection", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "content-sharing", "note": "Exported Norns and genomes were swapped and bred across players by a large online community.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "permadeath", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "scripting", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Creatures", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "top-down-2d", "platforms": [ "pc", "console", "handheld" ], "player_role": "caretaker", "production_tier": "aa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gd", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "biological-ecological" ], "sim_scale": "individual", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-creatures-1996", "src-wikipedia-creatures-series" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "artificial-life", "subgenre_secondary": [ "virtual-pet" ], "summary": "An artificial-life game in which the player hatches and raises Norns whose neural-network brains, simulated biochemistry, and haploid digital genomes produce learned behavior and heritable mutation.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 1996 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C05", "core_count": 4, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 3, "conflict-defense": 3, "governance-policy": 2, "information-legibility": 1, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "narrative-generation": 1, "population-lineage": 4, "progression-goals": 1, "social-relations": 4, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "content-elastic-events", "drama-aware-storyteller", "illustrated-chronicles", "negotiating-faction-ai", "placement-that-tells-stories" ] }, "mechanic_count": 21 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-unit", "policy-parameter" ], "agent_count_order": "10k-plus", "aliases": [ "CK3" ], "core_loop": "play the current ruler -> manage vassal opinion, council, and stress -> arrange marriages, schemes, and wars over claims -> ruler dies -> heir inherits titles under succession law -> realm fragments or consolidates", "design_notes": "CK3 makes the player a character rather than a state: realm strength depends on vassals whose itemized opinions, traits, and family ties decide whether they serve or rebel. Succession laws make death the main source of disruption, and stress penalizes playing a character against type, which pushes players to roleplay their traits. Event content is authored but fired from on_actions and character state, so the same templates produce different stories in different courts; culture and religion conversion is not yet a mechanic in the taxonomy (proposal culture-religion-conversion).", "developer": "Paradox Development Studio", "emergence": 4, "failure_model": "permadeath", "fidelity": "systemic", "id": "crusader-kings-3", "influence": 2, "mechanics": [ { "id": "dynasty-succession", "note": "On death, play passes to the player heir and titles pass under the realm's succession law, so partition can split a realm among children; the game ends if no viable heir remains, and dynasty heads spend Renown on bonuses for every dynasty member.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "personality-traits", "note": "Personality, education, and genetic traits modify the six skills (Diplomacy, Martial, Stewardship, Intrigue, Learning, Prowess), opinions, and which event options a character can take.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "opinion-modifiers", "note": "Each character's opinion of another is an itemized list of modifiers from traits, relations, actions, and events, many expiring over time; discontented vassals join factions pressing for independence, a rival claimant, or less crown authority.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "agent-skills", "note": "Skills grow from education and from perks in six lifestyles, each with three skill trees.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "relationship-values", "note": "Friends, rivals, and lovers form between characters and shift opinions and event outcomes.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "romance-family", "note": "Marriages create alliances and heirs, making match choice a political decision.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "trait-inheritance", "note": "Genetic traits such as strong or poor health pass to children.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "lifecycle-aging", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "stability-unrest", "note": "Vassal factions accumulate strength and can revolt when their demands are refused.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "faction-diplomacy", "note": "Wars are fought over claims, and marriages and alliances link realms.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "triggered-event-chains", "note": "Events are called from on_actions, decisions, and interactions, with weighted options and scheduled follow-ups.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "tech-tree", "note": "Lifestyle perk trees and cultural innovations unlock abilities and buildings.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "causal-tooltips", "note": "Nested tooltips let players open explanations of terms inside other tooltips.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "stress-accumulation", "note": "Acting against personality traits and suffering events add stress; crossing stress levels fires mental-break events whose coping options can add traits (from level 2 up), and extreme stress can kill the character.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "political-capital", "note": "Prestige and piety accrue from rank, traits, and deeds and are spent on actions such as creating titles (prestige) and faith decisions (piety).", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "culture-religion-conversion", "note": "Counties carry a faith and a culture; the court chaplain can convert a county's faith and the steward can promote the ruler's culture, while faith hostility sets opinion penalties from 0 to -30.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "territorial-control", "note": "Counties belong to titles with de jure hierarchies, and wars are fought to press claims on them; conquered counties start with low county control.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "war-score-peace", "note": "War score from battles and occupation lets the attacker enforce the war goal at full score, while either side can offer white peace.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "stat-combat-resolution", "note": "Battles resolve from army size, men-at-arms, knights, commander skill, and terrain, in phases that run until one side is routed.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "note": "Event, trigger, and effect scripts and game data files are moddable; total conversions replace the setting.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "total-conversion", "multiplayer": [ "single", "competitive" ], "name": "Crusader Kings III", "narrative_mode": "hybrid", "perspective": "top-down-2d", "platforms": [ "pc", "console" ], "player_role": "ruler-statesman", "production_tier": "aa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gi", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes", "2026-10-25-contributor-readiness" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "political-governance", "social-interpersonal", "military-conflict" ], "sim_scale": "nation", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-crusader-kings-3", "src-paradoxwikis-2026-ck3-event-modding", "src-pcgamesn-2022-victoria-3-nested-tooltips" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "grand-strategy", "subgenre_secondary": [ "rpg-sim" ], "summary": "A character-driven grand strategy game in which the player rules as successive heads of a medieval dynasty from 867 or later to 1453, managing traits, stress, vassal opinion, marriages, and succession across a map of feudal titles.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2020 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C10", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "conflict-defense": 1, "control-automation": 1, "environment-ecology": 1, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "operation-procedure": 1, "physics-materials": 2, "progression-goals": 1, "risk-failure": 1, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "sim-instructor-coach" ] }, "mechanic_count": 10 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "aliases": [ "Digital Combat Simulator", "DCS" ], "claims": [ { "confidence": "medium", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-dcs-world" ], "text": "The `year` value records 2008, when DCS: Black Shark, the first standalone DCS title, was released; the free DCS World platform entered open beta in May 2012." } ], "core_loop": "pick a module and mission -> cold start through cockpit switches -> fly and navigate -> find targets with sensors -> employ weapons and survive defenses -> recover and land -> debrief", "design_notes": "DCS treats each aircraft as a set of subsystems (engines, fuel, electrical, hydraulics, radios, sensors) operated through individually clickable cockpit controls, so procedures and failures follow from system state rather than scripts. Its fidelity reaches professional use: the U.S. Air Force's 355th Training Squadron has used the A-10C module, and French and Ukrainian pilots have trained on modules. The business model is a free base with two aircraft and two maps, with paid aircraft and map modules from Eagle Dynamics and third parties sharing one client.", "developer": "Eagle Dynamics", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "hard-restart", "fidelity": "professional", "id": "dcs-world", "influence": 3, "mechanics": [ { "id": "flight-aerodynamics", "note": "Aircraft modules are built from real-world data; the F-16C uses a professional flight model with a fly-by-wire flight control system.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "procedural-checklists", "note": "Clickable cockpits operate modeled engines, fuel, electrical, hydraulic, and radio systems, so start-up and weapon employment follow real procedures.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "military-operations", "note": "Missions pit aircraft against air and ground units with sensors and weapons; users host PvE and PvP servers running their own missions.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "embodied-skill-control", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "scenario-objectives", "note": "The mission editor builds single-player and multiplayer missions with Lua scripting.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "note": "Lua mission scripting and third-party module development extend the platform.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "weather", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "projectile-ballistics", "note": "Missiles, bombs, and gun rounds fly as simulated projectiles, so release parameters such as speed, altitude, and range decide hits.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "subsystem-damage", "note": "Modules carry damage models, revised over the platform's development, so hits degrade the aircraft's modeled systems and how it flies.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "scripting", "multiplayer": [ "single", "coop", "competitive" ], "name": "DCS World", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "first-person", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "operator-pilot", "production_tier": "aa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gf", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "military-conflict", "physical-mechanical" ], "sim_scale": "individual", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-dcs-world" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "flight-sim", "subgenre_secondary": [ "wargame" ], "summary": "A combat flight sim platform of study-level aircraft modules with clickable cockpits and modeled subsystems, flown in missions and on multiplayer servers built with a Lua-scriptable mission editor.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "scenario-goals", "year": 2008 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C05", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "economy-finance": 2, "governance-policy": 5, "information-legibility": 1, "narrative-generation": 2, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "branch-preview-forecasts", "natural-language-legislation", "participatory-planning-sandboxes" ] }, "mechanic_count": 11 }, "agency_model": [ "policy-parameter" ], "agent_count_order": "1k", "core_loop": "spend political capital to adjust policy sliders -> effects propagate through the weighted policy network -> statistics, situations, and voter group happiness shift -> resolve dilemmas and events -> make election promises -> win or lose the election", "design_notes": "Democracy 4 models a country as one visible causal graph: policies, statistics, situations, and voter groups are nodes, and the interface shows the weighted links in and out of each. The player is constrained by political capital, earned through loyal ministers and spent on policy changes, and by voters who belong to several groups at once. Political capital as a regenerating action currency is not yet a mechanic in the taxonomy (proposal political-capital).", "developer": "Positech Games", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "hard-restart", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "democracy-4", "influence": 2, "mechanics": [ { "id": "policy-influence-network", "note": "Policies in seven areas (tax, economy, welfare, foreign policy, transport, law and order, public services) are sliders; the engine treats voters, groups, policies, ministers, and events as neurons in a homebrew network with bounded values, so weighted effects move statistics such as crime and air quality and the happiness of voter groups.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "elections", "note": "Before each general election the player makes two promises to the electorate; broken promises raise voter cynicism, and losing the election ends the game.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "interest-groups", "note": "Voter groups such as the religious, patriotic, parents, capitalists, socialists, liberals, and conservatives overlap, since each voter belongs to several, so pleasing every group is nearly impossible.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "dilemma-cards", "note": "Dilemmas, such as appointing a senior judge, must be resolved before the turn can end.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "policy-toggles", "note": "Introducing or cancelling a policy costs political capital.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "taxation", "note": "Excessive taxes cause tax evasion.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "loans-debt", "note": "Deficits add to national debt that the player must pay down.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "triggered-event-chains", "note": "Situations such as pollution or homelessness persist while conditions hold, and events arrive outside player control.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "turn-structure", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "stats-dashboards", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "political-capital", "note": "Political capital, earned through loyal ministers, is spent each turn to introduce, cancel, or adjust policies, so it caps how fast the government can change.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "content", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Democracy 4", "narrative_mode": "hybrid", "perspective": "text-ui", "platforms": [ "pc", "console", "handheld" ], "player_role": "ruler-statesman", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gi" }, "sim_domain": [ "political-governance", "economic" ], "sim_scale": "nation", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-democracy-4", "src-harris-2020-democracy4-fixed-income", "src-positech-2024-democracy-4-consoles" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "political-sim", "summary": "A turn-based government sim in which the player, as leader of a democracy, adjusts policy sliders whose weighted effects move statistics and overlapping voter groups, resolves dilemmas, and tries to balance the budget and win the next election.", "time_model": "turn-based", "type": "game", "win_structure": "survival-duration", "year": 2020, "year_full_release": 2022 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C06", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "biology-health": 1, "control-automation": 1, "environment-ecology": 3, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "resources-production": 4, "risk-failure": 2, "world-generation": 1 }, "mechanic_count": 13 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "core_loop": "explore a generated world by day -> gather and craft tools, food, and light -> manage hunger, health, and sanity -> survive nights, hounds, and seasons -> build a base and stockpile for winter -> die and start a new world", "design_notes": "Three meters interact: empty hunger drains health, and sanity falls at dusk and night and from unpleasant actions until, below 15% of maximum, shadow creatures attack, so the mind is a survival stock alongside the body. The 8-minute day is divided into day, dusk, and night segments whose split shifts with the season, and total darkness is lethal because Charlie attacks anyone without a light. Hound attacks escalate on a schedule tied to days survived, and death deletes the world except through rare resurrection items. Klei released it in beta in 2012 and fully on 23 April 2013.", "developer": "Klei Entertainment", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "hard-restart", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "dont-starve", "influence": 3, "mechanics": [ { "id": "survival-meters", "note": "Hunger, health, and sanity meters; default maximum hunger is 150 and drains 75 per game day, and at empty hunger health drains 1.25 per second until the player eats or dies.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "hand-crafting", "note": "Recipes combine gathered items into tools, light, shelter, and weapons; most must first be prototyped at a crafting station such as the science machine, though some characters bypass this.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "day-night-cycle", "note": "A day lasts 8 real minutes in sixteen 30-second segments of day, dusk, and night; sanity drains 5 per minute at dusk and 50 per minute in total darkness, where Charlie attacks unless the player has light.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "seasons", "note": "Winter shortens days and lengthens nights; seasons change hazards.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "adaptive-threat-scaling", "note": "Hound attacks scale with days survived, from 2 hounds every 5-8 days early to 7-10 hounds every 11-16 days after day 100, with shorter warnings.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "spoilage", "note": "Food spoils over time; spoiled food restores less hunger and costs health and sanity.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "renewable-regrowth", "note": "Picked grass, saplings, and berry bushes regrow.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "crop-cultivation", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "fire-spread", "note": "Fire spreads across flammable plants and structures.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "procedural-terrain", "note": "Each world is randomly generated.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "permadeath", "note": "Death deletes the world unless a rare resurrection item is available.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "direct-avatar", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "note": "Lua mods distributed through Steam Workshop.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "scripting", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Don't Starve", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "isometric", "platforms": [ "pc", "console", "handheld", "mobile" ], "player_role": "inhabitant", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gb", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-25-contributor-readiness" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "biological-ecological", "planetary-natural" ], "sim_scale": "individual", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-dont-starve", "src-dontstarvewiki-2026-hunger", "src-dontstarvewiki-2026-day-night-cycle", "src-dontstarvewiki-2026-hounds" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "survival-sim", "summary": "A survival sim in a procedurally generated wilderness where the player balances hunger, health, and sanity, crafts tools and light, and prepares for darkness, hounds, and seasons.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "survival-duration", "year": 2012, "year_full_release": 2013 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C02", "core_count": 8, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 7, "biology-health": 1, "conflict-defense": 1, "control-automation": 2, "economy-finance": 1, "environment-ecology": 1, "logistics-networks": 1, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "narrative-generation": 1, "physics-materials": 2, "population-lineage": 1, "resources-production": 3, "risk-failure": 2, "social-relations": 1, "space-construction": 3, "time-pacing": 1, "world-generation": 1 }, "incoming": { "influenced": [ "minecraft", "oxygen-not-included", "prison-architect", "rimworld", "space-haven" ], "precedent_for": [ "causal-why-query", "dream-replay-layer", "event-sourced-sim-runtime", "illustrated-chronicles", "intent-level-orders", "living-workforce-factories", "llm-society-terrarium", "mechanic-discovery-search", "neural-npc-motion", "salience-gated-llm-agents", "scientists-not-tech-trees", "sims-as-agent-benchmarks" ] }, "mechanic_count": 30 }, "agency_model": [ "order-queue", "zoning-placement", "indirect-incentive", "direct-unit" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "aliases": [ "Slaves to Armok: God of Blood Chapter II: Dwarf Fortress" ], "core_loop": "embark and dig -> designate jobs, stockpiles, and workshops -> dwarves self-assign labors and craft -> needs, emotions, and stress accumulate -> migrants, caravans, sieges, and beasts arrive -> fortress thrives or collapses into the world's legends", "design_notes": "Tarn Adams's stated principles are to break a system into parts, avoid overplanning, and base each model on a real-world analog; he describes the game as a story generator. The fortress is embarked inside a world whose geology and history were already simulated, and the fortress's own events flow back into that history through Legends, so a collapse becomes a record that a later adventurer can visit. Strange moods let an inspired dwarf seize a workshop to make a named artifact and go insane if materials are missing, which turns the production system into a story source. The game was free and donation-funded from 2006; a paid Steam edition with sprite graphics followed in December 2022, still short of a 1.0 version.", "developer": "Bay 12 Games", "emergence": 5, "failure_model": "cascading-collapse", "fidelity": "systemic", "id": "dwarf-fortress", "influence": 5, "mechanics": [ { "id": "history-generation", "note": "World generation builds elevation, rainfall, drainage, temperature, and vegetation layers, then simulates civilizations, sites, and historical figures for a player-chosen number of years before the fortress is embarked.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "designation-orders", "note": "The player designates digging, chopping, construction, and workshop jobs; dwarves with the matching labor enabled pick them up, and a manager can queue work orders automatically.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "mood-breakdown", "note": "Emotions add to or subtract from a hidden stress value (-1,000,000 to +1,000,000) with effects from +10,000, +25,000, and +50,000; stressed dwarves throw tantrums, fall into depression, or wander obliviously, prolonged stress leads to insanity, and one breakdown can spread unhappiness.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "injury-body-model", "note": "Body parts are layered tissues (skin, fat, muscle, bone, nerves) damaged individually in combat; injuries can be permanent and are treated in a hospital with traction benches, casts, sutures, and splints.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "fluid-gas-simulation", "note": "Water and magma flow tile by tile with up to seven depth levels per tile, so breaching a river, cavern lake, or magma source floods connected tunnels.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "vertical-layers", "note": "Z-levels, added in 2007, let the fortress descend level by level through soil and stone to caverns, the magma sea, and the underworld, connected by stairs and ramps.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "history-chronicle", "note": "Legends mode lists historical figures, sites, artifacts, and civilizations with a historical map; fortress deeds and retired adventurers are added, and the archive exports to XML.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "agent-skills", "note": "Work quality and speed rise with skill gained through practice in each labor.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "needs-decay", "note": "Food, drink, and sleep, plus personal needs such as socializing or praying met at taverns, temples, and libraries.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "memories-thoughts", "note": "Emotions become short-term memories; strong or revisited ones are promoted to long-term memories that keep adding stress.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "personality-traits", "note": "Facets such as bravery, stress vulnerability, and anxiety scale how stress builds and dissipates.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "relationship-values", "note": "Friends, family, and pets; their deaths are major stressors.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "production-chain", "note": "Ore is smelted to bars and alloyed; steel needs flux to make pig iron plus coke or charcoal, and magma can replace fuel.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "heat-transfer", "note": "Tiles, materials, and creatures carry temperatures.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "fire-spread", "note": "Fires spread and burn dwarves and furniture.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "raid-defense", "note": "Ambushes, sieges, megabeasts, and forgotten beasts are met with squads, fortifications, and traps triggered by levers or pressure plates.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "adaptive-threat-scaling", "note": "Wealthier and more populous fortresses attract sieges and megabeasts.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "immigration-attractiveness", "note": "Migrant waves from the mountainhome grow as the fortress develops.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "trade-routes", "note": "Yearly caravans from neighboring civilizations are handled by a broker; caravans can be absent or hostile depending on history.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "room-recognition", "note": "Furniture defines bedrooms, dining halls, and offices; nobles demand rooms of rising value.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "crime-policing", "note": "A justice system punishes assault, murder, and vandalism.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "crop-cultivation", "note": "Underground farming on soil layers; plump helmet mushrooms are brewed into wine.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "hauling-jobs", "note": "Dwarves carry goods to player-defined stockpiles.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "unit-commands", "note": "Military squads in uniforms train at barracks and can be ordered to attack.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "stress-accumulation", "note": "Emotions from events add to or subtract from a hidden stress value (-1,000,000 to +1,000,000) scaled by facets such as stress vulnerability and bravery; above +10,000, +25,000, and +50,000 dwarves risk tantrums, depression, obliviousness, and insanity, and long-term memories keep adding stress.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "free-placement", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "utility-action-selection", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "storage-capacity", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "note": "Raw text files define creatures, materials, and reactions; DFHack adds Lua and C++ scripting.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "scripting", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Dwarf Fortress", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "top-down-2d", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "overseer", "production_tier": "hobbyist", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gb", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes", "2026-10-25-contributor-readiness", "2026-10-25-store-ids-pilot" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "social-interpersonal", "physical-mechanical", "biological-ecological" ], "sim_scale": "settlement", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-dwarf-fortress", "src-adams-2015-df-simulation-principles", "src-dfwiki-2026-legends", "src-dfwiki-2026-stress" ], "status": "sourced", "store_ids": { "steam": 975370 }, "subgenre": "colony-sim", "subgenre_secondary": [ "rpg-sim" ], "summary": "A colony sim in which the player directs a fortress of autonomous dwarves inside a procedurally generated world whose history, geology, fluids, bodies, and minds are all simulated.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2006 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C04", "core_count": 7, "family_profile": { "conflict-defense": 1, "control-automation": 2, "environment-ecology": 1, "logistics-networks": 2, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "progression-goals": 2, "resources-production": 6, "risk-failure": 1, "space-construction": 2, "world-generation": 1 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "generated-recipe-graphs" ] }, "mechanic_count": 19 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar", "zoning-placement" ], "agent_count_order": "1k", "claims": [ { "confidence": "high", "sources": [ "src-steam-2026-dyson-sphere-program" ], "text": "Dyson Sphere Program was still labeled Early Access on Steam when accessed in October 2026, so no full-release year is recorded." }, { "confidence": "medium", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-dyson-sphere-program" ], "text": "Reviewers compare it favorably to Factorio and Satisfactory, but the cited source names only Stellaris as a design inspiration, so no Factorio influence edge is recorded." } ], "core_loop": "mine planetary veins -> belt ores through smelters and assemblers -> craft matrix cubes for research -> link planets and stars with logistics stations -> launch solar sails and carrier rockets -> Dyson sphere power feeds endgame production", "design_notes": "Dyson Sphere Program scales the factory puzzle from one map to a randomly generated cluster of stars: each planet is a rotating sphere whose day-night cycle affects solar power, and logistics stations match per-item local and remote supply and demand, sending up to 100 drones within a planet and 10 vessels between planets or, with Space Warpers, between stars. The Dyson sphere is a megastructure designed in a node-and-frame editor and built by ejecting solar sails (36 kW each at base, scaled by star luminosity, expiring after 5,400 seconds unless captured by a completed shell) and launching carrier rockets; ray receivers return its energy to planets or convert it to critical photons. The December 2023 Dark Fog update added hives and planetary bases whose threat rises with the player's power generation and combat, a variant of pollution-driven aggression. The developers drew inspiration from Stellaris, which included Dyson sphere construction. The sphere works as a goal sink that absorbs very large quantities of sails and rockets; no taxonomy mechanic covers such megaproject sinks, so this run proposed one.", "developer": "Youthcat Studio", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "dyson-sphere-program", "influence": 2, "influenced_by": [ "stellaris" ], "mechanics": [ { "id": "production-chain", "note": "Smelters, assemblers, chemical plants, refineries, and particle colliders run fixed recipes that build up to six matrix cube types and Dyson sphere components; proliferator coating adds extra products or speed.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "conveyor-transport", "note": "Three belt tiers carry items between sorters and machines on a planetary grid that wraps around a sphere and narrows toward the poles.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "tech-tree", "note": "Labs in research mode consume matrix cubes in technology-specific mixes, all stacked labs working on the front of one queue; labs can instead be switched to manufacture matrices.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "resource-extraction", "note": "Mining machines and advanced miners extract iron, copper, titanium, silicon, and rare veins whose distribution differs by planet and star type; pumps and oil extractors tap fluids.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "power-grid", "note": "Wind, thermal, solar, fusion, and artificial-star generators feed tower-linked grids; logistics stations charge at 30 to 300 MW, and Dyson sphere energy reaches planets through ray receivers at 30% base efficiency.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "modular-assembly", "note": "The Dyson sphere editor places nodes, frames, and shells on multiple orbital layers around a star, and its power output depends on built structure and absorbed sails.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "raid-defense", "note": "Dark Fog planetary bases and space hives attack factories and the player's mech, countered by turrets, energy shields, and player combat units.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "adaptive-threat-scaling", "note": "Dark Fog threat accumulates from the player's power generation and from combat, bases and hives gain levels from experience, and aggressiveness settings scale attack sizes.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "procedural-terrain", "note": "Each seed generates a star cluster with star types, planet types, and mineral distributions, including neutron stars, white dwarfs, and black holes.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "blueprints", "note": "Layouts are saved and pasted as blueprints, and the mech's construction drones place them.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "day-night-cycle", "note": "Planets rotate around their axes and orbit their stars, so solar panel output varies with the local day.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "storage-capacity", "note": "Storage boxes, tanks, and per-slot capacity in logistics stations buffer flows between planets.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "hand-crafting", "note": "The Icarus mech hand-crafts early buildings from inventory before assemblers take over.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "direct-avatar", "note": "The player flies the Icarus mech across planets and through space to build within its range.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "megaproject-sink", "note": "The Dyson sphere is designed in a node-and-frame editor and built from solar sails fired by EM-Rail Ejectors and frames carried by rockets; unabsorbed sails expire after 5,400 seconds, and the finished sphere's energy feeds endgame production.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "machine-boosting", "note": "Proliferator coating on input items lets the consuming machine choose extra products or faster production.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "request-provider-logistics", "note": "Logistics stations set each item slot to local or remote supply, demand, or storage and are paired automatically by priority; up to 100 drones per station haul within a planet and 10 vessels between planets, with range and minimum-load sliders.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "free-placement", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "note": "No official API; mods load through the de facto BepInEx loader.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "scripting", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Dyson Sphere Program", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "free-3d", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "engineer-designer", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gh", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes", "2026-10-25-contributor-readiness" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "industrial-logistics", "cosmic-space", "military-conflict" ], "sim_scale": "interplanetary", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-dyson-sphere-program", "src-steam-2026-dyson-sphere-program", "src-dspwiki-2026-interstellar-logistics-station", "src-dspwiki-2026-dyson-sphere", "src-dspwiki-2026-dark-fog" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "factory-automation", "subgenre_secondary": [ "space-sim" ], "summary": "A 3D factory automation game in which the player's mech builds production lines on rotating planets, links star systems with logistics drones and warp vessels, and launches sails and rockets to assemble Dyson spheres around stars.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2021 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C12", "core_count": 4, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 1, "economy-finance": 3, "environment-ecology": 3, "governance-policy": 2, "multiplayer-persistence": 2, "progression-goals": 1, "resources-production": 2, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "natural-language-legislation" ] }, "mechanic_count": 15 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar", "policy-parameter" ], "agent_count_order": "1k", "core_loop": "gather from the shared ecosystem -> specialize in skills and craft at tables -> trade through player stores and currencies -> propose and vote on laws and taxes -> research technology to stop the meteor -> manage pollution and species populations before impact", "design_notes": "Eco makes the ecosystem a shared commons: each player's harvesting and pollution changes species populations and the climate for everyone on the server. Its answer to overexploitation is player-made institutions rather than designer rules, with enforceable laws, taxes, and currencies, and simulation data that players can cite as evidence in debates. It began as an educational project funded in part by the U.S. Department of Education.", "developer": "Strange Loop Games", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "cascading-collapse", "fidelity": "systemic", "id": "eco", "influence": 2, "mechanics": [ { "id": "food-web", "note": "Thousands of plants and animals from dozens of species grow across the world; overhunting or overharvesting can drive a species extinct, and a disruption in one species cascades across the planet.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "pollution-spread", "note": "Mining waste and industrial pollution poison rivers and kill farms, and excessive air pollution raises sea levels.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "player-legislation", "note": "Players propose laws in a programmable rule system and vote on them, the game enforces ratified laws, and elections set tax rates and community funds; governments range from dictatorships to lawless, trust-based communities.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "crisis-countdown", "note": "A meteor is set to strike in thirty days, and players must gather resources and research technology to stop it without harming the world.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "renewable-regrowth", "note": "Plant and animal populations recover over time unless harvested faster than they regrow; cutting too many trees reduces how much air pollution is absorbed.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "planetary-climate", "note": "Accumulated pollution changes the climate and sea level.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "elections", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "taxation", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "player-driven-market", "note": "Players run stores and currency exchanges with fiat or resource-backed currencies and set exchange rates.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "contracts-orders", "note": "Players post labor contracts for others to fulfill.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "agent-skills", "note": "Varied food and larger homes earn skill points spent on specialties such as farming, hunting, trade, and engineering.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "production-chain", "note": "More than 30 craft tables turn materials into goods across hundreds of recipes.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "tech-tree", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "seasonal-world-reset", "note": "Each world is bounded by a meteor due in thirty days, so a server's run ends with stopping it or with impact, and servers are commonly wiped and restarted as fresh worlds.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "note": "The official modkit lets servers add C# items, recipes, and rules.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "scripting", "multiplayer": [ "single", "coop", "persistent-mmo" ], "name": "Eco", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "first-person", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "inhabitant", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gi", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-25-contributor-readiness" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "biological-ecological", "economic", "political-governance" ], "sim_scale": "planet", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-eco-2018", "src-steam-2018-eco" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "mmo-world", "subgenre_secondary": [ "ecosystem-evolution", "sandbox-world" ], "summary": "A multiplayer civilization survival game in which players on one server share a simulated ecosystem, specialize in skills, craft and trade with player-made currencies, and pass enforceable laws while researching how to stop a meteor due in thirty days without wrecking the environment.", "time_model": "asynchronous-persistent", "type": "game", "win_structure": "scenario-goals", "year": 2018 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C19", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "control-automation": 1, "economy-finance": 1, "progression-goals": 1, "resources-production": 1, "social-relations": 1, "world-generation": 1 }, "incoming": { "influenced": [ "elite-dangerous", "eve-online" ] }, "mechanic_count": 6 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar" ], "agent_count_order": "10", "core_loop": "buy cargo at a station -> hyperspace to a system within fuel range -> fight or evade pirates and police -> dock by matching the station's rotation -> sell for profit -> buy weapons and equipment -> raise combat rating", "design_notes": "Each of the eight galaxies and its 256 systems is regenerated from a seed rather than stored, which let a large universe fit in an 8-bit micro and made procedural generation the core of the design. Commodity prices differ by system, and fuel limits each hyperjump to 7 light years, so route choice is the main economic decision. The goal of reaching the Elite combat rank is open-ended; the player chooses between trading, piracy, bounty hunting, and mining.", "developer": "David Braben and Ian Bell", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "hard-restart", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "elite", "influence": 5, "mechanics": [ { "id": "procedural-terrain", "note": "Eight galaxies of 256 planets each are generated from seed numbers at runtime; each system's name, economy, government, and description derive from the seed.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "trade-routes", "note": "Commodity prices vary by system economy; the player buys cheap and sells dear between systems, constrained by cargo bay size and the 7 light-year fuel limit per jump.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "embodied-skill-control", "note": "Real-time wireframe dogfights and manual docking that requires matching a rotating station's spin unless a docking computer is bought.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "reputation", "note": "Legal status (clean, offender, fugitive) worsens with piracy and illegal cargo and draws police ships.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "milestone-unlocks", "note": "Combat rating rises with kills from Harmless toward Elite; most versions also offer Galactic Navy missions with special rewards.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "resource-extraction", "note": "Mining lasers break asteroids into fragments that can be scooped and sold.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Elite", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "first-person", "platforms": [ "mainframe-early", "pc", "console" ], "player_role": "operator-pilot", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gg" }, "sim_domain": [ "cosmic-space", "economic" ], "sim_scale": "interplanetary", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-elite" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "space-sim", "summary": "A 3D space trading and combat game in which the player flies a single ship through eight seed-generated galaxies, buying and selling cargo and fighting pirates and police to raise a combat rating.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 1984 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C19", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "control-automation": 1, "economy-finance": 3, "information-legibility": 1, "multiplayer-persistence": 2, "physics-materials": 1, "resources-production": 3, "risk-failure": 1, "social-relations": 2, "space-construction": 1, "world-generation": 2 }, "mechanic_count": 17 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "aliases": [ "Elite: Dangerous" ], "core_loop": "take missions or cargo at a station -> jump between star systems -> trade, fight, mine, or explore -> earn credits, rank, and faction influence -> outfit or buy ships -> background simulation shifts faction control and system states", "design_notes": "Stellar Forge generates around 400 billion star systems from rules of star and planet formation and blends in about 150,000 systems from real astronomical data, so the galaxy is mostly unvisited. The server-side Background Simulation tracks minor-faction influence, economy, and states per system and updates them from what all players do, so Solo, Private Group, and Open players share one political map. Ship capability comes from outfitting modules within power and mass limits, and flight is Newtonian with a default flight-assist layer.", "developer": "Frontier Developments", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "systemic", "id": "elite-dangerous", "influence": 2, "influenced_by": [ "elite" ], "mechanics": [ { "id": "persistent-world", "note": "One galaxy state is shared by Open, Private Group, and Solo players; Frontier's Background Simulation changes faction influence, system states, and markets over time from aggregate player activity.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "procedural-terrain", "note": "Stellar Forge generates a 1:1 Milky Way of about 400 billion systems, bodies, and landable planetary surfaces, blended with about 150,000 catalog systems.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "embodied-skill-control", "note": "Six-axis Newtonian flight with optional flight assist; manual docking, supercruise approaches, and combat that balances power distributor pips and heat.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "trade-routes", "note": "Station markets differ by economy type; traders haul commodities between stations for price differences, limited by cargo capacity and jump range.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "supply-demand-pricing", "note": "Market supply and demand at each station shift prices as players buy and sell.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "faction-diplomacy", "note": "Minor factions hold influence shares per system and enter wars or elections when two factions' influence is close; Powerplay pledges players to one of 12 powers contesting territory.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "reputation", "note": "Standing with minor factions and superpower navy ranks gate missions and system permits.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "contracts-orders", "note": "Mission boards offer delivery, combat, and data missions with deadlines and payouts that also move faction influence.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modular-assembly", "note": "Ships take modules in fixed slots (power plant, thrusters, frame shift drive, hardpoints); module mass and class set jump range, speed, and loadout.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "power-grid", "note": "A power plant's output must cover module draw; over budget, modules shut down by player-set priority.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "heat-transfer", "note": "Ship heat rises from weapons, fuel scooping near stars, and damage; overheating damages modules, and heat sinks dump it.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "resource-extraction", "note": "Mining lasers, collector limpets, and sub-surface charges extract ore from planetary rings.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "player-organizations", "note": "Squadrons and player-supported minor factions coordinate background simulation work.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "fog-of-war", "note": "System bodies are unknown until scanned; first discoverers are credited.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "power-allocation", "note": "The power distributor's pips are split among systems, engines, and weapons capacitors in flight, setting each capacitor's recharge; module priorities decide what shuts down when the power plant is over budget.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "subsystem-damage", "note": "Each ship module has its own integrity, and damage to the power plant, thrusters, or drive degrades or disables it until repaired.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "real-world-data-feeds", "note": "About 150,000 star systems from real astronomical catalogs are blended into the procedurally generated galaxy.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single", "coop", "competitive", "persistent-mmo" ], "name": "Elite Dangerous", "narrative_mode": "hybrid", "perspective": "first-person", "platforms": [ "pc", "console", "vr" ], "player_role": "operator-pilot", "production_tier": "aa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gg" }, "sim_domain": [ "cosmic-space", "economic", "political-governance" ], "sim_scale": "interplanetary", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-elite-dangerous" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "space-sim", "subgenre_secondary": [ "mmo-world" ], "summary": "An online space sim set in a 1:1 procedurally generated Milky Way where players trade, fight, mine, and explore while a server-side background simulation shifts faction control from aggregate player actions.", "time_model": "asynchronous-persistent", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2014 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C18", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "economy-finance": 1, "environment-ecology": 2, "population-lineage": 1, "progression-goals": 2, "space-construction": 2 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "open-ended-evolution-sandbox" ] }, "mechanic_count": 8 }, "agency_model": [ "zoning-placement", "indirect-incentive" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "core_loop": "plant grasses to spread biomes -> place plants and animals whose requirements are met -> healthy species live longer, breed, and earn diversity points -> spend points on new species, genetic modifications, and evolutions -> complete tasks for rewards", "design_notes": "Equilinox, built solo by ThinMatrix, ties its economy to ecological fit: each species has a life cycle and requirements, and healthy individuals live longer, breed more, and yield more diversity points, the currency for new species and modifications. Evolution is a gated unlock (meet a species' evolution conditions, then pay to evolve) rather than simulated selection, which keeps the 120+ species on an authored progression. Biomes spread from planted grasses, so terrain type is itself a player-placed stock. Paid genetic modification matches the genome-modification proposal from run catalog-ge.", "developer": "ThinMatrix", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "equilinox", "influence": 1, "mechanics": [ { "id": "habitat-suitability", "note": "Each species needs a biome, food, and nearby plants or water; satisfied individuals stay healthy, live longer, and breed, while unmet needs reduce health.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "milestone-unlocks", "note": "Species evolve into new species once their conditions are met and points are paid, and 60+ tasks grant points or content.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "budget-treasury", "note": "Diversity points earned by healthy plants and animals are the single currency for buying species, modifications, and evolutions; repeatable tasks let players farm a steady income.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "lifecycle-aging", "note": "Plants and animals grow, eat, reproduce, and die on species-specific cycles.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "food-web", "note": "Some animals hunt others, so predator placement constrains prey populations.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "terraforming", "note": "Planted grasses convert ground into one of 10 biome types, and algae turns water into river for fish.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "free-placement", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "collection-goals", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Equilinox", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "free-3d", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "caretaker", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gd" }, "sim_domain": [ "biological-ecological" ], "sim_scale": "facility", "sources": [ "src-steam-2026-equilinox", "src-gamingonlinux-2018-equilinox-release" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "ecosystem-evolution", "summary": "A relaxed nature-building game in which the player spreads biomes with grasses, places plants and animals that each have environmental requirements, and spends diversity points earned by healthy species on evolutions and genetic modifications.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2018 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C11", "core_count": 2, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 1, "economy-finance": 4, "environment-ecology": 2, "logistics-networks": 1, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "physics-materials": 1, "risk-failure": 1 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "sim-instructor-coach" ] }, "mechanic_count": 11 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "aliases": [ "ETS2" ], "core_loop": "take a cargo job -> couple the trailer -> drive the route paying fuel and tolls -> deliver on time with little damage -> earn money and experience -> spend skill points and buy trucks, garages, and drivers -> longer and riskier jobs", "design_notes": "The pleasure is long-haul driving through a compressed map (71 cities in 12 countries in the base game), with economic pressure from delivery deadlines, fuel, tolls, and repair costs and with damage deducted from pay. Progression is a skill-point tree that unlocks cargo classes (ADR hazardous, long distance, valuable, fragile, urgent, eco driving), plus a company layer in which owned garages host hired AI drivers who earn money off-screen. Multiplayer began as the fan mod TruckersMP in 2013 before official support in 2021.", "developer": "SCS Software", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "euro-truck-simulator-2", "influence": 3, "mechanics": [ { "id": "vehicle-dynamics", "note": "Licensed trucks with modeled engines and gearboxes pull trailers whose cargo changes acceleration and braking; collisions damage truck, trailer, and cargo.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "contracts-orders", "note": "Jobs specify cargo, destination, and a time limit; less damage earns more money and experience, while fuel, tolls, and repairs are paid from earnings.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "road-network", "note": "A continuous road map linking European cities sets route distance, tolls, and travel time.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "agent-skills", "note": "Skill points from experience unlock ADR, long-distance, valuable, fragile, urgent, and eco-driving jobs.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "staff-hiring", "note": "Recruitment agencies supply AI drivers who work from owned garages and return income.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "loans-debt", "note": "A bank loan is the alternative to saving 100,000 euros for the first truck.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "budget-treasury", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "wear-breakdown", "note": "Damage requires paid maintenance at service shops.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "day-night-cycle", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "weather", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "content", "multiplayer": [ "single", "coop" ], "name": "Euro Truck Simulator 2", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "first-person", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "operator-pilot", "production_tier": "aa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gf" }, "sim_domain": [ "physical-mechanical", "industrial-logistics", "occupational" ], "sim_scale": "individual", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-euro-truck-simulator-2", "src-steam-2026-euro-truck-simulator-2", "src-trucksimulatorwiki-2026-ets2" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "vehicle-sim", "subgenre_secondary": [ "job-sim" ], "summary": "A truck driving sim in which the player hauls timed cargo deliveries across a scaled European road network and grows a transport company of trucks, garages, and hired drivers.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2012 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C05", "core_count": 5, "family_profile": { "conflict-defense": 3, "economy-finance": 2, "governance-policy": 5, "information-legibility": 2, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "narrative-generation": 1, "population-lineage": 2, "progression-goals": 1, "social-relations": 3, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "influenced": [ "stellaris" ], "precedent_for": [ "negotiating-faction-ai" ] }, "mechanic_count": 21 }, "agency_model": [ "policy-parameter", "direct-unit" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "aliases": [ "EU4" ], "core_loop": "accrue administrative, diplomatic, and military monarch points -> buy technology, stability, ideas, and development -> steer trade and colonize -> ally and declare wars -> occupy and annex provinces -> manage unrest, estates, and coalitions", "design_notes": "EU4 converts ruler quality into three spendable currencies (administrative, diplomatic, and military monarch points) that buy technology, stability, ideas, and province development, which makes each succession an economic event. Expansion is checked by systems rather than scripts: aggressive expansion feeds defensive coalitions, and conquered provinces stay restless until integrated. Monarch points, war score, province integration, and missionary conversion are not yet mechanics in the taxonomy (proposals political-capital, war-score-peace, territorial-claims-integration, culture-religion-conversion).", "developer": "Paradox Development Studio", "emergence": 4, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "systemic", "id": "europa-universalis-4", "influence": 3, "mechanics": [ { "id": "faction-diplomacy", "note": "Alliances, vassals, tributaries, and royal marriages bind nations; aggressive expansion raises other nations' hostility until they form a defensive coalition against the expander.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "trade-routes", "note": "Trade value generated in provinces flows downstream through a fixed directed network of trade nodes; merchants either collect in a node or steer value toward the player's home node, and trade power in each node sets the share taken.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "stability-unrest", "note": "Provinces accumulate unrest from foreign culture, religion, and recent conquest, and high unrest spawns rebel armies; national stability is a separate stock raised with administrative monarch points.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "tech-tree", "note": "Administrative, diplomatic, and military technology tracks are bought with matching monarch points; institutions such as feudalism spread between provinces and raise technology cost until embraced.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "interest-groups", "note": "Estates hold loyalty and influence over the crown and grant bonuses or demands.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "dynasty-succession", "note": "Each monarch's administrative, diplomatic, and military skill sets monthly monarch point income; on death an heir succeeds, with risks of regency, succession wars, or personal unions.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "opinion-modifiers", "note": "AI opinion of the player is an itemized sum of modifiers such as improved relations, royal marriage, and aggressive expansion.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "triggered-event-chains", "note": "Historical and flavor events fire from national history and current state.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "reputation", "note": "Prestige and power projection modify diplomacy and stability.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "policy-toggles", "note": "Idea groups, policies, and government reforms change national rules.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "loans-debt", "note": "Deficits are covered by loans, and unmanageable debt ends in bankruptcy.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "fog-of-war", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "causal-tooltips", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "political-capital", "note": "Administrative, diplomatic, and military monarch points accrue monthly from the ruler's skills (plus advisors) and buy technology, ideas, stability, and province development, so each succession changes the nation's budget of action.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "corruption-leakage", "note": "A national corruption value accumulates from several state conditions and falls with a monthly budget line for rooting out corruption; while high it raises the cost of technology and other state actions.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "culture-religion-conversion", "note": "Provinces have a culture and a religion; missionaries convert province religion over time against resistance, and non-state religion or non-accepted culture adds unrest.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "territorial-control", "note": "Provinces have an owner and a controller; sieges flip control, peace deals transfer ownership, and new provinces must be cored with administrative power, with uncored land adding overextension and unrest.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "war-score-peace", "note": "War score from battles, occupation, and the war goal caps peace demands, each priced in score (provinces, gold, vassalage).", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "stat-combat-resolution", "note": "Land battles roll dice each phase of fire and shock, modified by general skill and terrain, and drain each army's strength and morale until one side retreats.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "note": "Script and data files define events, countries, and rules; total conversions replace the setting.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "total-conversion", "multiplayer": [ "single", "competitive" ], "name": "Europa Universalis IV", "narrative_mode": "hybrid", "perspective": "top-down-2d", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "ruler-statesman", "production_tier": "aa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gi", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-25-contributor-readiness" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "political-governance", "military-conflict", "economic" ], "sim_scale": "nation", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-europa-universalis-4" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "grand-strategy", "summary": "A real-time-with-pause grand strategy game in which the player directs one of over 500 nations from 1444 to 1821 through monarch-point spending, trade-node competition, colonization, diplomacy, and war on a province map.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2013 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C12", "core_count": 5, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 1, "economy-finance": 1, "governance-policy": 1, "multiplayer-persistence": 3, "resources-production": 2, "risk-failure": 1, "social-relations": 1, "space-construction": 1, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "agent-ambassadors-async", "ai-liquidity-in-player-markets", "event-sourced-sim-runtime" ] }, "mechanic_count": 12 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar", "order-queue" ], "agent_count_order": "10k-plus", "aliases": [ "Eve Online", "EVE" ], "core_loop": "train skills in real time -> mine, salvage, or run missions for materials and ISK -> manufacture or buy ships and modules on the player market -> fit ships and fly into space of a chosen security level -> lose ships in combat and replace them -> corporations and alliances fight over sovereignty", "design_notes": "EVE keeps one economy for all players: nearly everything is player-made and ship losses are permanent, so wars create manufacturing demand. Risk and reward are tied to space security, with the most profitable activities in low-sec and null-sec, where the NPC police do not destroy aggressors. CCP hired an economist in 2007 to oversee the economy. Security-graded zones and permanent asset loss on destruction are not yet mechanics in the taxonomy (proposals pvp-security-zones, loss-on-death).", "developer": "CCP Games", "emergence": 5, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "systemic", "id": "eve-online", "influence": 4, "influenced_by": [ "elite", "ultima-online" ], "mechanics": [ { "id": "player-driven-market", "note": "Players gather raw materials and manufacture nearly all ships and modules, then trade them in a supply-and-demand market with price history charts, where manipulation such as ramping and bear raids is possible.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "persistent-world", "note": "One shared universe on the Tranquility server holds more than 5,000 stargate-linked systems plus about 2,500 wormhole systems; system security from 1.0 to -1.0 sets whether CONCORD police destroy aggressors.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "player-organizations", "note": "Corporations led by a CEO assign roles, tax members, declare wars for a weekly fee, and join alliances that claim sovereignty over null-sec systems.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "agent-skills", "note": "Skills have prerequisites, and capital-ship skills take several times longer to train than frigate skills.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "real-time-clock", "note": "Skills train in real time, including while logged off, from a queue of up to 50 skills.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modular-assembly", "note": "Ships are fitted with modules in high, mid, and low slots plus semi-permanent rigs.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "production-chain", "note": "Blueprints turn gathered materials into ships and modules.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "resource-extraction", "note": "Players mine asteroids and salvage wrecks for materials.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "elections", "note": "Players elect the Council of Stellar Management, which carries requests to CCP; the first election in 2008 had 66 candidates for nine seats.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "reputation", "note": "Unprovoked aggression in secure space costs security status and draws police response.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "loss-on-death", "note": "A destroyed ship and its fittings are gone for good, part of its cargo and modules drops in a lootable wreck, and ship insurance pays back part of the hull's value.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "pvp-security-zones", "note": "Each system's security from 1.0 to -1.0 decides whether CONCORD police destroy aggressors; high-sec deters player attacks, low- and null-sec leave them to players, and the riskier zones hold the richer activities.", "role": "core" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "persistent-mmo" ], "name": "EVE Online", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "free-3d", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "inhabitant", "production_tier": "aa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gi", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-25-store-ids-pilot" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "economic", "cosmic-space", "military-conflict" ], "sim_scale": "interplanetary", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-eve-online" ], "status": "sourced", "store_ids": { "steam": 8500 }, "subgenre": "mmo-world", "subgenre_secondary": [ "space-sim" ], "summary": "A single-universe space MMO in which players mine, manufacture, trade, and fight in ships that are destroyed for good, inside a player-made economy and a galaxy of high-, low-, and null-security space where player alliances claim sovereignty.", "time_model": "asynchronous-persistent", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2003 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C08", "core_count": 2, "family_profile": { "control-automation": 1, "narrative-generation": 2, "social-relations": 2 }, "mechanic_count": 5 }, "agency_model": [ "conversational", "direct-avatar" ], "agent_count_order": "1", "aliases": [ "Facade" ], "boundary_case": true, "core_loop": "type to or touch Grace and Trip -> parser maps input to a discourse act -> characters react and tension shifts -> drama manager picks the next beat -> secrets surface -> the couple reconciles, splits, or throws the player out", "design_notes": "Michael Mateas and Andrew Stern built Façade as a research artifact: Grace and Trip are written in A Behavior Language (ABL) as reactive behaviors, and a drama manager picks the next story beat from an authored library to follow a tension arc toward a climax. Typed text is mapped to a small set of discourse acts (the Versu paper counts 30 parameterized speech acts and 27 beats), which lets a limited body of authored dialogue answer open-ended input. It is a boundary case: the simulated systems are the parser, character behaviors, and beat sequencing over mostly authored dialogue, built for replay so players can find other outcomes.", "developer": "Procedural Arts", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "hard-restart", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "facade", "influence": 2, "mechanics": [ { "id": "natural-language-interaction", "note": "Typed sentences are matched by keywords and context to discourse acts such as agreeing, criticizing, or flirting, which Grace and Trip answer in character.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "storyteller-director", "note": "A drama manager chooses the next beat whose preconditions match the state, steering toward a rising tension arc and one of three endings.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "triggered-event-chains", "note": "Revelations such as a confessed affair fire only when earlier beats and player choices set them up.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "relationship-values", "note": "As the couple argues, the player's responses read as taking one side, which shapes later beats.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "direct-avatar", "note": "The player walks around the apartment in first person and can click objects or body parts to hug, comfort, or kiss.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Façade", "narrative_mode": "hybrid", "perspective": "first-person", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "inhabitant", "production_tier": "academic", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gc" }, "sim_domain": [ "social-interpersonal" ], "sim_scale": "household", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-facade", "src-evans-2014-versu" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "social-sim", "summary": "A free 2005 interactive drama in which the player types natural language as a dinner guest of the married couple Grace and Trip while a drama manager sequences authored beats toward one of three endings.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "scenario-goals", "year": 2005 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C04", "core_count": 8, "family_profile": { "conflict-defense": 1, "control-automation": 3, "environment-ecology": 1, "information-legibility": 1, "logistics-networks": 5, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "progression-goals": 2, "resources-production": 9, "risk-failure": 1, "space-construction": 3, "world-generation": 1 }, "incoming": { "influenced": [ "mindustry", "satisfactory" ], "precedent_for": [ "bottleneck-explainer", "event-sourced-sim-runtime", "generated-recipe-graphs", "language-modding", "mechanic-discovery-search", "parallel-autobalance", "sims-as-agent-benchmarks", "teachable-sim-companion" ] }, "mechanic_count": 28 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar", "zoning-placement", "programmatic" ], "agent_count_order": "1k", "claims": [ { "confidence": "medium", "sources": [ "src-rose-2014-factorio-trailer", "src-wikipedia-factorio" ], "text": "Factorio was publicly purchasable as an alpha from its official site in 2013, after the February 2013 Indiegogo campaign, three years before Steam early access on 2016-02-25; `year` records the 2013 alpha." }, { "confidence": "high", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-factorio" ], "text": "The design grew out of the Minecraft tech mods IndustrialCraft and BuildCraft, which lead designer Michal Kovarik cited; the `influenced_by` edge to Minecraft records that mod lineage." } ], "core_loop": "mine ore -> smelt and assemble on belts and inserters -> feed science packs to labs -> research new machines -> pollution draws biter attacks -> defend and expand outposts by rail -> launch a rocket", "design_notes": "Lead designer Michal Kovarik cited the Minecraft tech mods IndustrialCraft and BuildCraft; Factorio turned their pipes and machines into a standalone game where ratio planning and layout are the challenge. Item movement is discrete and deterministic (belts carry 15, 30, 45, or 60 items per second across two lanes), which makes throughput legible and lets the lockstep multiplayer simulate identical worlds. Pollution couples industry to combat: chunks above 15 units diffuse 2% to neighbors, spawners that absorb it send attack groups, and total pollution produced drives the enemy evolution factor. Each layer of logistics (belts, trains with block signals, roboport-based logistic and construction robots, circuit combinators) is a mechanic the player adopts when the previous one stops scaling, and blueprints let solved layouts be reused. Speed, productivity, and efficiency modules and beacons that trade power for throughput, and the rocket silo as a terminal sink for produced parts, have no taxonomy entry; this run proposed both.", "developer": "Wube Software", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "factorio", "influence": 4, "influenced_by": [ "minecraft" ], "mechanics": [ { "id": "production-chain", "note": "Assembling machines, furnaces, chemical plants, and refineries run fixed recipes with crafting times; science packs require multi-step trees from ore to circuits, oil products, and rocket parts.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "conveyor-transport", "note": "Two-lane belts in four tiers carry 15, 30, 45, or 60 items per second; splitters, undergrounds, and lane priorities shape flow, and inserters move items between belts and machines.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "tech-tree", "note": "Labs consume science packs of rising recipe complexity to research a technology graph that leads through oil processing, robots, and nuclear power to the rocket silo.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "resource-extraction", "note": "Electric and burner mining drills extract iron, copper, coal, stone, and uranium from ore patches at rates set by drill tier and mining productivity research; pumpjacks extract crude oil.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "pollution-spread", "note": "Machines emit pollution into 32x32 chunks; above 15 units a chunk diffuses 2% to each cardinal neighbor every 64 ticks, and water, grass, and trees absorb it.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "raid-defense", "note": "Biter and spitter nests send attack groups when their chunk absorbs pollution, recruiting units at pollution costs from 4 for a small biter to 400 for a behemoth; turrets, walls, and flamethrowers defend.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "adaptive-threat-scaling", "note": "An evolution factor rises with elapsed time, total pollution produced, and spawners destroyed, squashed as total over one plus total, and unlocks medium, big, and behemoth enemies.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "power-grid", "note": "Steam engines, solar panels, accumulators, and nuclear reactors feed a pole-connected grid; under shortage power is shared evenly so all machines slow proportionally.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "blueprints", "note": "Selected areas save to blueprints, books, and a personal library that persists across saves; exchange strings are shared online, and construction robots build pasted ghosts.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "rail-signaling", "note": "Rail and chain signals divide track into blocks that one train reserves at a time, letting train networks share track.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "vehicle-route-scheduling", "note": "Trains run schedules of stations with wait conditions on cargo, time, inactivity, or circuit signals.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "signal-circuits", "note": "Red and green wires carry item-count signals into arithmetic, decider, constant, and (in 2.0) selector combinators that control inserters, belts, train stops, and lamps.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "fluid-pipe-network", "note": "Pipes and pumps carry water, crude oil, petroleum, and steam; version 2.0 merged pipes into segments that share contents.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "deposit-depletion", "note": "Ore tiles run out as they are mined, and crude oil wells decline toward a 20% yield floor, pushing expansion to new patches.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "storage-capacity", "note": "Chests, storage tanks, and the logistic network's storage chests buffer items, and full outputs stall machines upstream.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "hand-crafting", "note": "The engineer crafts early buildings and items from inventory using the same recipes as assemblers, with a crafting queue.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "quality-tiers", "note": "The Space Age expansion adds five quality levels from normal to legendary, raised by chance from quality modules, with a recycler that returns 25% of ingredients.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "spoilage", "note": "In Space Age, Gleba's agricultural products spoil over fixed timers into spoilage, and recipe outputs inherit ingredient freshness.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "note": "Mods use a modified Lua 5.2 with data and control stages and are distributed through an in-game mod portal; overhauls such as Krastorio 2 replace progression.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "stats-dashboards", "note": "Production and consumption graphs per item over time windows and an electric network panel show where ratios fail.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "procedural-terrain", "note": "Maps are generated from a seed with settings for ore frequency, size, and richness, water, cliffs, and enemy bases.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "vertical-layers", "note": "Space Age elevated rails let a second track layer cross over ground tracks and buildings.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "direct-avatar", "note": "The engineer walks the map, mines by hand early, and places buildings within reach, later driving cars, tanks, and spidertrons.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "megaproject-sink", "note": "The rocket silo consumes rocket parts for each launch, and launching a rocket ends the base game; Space Age moves the goal to a space platform reaching the edge of the solar system.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "machine-boosting", "note": "Speed, productivity, efficiency, and (Space Age) quality modules fill machine slots, and beacons project module effects onto neighboring machines at a power cost; productivity bonuses are capped at +300%.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "request-provider-logistics", "note": "Roboports define logistic zones where logistic robots carry items among active provider, passive provider, storage, buffer, and requester chests by priority, one item per trip at 3 tiles per second before research.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "track-laying", "note": "Straight and curved rail pieces are placed to build train networks, with elevated rails in Space Age, and the rail planner lays segments between points.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "free-placement", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "total-conversion", "multiplayer": [ "single", "coop", "competitive" ], "name": "Factorio", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "top-down-2d", "platforms": [ "pc", "console", "handheld" ], "player_role": "engineer-designer", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gh", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes", "2026-10-25-store-ids-pilot" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "industrial-logistics", "computational-abstract", "military-conflict" ], "sim_scale": "facility", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-factorio", "src-rose-2014-factorio-trailer", "src-factoriowiki-2026-enemies", "src-factoriowiki-2026-pollution", "src-factoriowiki-2026-transport-belt-physics", "src-factoriowiki-2026-electric-system", "src-factoriowiki-2026-crude-oil", "src-factoriowiki-2026-rail-signal", "src-factoriowiki-2026-logistic-network", "src-factoriowiki-2026-space-age", "src-wube-2015-fff-88-combinators", "src-wube-2016-fff-170-blueprint-library", "src-wube-2023-fff-375-quality", "src-wube-2024-fff-414-spoils-of-agriculture", "src-wube-2024-fff-416-fluids", "src-wube-2026-factorio-lua-api" ], "status": "sourced", "store_ids": { "steam": 427520 }, "subgenre": "factory-automation", "summary": "A factory automation game in which the player builds belt, train, robot, and circuit networks that mine, refine, and assemble items on an alien planet while pollution provokes native biters that evolve over time.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2013, "year_full_release": 2020 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C02", "core_count": 4, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 1, "conflict-defense": 1, "control-automation": 1, "population-lineage": 2, "progression-goals": 1, "resources-production": 3, "risk-failure": 3, "social-relations": 1, "space-construction": 2, "time-pacing": 1 }, "mechanic_count": 16 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-unit", "zoning-placement" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "claims": [ { "confidence": "medium", "locator": "lead", "quote": "developed by Bethesda Game Studios, with assistance by Behaviour Interactive", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-fallout-shelter" ], "text": "Fallout Shelter was developed by Bethesda Game Studios with help from Behaviour Interactive." }, { "confidence": "high", "locator": "first paragraph", "quote": "Bethesda Softworks announced the free-to-play Fallout Shelter for iOS during its E3 2015 press conference.", "sources": [ "src-gematsu-2015-fallout-shelter-ios" ], "text": "Bethesda Softworks announced Fallout Shelter, a free-to-play iOS game, at its E3 2015 press conference." }, { "confidence": "medium", "locator": "Development", "quote": "would be released for iOS the same day", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-fallout-shelter" ], "text": "The iOS version was released on the day it was announced, 2015-06-14." }, { "confidence": "medium", "locator": "Development", "quote": "Little Computer People, Progress Quest, XCOM, SimCity and FTL: Faster Than Light", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-fallout-shelter" ], "text": "Pete Hines named Little Computer People, Progress Quest, XCOM, SimCity, and FTL as inspirations." }, { "confidence": "medium", "locator": "Gameplay", "quote": "by pairing a male and a female dweller in living quarters to produce children", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-fallout-shelter" ], "text": "Pairing a male and a female dweller in living quarters produces children." }, { "confidence": "medium", "locator": "Gameplay", "quote": "instead having the option to rush the room at the risk of triggering an incident", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-fallout-shelter" ], "text": "Rushing a room risks triggering an incident." }, { "confidence": "medium", "locator": "Fallout Shelter section", "quote": "other rooms will stop producing resources/working, starting with the rooms furthest from the power sources", "sources": [ "src-falloutwiki-2026-power-generator" ], "text": "When power runs short, rooms stop working starting with those farthest from the power sources." }, { "confidence": "medium", "locator": "Breeding", "quote": "Children have a 50% chance of inheriting the 'proficiency' (highest SPECIAL attribute) of either parent.", "sources": [ "src-falloutwiki-2026-vault-dwellers" ], "text": "A child has a 50 percent chance of inheriting either parent's highest SPECIAL stat." }, { "confidence": "medium", "locator": "Breeding", "quote": "After three hours from a Vault dweller's birth, they will become an adult and thus be assignable.", "sources": [ "src-falloutwiki-2026-vault-dwellers" ], "text": "Children become assignable adults three hours after birth." }, { "confidence": "medium", "locator": "Difficulty scaling", "quote": "get significantly stronger as your average dweller level increases", "sources": [ "src-therabidsquirel-2026-fallout-shelter-faq-incidents" ], "text": "Incidents and attacks grow stronger as the vault's average dweller level rises." }, { "confidence": "medium", "locator": "Spreading", "quote": "Incidents only spread when a room is empty", "sources": [ "src-therabidsquirel-2026-fallout-shelter-faq-incidents" ], "text": "Incidents spread only from rooms with no dwellers in them." }, { "confidence": "medium", "locator": "Section 4, happiness", "quote": "Dwellers normally stabilize at 50% happiness", "sources": [ "src-therabidsquirel-2026-fallout-shelter-faq-happiness" ], "text": "Dweller happiness settles at 50 percent by default." }, { "confidence": "low", "locator": "Section 4, happiness", "quote": "Be sure to have enough food and water to avoid either of those things happening", "sources": [ "src-therabidsquirel-2026-fallout-shelter-faq-happiness" ], "text": "Keeping enough food and water in stock prevents dwellers from becoming injured or irradiated." }, { "confidence": "medium", "locator": "1.1", "quote": "The game calculates everything when you load it up based on the current device time", "sources": [ "src-therabidsquirel-2026-fallout-shelter-faq-basics" ], "text": "Elapsed time is computed from the device clock when the game is loaded." }, { "confidence": "high", "locator": "About This Game", "quote": "Build the perfect Vault, keep your Dwellers happy, and protect them from the dangers of the Wasteland.", "sources": [ "src-steam-2017-fallout-shelter" ], "text": "The Steam edition lists Bethesda Game Studios as developer and describes building a vault and keeping dwellers happy." } ], "core_loop": "dig and build rooms in the vault cross-section -> drag dwellers into rooms matching their SPECIAL stats -> rooms produce power, food, and water on timed cycles -> rush a cycle at the risk of an incident -> recruit, rescue, and breed dwellers -> population thresholds unlock rooms and stronger attackers", "design_notes": "Fallout Shelter is a side-on cross-section of an underground vault built downward from the door, with elevators linking floors. Each production room reads one SPECIAL stat (Strength for power), and dwellers with more of that stat finish its cycle faster; adjacent rooms of the same type and level merge up to three wide, which raises output and cuts the upgrade cost per room. Power is shed by distance: when supply falls short, rooms farthest from the power sources stop first. Rushing a room completes its cycle at once but can trigger an incident; incidents also fire from a background timer whose chance rises until one is guaranteed, spread only from empty rooms to neighbours without revisiting a room, and grow stronger with average dweller level, room level, and room width. Dweller happiness settles at 50 percent, or 75 percent in a room matching the dweller's best stat, rises with successful rushes and breeding, and falls with injury, radiation, and bodies left in the vault. Wasteland exploration sends one dweller out alone for hours of real time to fight and collect caps, junk, weapons, and outfits, spending the stimpaks and RadAway they carry, until recalled, full, or dead (proposed as timed-expedition). When it loads, the game generates what happened while it was closed from the device clock and the last played time, but incidents only occur while it runs in the foreground.", "developer": "Bethesda Game Studios, Behaviour Interactive", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "fallout-shelter", "influence": 2, "influenced_by": [ "little-computer-people", "simcity-1989", "ftl" ], "mechanics": [ { "id": "goods-consumption", "note": "Dwellers draw down vault stocks of food and water; shortages injure and irradiate dwellers and lower their happiness.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "power-grid", "note": "Power generators staffed by high-Strength dwellers supply almost every room; when output falls short, rooms stop working starting with those farthest from the power sources.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "agent-skills", "note": "Each dweller has seven SPECIAL stats that training rooms raise one point at a time to 10; the matching stat sets production speed, and level-ups add health scaled by Endurance.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "romance-family", "note": "An adult man and woman placed in living quarters meet, talk, dance, and mate; related dwellers other than cousins, aunts, uncles, nephews, and nieces cannot mate.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "trait-inheritance", "note": "A child has a 50 percent chance of inheriting either parent's highest SPECIAL stat, and parents with maxed stats can produce children with far higher stat totals.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "lifecycle-aging", "note": "Pregnant dwellers give birth only when the vault has space, and children wander the vault for three hours before becoming assignable adults.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "unit-commands", "note": "The player drags individual dwellers into rooms, out to the wasteland, or into a room with an incident; dwellers do not choose their own jobs.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "free-placement", "note": "Rooms are dug into the rock on a grid next to existing rooms and elevators, and matching rooms placed side by side merge into double and triple rooms.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "vertical-layers", "note": "The vault is a stack of underground floors connected by elevator shafts, with the vault door at the top.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "milestone-unlocks", "note": "Room types unlock as the dweller population passes thresholds, such as the Nuclear Reactor at 60 dwellers.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "random-disasters", "note": "Fires, radroaches, mole rats, and radscorpions break out from a background timer or a failed rush and spread from empty rooms to adjacent ones.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "raid-defense", "note": "Raiders, feral ghouls, and deathclaws attack from outside through the vault door, and dwellers armed with scavenged weapons fight them in the rooms they reach.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "adaptive-threat-scaling", "note": "Incident and attack strength rises with the vault's average dweller level and with the level and width of the room under attack, and each attacker type appears only above a population threshold.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "hand-crafting", "note": "A 2016 update added workshop rooms that craft weapons and outfits from scavenged junk using found recipes.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "permadeath", "note": "In survival mode dead dwellers cannot be revived; in normal mode they can be revived for caps.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "real-time-clock", "note": "On load the game computes everything that happened since the last session from the device clock, so changing the device time breaks room timers.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Fallout Shelter", "narrative_mode": "hybrid", "perspective": "top-down-2d", "platforms": [ "mobile", "pc", "console", "handheld" ], "player_role": "overseer", "production_tier": "aa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-25-catalog-game-pilot" }, "sim_domain": [ "social-interpersonal", "industrial-logistics" ], "sim_scale": "settlement", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-fallout-shelter", "src-steam-2017-fallout-shelter", "src-gematsu-2015-fallout-shelter-ios", "src-falloutwiki-2026-vault-dwellers", "src-falloutwiki-2026-power-generator", "src-therabidsquirel-2026-fallout-shelter-faq-incidents", "src-therabidsquirel-2026-fallout-shelter-faq-basics", "src-therabidsquirel-2026-fallout-shelter-faq-happiness", "src-therabidsquirel-2026-fallout-shelter-faq-wasteland" ], "status": "sourced", "store_ids": { "steam": 588430 }, "subgenre": "colony-sim", "subgenre_secondary": [ "management-tycoon" ], "summary": "A vault management sim in which the Overseer builds rooms in an underground shelter, assigns dwellers to power, food, and water production by their SPECIAL stats, and grows the population through recruitment, rescue, and breeding.", "time_model": "real-world-clock", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2015 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C11", "core_count": 2, "family_profile": { "biology-health": 1, "control-automation": 1, "economy-finance": 2, "environment-ecology": 2, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "physics-materials": 2, "resources-production": 2, "risk-failure": 2, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "learned-weather-layer" ] }, "mechanic_count": 14 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar", "direct-unit" ], "agent_count_order": "10", "core_loop": "buy fields and machinery -> plow, seed, fertilize, and harvest with implements -> store or sell crops or feed productions and animals -> take contracts for extra income -> reinvest in land, buildings, and equipment", "design_notes": "Farming Simulator models agriculture as ordered field operations performed with specific implements, so the challenge is machine operation and fleet logistics rather than market strategy. FS25 lists 25 crop types including two rice varieties grown in paddies, spinach, peas, and green beans, adds water buffalo and goats, adds twisters and hail that damage crops, and deforms soft ground under tires. Dynamically generated contracts pay for work on other farms, and the in-game ModHub distributes developer-tested community vehicles, maps, and scripts.", "developer": "Giants Software", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "farming-simulator-25", "influence": 2, "mechanics": [ { "id": "crop-cultivation", "note": "Fields move through cultivating or plowing, seeding, fertilizing, weeding, and harvesting with matching implements; 25 crop types follow seasonal calendars, with rice grown in paddies.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "vehicle-dynamics", "note": "The player drives over 400 licensed vehicles and implements from more than 150 brands, each with its own power, speed, and weight; GPS-assisted steering automates straight passes.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "wear-breakdown", "note": "Vehicles accumulate wear and damage that reduce performance until repaired at a workshop.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "terrain-deformation", "note": "Tires leave tracks that deform soft ground.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "animal-husbandry", "note": "Cows, sheep, pigs, chickens, horses, water buffalo, and goats with offspring need feed and care and yield products.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "production-chain", "note": "Productions and farm shops convert crops into processed goods as business ventures.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "contracts-orders", "note": "Dynamically generated contracts such as mowing, fertilizing, or hauling pay for work on other farmers' fields.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "delegation-to-ai", "note": "Hired AI helpers drive vehicles to work fields while the player does other tasks.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "seasons", "note": "A seasonal cycle, introduced in FS22, sets planting and harvest windows.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "weather", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "random-disasters", "note": "Twisters and hail can damage crops.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "loans-debt", "note": "Bank loans fund early expansion.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "note": "ModHub distributes developer-tested community mods that add vehicles, maps, and scripts.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "scripting", "multiplayer": [ "single", "coop" ], "name": "Farming Simulator 25", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "third-person", "platforms": [ "pc", "console" ], "player_role": "operator-pilot", "production_tier": "aa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gc", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "occupational", "biological-ecological", "economic" ], "sim_scale": "facility", "sources": [ "src-steam-2024-farming-simulator-25", "src-wikipedia-farming-simulator" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "farming-sim", "subgenre_secondary": [ "vehicle-sim" ], "summary": "The 2024 entry in Giants Software's series in which the player runs a farm business by operating over 400 licensed vehicles and implements across seasonal field work, livestock, forestry, and production chains.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2024 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C03", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "conflict-defense": 1, "economy-finance": 1, "environment-ecology": 2, "population-lineage": 1, "progression-goals": 1, "resources-production": 4, "risk-failure": 1, "space-construction": 2, "time-pacing": 1 }, "mechanic_count": 14 }, "agency_model": [ "zoning-placement", "policy-parameter", "direct-unit" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "core_loop": "gather, hunt, forage, and farm -> rotate crops to hold soil fertility -> feed a varied diet and supply clean water, clothing, and healers against disease -> upgrade housing and the town center as desirability rises -> fortify against raiders drawn by prosperity", "design_notes": "Farthest Frontier makes public health the main failure path: dysentery, cholera, tetanus, rabies, frostbite, and bubonic plague each have causes the player can address with clean water, clothing and shoes, healers, and rat catchers. Farming adds soil state, with 12 crops that must be rotated and fields improved by clearing weeds and rocks, and 19 food types with berries and greens preventing scurvy. Prosperity raises raider strength, so growth itself increases military pressure.", "developer": "Crate Entertainment", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "cascading-collapse", "fidelity": "systemic", "id": "farthest-frontier", "influence": 1, "mechanics": [ { "id": "crop-cultivation", "note": "Twelve crops with rotation to preserve soil fertility; fields improve by clearing weeds and rocks and adjusting the soil mix.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "contagion", "note": "Dysentery, cholera, tetanus, rabies, frostbite, and plague spread or strike based on water, clothing, rats, and healer coverage.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "goods-consumption", "note": "Nineteen food types; diet variety, including berries and greens against scurvy, is needed for health.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "adaptive-threat-scaling", "note": "Rising prosperity draws stronger raiders and foreign armies; difficulty is adjustable and pacifist mode removes them.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "raid-defense", "note": "Palisades, stone walls, towers, barracks, and equipped soldiers.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "population-strata", "note": "Housing and the town center advance through tiers as prosperity and desirability grow.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "decoration-beauty", "note": "Desirability from surroundings gates housing upgrades.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "tech-tree", "note": "A tree of over 140 points of upgrades.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "seasons", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "production-chain", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "trade-routes", "note": "Crafted goods are traded for resources the town lacks.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "free-placement", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "storage-capacity", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Farthest Frontier", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "free-3d", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "planner-mayor", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-ga", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "urban", "biological-ecological", "military-conflict" ], "sim_scale": "settlement", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-farthest-frontier", "src-steam-2026-farthest-frontier" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "city-builder", "summary": "A frontier-town city builder in which crop rotation, soil fertility, diet variety, clean water, and healers decide whether named diseases spread, while prosperity draws stronger raiders against walled defenses.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2022, "year_full_release": 2025 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C22", "core_count": 4, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 3, "economy-finance": 3, "information-legibility": 2, "narrative-generation": 1, "population-lineage": 1, "risk-failure": 1, "social-relations": 3, "world-generation": 1 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "explained-delegation" ] }, "mechanic_count": 15 }, "agency_model": [ "policy-parameter", "direct-unit" ], "agent_count_order": "10k-plus", "aliases": [ "Worldwide Soccer Manager" ], "core_loop": "scout and sign players -> set tactics and training -> the match engine simulates fixtures from attributes and instructions -> morale, form, and finances shift -> the board and fans judge results -> rebuild the squad over seasons", "design_notes": "Football Manager simulates the whole football world from a database of real players, staff, and clubs maintained by fan researchers, with tens of thousands of players developing, aging, and moving in loaded leagues. Matches are simulated from player attributes and tactical instructions and shown through a 2D engine in FM 2005 and a 3D engine from FM 2009. Information is uncertain: scouts and analysts reveal attributes and fit, and scout knowledge of an area is tracked (as 0 to 100 percent from FM 2018). Everton agreed in 2008 to use the database for scouting. Contract and transfer talks and the board's job-security judgment have no matching mechanics in the taxonomy (proposed as negotiation and board-confidence). The series began as Championship Manager in 1992 and was relaunched under this name with FM 2005 in 2004.", "developer": "Sports Interactive", "emergence": 4, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "high-fidelity", "id": "football-manager", "influence": 4, "mechanics": [ { "id": "attribute-match-engine", "note": "Fixtures are simulated event by event from each player's attributes, condition, and morale and the manager's tactics and touchline instructions, shown in 2D or 3D.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "scouting-knowledge", "note": "Players' attributes are shown only as well as the club's scouts know them; scout knowledge accumulates per region and is shown as a percentage from FM 2018.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "staff-hiring", "note": "Players and staff are signed through transfers, loans, and contracts with wages, bonuses, and agents.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "agent-skills", "note": "Player attributes develop through training schedules, match experience, and coaching quality up to individual potential.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "lifecycle-aging", "note": "Players peak and decline with age, retire, and are replaced by yearly youth intakes.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "procedural-characters", "note": "Generated youth players enter the database each season alongside the real ones.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "personality-traits", "note": "Personality and hidden attributes such as professionalism affect development and reactions.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "relationship-values", "note": "Squad hierarchy, cohesion, and player opinions of the manager are tracked from FM 2018.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "social-exchanges", "note": "Team talks and private conversations with players praise, criticize, or promise, changing morale.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "dilemma-cards", "note": "Press conferences pose questions with answer options that change morale and media relations.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "reputation", "note": "Club and manager reputation set who will sign; board and fan confidence decide whether the manager is sacked.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "budget-treasury", "note": "Club finances cover wage and transfer budgets, with taxes added in FM 2013.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "stats-dashboards", "note": "Data analysts and statistics screens report player and team performance.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "negotiation", "note": "Transfer fees are negotiated with selling clubs and contracts with players and their agents over wages, length, bonuses, and clauses, and talks can break down.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "board-confidence", "note": "The board sets season expectations and, with fan confidence, judges results against them; falling confidence brings warnings and then sacking.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "content", "multiplayer": [ "single", "competitive" ], "name": "Football Manager", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "text-ui", "platforms": [ "pc", "mobile", "handheld", "console" ], "player_role": "manager-owner", "production_tier": "aa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-ge" }, "sim_domain": [ "sports", "economic", "social-interpersonal" ], "sim_scale": "household", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-football-manager", "src-wikipedia-football-manager-2005" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "sports-management", "summary": "A football club management series in which the player sets tactics, training, transfers, and finances while a match engine simulates games from the attributes of players drawn from a researched database of real footballers.", "time_model": "turn-based", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2004 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C03", "core_count": 2, "family_profile": { "economy-finance": 2, "progression-goals": 1, "resources-production": 2, "space-construction": 3, "time-pacing": 1 }, "mechanic_count": 9 }, "agency_model": [ "zoning-placement", "policy-parameter" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "core_loop": "paint residential, road, patrol, and forestry zones -> villagers build homes inside them -> assign workers and production chains -> trade with neighbors and pay taxes -> advance Labor, Clergy, or Kingdom estates -> assemble monuments from parts", "design_notes": "Foundation separates intent from layout: the player paints areas for homes, roads, patrols, and forestry, and housing appears inside them without a grid. Major buildings are not fixed footprints but assemblies of parts, so a monument's function and capacity follow from the modules chosen. Progress runs along three estates, which can be specialized or combined.", "developer": "Polymorph Games", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "foundation", "influence": 1, "mechanics": [ { "id": "zoning", "note": "A painting tool marks areas for homes, roads, patrol routes, and forest extraction; homes fill residential zones organically.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "modular-assembly", "note": "Buildings and monuments are assembled from individual parts whose choice sets function and appearance.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "free-placement", "note": "Buildings are placed and rotated without a grid.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "production-chain", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "trade-routes", "note": "Trade with neighboring villages.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "taxation", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "milestone-unlocks", "note": "Progress unlocks through tiers guided by a book, along Labor, Clergy, or Kingdom estates.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "goods-consumption", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "content", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Foundation", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "free-3d", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "planner-mayor", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-ga", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "urban", "economic", "political-governance" ], "sim_scale": "settlement", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-foundation-video-game", "src-steam-2026-foundation" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "city-builder", "summary": "A gridless medieval city builder in which painted zones grow homes organically, monuments are assembled from modular parts, and the village advances along Labor, Clergy, or Kingdom estates.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2019, "year_full_release": 2025 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C16", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "control-automation": 2, "environment-ecology": 2, "physics-materials": 1, "progression-goals": 1, "risk-failure": 1, "space-construction": 1 }, "mechanic_count": 8 }, "agency_model": [ "supernatural-intervention", "direct-unit" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "core_loop": "carry sand, water, and lava with the Breath -> reshape terrain to open paths -> send villagers to totems to found villages -> vegetation spreads across soil -> divert tsunamis, floods, fires, and eruptions -> unlock powers and reach the portal", "design_notes": "Designed by Eric Chahi and presented as a spiritual successor to Populous, it replaces discrete land raising with a continuous material simulation: water flows and erodes, lava cools into solid rock, and soil lets vegetation spread once a village is founded, fast enough that islands can be reshaped within minutes. The cursor, called the Breath, carries matter and changes appearance to match it, replacing a conventional HUD. Disasters are announced shortly before they hit, so each map alternates between building and short preparation windows.", "developer": "Ubisoft Montpellier", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "from-dust", "influence": 2, "influenced_by": [ "populous" ], "mechanics": [ { "id": "terraforming", "note": "The Breath picks up and deposits sand, water, and lava in real time to build land bridges, dams, and barriers.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "hydrology", "note": "Water flows over the terrain, erodes it, and floods low ground and villages; tsunamis sweep across islands.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "material-interactions", "note": "Lava cools into solid rock, water erodes soil, fire burns vegetation, and powers can jellify or remove water.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "god-powers", "note": "Powers such as jellifying water are granted by completing objectives; magical stones protect against water and fire.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "random-disasters", "note": "Tsunamis and eruptions, announced shortly before by shamans.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "fire-spread", "note": "Wildfires spread through vegetation and can be extinguished.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "unit-commands", "note": "Villagers are sent to totems to found villages.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "scenario-objectives", "note": "Each map is cleared by settling every totem to open a portal.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "From Dust", "narrative_mode": "authored", "perspective": "free-3d", "platforms": [ "console", "pc", "web" ], "player_role": "god", "production_tier": "aa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gb" }, "sim_domain": [ "planetary-natural", "physical-mechanical" ], "sim_scale": "region", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-from-dust" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "god-game", "subgenre_secondary": [ "physics-sandbox" ], "summary": "A god game in which the player carries sand, water, and lava across islands whose material simulation erodes, floods, and hardens terrain, protecting a tribe as it founds villages at totems.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "campaign", "year": 2011 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C17", "core_count": 4, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 1, "economy-finance": 1, "environment-ecology": 1, "governance-policy": 2, "information-legibility": 1, "logistics-networks": 1, "narrative-generation": 1, "progression-goals": 1, "resources-production": 2, "space-construction": 1, "time-pacing": 2 }, "incoming": { "influenced": [ "frostpunk-2" ], "precedent_for": [ "branch-preview-forecasts", "content-elastic-events", "drama-aware-storyteller", "placement-that-tells-stories" ] }, "mechanic_count": 14 }, "agency_model": [ "zoning-placement", "policy-parameter" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "core_loop": "keep the coal generator fueled -> heat districts and insulate buildings as temperatures fall -> assign workers to gather coal, wood, steel, and food -> sign laws that trade welfare for productivity -> balance hope and discontent -> survive the storm", "design_notes": "The city is radial around one generator that heats a circular area, so layout is a function of heat range and fuel, and a coal shortage or overload can end the run. The Book of Laws sequences laws so that early compromises such as child labor or extended shifts open harsher later options, and Order or Faith paths lead toward totalitarian rule, turning policy into moral pressure tracked by hope and discontent. Building heat versus falling outside temperature has no exact taxonomy mechanic (see run proposal); 11 bit studios cites This War of Mine as the origin of its aim for meaningful entertainment, now applied to a whole society.", "developer": "11 bit studios", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "hard-restart", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "frostpunk", "influence": 3, "influenced_by": [ "this-war-of-mine" ], "mechanics": [ { "id": "policy-toggles", "note": "The Book of Laws offers adaptation laws such as child labor, extended shifts, and prosthetics, plus Order or Faith paths whose later laws are harsher.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "citizen-satisfaction", "note": "Hope and Discontent meters respond to laws, events, and conditions; hope too low or discontent too high for too long ends the game in revolt.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "crisis-countdown", "note": "Temperature falls on a schedule toward the Great Storm, which the main scenario must be survived through.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "service-coverage", "note": "The generator heats a circular area whose range and level the player raises; buildings outside heat need insulation or heaters.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "resource-extraction", "note": "Coal, wood, steel, and food come from thumpers, sawmills, mines, and hunters.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "labor-market", "note": "Workers, engineers, and children fill different job types.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "daily-schedules", "note": "Citizens work daylight shifts; emergency shifts extend hours at a cost.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "fog-of-war", "note": "Scouts explore the frozen wasteland map for survivors and resources, the only way to grow the workforce.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "dilemma-cards", "note": "Individual decisions, such as how to handle an injured child, offer choices that shift hope and discontent.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "tech-tree", "note": "Workshops research heat, extraction, and automaton technologies.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "weather", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "free-placement", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "storage-capacity", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Frostpunk", "narrative_mode": "hybrid", "perspective": "free-3d", "platforms": [ "pc", "console", "mobile" ], "player_role": "ruler-statesman", "production_tier": "aa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-ga", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "urban", "political-governance", "planetary-natural" ], "sim_scale": "settlement", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-frostpunk" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "city-builder", "subgenre_secondary": [ "survival-sim" ], "summary": "A survival city builder in which the leader of the last city around a coal generator must keep falling temperatures at bay while signing laws that trade citizens' welfare against productivity under hope and discontent meters.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "survival-duration", "year": 2018 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C05", "core_count": 4, "family_profile": { "governance-policy": 4, "progression-goals": 2, "resources-production": 1, "space-construction": 2, "time-pacing": 2 }, "mechanic_count": 11 }, "agency_model": [ "zoning-placement", "policy-parameter" ], "agent_count_order": "aggregate", "core_loop": "build food, housing, extraction, and industry districts -> heat districts from the generator -> factions propose ideas and laws -> negotiate council votes -> faction tension rises or falls -> survive whiteouts and found colonies", "design_notes": "Frostpunk 2 moves from single buildings to districts and from one leader's decree to a council: 100 delegates, each tied to a faction, vote on every proposed law, with 51 votes for most laws and two thirds for laws that expand the Steward's power. Negotiated promises that are not kept anger factions, and tension between factions can escalate into murder and civil war, so the developer describes social survival as more important than environmental threats. Population is handled as district-level aggregates rather than individual workers.", "developer": "11 bit studios", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "hard-restart", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "frostpunk-2", "influence": 1, "influenced_by": [ "frostpunk" ], "mechanics": [ { "id": "zoning", "note": "Districts for food, housing, extraction, and industry are placed on frost; buildings inside add functions.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "elections", "note": "A council of 100 faction delegates votes on each proposed law; 51 votes pass most laws, two thirds pass laws that grant the Steward more power.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "interest-groups", "note": "Factions with conflicting ideals react to adopted ideas and laws; radicals grow within factions.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "policy-toggles", "note": "Laws are proposed, negotiated with promises, and enacted when the council approves.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "stability-unrest", "note": "Faction tension can escalate into murder and civil war.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "tech-tree", "note": "An Idea Tree of faction-proposed ideas to solve problems.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "crisis-countdown", "note": "Whiteouts are severe storms prepared for with fuel reserves.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "resource-extraction", "note": "Food, coal, oil, and steam come from frostland deposits and districts.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "scenario-objectives", "note": "Utopia Builder mode sets an objective and optional challenges that fail the run if missed.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "free-placement", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "content", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Frostpunk 2", "narrative_mode": "hybrid", "perspective": "free-3d", "platforms": [ "pc", "console" ], "player_role": "ruler-statesman", "production_tier": "aa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-ga", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "urban", "political-governance", "planetary-natural" ], "sim_scale": "city", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-frostpunk-2" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "city-builder", "subgenre_secondary": [ "political-sim", "survival-sim" ], "summary": "The sequel to Frostpunk, in which the Steward builds whole districts on the frost and must pass laws through a council of 100 faction delegates while faction tension can escalate into civil war.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "campaign", "year": 2024 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C17", "core_count": 6, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 2, "conflict-defense": 1, "control-automation": 1, "environment-ecology": 1, "information-legibility": 1, "narrative-generation": 1, "physics-materials": 1, "resources-production": 1, "risk-failure": 2, "time-pacing": 2, "world-generation": 1 }, "incoming": { "influenced": [ "fallout-shelter" ] }, "mechanic_count": 14 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-unit", "policy-parameter" ], "agent_count_order": "10", "aliases": [ "FTL" ], "core_loop": "jump to a beacon -> resolve an event or fight -> allocate reactor power and direct crew under fire -> repair breaches, fires, and systems -> spend scrap on upgrades -> stay ahead of the rebel fleet to the flagship", "design_notes": "FTL models a ship as rooms with oxygen levels, doors, systems, and crew positions; hits create breaches, fires, and system damage that crew must walk to and repair, so a combat is a spatial triage problem as well as a damage race. The reactor's power bars are the central budget shared by shields, engines, weapons, oxygen, and medbay, and the player shifts them during paused combat. Manual reactor power allocation and per-system damage that removes capacity until repaired have no dedicated taxonomy ids (power-grid is the closest fit); both are recorded as new-mechanic proposals.", "developer": "Subset Games", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "hard-restart", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "ftl", "influence": 3, "mechanics": [ { "id": "fluid-gas-simulation", "note": "Each room has an oxygen level that equalizes through open doors, drains through hull breaches and opened airlocks, and is refilled by the oxygen system; crew suffocate in empty rooms.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "fire-spread", "note": "Hits and events start fires that spread between rooms, damage systems and crew, and burn oxygen; crew extinguish them or the player vents the room.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "crisis-countdown", "note": "Each jump advances the rebel fleet across the sector map; overtaken beacons yield hard fights and no reward, forcing a trade between exploration and speed.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "permadeath", "note": "Losing the ship or all crew ends the run and deletes the save; dead crew members are gone.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "agent-skills", "note": "Crew gain skill in piloting, engines, shields, weapons, repair, and combat through use, improving station bonuses.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "personality-traits", "note": "Eight species have fixed traits such as faster repair, fire immunity, or extra combat damage.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "unit-commands", "note": "The player moves crew between rooms to man stations, repair systems and breaches, fight boarders, and put out fires; crew act on their own only within the room they occupy.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "procedural-terrain", "note": "Each sector is a generated map of about twenty beacons with stores, hazards, and events.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "triggered-event-chains", "note": "Beacon events offer text choices, with extra options unlocked by specific crew, systems, or equipment, and some quests chain across beacons.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "fog-of-war", "note": "Beacon contents are unknown until visited unless revealed by upgrades such as long-range scanners.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "note": "Pause is the main tactical tool for issuing orders mid-combat.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "power-allocation", "note": "Reactor power bars are assigned among shields, engines, weapons, oxygen, medbay, and other systems, usually while paused in combat; each system caps how many bars it accepts, and damage removes usable bars until crew repair it.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "stat-combat-resolution", "note": "Each weapon shot rolls against the target's evasion, shield layers absorb hits, and hits damage the room and the system inside it.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "subsystem-damage", "note": "Hits damage the system in the struck room (shields, weapons, engines, oxygen, piloting), removing its usable power bars until crew repair it, and the player targets enemy rooms to disable specific systems.", "role": "core" } ], "modding": "content", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "FTL: Faster Than Light", "narrative_mode": "hybrid", "perspective": "top-down-2d", "platforms": [ "pc", "mobile" ], "player_role": "commander", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gg" }, "sim_domain": [ "cosmic-space", "military-conflict" ], "sim_scale": "household", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-ftl" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "space-sim", "summary": "A roguelite starship sim where the player allocates reactor power and directs crew through room-level oxygen, fire, breach, and system-damage simulation while fleeing a rebel fleet across eight sectors.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "campaign", "year": 2012 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C01", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 1, "economy-finance": 5, "progression-goals": 3, "social-relations": 1 }, "mechanic_count": 10 }, "agency_model": [ "policy-parameter", "direct-unit" ], "agent_count_order": "10", "aliases": [ "ゲーム発展途上国" ], "claims": [ { "confidence": "medium", "locator": "lead", "quote": "It was released for Windows in April 1997", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-game-dev-story" ], "text": "Game Dev Story was first released for Windows in April 1997." }, { "confidence": "medium", "locator": "Gameplay", "quote": "The player takes control of a start-up video game developer, with the goal of making hit titles and consoles in order to make money.", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-game-dev-story" ], "text": "The player runs a start-up developer that makes games and consoles to earn money." }, { "confidence": "medium", "locator": "Reviews", "quote": "The critics can give you 10 points each, for a total of 40.", "sources": [ "src-kairosoftwiki-2026-gds-creating-games" ], "text": "Four critics review each released game for up to 10 points each." }, { "confidence": "medium", "locator": "Consoles", "quote": "Once a console is removed from the market, you may no longer create games for it.", "sources": [ "src-kairosoftwiki-2026-gds-consoles" ], "text": "A console removed from the market can no longer be targeted by new games." }, { "confidence": "medium", "locator": "Custom consoles", "quote": "To make a console, you must have at least one Hardware Engineer.", "sources": [ "src-kairosoftwiki-2026-gds-consoles" ], "text": "Building a custom console requires at least one hardware engineer." }, { "confidence": "medium", "locator": "review body", "quote": "The game \"stops\" at the 20-year marker to tally your accomplishments", "sources": [ "src-giantbomb-2010-game-dev-story-review" ], "text": "The game tallies the player's accomplishments at the 20-year mark, and play can continue afterwards." }, { "confidence": "high", "locator": "About This Game", "quote": "Hire talented people and train them to develop their skills.", "sources": [ "src-steam-2022-game-dev-story" ], "text": "The Steam edition describes hiring staff and training their skills." } ], "core_loop": "hire staff -> pick a licensed platform, a genre, and a type -> staff build fun, creativity, graphics, and sound points while bugs appear -> debug, release, and four critics score the game -> weekly sales and fans fund training, ads, licenses, and office moves -> tally at year 20", "design_notes": "Game Dev Story turns a studio into a calendar of releases. Each game takes one genre and one type from lists that grow as staff gain experience, and each pairing is rated from poor to excellent, which strongly moves sales; the platform must be licensed unless it is PC. A development direction trades cost against speed, quality, and research data. Staff in four basic careers (coder, writer, designer, sound engineer) produce Fun, Creativity, Graphics, and Sound points plus bugs; debugging removes bugs and yields research data, and a game released early can be marked down for its bugs. Four critics score each release out of 10, and 32 of 40 enters the Hall of Fame and allows a sequel. Fictional consoles enter and leave the market on set dates with a three-month warning, and a studio with a hardware engineer in its third office can build its own console from a chosen type, CPU, and media. Calendar events recur yearly: a July convention where the studio buys a booth, a December awards show gated on review totals, and a salesman who sells the career change manual. Accomplishments are tallied at the 20-year mark, though play can continue.", "developer": "Kairosoft", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "game-dev-story", "influence": 3, "mechanics": [ { "id": "product-development", "note": "Each game is a platform, genre, type, and direction choice; staff accumulate four point totals and bugs, and four critics turn the result into scores out of 40 and a weekly sales run.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "staff-hiring", "note": "The player hires staff with differing stats and salaries through recruiting methods unlocked by office size, and assigns them to the proposal, graphics, and sound of each game.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "agent-skills", "note": "Staff stats for program, scenario, graphics, and sound rise through paid training and levels gained in their current career.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "career-ladder", "note": "Each of eight careers levels to 5; level 5 in two basic careers opens director or producer, those open hardware engineer, and that opens hacker, applied with a career change manual.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "dated-tech-timeline", "note": "Fictional consoles become available and leave the market on fixed in-game dates, after which no new games can be made for them.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "contracts-orders", "note": "Between games the studio takes contract jobs with deadlines of several weeks that pay cash and research data, and failing one costs the fee and reputation.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "advertising-awareness", "note": "Paid advertising, from magazine ads up to far costlier campaigns unlocked with bigger offices, builds popularity and loses effect when the same type is repeated.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "reputation", "note": "Popularity with each age group and gender rises or falls with reviews, fan letters, and convention booths, and a failed contract costs reputation.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "milestone-unlocks", "note": "Office upgrades become available after set years and cost large sums, adding seats and new training, advertising, and hiring methods.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "budget-treasury", "note": "Salaries, licenses, training, and development costs draw on studio funds, and running out of money during development cancels the game.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Game Dev Story", "narrative_mode": "hybrid", "perspective": "top-down-2d", "platforms": [ "pc", "mobile", "handheld", "console" ], "player_role": "manager-owner", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-25-catalog-game-pilot" }, "sim_domain": [ "economic", "occupational" ], "sim_scale": "facility", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-game-dev-story", "src-steam-2022-game-dev-story", "src-kairosoftwiki-2026-gds-creating-games", "src-kairosoftwiki-2026-gds-careers", "src-kairosoftwiki-2026-gds-consoles", "src-kairosoftwiki-2026-game-dev-story", "src-giantbomb-2010-game-dev-story-review" ], "status": "sourced", "store_ids": { "steam": 1847240 }, "subgenre": "business-economic-sim", "subgenre_secondary": [ "management-tycoon" ], "summary": "A game-studio management sim in which the player hires and trains staff, licenses consoles, and develops games from genre and type combinations that four critics score across a twenty-year span.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "score-ranking", "year": 1997 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C01", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 1, "economy-finance": 4, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "narrative-generation": 1, "progression-goals": 3, "social-relations": 1, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "human-calibrated-customers", "scientists-not-tech-trees" ] }, "mechanic_count": 12 }, "agency_model": [ "policy-parameter" ], "agent_count_order": "10", "core_loop": "choose topic, genre, platform, and audience -> allocate focus across three development stages -> design and technology points accumulate with bugs -> reviews score the game -> sales and fans -> research, engines, and hires", "design_notes": "Game Dev Tycoon reduces game making to a configuration problem scored by a hidden market model: each topic and genre pair, each genre and audience pair, and each platform carry fit weights, and each genre favors a particular split of effort across the development stages. Review scores compare the new game against the player's previous best, so the bar rises as the studio improves. A fictional timeline of parody consoles enters and leaves the market from the 1980s onward, which forces platform bets (date-driven availability is proposed as dated-tech-timeline). Greenheart released its own cracked copy in which piracy bankrupts the in-game studio.", "developer": "Greenheart Games", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "hard-restart", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "game-dev-tycoon", "influence": 2, "mechanics": [ { "id": "product-development", "note": "Each game is a topic, genre, platform, and audience pick plus focus sliders across three development stages; reviews score its fit and quality against the studio's best.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "staff-hiring", "note": "After moving out of the garage, the player hires designers and programmers with design, technology, and speed stats and assigns them to development tasks.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "tech-tree", "note": "Research points unlock new topics, genres, and engine features; custom engines bundle researched features and raise technology output.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "agent-skills", "note": "Staff gain experience and can be sent to training to raise stats or specialize.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "budget-treasury", "note": "Salaries, office upkeep, and development costs drain cash between releases; running out ends the game.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "milestone-unlocks", "note": "Bigger offices, R&D and hardware labs, and larger projects unlock as money and fans grow.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "reputation", "note": "A fan count from past releases scales sales of future games.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "triggered-event-chains", "note": "Industry news, console launches, and studio events fire on a fixed historical timeline.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "note": "Mods are written in JavaScript through the gdt-modAPI and shared on the Steam Workshop.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "advertising-awareness", "note": "Marketing campaigns bought during development raise a game's hype, which boosts its launch sales.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "dated-tech-timeline", "note": "Fictional consoles launch and retire on a fixed in-game calendar from the 1980s onward, so platform choice is a bet on a console's remaining market life.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "scripting", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Game Dev Tycoon", "narrative_mode": "hybrid", "perspective": "isometric", "platforms": [ "pc", "mobile", "handheld" ], "player_role": "manager-owner", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-ge", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "economic", "occupational" ], "sim_scale": "facility", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-game-dev-tycoon" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "business-economic-sim", "summary": "A game-studio business sim where the player picks topic, genre, and platform for each game, splits development effort across design and technology focus areas, and lives or dies by review scores across the history of the industry.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "score-ranking", "year": 2012 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C13", "core_count": 1, "family_profile": { "space-construction": 1, "time-pacing": 2 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "llm-society-terrarium", "open-ended-evolution-sandbox" ] }, "mechanic_count": 3 }, "agency_model": [ "design-then-test" ], "agent_count_order": "none", "aliases": [ "Life", "Game of Life" ], "core_loop": "place live cells on the grid -> apply birth on 3 and survival on 2 or 3 neighbors to every cell at once -> pattern stabilizes, oscillates, dies, or emits gliders -> observe -> edit the seed and rerun", "design_notes": "Conway's rule is the minimal case of emergence from local update: each cell's next state depends only on how many of its eight neighbors are alive, all cells update simultaneously, and the only input is the initial pattern. The rule is Turing complete, so whether an arbitrary pattern stops changing is undecidable, and decades of discovery (Gosper's period-30 glider gun of November 1970, the R-pentomino's 1,103-generation run) came from players searching seeds. Simulators such as Golly add Hashlife for large time jumps and scripting for rule variants. The rule itself is not yet a mechanic in the taxonomy (proposal cellular-automaton-rule), so the decomposition records seeding, stepping, and run speed.", "developer": "John Horton Conway", "emergence": 5, "failure_model": "none", "fidelity": "abstract", "id": "game-of-life", "influence": 5, "mechanics": [ { "id": "free-placement", "note": "The player's only act is toggling cells on the grid to set the seed before running generations.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "note": "Computer implementations step one generation at a time or run continuously; later simulators such as Golly use Hashlife to jump far ahead in time.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "turn-structure", "note": "Each generation is a discrete synchronous update the player can step through one at a time.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Conway's Game of Life", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "top-down-2d", "platforms": [ "mainframe-early", "pc", "web", "mobile" ], "player_role": "observer-gardener", "production_tier": "academic", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gd", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes", "2026-10-25-contributor-readiness" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "computational-abstract" ], "sim_scale": "micro", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-conways-game-of-life" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "artificial-life", "summary": "A zero-player cellular automaton on an infinite square grid in which each cell lives or dies by the B3/S23 neighbor-count rule, producing gliders, oscillators, and universal computation from a seeded pattern.", "time_model": "run-on-demand", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 1970 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C09", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "control-automation": 3, "multiplayer-persistence": 2, "physics-materials": 1, "space-construction": 1 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "language-modding" ] }, "mechanic_count": 7 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar", "programmatic" ], "agent_count_order": "10", "aliases": [ "GMod" ], "core_loop": "spawn props, ragdolls, and NPCs -> move and freeze them with the physics gun -> weld, rope, and motor them with the tool gun -> test the contraption or scene -> share it, or play a community game mode built on the same tools", "design_notes": "Garry's Mod exposes the Source engine's rigid-body physics directly: the physics gun grabs, rotates, and freezes any prop, and the tool gun adds welds, ropes, axles, motors, thrusters, and other constraints, so contraptions are built from rigid bodies and joints. Its larger contribution is that the whole game is scriptable in Lua and servers download addons on join, so most play happens inside player-made game modes such as Trouble in Terrorist Town, Prop Hunt, and DarkRP, and the add-on Wiremod adds sensors and logic gates. Garry's Mod began as a free Half-Life 2 mod in 2004 and became a paid Steam product in 2006.", "developer": "Facepunch Studios", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "none", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "garrys-mod", "influence": 4, "mechanics": [ { "id": "rigid-body-physics", "note": "Every spawned prop and ragdoll is a physics object; the physics gun lifts, rotates, and freezes them, and collisions, gravity, and buoyancy follow the Source physics engine.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "modular-assembly", "note": "The tool gun joins props with welds, ropes, axles, sliders, winches, motors, wheels, and thrusters, turning loose props into vehicles and machines.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "modding-api", "note": "A Lua API covers entities, weapons, HUD, and game rules; servers send addons to clients on join, and community game modes (TTT, Prop Hunt, DarkRP) became the main way people play.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "direct-avatar", "note": "The player is a first-person character who walks, flies with noclip, and wields the physics and tool guns.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "content-sharing", "note": "Steam Workshop distributes saves, dupes, maps, and addons.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "signal-circuits", "note": "The Wiremod addon adds wires, sensors, gates, and programmable chips to contraptions.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "blueprints", "note": "The duplicator tool and Advanced Duplicator addon copy and paste multi-prop contraptions.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "total-conversion", "multiplayer": [ "single", "coop", "competitive" ], "name": "Garry's Mod", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "first-person", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "engineer-designer", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gg", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-25-store-ids-pilot" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "physical-mechanical", "computational-abstract" ], "sim_scale": "individual", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-garrys-mod" ], "status": "sourced", "store_ids": { "steam": 4000 }, "subgenre": "physics-sandbox", "summary": "A Source engine physics sandbox in which players spawn props, ragdolls, and NPCs, join them with welds and constraints, and script whole new multiplayer game modes in Lua.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2004 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C08", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 2, "information-legibility": 1, "narrative-generation": 1, "social-relations": 3 }, "incoming": { "deploys": [ "generative-agents" ], "influenced": [ "project-sid" ], "precedent_for": [ "llm-society-terrarium" ] }, "mechanic_count": 7 }, "agency_model": [ "conversational", "indirect-incentive" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "aliases": [ "Smallville", "Generative Agents: Interactive Simulacra of Human Behavior" ], "claims": [ { "confidence": "high", "sources": [ "src-park-2023-generative-agents" ], "text": "In the two-day end-to-end run, relationship network density rose from 0.167 to 0.74 and five agents attended the Valentine's Day party." } ], "core_loop": "agents perceive nearby events and objects -> observations enter the memory stream -> retrieve memories by recency, importance, and relevance -> plan the day and react -> converse and act -> reflections summarize memories -> plans and relationships change", "design_notes": "Park and colleagues replace authored behavior trees with a loop of language-model calls on gpt-3.5-turbo. Every observation is stored as text with timestamps; retrieval scores memories by recency (decay 0.995 per game hour), importance (rated 1-10 by the model when stored), and embedding relevance, each normalized and weighted equally. When the summed importance of recent events passes 150 (two or three times a day) the agent writes reflections, and plans are decomposed from a day outline into hour and 5-15 minute chunks. Seeding one agent with the intent to host a Valentine's Day party led to 13 of 25 agents hearing about it and five attending over two game days, at a cost of thousands of dollars in API credits. The open-source release steps the town 10 game seconds per step.", "developer": "Stanford University and Google Research", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "none", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "generative-agents-smallville", "influence": 4, "influenced_by": [ "the-sims" ], "mechanics": [ { "id": "memories-thoughts", "note": "Each agent's memory stream stores observations, plans, and reflections as text; retrieval ranks them by recency (0.995 decay per game hour), model-rated importance (1-10), and embedding relevance, and reflections fire when summed importance exceeds 150.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "daily-schedules", "note": "Each morning the model drafts a day plan of about five to eight broad chunks, decomposed into hour-long and then 5-15 minute actions that agents revise when they react to events.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "gossip-propagation", "note": "Information spreads only through agent conversations; over two game days awareness of a mayoral candidacy rose from 1 to 8 agents and of a party from 1 to 13, with 6 of 453 awareness answers hallucinated.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "generative-content", "note": "Plans, dialogue, importance ratings, and reflections are all generated by gpt-3.5-turbo calls at runtime.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "natural-language-interaction", "note": "Users address agents in natural language as a persona or as the agent's inner voice, and can rewrite the status of objects in natural language.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "agent-inspection", "note": "Researchers interview agents and read their memory streams to evaluate believability.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "relationship-values", "note": "Agents form acquaintances through conversation; network density rose from 0.167 to 0.74 over two game days.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "content", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Generative Agents (Smallville)", "narrative_mode": "generative", "perspective": "top-down-2d", "platforms": [ "web" ], "player_role": "observer-gardener", "production_tier": "academic", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gd", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-25-contributor-readiness" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "social-interpersonal", "domestic-personal" ], "sim_scale": "settlement", "sources": [ "src-park-2023-generative-agents", "src-park-2023-generative-agents-repository" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "ai-native", "subgenre_secondary": [ "social-sim", "life-sim" ], "summary": "A research sandbox in which 25 language-model agents in a Sims-like town keep natural-language memory streams, reflect, and plan their days, producing unscripted information spread and social coordination.", "time_model": "run-on-demand", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2023 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C02", "core_count": 4, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 6, "biology-health": 1, "conflict-defense": 1, "control-automation": 1, "environment-ecology": 1, "progression-goals": 1, "resources-production": 3, "risk-failure": 1, "space-construction": 5, "time-pacing": 1 }, "mechanic_count": 21 }, "agency_model": [ "order-queue", "zoning-placement", "indirect-incentive", "direct-unit" ], "agent_count_order": "10", "core_loop": "dig into and build up voxel terrain -> assign settlers to roles and jobs -> settlers meet needs and mood shifts -> seasons change food supply -> raiders and beasts attack the walls -> research, build higher, and take in newcomers", "design_notes": "It follows the RimWorld pattern of named settlers with traits, perks, skills, needs, and moods, and is widely compared to RimWorld and Dwarf Fortress. Its distinctive layer is a fully three-dimensional voxel map: the player can dig cellars and caverns, raise multi-storey stone and timber forts, and reshape earth and water, so defensive geometry and storage depth are design problems in three dimensions. Early access ran from June 2021 to the 1.0 release in March 2026.", "developer": "Foxy Voxel", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "cascading-collapse", "fidelity": "systemic", "id": "going-medieval", "influence": 1, "influenced_by": [ "rimworld" ], "mechanics": [ { "id": "terraforming", "note": "A 3D terrain toolset digs out or fills voxel earth and water on a randomly generated multi-level map, so cellars, moats, and caverns are carved from the ground.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "vertical-layers", "note": "Settlements stack multi-storey buildings above ground and cellars and caverns below, connected by stairs and ladders.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "needs-decay", "note": "Settlers track needs such as hunger, sleep, clothing preferences, and religion, and meeting them keeps settlers content.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "raid-defense", "note": "Repeated bandit raids and animal attacks are met with walls, traps, and settlers equipped and commanded in battle.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "mood-breakdown", "note": "Settlers in poor conditions become dissatisfied and may leave the settlement.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "personality-traits", "note": "Backgrounds, traits, and perks set at settler creation.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "agent-skills", "note": "Skills such as Animal Handling improve through use, including hunting and combat.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "work-priorities", "note": "Settlers are assigned to roles that fit their skills.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "designation-orders", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "structural-integrity", "note": "Built structures need support, and unsupported sections collapse.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "room-recognition", "note": "Workshops, chapels, libraries, and bedrooms are furnished and decorated rooms.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "seasons", "note": "Seasonal changes govern food production and storage.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "spoilage", "note": "Food keeps longer in cool storage such as cellars.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "crop-cultivation", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "animal-husbandry", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "tech-tree", "note": "Research unlocks medieval technology.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "permadeath", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "free-placement", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "utility-action-selection", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "storage-capacity", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "content", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Going Medieval", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "free-3d", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "overseer", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gb", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "social-interpersonal", "physical-mechanical", "military-conflict" ], "sim_scale": "settlement", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-going-medieval", "src-steam-2026-going-medieval" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "colony-sim", "summary": "A colony sim set after a plague in which settlers with traits, needs, and moods dig into and build up a multi-level voxel terrain to survive seasons and raids.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2021, "year_full_release": 2026 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C11", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "control-automation": 1, "physics-materials": 1, "progression-goals": 3, "space-construction": 1 }, "incoming": { "influenced": [ "gran-turismo-7" ] }, "mechanic_count": 6 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar" ], "agent_count_order": "10", "core_loop": "pass license tests -> enter championships -> win credits and prize cars -> buy cars and performance parts -> tune the car -> enter higher-class events", "design_notes": "Simulation mode made car ownership and driving skill the progression: driver's licenses earned through timed tests gate events, and credits from championships buy cars, parts, and tuning. Reviewers singled out the handling model and the tuning freedom, and criticized license tests that could be harder than the races they unlocked. It was the first game designed for the DualShock's analog control and rumble, and IGN called it the grandfather of modern console racing sims.", "developer": "Polys Entertainment (Polyphony Digital)", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "gran-turismo", "influence": 4, "mechanics": [ { "id": "vehicle-dynamics", "note": "Each of 140 cars has its own handling that responds to parts and tuning; reviewers rated it above any earlier racing game.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "career-ladder", "note": "Simulation mode requires earning driver's licenses through timed tests before entering higher events.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "collection-goals", "note": "Credits and prize cars build a garage drawn from 140 production cars.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "embodied-skill-control", "note": "The first game designed for DualShock analog control and rumble; license tests and races grade precise braking and cornering.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "modular-assembly", "note": "Credits buy performance parts and tuning that tailor a car to the player's driving style.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "scenario-objectives", "note": "Championships award trophies, credits, and prize cars.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single", "competitive" ], "name": "Gran Turismo", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "third-person", "platforms": [ "console" ], "player_role": "operator-pilot", "production_tier": "aaa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gf" }, "sim_domain": [ "physical-mechanical", "sports" ], "sim_scale": "individual", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-gran-turismo-1997" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "vehicle-sim", "summary": "A PlayStation racing game that paired a tuned handling model and 140 production cars with license tests, prize credits, and parts tuning in a Simulation mode career.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "completion", "year": 1997 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C11", "core_count": 2, "family_profile": { "control-automation": 1, "environment-ecology": 1, "physics-materials": 1, "progression-goals": 3 }, "incoming": { "deploys": [ "deep-rl-npc-policies" ] }, "mechanic_count": 6 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar" ], "agent_count_order": "10", "claims": [ { "confidence": "high", "sources": [ "src-polyphony-2023-gt-sophy-2" ], "text": "GT Sophy 2.0 was added to Gran Turismo 7 as a rival in Quick Race across nine tracks and 340 cars in November 2023." }, { "confidence": "high", "sources": [ "src-sony-2025-gt-sophy-2-1" ], "text": "In 2025 GT Sophy 2.1 extended to Custom Race with tuning, tire, and fuel options." } ], "core_loop": "buy or tune a car -> race against AI or players -> earn credits -> expand the collection -> harder events", "design_notes": "Included because it is the clearest shipped case of a learned opponent in a simulation game. GT Sophy, trained with model-free deep reinforcement learning on parallel simulator instances, became selectable as a permanent rival in 2023 and was extended to custom races in 2025, one content update at a time.", "developer": "Polyphony Digital", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "high-fidelity", "id": "gran-turismo-7", "influence": 3, "influenced_by": [ "gran-turismo" ], "mechanics": [ { "id": "vehicle-dynamics", "note": "Tire, suspension, aerodynamics, and drivetrain models per car; tuning parts and settings change handling.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "embodied-skill-control", "note": "Racing lines, braking points, and throttle control on wheel or pad decide results; GT Sophy is trained to the same physics.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "collection-goals", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "career-ladder", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "scenario-objectives", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "weather", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single", "competitive" ], "name": "Gran Turismo 7", "narrative_mode": "authored", "perspective": "third-person", "platforms": [ "console" ], "player_role": "operator-pilot", "production_tier": "aaa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-additions" }, "sim_domain": [ "physical-mechanical", "sports" ], "sim_scale": "individual", "sources": [ "src-polyphony-2023-gt-sophy-2", "src-sony-2025-gt-sophy-2-1", "src-wurman-2022-gt-sophy" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "vehicle-sim", "summary": "A console racing simulator that combines a detailed vehicle dynamics model and car collection with GT Sophy, a deep reinforcement learning opponent added as a permanent rival in 2023.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "campaign", "year": 2022 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C13", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "information-legibility": 1, "resources-production": 3, "risk-failure": 1, "time-pacing": 1 }, "mechanic_count": 6 }, "agency_model": [ "policy-parameter" ], "agent_count_order": "aggregate", "aliases": [ "The Sumer Game", "King of Sumeria" ], "claims": [ { "confidence": "high", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-hamurabi", "src-wikipedia-city-building-game" ], "text": "Hamurabi derives from The Sumerian Game (1964) by Mabel Addis and William McKay; Dyment wrote the FOCAL version after learning of it, and David Ahl expanded it in BASIC." } ], "core_loop": "read the steward's yearly report -> trade grain for land at a random price -> allocate grain to food and seed -> harvest, rats, arrivals, and plague resolve -> next year", "design_notes": "Three stocks (people, acres, bushels of grain) and three yearly allocations make the whole game one stock-and-flow puzzle: grain is food, seed, and the currency for land at once, so every bushel has competing uses. Randomness enters only through harvest yield, rat losses, a land price of 17 to 26 bushels per acre, arrivals, and a plague that halves the population, so the player manages expected value under variance. Dyment wrote it in FOCAL for the PDP-8 from a description of The Sumerian Game (1964); David Ahl's BASIC version spread it as a type-in listing and seeded Kingdom, Dukedom, and Santa Paravia en Fiumaccio.", "developer": "Doug Dyment (Digital Equipment Corporation)", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "hard-restart", "fidelity": "abstract", "id": "hamurabi", "influence": 3, "mechanics": [ { "id": "turn-structure", "note": "Ten rounds, each one year: a status report, then three typed decisions (acres to buy or sell, bushels to feed, acres to plant) before the year resolves.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "goods-consumption", "note": "People must be fed grain each year; if at least 45 percent starve in one round the game ends early.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "crop-cultivation", "note": "Planted acres consume seed grain and return a random yield per acre at year end; each person can farm only a set amount of land, so labor caps planting.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "random-disasters", "note": "Each year carries a chance of plague that halves the population.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "spoilage", "note": "Rats eat a random amount of stored grain each year, a loss on holding stock.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "advisors", "note": "Each round opens with a steward's report of births, deaths, harvest, rat losses, and land price.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Hamurabi", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "text-ui", "platforms": [ "mainframe-early" ], "player_role": "ruler-statesman", "production_tier": "hobbyist", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-ga", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-25-contributor-readiness" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "economic", "urban" ], "sim_scale": "settlement", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-hamurabi", "src-wikipedia-city-building-game" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "city-builder", "summary": "A ten-turn text game in which the player, as the Babylonian king Hammurabi, splits a grain stock between feeding people, planting acres, and buying land while harvests, rats, and plague vary at random.", "time_model": "turn-based", "type": "game", "win_structure": "score-ranking", "year": 1968 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C21", "core_count": 2, "family_profile": { "biology-health": 1, "economy-finance": 1, "operation-procedure": 2, "physics-materials": 2, "time-pacing": 1 }, "mechanic_count": 7 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar" ], "agent_count_order": "none", "core_loop": "start a shift -> scan the ship -> vent pressure and make power, fuel, coolant, and reactor systems safe -> cut parts free -> grapple them to the correct receptacle -> salvage value pays down debt -> buy tool upgrades", "design_notes": "Each ship is a physics assembly of joined parts and typed hazards rather than an authored level: cutting into a pressurized room causes explosive decompression, cutting live electrical wires or coolant pipes can explode, and a reactor removed from its casing must be delivered before it melts down. The order of disassembly is the puzzle, and the taxonomy lacks a mechanic for it (proposed as salvage-deconstruction). Oxygen and thruster fuel act as survival stocks, and shifts are timed except in Open Shift mode.", "developer": "Blackbird Interactive", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "systemic", "id": "hardspace-shipbreaker", "influence": 1, "mechanics": [ { "id": "rigid-body-physics", "note": "Ships are assemblies of separable parts; freed parts keep mass and momentum in zero gravity and are pulled or flung with the tether grapple toward the right receptacle.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "surface-work-tools", "note": "The laser cutter severs structure at cut points and joints; cutting live electrical wires or coolant pipes can cause an explosion, so where and in what order to cut is the core decision.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "procedural-checklists", "note": "Systems must be made safe in order: pressurized rooms vented, electrical and coolant lines avoided, and reactors delivered before they melt down; mistakes produce the physical result rather than an error.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "fluid-gas-simulation", "note": "Rooms hold atmosphere, and an uncontrolled decompression flushes the player and loose objects out of the ship.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "survival-meters", "note": "Oxygen and thruster fuel deplete during a shift and must be replenished.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "daily-action-budget", "note": "Shifts are timed; Open Shift mode removes the limit.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "loans-debt", "note": "The character owes $1.2 billion to Lynx Corporation, and salvage earnings pay it down.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Hardspace: Shipbreaker", "narrative_mode": "authored", "perspective": "first-person", "platforms": [ "pc", "console" ], "player_role": "worker", "production_tier": "aa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gf" }, "sim_domain": [ "occupational", "physical-mechanical", "cosmic-space" ], "sim_scale": "individual", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-hardspace-shipbreaker", "src-steam-2026-hardspace-shipbreaker" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "job-sim", "subgenre_secondary": [ "space-sim" ], "summary": "A zero-gravity salvage sim in which the player cuts derelict ships apart with a laser cutter and grapple, manages decompression and volatile systems, and sorts salvage to pay down a large debt.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "campaign", "year": 2020, "year_full_release": 2022 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C18", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "biology-health": 1, "environment-ecology": 2, "progression-goals": 1, "resources-production": 1, "social-relations": 2, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "influenced": [ "stardew-valley" ] }, "mechanic_count": 8 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar" ], "agent_count_order": "10", "aliases": [ "Bokujō Monogatari" ], "core_loop": "clear land and plant seasonal crops -> water daily and tend livestock -> ship produce for money -> buy animals, seeds, and upgrades -> build relationships and attend festivals -> marry and raise a child before the father's evaluation", "design_notes": "Director Yasuhiro Wada started the project with three principles (no fighting, uniqueness, and tactile real-time action), and a team of 8 to 10 people at Pack-In-Soft scaled it back to fit SNES limits. The farm rules are forgiving but daily: unwatered crops stop growing instead of dying, chickens need only feed but can die if left outside, and cows must be fed, talked to, brushed, and milked or they sicken. Play is bounded by a two-and-a-half-year term that ends with the father's evaluation of the farm and family, which makes marriage and a child goals alongside crops and livestock.", "developer": "Amccus", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "harvest-moon", "influence": 4, "mechanics": [ { "id": "crop-cultivation", "note": "Crops need water every day; a missed day halts growth rather than killing the plant, and each crop belongs to a season.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "animal-husbandry", "note": "Chickens must be fed and kept indoors or they can die; cows need daily feed, talking, brushing, and milking, and fall sick or die if neglected.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "seasons", "note": "A four-season calendar sets which crops can grow and when festivals occur.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "daily-action-budget", "note": "A stamina pool limits work each day; power berries found around the map raise it.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "romance-family", "note": "Five eligible women can be courted; marriage and a child count toward the final evaluation.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "relationship-values", "note": "Villagers' and candidates' affection rises with talking and gifts.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "scenario-objectives", "note": "After two and a half years the father evaluates the farm, family, and relationships.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "day-night-cycle", "note": "After dark only the bar stays open, so shopping and visits must fit daylight.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Harvest Moon", "narrative_mode": "hybrid", "perspective": "top-down-2d", "platforms": [ "console", "handheld" ], "player_role": "inhabitant", "production_tier": "aa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gc" }, "sim_domain": [ "biological-ecological", "social-interpersonal" ], "sim_scale": "facility", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-harvest-moon", "src-fogu-2026-harvest-moon-snes" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "farming-sim", "subgenre_secondary": [ "life-sim" ], "summary": "An early farming sim for the Super Famicom in which the player has two and a half years to restore an inherited farm through daily crop watering, livestock care, and courting one of five eligible women.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "scenario-goals", "year": 1996 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C05", "core_count": 4, "family_profile": { "conflict-defense": 3, "control-automation": 1, "environment-ecology": 1, "governance-policy": 3, "information-legibility": 1, "logistics-networks": 1, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "narrative-generation": 1, "progression-goals": 1, "resources-production": 1, "social-relations": 1, "space-construction": 1, "time-pacing": 1 }, "mechanic_count": 17 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-unit", "policy-parameter", "order-queue" ], "agent_count_order": "1k", "aliases": [ "HOI4" ], "core_loop": "pick national focuses and spend political power -> assign civilian factories to construction and military factories to equipment -> design and train divisions -> draw fronts and battle plans -> divisions fight on supply, terrain, and weather -> capitulate rivals or hold", "design_notes": "HOI4 separates the industrial war from the field war: civilian factories build capacity and military factories turn resources into equipment, so divisions fight only as well as stockpiles and supply allow. Battle plans let the player act at army-group scale and leave division movement to the AI. National focus trees are the authored branching layer that steers countries toward historical or alternate paths, while battles resolve from unit statistics (proposal stat-combat-resolution).", "developer": "Paradox Development Studio", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "systemic", "id": "hearts-of-iron-4", "influence": 2, "mechanics": [ { "id": "modular-assembly", "note": "Division templates combine battalions (infantry, tanks, cavalry, motorized, mechanized) and support companies, and the mix sets combat statistics and equipment needs; tank, ship, and plane designers added by DLC apply the same idea to equipment.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "supply-lines", "note": "Supply hubs connect to the capital by railway, with hub capacity set by railway level and limited by the weakest link; supply falls off per province from the hub, and divisions at 35% supply or less suffer attrition and combat penalties.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "delegation-to-ai", "note": "The player draws front lines and offensive arrows for armies under generals, and the AI moves divisions to carry out the battle plan; divisions can also be ordered directly.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "tech-tree", "note": "Research runs in parallel slots, and each country has a national focus tree in which one focus at a time is completed for bonuses such as extra factories or events; at launch only Germany, the UK, the USSR, and the US had unique trees.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "production-chain", "note": "Military factories turn strategic resources into equipment on production lines, dockyards build ships, and civilian factories build infrastructure and handle trade.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "faction-diplomacy", "note": "Countries join factions and guarantee others; world tension from 0 to 100 gates what democracies can do.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "policy-toggles", "note": "Mobilization, conscription, and trade laws and ministers are bought with political power.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "stability-unrest", "note": "Ideology popularity among democratic, communist, fascist, and non-aligned groups shifts the government and can end in civil war.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "triggered-event-chains", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "fog-of-war", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "weather", "note": "Sea and air regions have weather that affects operations.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "political-capital", "note": "Political power accrues over time and is spent on laws such as mobilization, conscription, and trade, on ministers, and on decisions.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "territorial-control", "note": "States are core or non-core, armies occupy enemy states during war, and peace conferences transfer ownership.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "war-score-peace", "note": "When a country capitulates, winners take turns spending peace conference points on annexation, puppets, and other demands.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "stat-combat-resolution", "note": "Divisions fight in hourly combat rounds comparing attacks against defense or breakthrough, draining organization and strength under terrain, weather, and supply modifiers.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "note": "Script files define focus trees, events, and units; total conversions such as Kaiserreich rebuild the scenario.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "total-conversion", "multiplayer": [ "single", "competitive", "coop" ], "name": "Hearts of Iron IV", "narrative_mode": "hybrid", "perspective": "top-down-2d", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "commander", "production_tier": "aa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gi", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-25-contributor-readiness" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "military-conflict", "political-governance", "industrial-logistics" ], "sim_scale": "nation", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-hearts-of-iron-4", "src-paradoxwikis-2026-hoi4-supply" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "grand-strategy", "subgenre_secondary": [ "wargame" ], "summary": "A World War II grand strategy game starting in 1936 or 1939 in which the player builds factories, turns resources into equipment, designs divisions, follows a national focus tree, and directs fronts and battle plans across land, sea, and air.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2016 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C21", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 1, "control-automation": 1, "economy-finance": 3, "operation-procedure": 1, "space-construction": 1 }, "mechanic_count": 7 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar", "zoning-placement" ], "agent_count_order": "none", "core_loop": "take email jobs for cash -> buy a rundown house -> clean, demolish, paint, tile, furnish -> buyers evaluate fit and bid -> sell at a profit -> buy bigger properties", "design_notes": "Each property is judged by a small set of buyer profiles with requirements such as cleanliness or a family room, and their auction bids reward matching a profile rather than maximizing generic quality. Labor is performed with coverage tools (paint roller, mop, window cleaner, plaster tool) that show visible progress, and tool use earns experience spent on faster tools. Email jobs paid by size and quality supply the capital for the first purchase.", "developer": "Empyrean", "emergence": 1, "failure_model": "none", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "house-flipper", "influence": 2, "mechanics": [ { "id": "surface-work-tools", "note": "Paint roller, mop, window cleaner, and plaster tool apply coverage to walls, floors, and windows with visible progress; tiling and demolition use the same direct tool loop.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "contracts-orders", "note": "Neighbors send email jobs (cleaning, painting, installing heaters, showers, or air conditioners, furnishing) whose pay depends on job size and quality.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "customer-value-choice", "note": "Each property has potential buyers with different needs, such as cleanliness or a family room, who bid according to how well the renovated house suits them.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "auctions", "note": "Sales are resolved by buyers bidding at auction.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "free-placement", "note": "Furniture, doors, windows, and wallpaper from a catalog are placed freely.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "agent-skills", "note": "Using tools earns experience that is spent on tool upgrades that speed up work.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "direct-avatar", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "content", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "House Flipper", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "first-person", "platforms": [ "pc", "console", "handheld" ], "player_role": "worker", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gf" }, "sim_domain": [ "occupational", "domestic-personal", "economic" ], "sim_scale": "facility", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-house-flipper", "src-steam-2026-house-flipper" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "job-sim", "summary": "A first-person renovation sim in which the player cleans, paints, demolishes, and furnishes rundown houses, then sells them to buyers whose bids depend on how well the house fits their needs.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2018 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C08", "core_count": 2, "family_profile": { "narrative-generation": 1, "progression-goals": 2 }, "incoming": { "deploys": [ "llm-rule-adjudication" ] }, "mechanic_count": 3 }, "agency_model": [ "design-then-test" ], "agent_count_order": "none", "boundary_case": true, "core_loop": "start with water, fire, wind, and earth -> drag two elements together -> look up the pair in the shared database -> if new, a language model names the result and picks an emoji -> result is cached for everyone -> combine the new element further", "design_notes": "At runtime the model is consulted only on a cache miss: the game checks a global database for the unordered pair, and if no result exists, Llama 2 (later Llama 3.1) generates a short element name, capped at twenty tokens, plus an emoji; the result is stored so the same pair returns the same element to every player. The recipe graph is therefore written collectively and lazily by players and the model, and a First Discovery label marks players who triggered a generation. Pairwise combination discovery is not yet a mechanic in the taxonomy (proposal combination-discovery). It is a boundary case: there is no simulated system beyond the generated recipe graph.", "developer": "Neal Agarwal", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "none", "fidelity": "abstract", "id": "infinite-craft", "influence": 1, "mechanics": [ { "id": "generative-content", "note": "On a cache miss, a Llama model generates the combined element's name (up to twenty tokens) and emoji; the result is written to a shared database so later requests are deterministic.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "collection-goals", "note": "Players accumulate discovered elements and First Discoveries, which mark elements no player had made before.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "combination-discovery", "note": "Every action combines two owned elements; on a cache miss a Llama model names the result, the result is stored so every player gets the same answer, and new results earn a First Discovery label.", "role": "core" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single", "async-shared" ], "name": "Infinite Craft", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "text-ui", "platforms": [ "web", "mobile" ], "player_role": "engineer-designer", "production_tier": "hobbyist", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gd" }, "sim_domain": [ "computational-abstract" ], "sim_scale": "individual", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-infinite-craft" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "ai-native", "summary": "A browser crafting game in which combining any two elements yields a new element whose name and emoji a language model generates on first request and a shared database then fixes for all players.", "time_model": "turn-based", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2024 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C02", "core_count": 2, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 4, "control-automation": 1, "environment-ecology": 1, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "narrative-generation": 1, "population-lineage": 2, "progression-goals": 1, "social-relations": 4, "space-construction": 1, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "deploys": [ "generative-agents", "learned-motion-synthesis", "on-device-language-models", "text-to-3d-assets" ], "precedent_for": [ "generative-decoration-catalogs", "local-first-ai-sims", "salience-gated-llm-agents" ] }, "mechanic_count": 17 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-unit", "indirect-incentive", "zoning-placement", "conversational" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "core_loop": "create Zois and build homes -> Zois act on needs and personality -> player directs actions or prompts thoughts -> jobs, relationships, rumors, and illness move through the city -> edit the city and generate new items -> share on Canvas", "design_notes": "inZOI casts the player as an intern at AR Company who manages a city of virtual people and its karma system. It pairs a Sims-style needs model (hunger, hygiene, bathroom, fun, social, energy, sleep, recognition) with city-scale free will that the developers say produces rumors, trends, and disease, plus optional direct control of a Zoi or vehicle. Generative models sit mainly in the creation layer: text prompts generate patterns and images for clothing and furniture, 2D images convert to 3D props, and an on-device small language model lets typed prompts steer a Zoi's thoughts and actions. City-wide progression of unplayed Zois is the offscreen-life-progression mechanic; karma has no mechanic id.", "developer": "inZOI Studio (Krafton)", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "permadeath", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "inzoi", "influence": 1, "influenced_by": [ "the-sims" ], "mechanics": [ { "id": "needs-decay", "note": "Eight needs (hunger, hygiene, bathroom, fun, social, energy, sleep, recognition) decay and drive Zois' free-will choices.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "generative-content", "note": "Text prompts generate patterns and images for outfits, props, and furniture; 2D images become 3D in-game objects; uploaded video becomes character motion.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "natural-language-interaction", "note": "An on-device small language model lets the player type prompts that influence a Zoi's thoughts and actions.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "gossip-propagation", "note": "Autonomous interactions generate rumors that spread among Zois.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "contagion", "note": "The developers list disease, alongside rumors and trends, among the outcomes that spread through Zois' autonomous interactions.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "personality-traits", "note": "Personality and life experience shape each Zoi's actions and relationships.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "relationship-values", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "romance-family", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "career-ladder", "note": "Careers include active jobs played on site.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "agent-skills", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "lifecycle-aging", "note": "Zois age and die.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "free-placement", "note": "Build mode places walls, roofs, stairs, fences, and gates; city edit changes streets, properties, and weather.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "content-sharing", "note": "Canvas is the in-game platform for sharing characters, homes, and stories.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "direct-avatar", "note": "Players can switch from point-and-click orders to direct control of a Zoi or a vehicle.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "offscreen-life-progression", "note": "City-wide free will keeps Zois across the city living autonomously while the player directs one household, producing rumors, trends, and disease; the fidelity of the update for distant Zois is not documented.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "utility-action-selection", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "content", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "inZOI", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "free-3d", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "caretaker", "production_tier": "aaa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gc", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "domestic-personal", "social-interpersonal", "urban" ], "sim_scale": "household", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-inzoi", "src-steam-2025-inzoi" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "life-sim", "summary": "A Krafton life sim in early access since March 2025 in which the player oversees autonomous Zois with eight needs in dense cities, with optional on-device language model prompts and generative tools for patterns and objects.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2025 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C11", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "control-automation": 1, "physics-materials": 1, "progression-goals": 1, "risk-failure": 1 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "sim-instructor-coach" ] }, "mechanic_count": 4 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar" ], "agent_count_order": "10", "core_loop": "join a scheduled official race -> qualify and race on laser-scanned tracks -> incidents and results update Safety Rating and iRating -> license promotion opens higher series -> buy cars and tracks for the next season", "design_notes": "iRacing grew from Papyrus's NASCAR Racing 2003 Season code with a new tire model and LIDAR-scanned cars and tracks. Its distinctive layer is the competitive structure: a no-fault Safety Rating from incident points per corner gates license classes (Rookie, D, C, B, A, with Pro reserved for esports), an Elo-style iRating sorts drivers into sessions and divisions, and 13-week seasons rotate tracks weekly. Skill rating and matchmaking have no mechanic in the taxonomy (proposed as skill-rating-matchmaking).", "developer": "iRacing Studios (iRacing.com Motorsport Simulations)", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "high-fidelity", "id": "iracing", "influence": 3, "mechanics": [ { "id": "vehicle-dynamics", "note": "A new tire model replaced the one in the NASCAR Racing 2003 Season code iRacing was built from, and cars and tracks are LIDAR-scanned.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "embodied-skill-control", "note": "Races are against human drivers on the publisher's servers, so results depend on the driver's braking, throttle, and line precision.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "career-ladder", "note": "Licenses progress Rookie, D, C, B, A, with Pro for esports qualifiers; promotion depends on a per-discipline Safety Rating computed from incident points and corners per incident.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "wear-breakdown", "note": "Cars take damage and tires wear over a race, which pit stops address.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single", "competitive" ], "name": "iRacing", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "first-person", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "operator-pilot", "production_tier": "aa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gf" }, "sim_domain": [ "physical-mechanical", "sports" ], "sim_scale": "individual", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-iracing" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "vehicle-sim", "summary": "A subscription online racing sim with laser-scanned cars and tracks in which drivers race scheduled official series and advance through license classes gated by a no-fault Safety Rating, while an Elo-style iRating sorts fields.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "competitive-victory", "year": 2008 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C23", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "progression-goals": 1, "space-construction": 2, "world-generation": 1 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "placement-that-tells-stories", "qd-scenario-libraries", "symbolic-sim-neural-render" ] }, "mechanic_count": 4 }, "agency_model": [ "zoning-placement" ], "agent_count_order": "none", "boundary_case": true, "core_loop": "choose a building from the inventory -> preview its point value from neighbors and terrain -> place it permanently -> score thresholds restock and offer a choice of two packs -> fill the gauge to move to a new island", "design_notes": "Islanders reduces the city builder to its placement rule: no resources, traffic, citizens, or research, only point values from proximity to compatible structures and natural features and penalties for incompatible ones. Placements are permanent, so each choice consumes space, and the run ends when buildings or space run out before the next threshold. It is included as a boundary case for adjacency scoring, since nothing in the world evolves without the player.", "developer": "Grizzly Games", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "hard-restart", "fidelity": "abstract", "id": "islanders", "influence": 2, "mechanics": [ { "id": "adjacency-scoring", "note": "Each building scores points from nearby compatible buildings and natural features and loses points for incompatible ones; the preview shows the total before placing.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "free-placement", "note": "Buildings are placed freely on the island and cannot be removed or built over.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "milestone-unlocks", "note": "Reaching a point threshold restocks the inventory and offers a choice of two building packs; filling the gauge unlocks a new island.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "procedural-terrain", "note": "Each island is procedurally generated.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Islanders", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "free-3d", "platforms": [ "pc", "console", "handheld", "vr" ], "player_role": "planner-mayor", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-ga" }, "sim_domain": [ "urban" ], "sim_scale": "settlement", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-islanders" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "city-builder", "summary": "A minimalist placement puzzle in which every building scores points from compatible and incompatible neighbors on a procedural island, and score thresholds unlock new building packs and new islands.", "time_model": "turn-based", "type": "game", "win_structure": "score-ranking", "year": 2019 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C09", "core_count": 2, "family_profile": { "control-automation": 1, "physics-materials": 1, "progression-goals": 1 }, "mechanic_count": 3 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar" ], "agent_count_order": "none", "aliases": [ "Job Simulator: The 2050 Archives" ], "boundary_case": true, "core_loop": "job bot gives a task -> grab and manipulate objects with tracked hands -> appliances and props react physically -> task completes -> next task until the job ends", "design_notes": "Included as a boundary case for its interaction model: nearly every object within reach is a physics object that can be picked up, thrown, or combined, and fixed appliances expose buttons, levers, and dials. Tasks are authored and loose, so variety comes from physical improvisation such as choosing pizza toppings or tire styles rather than from a modeled occupation. After all four jobs, modifiers alter the physics.", "developer": "Owlchemy Labs", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "none", "fidelity": "abstract", "id": "job-simulator", "influence": 2, "mechanics": [ { "id": "rigid-body-physics", "note": "Most objects within reach can be picked up and manipulated with tracked controllers, fixed appliances expose buttons, levers, and dials, and post-game modifiers change the physics.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "direct-avatar", "note": "The player's tracked head and hands are the avatar at a room-scale workstation; a smaller human mode adjusts reach.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "scenario-objectives", "note": "Four jobs (Office Worker, Gourmet Chef, Store Clerk, Auto Mechanic) each run a sequence of task requests from job bots.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Job Simulator", "narrative_mode": "authored", "perspective": "first-person", "platforms": [ "pc", "console", "vr" ], "player_role": "worker", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gf" }, "sim_domain": [ "occupational", "physical-mechanical" ], "sim_scale": "individual", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-job-simulator" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "job-sim", "subgenre_secondary": [ "physics-sandbox" ], "summary": "A room-scale VR comedy set in a museum run by robots, where the player performs parodied office, kitchen, store, and garage tasks by grabbing and manipulating physics objects.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "completion", "year": 2016 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C01", "core_count": 4, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 2, "control-automation": 1, "economy-finance": 1, "environment-ecology": 1, "progression-goals": 2, "resources-production": 2, "risk-failure": 1, "social-relations": 1, "space-construction": 1, "time-pacing": 1 }, "mechanic_count": 13 }, "agency_model": [ "zoning-placement", "direct-unit", "direct-avatar" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "core_loop": "send expeditions for fossils -> sequence DNA and modify genomes -> incubate dinosaurs -> meet feeding and social needs in enclosures -> guests spend while divisions offer contracts -> contain storms and breakouts -> raise the star rating to unlock islands", "design_notes": "Jurassic World Evolution turns a park sim into a containment problem. Each species has feeding, social, and territory needs; unmet needs lower comfort, and low-comfort dinosaurs fight, break fences, and escape to attack guests. Three divisions (Science, Security, Entertainment) offer contracts and track reputation, and letting one fall triggers sabotage such as a power shutdown or disease outbreak, which turns faction standing into a source of hazards. Genome modification changes a species' stats, aggression, and appearance, and the player can drive ranger and ACU vehicles to sedate, medicate, transport, and repair. Dinosaurs do not breed in this game; adding modern-species DNA to a genome trades stats against aggression, a rule the taxonomy lacks (proposed as genome-modification).", "developer": "Frontier Developments", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "jurassic-world-evolution", "influence": 2, "mechanics": [ { "id": "needs-decay", "note": "Dinosaurs have feeding and social needs plus grassland, forest, and population limits; unmet needs lower comfort, and carnivores hunt herbivores and attack fences and guests.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "reputation", "note": "Science, Security, and Entertainment divisions track reputation; low standing in one triggers sabotage such as power cuts or disease outbreaks.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "contracts-orders", "note": "Each division offers contracts with requirements and rewards that unlock research and story missions.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "random-disasters", "note": "Storms damage fences and power and set dinosaurs loose; breakouts must be contained before guests are hurt.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "power-grid", "note": "Facilities need power from plants through substations; outages open electric fences.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "crowd-preferences", "note": "Guests want viewing of varied species plus shopping, food, and amenities, and flee or die during breakouts.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "tech-tree", "note": "Fossil DNA completion unlocks species, and the research center unlocks buildings, upgrades, and genome modifications.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "resource-extraction", "note": "The Expedition Center sends teams to global dig sites that yield fossils for DNA and for sale.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "direct-avatar", "note": "The player can drive ranger jeeps and ACU helicopters to resupply feeders, repair fences, and tranquilize dinosaurs.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "contagion", "note": "Diseases spread among dinosaurs and must be treated by rangers or ACU.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "free-placement", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "milestone-unlocks", "note": "Island star ratings unlock the next island in the Las Cinco Muertes archipelago.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Jurassic World Evolution", "narrative_mode": "hybrid", "perspective": "free-3d", "platforms": [ "pc", "console", "handheld" ], "player_role": "manager-owner", "production_tier": "aa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-ge", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "biological-ecological", "economic" ], "sim_scale": "facility", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-jurassic-world-evolution" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "management-tycoon", "summary": "A dinosaur park management game in which the player excavates fossils for DNA, breeds and modifies dinosaurs, and keeps them contained through storms, sabotage, and breakouts while balancing three division contracts.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "campaign", "year": 2018 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C03", "core_count": 4, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 2, "biology-health": 2, "conflict-defense": 2, "control-automation": 1, "environment-ecology": 1, "progression-goals": 1, "resources-production": 2, "risk-failure": 1, "social-relations": 2, "space-construction": 1, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "dream-replay-layer", "illustrated-chronicles" ] }, "mechanic_count": 16 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-unit", "zoning-placement", "order-queue" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "core_loop": "wander the world with a squad -> fight, trade, steal, or get captured -> injuries and hunger reduce stats while skills train from use -> recruit and found an outpost -> factions react and world states shift", "design_notes": "There is no main character: every recruit and NPC is a potential equal, with no hero units given stronger stats, and the world and shops do not scale to the player, so early characters are weaker than most people they meet. Progress comes from use-based skill gain, which makes losing fights a form of training. Deaths of notable faction leaders change world states, such as towns taken over by a new faction. Chris Hunt developed it alone until 2013, and it was one of the first games in Steam Early Access.", "developer": "Lo-Fi Games", "emergence": 4, "failure_model": "permadeath", "fidelity": "systemic", "id": "kenshi", "influence": 2, "mechanics": [ { "id": "injury-body-model", "note": "Each limb has its own health; limbs can be damaged or severed and replaced with prosthetic or robotic limbs, and blood loss and injuries reduce stats and movement while squadmates carry the wounded.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "agent-skills", "note": "Skills rise from the actions they describe, such as stealing for thievery and fighting for combat, with stats and appearance changing as characters grow.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "unit-commands", "note": "The player commands any squad member directly in real time with pause; no character is privileged, and the squad acts together.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "faction-diplomacy", "note": "Many factions and species with relations to each other; the player can aid or oppose them, and deaths of notable figures shift world states.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "reputation", "note": "Player standing with each faction changes access and hostility.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "survival-meters", "note": "Starvation reduces character stats.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "free-placement", "note": "Outposts are built and upgraded into fortified havens or businesses.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "work-priorities", "note": "Squad members keep job lists for base work and production.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "production-chain", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "crop-cultivation", "note": "Zone soil types and terrain affect outpost farming.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "tech-tree", "note": "Research unlocks equipment and technologies.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "raid-defense", "note": "Outposts must be defended against attackers.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "weather", "note": "Some weather, such as acid rain, harms characters.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "permadeath", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "stat-combat-resolution", "note": "Fights resolve from character combat skills, weapon stats, and armor, with damage applied to individual limbs.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "content", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Kenshi", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "free-3d", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "overseer", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gb", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "military-conflict", "political-governance", "biological-ecological" ], "sim_scale": "region", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-kenshi", "src-steam-2026-kenshi" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "rpg-sim", "subgenre_secondary": [ "colony-sim" ], "summary": "A squad-based open-world RPG with no hero character, where any recruit can starve, lose limbs, train skills by doing, be enslaved, or found an outpost among reactive factions.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2013, "year_full_release": 2018 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C19", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "control-automation": 1, "economy-finance": 2, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "physics-materials": 4, "progression-goals": 1, "resources-production": 1, "risk-failure": 2, "social-relations": 1, "space-construction": 1, "time-pacing": 1 }, "mechanic_count": 15 }, "agency_model": [ "design-then-test", "direct-avatar" ], "agent_count_order": "none", "aliases": [ "KSP" ], "core_loop": "assemble a craft from parts -> launch and stage through the atmosphere -> plan maneuver nodes and burn for orbit or transfer -> land, dock, or crash -> return science, funds, and reputation -> unlock parts and design a more ambitious craft", "design_notes": "Stock orbits use a patched-conic approximation: a vessel is attracted by one body at a time and switches at sphere-of-influence boundaries, so there are no Lagrange points, but coasting vessels can be propagated on rails during time warp. Vessels are trees of parts joined by joints of limited strength, so mass distribution, thrust placement, and staging order decide whether a design flies, wobbles, or tears apart. Failure (stranded or dead Kerbals, debris) is a source of player stories rather than a hard stop, and Career mode layers funds, reputation, and contracts on top of the physics sandbox.", "developer": "Squad", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "systemic", "id": "kerbal-space-program", "influence": 4, "mechanics": [ { "id": "orbital-mechanics", "note": "Patched conics: a vessel orbits one body at a time and switches at sphere-of-influence boundaries; maneuver nodes preview delta-v and the resulting trajectory; planets ride fixed rails rather than n-body motion.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "modular-assembly", "note": "Craft are built in the Vehicle Assembly Building or Spaceplane Hangar from pods, tanks, engines, decouplers, wings, and science parts; part order sets the staging sequence, and each stage's mass, thrust, and fuel set its delta-v.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "rigid-body-physics", "note": "Each part is a rigid body joined to its parent with a joint of limited strength; excess force breaks joints, so tall stacks wobble and hard impacts shed parts or kill Kerbals.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "flight-aerodynamics", "note": "Drag, lift, and control surfaces govern ascent profiles, spaceplanes, and aerobraking.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "heat-transfer", "note": "Atmospheric entry heats parts; heat shields absorb it and overheated parts are destroyed.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "tech-tree", "note": "Science from experiments unlocks part nodes in Science and Career modes.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "contracts-orders", "note": "Career contracts pay for objectives such as reaching an orbit or testing a part, with deadlines and penalties.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "budget-treasury", "note": "Career funds pay for parts, fuel, crew, and facility upgrades; contract payouts are the income.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "reputation", "note": "Career reputation rises with completed contracts and falls with failures and Kerbal deaths.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "embodied-skill-control", "note": "Manual ascents, landings, and docking reward piloting skill; SAS assists attitude hold.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "permadeath", "note": "Kerbals die in crashes and EVA accidents; Career mode costs reputation for deaths, and a difficulty option sets whether lost crews respawn.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "resource-extraction", "note": "Drills mine ore on planets and asteroids that converters turn into fuel, a system adopted from mods.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "note": "On-rails time warp skips long coasts; physics warp speeds powered flight at reduced stability.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "note": "C# plugins and part configs extend the game; mods such as Real Solar System and Principia replace the planetary system and the orbital model.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "subsystem-damage", "note": "Parts are destroyed individually by impact or overheating, removing their engines, tanks, or controls from the craft.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "total-conversion", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Kerbal Space Program", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "free-3d", "platforms": [ "pc", "console" ], "player_role": "engineer-designer", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gg", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-25-store-ids-pilot" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "cosmic-space", "physical-mechanical" ], "sim_scale": "interplanetary", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-kerbal-space-program" ], "status": "sourced", "store_ids": { "steam": 220200 }, "subgenre": "space-sim", "subgenre_secondary": [ "construction-engineering" ], "summary": "A space flight sim where the player assembles rockets from parts and flies them under patched-conic orbital physics and atmospheric aerodynamics through a scaled-down planetary system.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2011, "year_full_release": 2015 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C03", "core_count": 2, "family_profile": { "conflict-defense": 1, "economy-finance": 1, "environment-ecology": 3, "governance-policy": 1, "population-lineage": 1, "resources-production": 3, "risk-failure": 1, "social-relations": 1, "space-construction": 2, "time-pacing": 1, "world-generation": 1 }, "mechanic_count": 16 }, "agency_model": [ "zoning-placement", "policy-parameter" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "core_loop": "place a keep and houses on an island -> peasants farm, cut wood, and quarry -> store food for the annual winter -> tax peasants to pay workers and unlock buildings -> stack castle blocks into walls and towers -> repel vikings, dragons, and ogres", "design_notes": "Kingdoms and Castles pairs a light town economy with a block-built castle: walls and towers form from how blocks are stacked, and taller archer towers reach farther, so defense is shaped geometry rather than a building menu. Each villager and resource is individually simulated, and an annual winter that destroys crops sets a regular survival check. Raiders kidnap peasants and burn buildings, and a dragon targets granaries, linking defense to food security.", "developer": "Lion Shield", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "kingdoms-and-castles", "influence": 1, "mechanics": [ { "id": "raid-defense", "note": "Vikings kidnap peasants, steal resources, and burn the town; dragons torch granaries; ogres attack; soldiers and archer towers defend.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "seasons", "note": "An annual winter destroys crops, so food must be stored in granaries to prevent starvation.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "modular-assembly", "note": "Castle blocks stack into walls and towers whose shape forms automatically; taller archer towers have longer range.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "taxation", "note": "Peasant taxes pay workers and unlock buildings.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "citizen-satisfaction", "note": "Happiness from layout, churches, taverns, and festivals.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "immigration-attractiveness", "note": "Happiness and housing attract new residents.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "random-disasters", "note": "Lightning starts fires.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "contagion", "note": "Plagues spread and must be healed.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "crop-cultivation", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "renewable-regrowth", "note": "Foresters cut and replant trees.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "faction-diplomacy", "note": "Diplomats make trade agreements, alliances, and wars with AI kingdoms.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "procedural-terrain", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "free-placement", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "fire-spread", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "storage-capacity", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "content", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Kingdoms and Castles", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "free-3d", "platforms": [ "pc", "console" ], "player_role": "ruler-statesman", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-ga", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "urban", "military-conflict" ], "sim_scale": "settlement", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-kingdoms-and-castles", "src-steam-2026-kingdoms-and-castles" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "city-builder", "summary": "A medieval town builder in which peasants farm and stockpile for an annual winter while the player stacks castle blocks into walls and towers to defend against vikings, dragons, and ogres.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2017 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C13", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "economy-finance": 3, "environment-ecology": 1, "information-legibility": 1, "risk-failure": 1, "time-pacing": 1 }, "mechanic_count": 7 }, "agency_model": [ "policy-parameter" ], "agent_count_order": "aggregate", "core_loop": "read the weather report -> choose glasses to make, signs to buy, and price per glass -> demand resolves into sales -> profit or a storm loss -> reinvest the next day", "design_notes": "Lemonade Stand reduces a business to three daily inputs (glasses made, advertising signs, price per glass) and one exogenous variable, the weather (sunny, cloudy, or hot and dry), which shifts demand. Shocks are random: thunderstorms on cloudy days wipe out the day's investment, and street closures or wind that blows signs away also occur. Up to 30 players can each run an independent stand under the same weather. Signs are an early case of advertising spend used as a demand lever; the taxonomy has no mechanic for marketing spend, so the run proposes advertising-awareness.", "developer": "Bob Jamison (MECC)", "emergence": 1, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "abstract", "id": "lemonade-stand", "influence": 2, "mechanics": [ { "id": "customer-value-choice", "note": "Aggregate customers buy more at lower prices and with more advertising signs; sales are capped by the glasses made that day.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "weather", "note": "Each day is sunny, cloudy, or hot and dry, and the weather sets the demand level the price and sign choices act on.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "turn-structure", "note": "Twelve rounds of one day each: the player makes decisions, the day resolves, and an earnings report follows.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "budget-treasury", "note": "Cash on hand limits how many glasses and signs can be bought each day.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "random-disasters", "note": "Thunderstorms void a day's profits; street closures and blown-away signs also occur.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "forecasting", "note": "The weather for the day is shown before the player commits to production.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "advertising-awareness", "note": "Advertising signs bought each day raise that day's demand alongside price and weather, with no carryover between days.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single", "competitive" ], "name": "Lemonade Stand", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "text-ui", "platforms": [ "mainframe-early", "pc" ], "player_role": "manager-owner", "production_tier": "hobbyist", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-ge" }, "sim_domain": [ "economic" ], "sim_scale": "facility", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-lemonade-stand" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "business-economic-sim", "summary": "A 1973 educational business sim in which the player runs a lemonade stand for 12 days, setting glasses made, advertising signs, and price against a daily weather report.", "time_model": "turn-based", "type": "game", "win_structure": "score-ranking", "year": 1973 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C14", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 3, "biology-health": 1, "social-relations": 1, "world-generation": 1 }, "incoming": { "influenced": [ "fallout-shelter", "the-sims" ] }, "mechanic_count": 6 }, "agency_model": [ "caretaking-interaction", "conversational" ], "agent_count_order": "1", "aliases": [ "Apple Town Story" ], "core_loop": "watch the resident's routine -> hunger, thirst, and mood drift -> deliver food, water, gifts, or pats -> type polite requests -> mood decides whether he complies -> repeat across sessions", "design_notes": "Rich Gold conceived the game and David Crane built it at Activision; the documentation presents the little people as real beings living inside the computer, with the player as their caretaker. Each disk's serial number seeded the resident's name (from 256), shirt color, personality, and behavior, so every copy hosted a different person. There is no win condition: the resident cooks, reads, plays piano, phones, and types letters about his feelings on a day of about six real-time hours, and his mood gates whether typed requests are obeyed. The cassette C64 version dropped memory, letters, and card games, which shows which systems carried the sense of a persistent person.", "developer": "Activision", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "little-computer-people", "influence": 2, "mechanics": [ { "id": "creature-care", "note": "Keyboard commands deliver food (CTRL+F), add water to his tank (CTRL+W), deliver dog food, pat him, or give records and books; a resident left unfed turns green and sick until he eats.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "needs-decay", "note": "Hunger and thirst build between deliveries; unmet needs lower his mood and eventually make him visibly sick.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "procedural-characters", "note": "The disk serial number seeds his name from a pool of 256, his shirt color, personality, and behavior parameters.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "daily-schedules", "note": "He runs a routine of cooking, watching television, reading the newspaper, playing records, and dancing on a compressed day of about six real-time hours.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "natural-language-interaction", "note": "Typed requests such as 'Please play piano' are matched against a keyword vocabulary; politeness helps, and a sad or sick resident may refuse.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "personality-traits", "note": "Seeded personality and mood parameters change which activities he prefers, how often he invites the player to cards or writes letters, and how readily he obeys.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Little Computer People", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "top-down-2d", "platforms": [ "mainframe-early", "pc", "console" ], "player_role": "caretaker", "production_tier": "aa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gc" }, "sim_domain": [ "domestic-personal", "social-interpersonal" ], "sim_scale": "individual", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-little-computer-people", "src-c64wiki-2026-little-computer-people" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "life-sim", "subgenre_secondary": [ "virtual-pet" ], "summary": "A 1985 home-computer life sim in which one procedurally seeded little person lives in a cross-section of a three-story house, follows a daily routine, and depends on the player for food, water, and attention.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 1985 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C03", "core_count": 2, "family_profile": { "conflict-defense": 1, "control-automation": 1, "economy-finance": 2, "environment-ecology": 1, "governance-policy": 1, "logistics-networks": 1, "resources-production": 5, "space-construction": 2, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "learned-build-assist", "placement-that-tells-stories" ] }, "mechanic_count": 15 }, "agency_model": [ "zoning-placement", "policy-parameter", "direct-unit" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "core_loop": "draw curved roads and burgage plots -> families move in and staff workplaces -> fields, backyard extensions, and production chains feed the market -> taxes, tithes, and trade fund a retinue -> defend against bandits and rival lords", "design_notes": "Manor Lords drops the zoning grid: the player draws plots against freely curved roads, the game divides them into burgage plots, and households extend them with backyard gardens, chickens, or goats, so housing is also production. Fields carry soil fertility per crop that rotation preserves, and hunting depends on animal populations that overexpansion drives away. Militia levies come from the town's own families, so each battle death is a lost worker; the game remained in early access as of August 2026.", "developer": "Slavic Magic", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "manor-lords", "influence": 1, "mechanics": [ { "id": "zoning", "note": "Residential plots drawn along roads are divided into burgage plots that families build on and extend with backyard production.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "crop-cultivation", "note": "Fields depend on soil fertility per crop; rotation and fallow maintain yields, and overuse exhausts soil.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "road-network", "note": "Roads curve freely and plots and buildings take their shape from them.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "seasons", "note": "Spring rains and winter snow change work and needs.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "production-chain", "note": "Raw materials pass through workshops into goods, weapons, and armor.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "goods-consumption", "note": "Households need basic goods and luxuries; shortfalls lower satisfaction.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "citizen-satisfaction", "note": "Approval responds to supply, taxes, and tithes.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "taxation", "note": "Six tax types, a yearly King's tax, and tithes on villagers.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "renewable-regrowth", "note": "Hunting grounds depend on animal populations; overexpansion drives deer away and deforests land.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "unit-commands", "note": "Real-time battles with fatigue, weather, and equipment; retinue, mercenaries, and militia drawn from townspeople.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "raid-defense", "note": "Bandit raids threaten the town and loot stores.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "trade-routes", "note": "Surpluses sold to traveling merchants; imports and exports balanced through trade.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "free-placement", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "storage-capacity", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "content", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Manor Lords", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "free-3d", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "ruler-statesman", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-ga", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "urban", "economic", "military-conflict" ], "sim_scale": "settlement", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-manor-lords", "src-steam-2026-manor-lords" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "city-builder", "summary": "An early-access medieval city builder in which families settle gridless burgage plots along curved roads, fields depend on soil fertility and crop rotation, and the lord fields retinue and militia in real-time battles.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2024 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C10", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "control-automation": 1, "environment-ecology": 2, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "operation-procedure": 1, "physics-materials": 1, "progression-goals": 1, "time-pacing": 1, "world-generation": 1 }, "incoming": { "deploys": [ "neural-rendering-shaders", "satellite-world-reconstruction" ], "influenced": [ "microsoft-flight-simulator-2024" ], "precedent_for": [ "learned-weather-layer" ] }, "mechanic_count": 9 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "aliases": [ "MSFS 2020", "Microsoft Flight Simulator" ], "core_loop": "pick aircraft, airport, and time -> preflight and start up -> take off into live or set weather -> navigate and hand-fly or use autopilot -> approach and land -> pick the next flight", "design_notes": "The world is data rather than authored terrain: Bing Maps imagery refreshed every 28 days, Blackshark.ai photogrammetry, and Azure AI 3D generation streamed from more than two petabytes, with Meteoblue weather and real air traffic fed in live. The flight model simulates over 1,000 control surfaces and wind over terrain, and a legacy model is kept as an option. No mechanic in the taxonomy covers simulation state driven by real-world data feeds (proposed as real-world-data-feeds).", "developer": "Asobo Studio", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "hard-restart", "fidelity": "high-fidelity", "id": "microsoft-flight-simulator-2020", "influence": 3, "mechanics": [ { "id": "flight-aerodynamics", "note": "The physics engine computes forces over more than 1,000 control surfaces and models wind flowing over terrain; a legacy flight model option remains.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "weather", "note": "Meteoblue live global weather sets clouds, wind, and precipitation in real time, and wind interacts with the terrain model.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "embodied-skill-control", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "procedural-checklists", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "day-night-cycle", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "scenario-objectives", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "note": "An in-game marketplace and third-party aircraft and airports extend the sim.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "real-world-data-feeds", "note": "The whole Earth is built from Bing Maps imagery updated every 28 days and AI-generated 3D content streamed from more than two petabytes in the cloud, while Meteoblue live weather and live air traffic feed the sim at runtime.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "scripting", "multiplayer": [ "single", "coop" ], "name": "Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020)", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "first-person", "platforms": [ "pc", "console", "vr" ], "player_role": "operator-pilot", "production_tier": "aaa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gf", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "physical-mechanical", "planetary-natural" ], "sim_scale": "individual", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-microsoft-flight-simulator-2020" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "flight-sim", "summary": "A flight sim that streams a photorealistic model of the whole Earth built from map and photogrammetry data and flies aircraft through live weather with a surface-level aerodynamic model.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2020 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C10", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "control-automation": 2, "economy-finance": 1, "environment-ecology": 2, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "operation-procedure": 1, "physics-materials": 1, "progression-goals": 1, "social-relations": 1, "time-pacing": 1, "world-generation": 1 }, "incoming": { "deploys": [ "satellite-world-reconstruction" ], "precedent_for": [ "sim-instructor-coach" ] }, "mechanic_count": 12 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "aliases": [ "MSFS 2024" ], "core_loop": "choose a career job -> walk around the aircraft for preflight -> start systems -> fly the mission profile (firefighting, rescue, cargo hook, airline) -> earn experience, reputation, and certifications -> unlock specializations", "design_notes": "Career mode turns the 2020 sandbox into a progression game: aerial firefighting, search and rescue, crop dusting, helicopter cargo hook, outsize cargo in the Airbus Beluga, arctic cargo in the A400M, and airline flights are gated by certifications and specializations earned through experience and reputation. Aircraft physics and systems (electrical, fuel, pneumatic, hydraulic) were revised, and stones, gravel, and grass are modeled in 3D and affect wheels. The launch showed the cost of a streamed world: an overwhelmed database cache caused long loads and missing content.", "developer": "Asobo Studio", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "hard-restart", "fidelity": "high-fidelity", "id": "microsoft-flight-simulator-2024", "influence": 1, "influenced_by": [ "microsoft-flight-simulator-2020" ], "mechanics": [ { "id": "flight-aerodynamics", "note": "Aircraft physics were revised, and ground contact models 3D stones, gravel, and grass that affect wheels during takeoff, landing, and taxi.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "contracts-orders", "note": "Career jobs include aerial firefighting, search and rescue, crop dusting, helicopter cargo hook, Beluga outsize cargo, A400M arctic cargo, and airline passenger flights.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "career-ladder", "note": "Starting from an airport the player chooses, experience earns certifications and specializations that unlock job types.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "reputation", "note": "Career reputation accumulates alongside experience.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "procedural-checklists", "note": "A walk-around preflight handles covers, doors, and service items, and revised electrical, fuel, pneumatic, and hydraulic systems gate start-up.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "direct-avatar", "note": "The pilot walks around the aircraft on foot during preflight.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "weather", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "embodied-skill-control", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "day-night-cycle", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "real-world-data-feeds", "note": "The streamed whole-Earth world of the 2020 game continues, and the launch showed the dependence when an overwhelmed database cache caused long loads and missing content.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "scripting", "multiplayer": [ "single", "coop" ], "name": "Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "first-person", "platforms": [ "pc", "console", "vr" ], "player_role": "operator-pilot", "production_tier": "aaa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gf", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "physical-mechanical", "planetary-natural", "occupational" ], "sim_scale": "individual", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-microsoft-flight-simulator-2024" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "flight-sim", "summary": "The successor to Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) that adds a career mode of certified aviation jobs, walk-around preflight, revised aircraft systems, and modeled ground surfaces to the streamed whole-Earth flight sim.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2024 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C04", "core_count": 4, "family_profile": { "conflict-defense": 1, "control-automation": 3, "logistics-networks": 2, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "progression-goals": 2, "resources-production": 4, "risk-failure": 1, "space-construction": 1, "time-pacing": 2 }, "mechanic_count": 17 }, "agency_model": [ "zoning-placement", "direct-unit", "programmatic" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "claims": [ { "confidence": "high", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-mindustry", "src-steam-2026-mindustry" ], "text": "Mindustry was created for the April 2017 itch.io Metal Monstrosity game jam and came to Steam in 2019 (version 3, store date 2019-09-26)." }, { "confidence": "medium", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-mindustry", "src-anuke-2026-mindustry-repository" ], "text": "Coverage compares Mindustry to Factorio, and its README describes it as an automation tower defense RTS; the influenced_by edge reflects that widely noted lineage rather than a developer statement." } ], "core_loop": "drill ore -> belt items to the core and factories -> build and supply turrets -> survive scheduled enemy waves -> research new blocks with core resources -> capture sectors and launch resources between them", "design_notes": "Mindustry began as a 2017 itch.io jam game and fuses Factorio-style belt logistics with tower defense: turrets consume belted ammunition, power, and coolant, so the factory's layout is the defense, and survival maps send progressively stronger waves at the core on a timer. Version 6 (2020) added RTS units built in factories and upgraded through reconstructors, and Mindustry Logic, an assembly-like language that runs on processor blocks, reads sensors and memory cells, and can bind and command units. The campaign spans Serpulo and Erekir with 35 hand-made maps and 250+ procedural sectors whose production continues while the player is elsewhere and is moved between sectors by launch pads. The game is GPL-3.0 and free from the author while also sold on Steam, so community servers, plugins, and mods are unrestricted.", "developer": "Anuke", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "hard-restart", "fidelity": "abstract", "id": "mindustry", "influence": 2, "influenced_by": [ "factorio" ], "mechanics": [ { "id": "conveyor-transport", "note": "Conveyors, junctions, routers, sorters, overflow gates, and bridges move items from drills to the core, factories, and turret ammo inputs.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "production-chain", "note": "Smelters, presses, kilns, separators, and mixers turn copper, lead, sand, coal, titanium, and thorium into graphite, silicon, plastanium, and surge alloy.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "raid-defense", "note": "Enemy waves spawn on a schedule and path toward the core; about 18 Serpulo and 10 Erekir turret types consume ammo items, liquids, or power, backed by walls, menders, and shield projectors.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "adaptive-threat-scaling", "note": "Survival maps send progressively stronger waves with tougher unit types and bosses as wave numbers rise; the cited sources do not tie wave strength to the player's own wealth.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "resource-extraction", "note": "Mechanical, pneumatic, laser, and airblast drills mine ore tiles at speeds set by drill tier and ore hardness, with optional water boosting.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "player-programming", "note": "Micro, logic, and hyper processors run Mindustry Logic, an assembly-like language with one operation per instruction that reads sensors and memory cells, controls linked buildings and turrets, and binds units with ubind to command them.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "crisis-countdown", "note": "A visible timer counts down to the next wave, and wave timing can be changed in custom game rules.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "tech-tree", "note": "Over 250 technology blocks are researched by spending core resources along a tree that also gates campaign sectors.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "power-grid", "note": "Combustion, steam, solar, thorium, and impact generators feed node-linked grids with batteries; turrets, shields, and factories draw power.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "fluid-pipe-network", "note": "Conduits carry water, slag, oil, and cryofluid; optional coolant and lubricant raise turret and factory rates.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "unit-commands", "note": "Since version 7 units can be selected and commanded RTS-style, while others follow default AI or logic control.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "blueprints", "note": "Schematics save layouts as shareable text and are traded on Steam Workshop.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "scenario-objectives", "note": "Campaign sectors set win conditions such as surviving a number of waves or destroying enemy cores on attack maps.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "note": "The GPL-3.0 source allows unrestricted mods, and community servers run plugins for custom maps and game modes.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "machine-boosting", "note": "Optional coolant and lubricant fed to turrets and factories raise their rates, and water boosts drill speed.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "free-placement", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "scripting", "multiplayer": [ "single", "coop", "competitive" ], "name": "Mindustry", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "top-down-2d", "platforms": [ "pc", "mobile" ], "player_role": "engineer-designer", "production_tier": "hobbyist", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gh", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes", "2026-10-25-contributor-readiness" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "industrial-logistics", "military-conflict" ], "sim_scale": "settlement", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-mindustry", "src-steam-2026-mindustry", "src-anuke-2026-mindustry-repository", "src-mindustry-2026-logic-introduction" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "factory-automation", "summary": "An open-source automation tower defense game in which the player belts ore into factories that supply turrets, units, and the core against enemy waves while capturing campaign sectors on two planets, with an assembly-like logic language for controlling blocks and units.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "campaign", "year": 2017 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C06", "core_count": 5, "family_profile": { "biology-health": 2, "control-automation": 1, "environment-ecology": 2, "multiplayer-persistence": 2, "physics-materials": 1, "progression-goals": 1, "resources-production": 3, "risk-failure": 1, "space-construction": 1, "world-generation": 1 }, "incoming": { "deploys": [ "real-time-video-restyling" ], "influenced": [ "factorio" ], "precedent_for": [ "generated-recipe-graphs", "generative-decoration-catalogs", "language-modding", "sims-as-agent-benchmarks", "teachable-sim-companion" ] }, "mechanic_count": 15 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "core_loop": "explore a generated world -> mine blocks and gather resources -> craft tools, armor, and workstations -> build shelter before night mobs spawn -> farm, breed, and trade -> dig deeper or travel to the Nether and End for rarer materials", "design_notes": "The world is an effectively infinite grid of one-meter blocks generated from a seed with biomes, caves, and ore distributions, and every block can be removed or placed, so terrain is both resource and building material. Survival pressure is light (hunger, health, light-level mob spawning on a 20-minute day cycle) and leaves room for self-set goals. Redstone gives the block world wires, power sources, repeaters, and pistons, which players use to build farms, logic gates, and working computers. The game began as a public alpha in May 2009 and reached 1.0 in November 2011.", "developer": "Mojang Studios", "emergence": 4, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "minecraft", "influence": 5, "influenced_by": [ "dwarf-fortress" ], "mechanics": [ { "id": "procedural-terrain", "note": "Worlds generate from a seed into biomes, caves, ravines, villages, and ore layers that vary by depth; terrain extends effectively without limit in horizontal directions.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "hand-crafting", "note": "A 2x2 inventory grid and a 3x3 crafting table turn blocks and items into tools, armor, and blocks from shaped recipes; furnaces, anvils, and enchanting tables extend the recipe set.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "resource-extraction", "note": "Blocks are mined by hand or with tools whose tier (wood, stone, iron, diamond, netherite) sets mining speed and which ores drop items.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "survival-meters", "note": "Survival mode has health and hunger bars; food restores hunger, high hunger regenerates health, and starvation, falls, drowning, and mobs deal damage.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "day-night-cycle", "note": "A 20-minute real-time day; hostile mobs spawn in low light, so night and caves are dangerous, and beds skip the night.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "free-placement", "note": "Any block can be placed on the voxel grid, so building has no fixed footprint.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "signal-circuits", "note": "Redstone dust carries power from levers, buttons, and sensors through repeaters and comparators to pistons, doors, and dispensers.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "crop-cultivation", "note": "Crops grow in stages on farmland, faster with water nearby and light.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "animal-husbandry", "note": "Passive mobs breed when fed their preferred food and yield food, wool, and leather.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "fluid-gas-simulation", "note": "Water and lava flow a limited number of blocks out from source blocks; where they meet they form cobblestone, stone, or obsidian.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "fire-spread", "note": "Fire spreads to nearby flammable blocks such as wood and wool and burns them away.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "tech-tree", "note": "Material tiers gate progression: iron tools mine diamonds, diamond tools mine obsidian, and Nether materials gate brewing and the End.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "note": "Java Edition mods (Forge, Fabric) and Bedrock add-ons, datapacks, and server plugins are widely used.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "persistent-world", "note": "Public multiplayer servers and Realms host worlds that persist for many players.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "loss-on-death", "note": "On death in survival the player's inventory and some experience drop at the death site and despawn after a few minutes if not recovered.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "total-conversion", "multiplayer": [ "single", "coop", "competitive", "persistent-mmo" ], "name": "Minecraft", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "first-person", "platforms": [ "pc", "console", "handheld", "mobile" ], "player_role": "inhabitant", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gg" }, "sim_domain": [ "planetary-natural", "biological-ecological", "computational-abstract" ], "sim_scale": "region", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-minecraft" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "sandbox-world", "subgenre_secondary": [ "survival-sim" ], "summary": "A procedurally generated voxel sandbox where players mine blocks, craft tools, survive hostile night mobs and hunger, farm and trade, and build circuits from redstone.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2009, "year_full_release": 2011 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C07", "core_count": 2, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 1, "logistics-networks": 2, "time-pacing": 2 }, "mechanic_count": 5 }, "agency_model": [ "zoning-placement" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "core_loop": "new stations appear -> draw or reroute lines -> trains carry shape-matched passengers -> weekly grant of new assets -> demand outgrows capacity -> a station overcrowds and the run ends", "design_notes": "Mini Metro abstracts a metro network into station shapes, passengers drawn as the shape of the station type they want to reach, and a scarce inventory of lines, locomotives, tunnels, and bridges. New stations keep appearing while supply arrives only as a weekly grant, so the player keeps redrawing a network that is always under capacity. Failure is local and visible: a station over its limit (typically six passengers) for long enough ends the run. Modes vary the rules: Extreme fixes lines once placed, Endless removes overcrowding, and Creative is a sandbox.", "developer": "Dinosaur Polo Club", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "hard-restart", "fidelity": "abstract", "id": "mini-metro", "influence": 2, "mechanics": [ { "id": "public-transit", "note": "The player draws colored lines between stations and assigns trains that load and unload automatically; ridership is the score.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "service-queues", "note": "Passengers wait at stations with limited capacity, typically six; interchanges raise capacity and loading speed, and a station overcrowded too long ends the game.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "agent-pathfinding", "note": "Passengers ride to any station of their target shape, transferring between lines when needed.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "periodic-ticks", "note": "Each in-game week grants extra rolling stock and a choice of assets such as tunnels, bridges, new lines, or interchanges.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "note": "Time can be paused to reroute lines or move trains.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Mini Metro", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "top-down-2d", "platforms": [ "pc", "mobile", "handheld", "console", "web" ], "player_role": "planner-mayor", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-ge" }, "sim_domain": [ "urban", "industrial-logistics" ], "sim_scale": "city", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-mini-metro" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "transport-logistics", "summary": "A minimalist subway-design game where the player draws and redraws lines between shape-coded stations under a weekly ration of trains and tunnels until a station overcrowds.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "score-ranking", "year": 2013, "year_full_release": 2015 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C22", "core_count": 4, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 2, "economy-finance": 3, "environment-ecology": 1, "risk-failure": 2, "space-construction": 1, "time-pacing": 1 }, "mechanic_count": 10 }, "agency_model": [ "policy-parameter", "direct-unit", "design-then-test" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "core_loop": "design and build car parts -> hire drivers, designers, and mechanics -> set race weekend strategy -> race simulates with tyre, fuel, and weather calls -> results earn money and standing -> develop next season's car", "design_notes": "Motorsport Manager splits the job into a between-races engineering game and a live race game. Between races the player commissions car parts and chooses which go into next season's car, trading performance against development time. During races the simulation runs in real time with pause, and the player decides tyre compounds, pit timing, and whether to gamble on a fast pit stop or stay on slicks as dynamic weather changes. Drivers have personality types that cause team drama and respond to tough love or support. A simpler mobile game of the same name was released on iOS in 2014; this entry covers the 2016 PC game.", "developer": "Playsport Games", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "motorsport-manager", "influence": 1, "mechanics": [ { "id": "attribute-match-engine", "note": "Races are simulated in real time from driver attributes, car part performance, tyres, fuel, and weather, with the player intervening on strategy.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "design-performance-rating", "note": "Car parts are designed and built over time, rated on performance, and chosen for next season's car, which sets pace at pre-season testing.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "staff-hiring", "note": "Drivers, team managers, mechanics, and designers are hired; skilled mechanics shorten pit stops.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "weather", "note": "Dynamic weather during sessions forces calls such as switching to intermediates or staying on slicks.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "personality-traits", "note": "Drivers have distinct personality types that cause team drama and respond differently to tough love or support.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "wear-breakdown", "note": "Tyres wear over a stint and car parts lose condition, so strategy balances pace against wear.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "budget-treasury", "note": "Prize money and sponsor income fund salaries and part development.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "note": "Races run in real time with pause and speed controls.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "negotiation", "note": "Driver and staff contracts are negotiated over wages, length, and bonuses, and candidates can reject offers and end talks.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "board-confidence", "note": "The chairman sets objectives each season, and missing them lowers the chairman's confidence until the player is fired.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "content", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Motorsport Manager", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "free-3d", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "manager-owner", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-ge" }, "sim_domain": [ "sports", "physical-mechanical", "economic" ], "sim_scale": "household", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-motorsport-manager", "src-steam-2026-motorsport-manager" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "sports-management", "summary": "A racing team management game in which the player designs car parts across seasons, hires drivers and staff, and makes live strategy calls on tyres, pit stops, and weather while races are simulated.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2016 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C04", "core_count": 4, "family_profile": { "control-automation": 1, "economy-finance": 3, "resources-production": 3, "risk-failure": 1, "space-construction": 1, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "influenced": [ "offworld-trading-company" ], "precedent_for": [ "ai-liquidity-in-player-markets" ] }, "mechanic_count": 10 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar", "zoning-placement" ], "agent_count_order": "none", "core_loop": "claim a land grant -> buy and outfit M.U.L.E.s and walk them to plots -> production with shortages and random events -> real-time auctions set prices -> buy or sell -> next round", "design_notes": "M.U.L.E. couples its four resources: food sets how long a player's development turn lasts, energy shortages stop plots from producing, and smithore supply sets M.U.L.E. prices and whether the store can manufacture more. Prices are set in real-time auctions in which buyers and sellers move avatars toward a price, so withholding goods and private deals between players are legitimate tactics. Danielle Bunten built catch-up rules into the systems: tied bids go to the player in the losing position, favorable events rarely hit the leader and harmful ones never hit last place, and land auctions were replaced by free grants because they compounded the leader's advantage. The taxonomy has no mechanic for systematic catch-up rules (proposed as catch-up-balancing).", "developer": "Ozark Softscape", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "mule", "influence": 3, "mechanics": [ { "id": "auctions", "note": "Each round resources trade in a real-time auction: sellers and buyers walk avatars toward a price line, trades fire when they meet, and ties go to the trailing player.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "supply-demand-pricing", "note": "Store prices respond to supply: refusing to sell raises a resource's price in later rounds, and smithore scarcity raises the price of new M.U.L.E.s.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "resource-extraction", "note": "A M.U.L.E. outfitted for food, energy, smithore, or crystite harvests its plot each round; output depends on terrain and the plot's development.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "turn-structure", "note": "Rounds run in fixed phases: land grant, timed development, production, then auctions for each resource.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "adjacency-scoring", "note": "Plots grouped with others producing the same resource get a production bonus.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "goods-consumption", "note": "Each player needs food and energy each round; low food shortens the next development turn and low energy stops some plots.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "production-chain", "note": "The store turns smithore into new M.U.L.E.s; with no smithore it cannot build more.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "random-disasters", "note": "Sunspots, pirate raids, meteorites, and runaway M.U.L.E.s, targeted away from the last-place player.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "rival-firms", "note": "Computer opponents fill empty seats and compete for plots and auction trades.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "direct-avatar", "note": "Players walk a colonist through town to buy and outfit M.U.L.E.s and lead them to plots under a turn timer.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single", "competitive" ], "name": "M.U.L.E.", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "top-down-2d", "platforms": [ "mainframe-early", "pc", "console" ], "player_role": "manager-owner", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-ge" }, "sim_domain": [ "economic", "industrial-logistics" ], "sim_scale": "settlement", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-mule" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "business-economic-sim", "summary": "A four-player economic strategy game on a colony planet where players outfit M.U.L.E. robots to produce food, energy, smithore, and crystite and trade them in real-time auctions.", "time_model": "turn-based", "type": "game", "win_structure": "competitive-victory", "year": 1983 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C14", "core_count": 2, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 2, "biology-health": 1, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "progression-goals": 1, "social-relations": 1, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "trainable-creatures-revival" ] }, "mechanic_count": 7 }, "agency_model": [ "caretaking-interaction", "conversational" ], "agent_count_order": "1", "core_loop": "care for the dog by touch -> teach tricks by voice -> walk the dog and find items -> enter disc, agility, and obedience trials -> earn prize money and trainer points -> buy supplies and unlock new breeds", "design_notes": "Nintendogs was built to show off DS hardware: the touchscreen handles petting, grooming, and washing, and the microphone handles the dog's name and trick commands. Care runs on the DS clock, so hunger, thirst, and coat condition worsen with elapsed time, but dogs cannot die, breed, or age, which makes neglect a recoverable setback rather than a fail state. Trials have five classes from Beginner to Championship, and placing third or better promotes a dog. Bark Mode lets nearby players' dogs meet and exchange presents.", "developer": "Nintendo EAD", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "nintendogs", "influence": 3, "mechanics": [ { "id": "creature-care", "note": "Touch petting, brushing, and washing plus food and water bowls maintain hunger, thirst, and coat condition; walks, balls, discs, and toys add play.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "creature-learning", "note": "When the dog strikes a pose such as sit, the player records a spoken command; repeating the pairing teaches the trick, and the dog later responds to the voice cue.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "natural-language-interaction", "note": "The microphone recognizes the dog's name and trick words by matching the player's voice against recorded samples.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "needs-decay", "note": "Hunger, thirst, and dirtiness worsen with real elapsed time.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "real-time-clock", "note": "Care state advances with the DS internal clock and calendar.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "milestone-unlocks", "note": "Trial prize money and trainer points unlock new breeds and supplies.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "async-shared-region", "note": "Bark Mode lets nearby DS owners meet each other's dogs and exchange presents.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single", "async-shared" ], "name": "Nintendogs", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "first-person", "platforms": [ "handheld" ], "player_role": "caretaker", "production_tier": "aaa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gc" }, "sim_domain": [ "biological-ecological", "domestic-personal" ], "sim_scale": "individual", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-nintendogs" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "virtual-pet", "summary": "A Nintendo DS puppy sim in which the player pets, washes, feeds, and walks up to three dogs, teaches them tricks with recorded voice commands, and enters disc, agility, and obedience trials.", "time_model": "real-world-clock", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2005 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C06", "core_count": 4, "family_profile": { "control-automation": 1, "environment-ecology": 1, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "physics-materials": 4, "progression-goals": 1, "risk-failure": 1, "space-construction": 1, "world-generation": 1 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "learned-material-surrogates" ] }, "mechanic_count": 11 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "boundary_case": true, "core_loop": "descend into a procedurally generated biome -> fight enemies with wands that also reshape the pixel world -> survive fire, liquids, and gases set off by fighting -> buy or find spells and rebuild wands at the Holy Mountain -> descend again or die and restart", "design_notes": "Noita's Falling Everything engine simulates each pixel as a material with state (solid, powder, liquid, gas) and reaction rules, and solid bodies are Box2D rigid bodies that break into pixels when damaged. Because spells, enemies, and the player all act on that layer, combat routinely sets off chain events such as burning oil, steam explosions, flooding, and collapsing ceilings, and these kill the player as often as enemies do. Wand building composes spells with modifiers into programs with cast order and mana limits, and runs are permadeath.", "developer": "Nolla Games", "emergence": 4, "failure_model": "hard-restart", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "noita", "influence": 2, "influenced_by": [ "the-powder-toy" ], "mechanics": [ { "id": "falling-sand-materials", "note": "Every pixel of terrain is a material that falls, flows, or rises by local rules, so digging, explosions, and spills reshape the level in real time.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "material-interactions", "note": "Materials react by rule: lava and water form rock and steam, wood burns into smoke, acid eats terrain, and alchemical liquids such as polymorphine or teleportatium apply their effects on contact.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "permadeath", "note": "A death ends the run and the world is regenerated; only some unlocks, such as new spells in the pool, persist.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "modular-assembly", "note": "Wands have stats such as capacity, mana, recharge, and cast delay; spells and modifiers placed in a wand's slots execute in order, so arrangement changes what the wand does.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "rigid-body-physics", "note": "Box2D rigid bodies such as crates, bricks, and detached terrain chunks can be kicked, thrown, and shattered.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "fire-spread", "note": "Fire spreads through wood, grass, oil, and gunpowder and burns the player and enemies alike.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "fluid-gas-simulation", "note": "Liquids pool and flow and gases rise and spread through caves at pixel level.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "procedural-terrain", "note": "Each seed generates biome layouts from hand-made tile pieces within a fixed order of biomes.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "direct-avatar", "note": "The player controls one witch with levitation, kicking, and wand casting.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "note": "Lua-based mods are supported and distributed through Steam Workshop.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "combination-discovery", "note": "Each world seed defines two secret alchemy recipes (Lively Concoction and Alchemic Precursor), each made from three materials that players must find by experiment.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "scripting", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Noita", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "top-down-2d", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "inhabitant", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gg", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "physical-mechanical" ], "sim_scale": "individual", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-noita" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "physics-sandbox", "summary": "A roguelite action game in which every pixel of the world is simulated as a falling-sand material that burns, melts, flows, and reacts, and the player builds wands from spells to dig through procedurally generated levels.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "campaign", "year": 2019, "year_full_release": 2020 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C04", "core_count": 5, "family_profile": { "economy-finance": 5, "progression-goals": 1, "resources-production": 3, "space-construction": 1, "time-pacing": 1, "world-generation": 1 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "agent-ambassadors-async", "parallel-autobalance" ] }, "mechanic_count": 12 }, "agency_model": [ "zoning-placement", "policy-parameter" ], "agent_count_order": "none", "core_loop": "land an HQ -> claim tiles and build extractors -> refine resources into goods -> sell into a market whose prices move with each trade -> buy black market sabotage and stock -> buy out every rival", "design_notes": "Soren Johnson replaced combat with a shared market: 13 resources trade at prices that move with every purchase and sale, so selling a large stockpile drives the price down and one player's bulk purchases create openings for others. Black market items such as nukes, EMPs, and mutinies act through the economy, and each purchase raises the price of the next one. Victory comes from equity: players buy shares in rivals until they hold a majority of every company, and buying back one's own shares makes a takeover more expensive. Johnson names M.U.L.E. and Railroad Tycoon as inspirations.", "developer": "Mohawk Games", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "hard-restart", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "offworld-trading-company", "influence": 2, "influenced_by": [ "mule", "railroad-tycoon" ], "mechanics": [ { "id": "supply-demand-pricing", "note": "Each of 13 resources has a market price that falls when players sell and rises when they buy, with shortages and gluts driving rapid swings.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "equity-buyouts", "note": "Players buy shares in rival companies and win by holding a majority of every company; debt lowers stock price, and buying back one's own stock raises buyout cost.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "resource-extraction", "note": "Extractors on claimed hex tiles mine water, aluminum, iron, silicon, and carbon at rates set by tile richness.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "production-chain", "note": "Steel mills, glass kilns, electronics factories, greenhouses, and hydrolysis reactors turn raw resources into higher-value goods and life support.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "rival-firms", "note": "Up to eight companies, AI or human, compete in one market and attack each other through black market sabotage such as nukes, EMPs, and mutinies.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "auctions", "note": "Some resource tiles and patents are sold by auction.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "goods-consumption", "note": "Each HQ consumes life support resources such as water, food, oxygen, and power, which must be produced or bought.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "loans-debt", "note": "Companies can run into debt, which depresses their share price.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "tech-tree", "note": "Patents and HQ upgrades unlock buildings and bonuses.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "procedural-terrain", "note": "Each match generates a new Martian map, so resource layouts and claims differ.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "free-placement", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "content", "multiplayer": [ "single", "competitive" ], "name": "Offworld Trading Company", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "free-3d", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "manager-owner", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-ge", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "economic", "industrial-logistics" ], "sim_scale": "region", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-offworld-trading-company", "src-steam-2026-offworld-trading-company", "src-gamesbeat-2015-offworld-trading-company", "src-spacesector-2015-offworld-early-access" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "business-economic-sim", "summary": "A real-time economic strategy game on Mars where companies claim resource tiles, refine goods for a shared market whose prices move with every trade, and win by buying out every rival's stock.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "competitive-victory", "year": 2015, "year_full_release": 2016 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C20", "core_count": 4, "family_profile": { "control-automation": 1, "information-legibility": 1, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "progression-goals": 1, "space-construction": 2 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "qd-scenario-libraries", "specification-programming-games" ] }, "mechanic_count": 6 }, "agency_model": [ "programmatic", "design-then-test" ], "agent_count_order": "none", "boundary_case": true, "claims": [ { "confidence": "medium", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-opus-magnum", "src-wikipedia-spacechem" ], "text": "Opus Magnum is a refined version of Zach Barth's 2008 Flash game The Codex of Alchemical Engineering, which is not in this dataset; the influenced_by edge to SpaceChem records Barth's shared instruction-grid and histogram design rather than a stated influence in the cited encyclopedia." }, { "confidence": "medium", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-opus-magnum" ], "text": "A Nintendo Switch version, Opus Magnum The Complete Edition, released on 2026-03-17." } ], "core_loop": "read the reagents and product -> place arms, tracks, and glyphs on the hex grid -> write instructions on the timeline -> run until the required products are made -> compare cost, cycles, and area histograms -> export a looping GIF or optimize", "design_notes": "Opus Magnum refines Zach Barth's 2008 Flash game The Codex of Alchemical Engineering into Zachtronics' most permissive puzzle design: there is no part limit, any machine that delivers the products counts, and the difficulty is choosing among three competing metrics. Arms grab, rotate, pivot, extend, and move on tracks under a per-arm instruction tape, and glyphs bond, unbond, calcify, and project metals one step toward gold. Solutions are ranked on cost in gold, cycles, and area, with no in-game reward for optimizing, so motivation comes from friends' scores and the histograms. Barth's experience with solution recording in Infinifactory led to built-in export of seamlessly looping GIFs, which made solutions shareable outside the game; a puzzle editor feeds Steam Workshop.", "developer": "Zachtronics", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "none", "fidelity": "abstract", "id": "opus-magnum", "influence": 2, "influenced_by": [ "spacechem" ], "mechanics": [ { "id": "player-programming", "note": "Each arm has a row on a shared instruction timeline of grab, drop, rotate, pivot, extend, retract, and track moves; the machine loops the program until the required number of products is output.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "design-performance-rating", "note": "Solutions are scored on cost in gold, cycles to complete, and area in hex tiles, with the community adding an unofficial sum metric.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "comparative-histograms", "note": "Cost, cycles, and area are shown on histograms of all players' scores and against friends' scores; Zachtronics deliberately attaches no rewards to optimization.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "modular-assembly", "note": "A machine is assembled from arms, extendable arms, tracks, and glyphs of bonding, unbonding, calcification, and projection, plus devices such as Van Berlo's wheel, with no limit on parts beyond their cost.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "scenario-objectives", "note": "Each puzzle fixes the input reagents and the required product molecule; chapters must be completed to advance.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "content-sharing", "note": "A puzzle editor publishes solvable user puzzles to Steam Workshop, curated puzzles appear in the Journal of Alchemical Engineering, and solutions export as looping GIFs.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "content", "multiplayer": [ "single", "async-shared" ], "name": "Opus Magnum", "narrative_mode": "authored", "perspective": "top-down-2d", "platforms": [ "pc", "console", "handheld" ], "player_role": "programmer", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gh" }, "sim_domain": [ "computational-abstract" ], "sim_scale": "micro", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-opus-magnum", "src-steam-2026-opus-magnum", "src-couture-2019-road-to-igf-opus-magnum" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "programming-sim", "subgenre_secondary": [ "construction-engineering" ], "summary": "A programming puzzle game in which the player builds alchemical machines from arms, tracks, and glyphs on a hex grid, programs them on an instruction timeline, and compares each looping solution's cost, cycles, and area against other players' histograms.", "time_model": "run-on-demand", "type": "game", "win_structure": "campaign", "year": 2017 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C13", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "biology-health": 1, "environment-ecology": 1, "risk-failure": 2, "time-pacing": 1 }, "mechanic_count": 5 }, "agency_model": [ "policy-parameter" ], "agent_count_order": "none", "aliases": [ "Oregon" ], "core_loop": "buy supplies at the outset and at forts -> choose food consumption and pace each leg -> random events, weather, and illness hit the party -> hunt for food and cross rivers -> reach Oregon or die on the trail", "design_notes": "Three student teachers wrote it in two weeks for a Minneapolis classroom, where it debuted on 3 December 1971; MECC distributed it on its time-sharing network from 1975 and on the Apple II from 1980. The 1971 model is a few stocks (food, bullets, clothing, supplies, cash) spent over about twelve two-week rounds, with one or two random events and weather drawn each round and typed hunting that rewards speed. The 1985 graphical version added adjustable pace and rations, river crossings by fording, caulking, or ferry, a party of five, professions that set difficulty and score, and tombstones left by earlier players.", "developer": "Don Rawitsch, Bill Heinemann, and Paul Dillenberger; later MECC", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "hard-restart", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "oregon-trail", "influence": 4, "mechanics": [ { "id": "survival-meters", "note": "Food, clothing, and medical supplies are stocks drawn down each round at a player-chosen consumption rate; low food, cold without clothing, and untreated illness kill the traveler.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "random-disasters", "note": "Each round closes with one or two random events and weather, such as storms, wagon breakdowns, snakebites, or attacks, that cost supplies or health.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "turn-structure", "note": "The trip is a sequence of two-week rounds with fixed phases: stop at a fort or not, hunt or not, set consumption, then travel and resolve events.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "weather", "note": "Weather each round affects travel and illness.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "permadeath", "note": "Dead party members are gone; the 1985 version leaves a tombstone with an epitaph.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "The Oregon Trail", "narrative_mode": "hybrid", "perspective": "text-ui", "platforms": [ "mainframe-early", "pc" ], "player_role": "overseer", "production_tier": "hobbyist", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gb" }, "sim_domain": [ "biological-ecological", "economic" ], "sim_scale": "household", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-oregon-trail-1971", "src-wikipedia-oregon-trail-1985" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "survival-sim", "summary": "An educational turn-based travel sim in which the player buys supplies and sets rations for a wagon journey to Oregon while random events, weather, and illness threaten the party.", "time_model": "turn-based", "type": "game", "win_structure": "scenario-goals", "year": 1971 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C22", "core_count": 4, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 2, "economy-finance": 3, "information-legibility": 2, "narrative-generation": 1, "population-lineage": 1, "risk-failure": 1, "world-generation": 1 }, "mechanic_count": 11 }, "agency_model": [ "policy-parameter", "direct-unit" ], "agent_count_order": "1k", "aliases": [ "OOTP" ], "core_loop": "scout and draft players -> set rosters, lineups, and depth charts -> simulate games pitch by pitch -> players develop or decline -> trade, sign, and manage finances -> build a franchise across seasons", "design_notes": "OOTP simulates baseball pitch by pitch from player ratings and reports it as scrolling play-by-play text with a minimal diamond, plus 3D ballparks and ball flight from OOTP 15. Its range of setups defines it: real current leagues under the MLB and Minor League Baseball licenses from OOTP 16, historical play that drops the player into any era with real rookies arriving each season, and fictional leagues. Ratings are filtered through scouting, so the GM sees estimates rather than true values. The league keeps a full statistical history with HTML reports, so long careers build an almanac.", "developer": "Out of the Park Developments", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "high-fidelity", "id": "out-of-the-park-baseball", "influence": 2, "mechanics": [ { "id": "attribute-match-engine", "note": "Games are simulated pitch by pitch from batter, pitcher, and fielder ratings and managerial settings, in real time, pitch-by-pitch control, or bulk simulation.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "scouting-knowledge", "note": "Player ratings are shown through a scout's evaluation, so accuracy depends on the scouting staff; the system was recoded in OOTP 14.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "staff-hiring", "note": "The GM signs free agents, drafts amateurs, and hires managers, coaches, and scouts within a budget.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "agent-skills", "note": "Player ratings develop and decline over careers, including fielding development added in OOTP 14.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "lifecycle-aging", "note": "Players age, retire, and are replaced by drafts and historical debuts.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "procedural-characters", "note": "Fictional players are generated for fictional leagues and amateur drafts.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "history-chronicle", "note": "League histories, records, and player careers are stored and exported as HTML reports.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "budget-treasury", "note": "Franchise finances cover payroll, revenue, and budgets; the system was reworked in OOTP 16.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "stats-dashboards", "note": "Extensive statistics and reports cover every player, team, and season.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "negotiation", "note": "Contract offers to free agents and extensions to rostered players are accepted or rejected against each player's demands, and trades are proposed to AI general managers who accept, reject, or counter.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "board-confidence", "note": "Owners set expectations, and the general manager's job security falls when results and finances miss them, ending in dismissal.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "content", "multiplayer": [ "single", "competitive" ], "name": "Out of the Park Baseball", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "text-ui", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "manager-owner", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-ge" }, "sim_domain": [ "sports", "economic" ], "sim_scale": "household", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-out-of-the-park-baseball" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "sports-management", "summary": "A text-based baseball management sim in which the player runs a franchise's roster, scouting, draft, trades, and finances while a pitch-by-pitch engine simulates games for career, historical, or fictional leagues.", "time_model": "turn-based", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 1999 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C02", "core_count": 6, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 4, "biology-health": 1, "control-automation": 2, "environment-ecology": 1, "information-legibility": 1, "logistics-networks": 1, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "physics-materials": 2, "progression-goals": 1, "resources-production": 5, "space-construction": 3, "time-pacing": 1, "world-generation": 1 }, "incoming": { "influenced": [ "space-haven" ], "precedent_for": [ "bottleneck-explainer", "intent-level-orders", "learned-material-surrogates", "living-workforce-factories" ] }, "mechanic_count": 24 }, "agency_model": [ "order-queue", "zoning-placement", "indirect-incentive", "programmatic" ], "agent_count_order": "10", "aliases": [ "ONI" ], "core_loop": "dig into the asteroid -> lay out rooms, pipes, and wires -> duplicants perform prioritized errands -> oxygen, heat, germs, and waste redistribute tile by tile -> stress and shortfalls surface -> rebuild toward closed, sustainable loops", "design_notes": "Each cell holds one element with a mass and a temperature, and heat moves between cells every 0.2 s tick by conduction, so insulation, phase changes, and overheating machines follow from one rule rather than from per-building scripts. Most machines emit byproducts (a natural gas generator makes 800 W plus polluted water and carbon dioxide), so the long game is closing loops so waste becomes input. Mood uses a morale-versus-expectation gap: learning skills raises a duplicant's expectation, so better-trained colonists need better food, rooms, and decor. Wikipedia names Dwarf Fortress, Prison Architect, and The Sims as design influences.", "developer": "Klei Entertainment", "emergence": 4, "failure_model": "cascading-collapse", "fidelity": "systemic", "id": "oxygen-not-included", "influence": 3, "influenced_by": [ "dwarf-fortress", "prison-architect", "the-sims" ], "mechanics": [ { "id": "fluid-gas-simulation", "note": "Every tile holds one gas, liquid, or solid with a mass; gases diffuse and equalize when a chamber is opened, and liquids drain under gravity, so breathable oxygen must be produced and carbon dioxide managed.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "heat-transfer", "note": "Cells exchange heat each 0.2 s tick with q = dT x dt x k x 1000, with multipliers for solid-gas and liquid-liquid contact; insulated tiles divide conductivity, and temperature thresholds melt, freeze, boil, or damage things.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "byproducts-waste", "note": "Machines and duplicants emit polluted water, polluted oxygen, carbon dioxide, and heat; a natural gas generator consumes 90 g/s of gas for 800 W and outputs 67.5 g/s polluted water and 22.5 g/s CO2.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "fluid-pipe-network", "note": "Gas and liquid pipes carry packets between buildings; a liquid pipe segment holds 10 kg and moves packets once per second, capping a line at 10 kg/s, and pipe contents exchange heat with their tiles.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "mood-breakdown", "note": "Morale is the sum of timed buffs (Mess Hall +3, Private Bedroom +3, food up to +16, decor up to +12) compared to an expectation that rises with skills learned; each point under adds 2.5% stress per cycle up to 25%, full stress triggers a stress response, and 8 or more points over can trigger overjoyed responses.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "work-priorities", "note": "Every errand carries a priority, and each duplicant has per-errand-type priorities on the Priorities screen; duplicants pick the highest available errand and favor tasks they are good at.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "designation-orders", "note": "Dig, build, mop, and deconstruct orders placed on tiles.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "contagion", "note": "Germs live on tiles, items, gases, and liquids; exposure past per-germ thresholds gives a contraction chance of 0.5 - 0.5 x tanh(resistance / 4).", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "power-grid", "note": "Coal, hydrogen, natural gas, and manual generators on wires and batteries; overloaded circuits take damage.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "signal-circuits", "note": "Automation wires, sensors, and logic gates control doors, pumps, and generators; extended by the Automation Innovation update.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "agent-skills", "note": "Skill points are spent on skills, which raise morale expectations.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "personality-traits", "note": "Traits such as Germ Resistant or Allergies change resistances and stress reactions.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "room-recognition", "note": "Enclosed rooms that meet requirements become Mess Halls, Bedrooms, and similar rooms that grant morale buffs.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "decoration-beauty", "note": "Decor around a duplicant is compared to its recent average and feeds morale.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "crop-cultivation", "note": "Plants need specific temperatures, atmospheres, and irrigation.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "animal-husbandry", "note": "Critters are ranched for food and for their conversion of inputs into useful outputs.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "spoilage", "note": "Food rots unless refrigerated or kept in a sterile atmosphere.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "data-overlays", "note": "Oxygen, temperature, power, plumbing, and germ overlays show hidden cell state.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "tech-tree", "note": "Research unlocks buildings.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "procedural-terrain", "note": "Asteroids are procedurally generated.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "free-placement", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "storage-capacity", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "note": "Steam Workshop mods are C# assemblies patched in with Harmony.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "scripting", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Oxygen Not Included", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "top-down-2d", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "overseer", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gb", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes", "2026-10-25-contributor-readiness" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "physical-mechanical", "biological-ecological", "industrial-logistics" ], "sim_scale": "settlement", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-oxygen-not-included", "src-steam-2026-oxygen-not-included", "src-oniwiki-2026-morale", "src-oniwiki-2026-germs", "src-oxygennotincludedwiki-2026-thermal-conductivity", "src-oniwiki-2026-liquid-pipe", "src-oniwiki-2026-natural-gas-generator" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "colony-sim", "subgenre_secondary": [ "survival-sim" ], "summary": "A side-view colony sim in which a few duplicants survive inside an asteroid where every tile holds an element with mass and temperature, so air, liquids, heat, and germs flow through the base.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2017, "year_full_release": 2019 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C15", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 1, "economy-finance": 1, "narrative-generation": 2, "operation-procedure": 1, "time-pacing": 1, "world-generation": 1 }, "incoming": { "influenced": [ "contraband-police" ], "precedent_for": [ "generated-inspection-shifts" ] }, "mechanic_count": 7 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar", "policy-parameter" ], "agent_count_order": "10", "core_loop": "read the day's rules -> inspect each entrant's papers -> interrogate, fingerprint, or scan discrepancies -> stamp approve, deny, or detain -> citations and bribes adjust pay -> pay rent, food, and heat -> next day adds rules", "design_notes": "The inspection rules are predicates that accumulate day by day as the fictional state's politics shift, so the same entrant generator yields harder cases over time. Pay is per correctly processed entrant within a fixed shift and citations arrive by fax after each error, which makes speed and accuracy a direct trade. The household ledger converts that trade into moral pressure, and bribes and rule-bending choices feed scripted branches that lead to twenty endings.", "developer": "Lucas Pope (3909 LLC)", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "hard-restart", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "papers-please", "influence": 3, "mechanics": [ { "id": "rule-checking-inspection", "note": "Each day adds or changes entry requirements; the player cross-checks passports, permits, and other papers, can interrogate, compare fingerprints, or order body scans, and receives faxed citations after protocol violations.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "daily-action-budget", "note": "Each shift is a fixed real-time working day and pay is per properly processed entrant, so processing speed trades against error risk.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "budget-treasury", "note": "The end-of-day ledger adds wages and bribes, subtracts citation penalties, and requires paying rent, food, heat, and other necessities; going into debt ends the game.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "needs-decay", "note": "Family members' condition worsens on days when food, heat, or other necessities go unpaid.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "dilemma-cards", "note": "Scripted entrants pose choices such as admitting a supposed spouse without complete papers, trading rule compliance against helping people.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "triggered-event-chains", "note": "EZIC contacts and other scripted encounters branch the story toward twenty endings, including escape to Obristan.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "procedural-characters", "note": "Randomly generated entrants are mixed with scripted ones; the unlockable endless mode uses only generated entrants.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Papers, Please", "narrative_mode": "hybrid", "perspective": "top-down-2d", "platforms": [ "pc", "mobile", "handheld" ], "player_role": "worker", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gf" }, "sim_domain": [ "occupational", "political-governance", "domestic-personal" ], "sim_scale": "individual", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-papers-please" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "job-sim", "summary": "A border inspection game in which the player checks entrants' documents against daily-changing rules on a timed shift and spends the wages on a family's rent, food, and heat.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "campaign", "year": 2013 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C02", "core_count": 2, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 4, "multiplayer-persistence": 2, "population-lineage": 1, "progression-goals": 1, "social-relations": 2, "space-construction": 1, "time-pacing": 1 }, "mechanic_count": 12 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-unit", "indirect-incentive", "zoning-placement" ], "agent_count_order": "10", "core_loop": "design Parafolks in the Paramaker -> build a grid-less home -> Parafolks pursue needs and wants -> socialize, work, and build skills around town -> relationships, children, and aging change the household -> share homes and Parafolks on the Workshop", "design_notes": "Paralives began as Alex Massé's solo project, was funded through Patreon (over 15,000 supporters by November 2023), and entered Steam early access on 2026-05-25 with about two years planned before 1.0. Its building tools are its most distinctive system: walls and furniture resize, recolor, and stack, walls can curve, floors can split level, and a road-style wall tool was inspired by Cities: Skylines. Conversation fills a together bar that unlocks together cards, multiselect lets several Parafolks act as a group, and procedural animation adapts to preceding animations.", "developer": "Paralives Studio", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "paralives", "influence": 1, "influenced_by": [ "the-sims", "cities-skylines" ], "mechanics": [ { "id": "free-placement", "note": "Grid-less building with curved walls, split-level floors, and resizable, recolorable, stackable furniture; walls are drawn with a road-style tool modeled on Cities: Skylines.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "needs-decay", "note": "Parafolks carry needs, wants, and emotions that steer their autonomous behavior and set the player's care tasks.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "personality-traits", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "agent-skills", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "relationship-values", "note": "Conversation fills a together bar between two Parafolks, and a full bar unlocks together cards.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "romance-family", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "career-ladder", "note": "Jobs with flexible career progression paths.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "lifecycle-aging", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "content-sharing", "note": "Steam Workshop distributes community houses, Parafolks, and mods.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "note": "An in-game modding interface lets players edit or add content.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "utility-action-selection", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "content", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Paralives", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "free-3d", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "caretaker", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gc", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "domestic-personal", "social-interpersonal" ], "sim_scale": "household", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-paralives", "src-steam-2026-paralives" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "life-sim", "summary": "An indie life sim, in early access since May 2026, in which players build grid-less homes and guide Parafolks with needs, emotions, traits, skills, and careers in an open-world town.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2026 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C21", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "economy-finance": 2, "operation-procedure": 1, "progression-goals": 1, "space-construction": 2 }, "mechanic_count": 6 }, "agency_model": [ "design-then-test" ], "agent_count_order": "none", "aliases": [ "PCBS" ], "core_loop": "accept an email job -> order parts with a shipping tier -> open the case and diagnose or assemble -> install software, remove viruses, or overclock -> benchmark -> get paid -> pay rent and electricity -> unlock better parts", "design_notes": "Parts are licensed real components with compatibility rules, and a machine's performance is measured with the real 3DMark benchmark, so a build's quality is an output of its parts rather than a designer-set score. Assembly has physical consequences: a CPU cooler mounted without thermal paste lets the processor overheat and fail. The career wraps this in a small business with monthly rent and electricity, accept-or-reject email jobs, and timed jobs that become more common later.", "developer": "Claudiu Kiss and The Irregular Corporation", "emergence": 1, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "pc-building-simulator", "influence": 1, "mechanics": [ { "id": "diagnose-repair", "note": "Email jobs ask for virus removal, upgrades, fixes, or overclocking on customer PCs; the player opens the case, identifies the faulty or missing part, and swaps it.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "modular-assembly", "note": "PCs are assembled from licensed cases, motherboards, CPUs, coolers, GPUs, memory, and storage; part choice and installation details such as thermal paste decide whether and how well the machine runs.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "contracts-orders", "note": "Customer requests, discount alerts, spam, and scams arrive in an inbox; accepted orders left unfulfilled are rejected, and timed jobs grow more common as the career advances.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "design-performance-rating", "note": "3DMark benchmarking scores built or repaired machines.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "milestone-unlocks", "note": "Leveling up from job experience unlocks more advanced parts.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "budget-treasury", "note": "Monthly rent and electricity bills must be paid or the player incurs debt.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "PC Building Simulator", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "first-person", "platforms": [ "pc", "console", "handheld" ], "player_role": "worker", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gf" }, "sim_domain": [ "occupational", "physical-mechanical" ], "sim_scale": "individual", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-pc-building-simulator" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "job-sim", "summary": "A workshop sim in which the player takes email jobs to build, upgrade, repair, and overclock PCs from licensed parts and verifies the results with benchmark software.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2018, "year_full_release": 2019 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C03", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "economy-finance": 2, "environment-ecology": 3, "logistics-networks": 1, "population-lineage": 1, "progression-goals": 2, "resources-production": 4, "space-construction": 1, "time-pacing": 1 }, "mechanic_count": 15 }, "agency_model": [ "zoning-placement", "policy-parameter" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "core_loop": "lay out housing, roads, and floodplain farms -> the yearly Nile flood waters the farms -> walkers deliver services, food, and goods to houses -> houses evolve and pay taxes -> appease five gods and build monuments to meet mission goals", "design_notes": "Pharaoh reuses Caesar III's walker model and adds a calendar driven by the Nile: floodplain farms can only be worked between floods, irrigation ditches raise fertility, and the god Osiris can improve or worsen the flood. Monuments need worker facilities and delivered materials and take in-game years, a construction-logistics system with no exact taxonomy match (see run proposal). Five gods (Ra, Bast, Osiris, Ptah, Seth) grant gifts when appeased with shrines and temples and send disasters when angered.", "developer": "Impressions Games", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "pharaoh", "influence": 2, "influenced_by": [ "caesar-3" ], "mechanics": [ { "id": "walker-service-delivery", "note": "Fire marshals, constables, and other service walkers roam roads from their buildings and cover the houses they pass.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "population-strata", "note": "Housing improves in level when demands for goods, services, and surroundings are met.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "hydrology", "note": "A yearly Nile flood waters floodplain farms; irrigation ditches extend fertile land, and Osiris can raise or lower the flood quality.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "crop-cultivation", "note": "Floodplain and meadow farms yield by fertility and season.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "seasons", "note": "The flood season fixes when floodplain land can be farmed.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "production-chain", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "goods-consumption", "note": "Houses need food and goods to advance.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "trade-routes", "note": "Raw materials and goods trade with other cities for money.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "scenario-objectives", "note": "Missions set population, rating, and monument goals.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "labor-market", "note": "Buildings and monument crews draw workers from housing.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "megaproject-sink", "note": "Monuments such as pyramids need delivered materials and worker crews over in-game years, and many missions require completing them.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "free-placement", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "fire-spread", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "storage-capacity", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Pharaoh", "narrative_mode": "hybrid", "perspective": "isometric", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "planner-mayor", "production_tier": "aa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-ga", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "urban", "economic" ], "sim_scale": "city", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-pharaoh" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "city-builder", "summary": "An Egyptian city builder on the Caesar III engine in which a yearly Nile flood waters floodplain farms, walkers carry services to housing, five gods must be appeased, and monuments take years of labor and materials.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "campaign", "year": 1999 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C17", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "environment-ecology": 2, "information-legibility": 2, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "progression-goals": 2, "time-pacing": 2 }, "incoming": { "influenced": [ "rebel-inc" ], "precedent_for": [ "calibrated-serious-sims" ] }, "mechanic_count": 9 }, "agency_model": [ "policy-parameter" ], "agent_count_order": "aggregate", "aliases": [ "Plague Inc: Evolved" ], "claims": [ { "confidence": "high", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-plague-inc", "src-steam-2026-plague-inc-evolved" ], "text": "The CDC invited creator James Vaughan to speak in March 2013 about the game's infection model." } ], "core_loop": "infect patient zero -> infections spread within and between countries -> earn DNA points -> buy transmission, symptom, and ability evolutions -> severity raises awareness and cure funding -> race to kill everyone before the cure completes", "design_notes": "James Vaughan's game inverts the epidemic model: the player owns the pathogen's parameters, and humanity's response (awareness, closures, cure research) is the opponent. The tension is between infectivity and severity, because visible symptoms and deaths accelerate the cure, so successful plans spread quietly and then turn lethal. Countries differ by climate and conditions the pathogen must adapt to, and the CDC invited Vaughan to discuss its infection model in 2013, though Ndemic has said it is not on par with scientific models. Evolved adds 10 disease types, 23 scenarios, versus and co-op modes, and a scenario creator with Workshop sharing.", "developer": "Ndemic Creations", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "hard-restart", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "plague-inc", "influence": 2, "mechanics": [ { "id": "contagion", "note": "Infection spreads within countries and between them along travel links, at rates set by the pathogen's transmission traits and each country's conditions, until countries are fully infected and then depopulated.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "tech-tree", "note": "DNA points buy nodes in three trees (transmission, symptoms, abilities); symptoms raise severity and lethality, and abilities resist climate and drugs.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "crisis-countdown", "note": "Once the disease is noticed, countries fund cure research shown as a global progress bar; finishing it ends the run, so the player races to kill before it fills.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "habitat-suitability", "note": "Hot, cold, and other national conditions slow a pathogen that lacks the matching resistance evolutions.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "alerts-feed", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "stats-dashboards", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "scenario-objectives", "note": "Evolved ships 23 scenarios and 10 disease types, each with altered rules.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "note": "The Evolved scenario creator builds custom plagues, worlds, and events, with over 10,000 shared on Steam Workshop.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "content", "multiplayer": [ "single", "competitive", "coop" ], "name": "Plague Inc.", "narrative_mode": "hybrid", "perspective": "top-down-2d", "platforms": [ "mobile", "pc", "console" ], "player_role": "god", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gd" }, "sim_domain": [ "medical", "biological-ecological" ], "sim_scale": "planet", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-plague-inc", "src-steam-2026-plague-inc-evolved" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "ecosystem-evolution", "summary": "A strategy game in which the player evolves a pathogen's transmission, symptoms, and abilities to infect and kill the world's population before humanity's cure research finishes.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "scenario-goals", "year": 2012 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C01", "core_count": 4, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 3, "control-automation": 1, "economy-finance": 2, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "progression-goals": 2, "risk-failure": 1, "space-construction": 6, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "influenced": [ "planet-zoo" ], "precedent_for": [ "generative-decoration-catalogs", "human-calibrated-customers", "mean-field-crowds" ] }, "mechanic_count": 17 }, "agency_model": [ "zoning-placement", "design-then-test", "policy-parameter" ], "agent_count_order": "1k", "core_loop": "sculpt terrain and build modular scenery -> design coasters and test their ratings -> guests choose rides, shops, and paths -> manage staff, prices, and finances -> share parks and blueprints on the Workshop", "design_notes": "Planet Coaster keeps the RollerCoaster Tycoon structure of rated rides and guests with preferences and moves the emphasis to construction: a hybrid spline and piece coaster editor, a voxel terrain editor, and modular pieces that snap into custom buildings. The Workshop is part of play, since players import coasters, scenery blueprints, and whole parks made by others. Frontier calls it a spiritual successor to its own RollerCoaster Tycoon 3, and both run on Frontier's Cobra engine. Career, Challenge (limited funds and research), and Sandbox (unlimited funds) modes share one simulation.", "developer": "Frontier Developments", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "planet-coaster", "influence": 2, "influenced_by": [ "rollercoaster-tycoon" ], "mechanics": [ { "id": "modular-assembly", "note": "Coasters are built in a hybrid spline and piece-by-piece editor, and structures are assembled from modular wall, roof, and prop pieces.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "design-performance-rating", "note": "Coasters are test-run and rated on excitement, fear, and nausea, which set guest demand and ride value.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "crowd-preferences", "note": "Thousands of guests with individual needs, preferences, and budgets choose rides and shops and show thoughts about prices and park conditions.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "content-sharing", "note": "Coasters, scenery blueprints, and parks are uploaded to and downloaded from the Steam Workshop or Frontier Workshop.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "blueprints", "note": "Any selection of pieces can be saved as a blueprint and placed again.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "staff-hiring", "note": "Janitors, mechanics, entertainers, vendors, and security guards are hired and assigned.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "customer-value-choice", "note": "Ticket, ride, and shop prices are weighed against ride ratings and guest budgets.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "wear-breakdown", "note": "Rides age and break down without mechanic inspections.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "terraforming", "note": "A voxel terrain editor sculpts and tunnels the ground.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "tech-tree", "note": "Challenge and Career modes gate rides and items behind research.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "needs-decay", "note": "Guests need food, drink, toilets, and rest during their visit.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "scenario-objectives", "note": "Career scenarios set goals such as building coasters, reaching park ratings, and hiring staff; a scenario editor was added in 2017.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "decoration-beauty", "note": "Scenery around rides and paths raises guest happiness and ride appeal.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "track-laying", "note": "Coasters are built in a hybrid spline and piece-by-piece editor, joining track elements end to end.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "free-placement", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "utility-action-selection", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "content", "multiplayer": [ "single", "async-shared" ], "name": "Planet Coaster", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "free-3d", "platforms": [ "pc", "console" ], "player_role": "manager-owner", "production_tier": "aa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-ge", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "economic", "physical-mechanical" ], "sim_scale": "facility", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-planet-coaster", "src-wikipedia-rollercoaster-tycoon-series" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "management-tycoon", "summary": "A 3D theme park builder with a spline and piece coaster editor, modular scenery, and individually simulated guests and staff, built around sharing creations through the Steam Workshop.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2016 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C01", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 2, "economy-finance": 2, "environment-ecology": 3, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "population-lineage": 2, "progression-goals": 1, "social-relations": 1, "space-construction": 2, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "neural-npc-motion" ] }, "mechanic_count": 15 }, "agency_model": [ "zoning-placement", "policy-parameter" ], "agent_count_order": "1k", "core_loop": "build a habitat for a species' needs -> animals respond to space, terrain, enrichment, and group size -> breed and manage genomes -> trade or release animals for conservation -> guests pay and learn -> expand the zoo", "design_notes": "Planet Zoo gives each animal species a requirements profile (habitat size, land and water, terrain and plant biome, temperature, group size and sex ratio, enrichment, privacy, and guest exposure) and reports the shortfalls as welfare, so habitat design is a constraint-satisfaction problem. Each animal carries a genome that affects lifespan, size, health, and fertility; offspring inherit it, and inbreeding harms the young, which turns breeding into a population-genetics task. Franchise mode connects zoos to an online market where players buy and trade animals with conservation credits. It reuses Planet Coaster's construction and Workshop tools.", "developer": "Frontier Developments", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "systemic", "id": "planet-zoo", "influence": 2, "influenced_by": [ "zoo-tycoon", "planet-coaster" ], "mechanics": [ { "id": "habitat-suitability", "note": "Each species needs habitat size, land and water area, biome terrain and plants, temperature, shelter, and enrichment; welfare drops when any requirement is unmet.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "trait-inheritance", "note": "Animals carry genomes that set lifespan, size, health, and fertility; offspring inherit them, and inbreeding causes harmful effects.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "needs-decay", "note": "Animals have food, water, social, enrichment, and privacy needs whose shortfalls lower welfare and can cause illness.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "player-driven-market", "note": "In Franchise mode an online animal market shared across players lists animals for sale and trade, priced in conservation credits.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "reputation", "note": "A conservation rating rises with endangered species, releases to the wild, and education.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "crowd-preferences", "note": "Guests choose exhibits, shops, and talks and react to animal welfare and park layout.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "staff-hiring", "note": "Keepers, vets, mechanics, security, and vendors are hired with work zones and facility needs.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "lifecycle-aging", "note": "Animals age from juveniles to adults and die of old age.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modular-assembly", "note": "Barriers, buildings, and scenery use Planet Coaster's modular piece system.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "tech-tree", "note": "Vets research species to unlock knowledge and enrichment items.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "content-sharing", "note": "Habitat and building blueprints are shared on the Steam Workshop.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "day-night-cycle", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "weather", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "free-placement", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "content", "multiplayer": [ "single", "async-shared" ], "name": "Planet Zoo", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "free-3d", "platforms": [ "pc", "console" ], "player_role": "manager-owner", "production_tier": "aa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-ge", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "biological-ecological", "economic" ], "sim_scale": "facility", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-planet-zoo" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "management-tycoon", "subgenre_secondary": [ "ecosystem-evolution" ], "summary": "A zoo management game where the player builds habitats to meet each species' welfare needs, manages genetics and breeding, and raises a conservation rating, using Planet Coaster's building tools.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2019 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C07", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "economy-finance": 4, "logistics-networks": 2, "progression-goals": 1, "resources-production": 1, "risk-failure": 2, "space-construction": 2 }, "mechanic_count": 12 }, "agency_model": [ "zoning-placement", "policy-parameter" ], "agent_count_order": "aggregate", "claims": [ { "confidence": "high", "locator": "review information box", "quote": "Released: July 31, 2018", "sources": [ "src-destructoid-2018-pocket-city-review" ], "text": "Pocket City was released on 2018-07-31 for Android and iOS by Codebrew Games." }, { "confidence": "medium", "locator": "review body", "quote": "There is no elevation manipulation, no powerlines to worry about, no pipes for water and sewer.", "sources": [ "src-destructoid-2018-pocket-city-review" ], "text": "Power and water reach buildings through roads; the game has no power lines, water pipes, or elevation editing." }, { "confidence": "medium", "locator": "Gameplay", "quote": "A small gauge at the top notifies you of what the citizens are demanding more of", "sources": [ "src-imore-2018-pocket-city-review" ], "text": "A gauge on screen tells the player which zone type citizens are demanding." }, { "confidence": "medium", "locator": "review body, experience section", "quote": "level up and gain monetary rewards or unlock buildings", "sources": [ "src-indiehive-2019-pocket-city" ], "text": "City levels pay out money or unlock buildings." }, { "confidence": "medium", "locator": "review body", "quote": "with additional areas of the map purchase-able via the in-game currency things can start to get expensive, fast.", "sources": [ "src-toucharcade-2018-pocket-city-review" ], "text": "Extra areas of the map are bought with in-game currency and become expensive." }, { "confidence": "high", "locator": "app description", "quote": "The hit city-building game for iOS is now available for MacOS.", "sources": [ "src-apple-2026-pocket-city-mac" ], "text": "A macOS edition is sold on the Mac App Store." }, { "confidence": "high", "locator": "app description", "quote": "Create residential, commercial, and industrial zones.", "sources": [ "src-apple-2026-pocket-city-ios" ], "text": "The iOS listing describes zoning residential, commercial, and industrial land." } ], "core_loop": "zone residential, commercial, and industrial land beside roads -> place power plants and water towers on the road network -> zones develop as demand allows -> taxes fund services and land -> respond to crime, fires, disasters, and quests for experience -> level up to unlock buildings", "design_notes": "Pocket City cuts the SimCity utility layer down to the road graph: power plants and water towers sit on roads, and any building within two tiles of a road receives power, water, and access, so there are no power lines, pipes, or terrain elevation to manage. A gauge reports which zone type citizens demand. Progression runs on experience rather than population: construction, responding to crime, fires, and disasters, completing quests from residents and an advisor, and hosting events such as block parties, firework shows, and rocket launches add experience, and each city level unlocks buildings or pays out cash. The map grows by buying extra plots from a landlord whose price rises with each purchase (proposed as land-expansion). Difficulty settings change starting cash and whether the city depends on bank loans, and a sandbox mode removes costs, quests, and levels. It was sold as a premium game with no timers or in-app purchases.", "developer": "Codebrew Games", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "pocket-city", "influence": 1, "mechanics": [ { "id": "zoning", "note": "The player paints residential, commercial, and industrial zones tile by tile or by dragging, and lots develop only when they are within reach of a road with power and water.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "road-network", "note": "Roads are the only utility network; a building within two tiles of a road gets power, water, and access, so the player lays more road than traffic alone would need.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "milestone-unlocks", "note": "Experience from building, quests, hosted events, and handling crime, fires, and disasters raises the city level, and levels unlock building types and grant money.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "rci-demand", "note": "A gauge at the top of the screen shows whether citizens want more residential, commercial, or industrial zoning.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "power-grid", "note": "Power plants placed on a road supply the buildings served by the road network instead of a separate grid of power lines.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "taxation", "note": "Raising taxes increases revenue at the cost of residents leaving, and lowering them attracts residents.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "budget-treasury", "note": "City funds pay for construction, services, and land; difficulty sets how much cash the city starts with and how expensive building is.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "loans-debt", "note": "On Expert difficulty the city must take bank loans to keep building.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "service-coverage", "note": "Safety buildings (police, fire department, hospital) and recreation unlock with level as the city grows.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "crime-policing", "note": "Crime rises as the city grows; police stations unlock with level, and stopping crime earns experience.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "random-disasters", "note": "Disasters such as tornadoes strike at random or when the player triggers them, can be switched off, and damaged buildings are repaired with a paid rebuild button.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "free-placement", "note": "Service buildings, parks, and landmarks are placed on the tile grid next to roads; some rectangular buildings cannot be rotated.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Pocket City", "narrative_mode": "hybrid", "perspective": "isometric", "platforms": [ "mobile", "pc" ], "player_role": "planner-mayor", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-25-catalog-game-pilot" }, "sim_domain": [ "urban", "economic" ], "sim_scale": "city", "sources": [ "src-destructoid-2018-pocket-city-review", "src-imore-2018-pocket-city-review", "src-toucharcade-2018-pocket-city-review", "src-indiehive-2019-pocket-city", "src-apple-2026-pocket-city-ios", "src-apple-2026-pocket-city-mac" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "city-builder", "summary": "A premium mobile city builder in which the mayor zones residential, commercial, and industrial land along roads that also carry power and water, and earns experience levels that unlock buildings.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2018 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C09", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "control-automation": 1, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "physics-materials": 1, "progression-goals": 1, "space-construction": 3 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "qd-scenario-libraries" ] }, "mechanic_count": 7 }, "agency_model": [ "design-then-test" ], "agent_count_order": "none", "core_loop": "read anchors, vehicles, and budget -> place beams and roads from materials -> run the simulation -> watch stress and failures -> trim cost or reinforce -> submit to leaderboard", "design_notes": "Bridges are trusses of joints and members in a side-view plane; each material (road, wood, steel, rope, cable, hydraulics) has its own cost, strength, and mass, and crossing vehicles load the structure until members exceed their limit and snap. The puzzle is minimizing cost under a level budget while keeping stress below breaking, and hydraulic phases tied to vehicle checkpoints let bridges move in sync with traffic. Failed runs are free to repeat, so the loop is fast iteration against a stress readout.", "developer": "Dry Cactus", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "poly-bridge", "influence": 2, "mechanics": [ { "id": "structural-integrity", "note": "Every member carries tension or compression shown as a stress color; a member past its material limit breaks and the load redistributes, often cascading into collapse.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "modular-assembly", "note": "Bridges are built from road, wood, steel, rope, cable, and hydraulic members connected at joints; materials trade cost against strength and weight.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "design-performance-rating", "note": "A level passes when its vehicles reach their flags; total material cost against the level budget is the measure of a good solution, and Steam leaderboards compare results.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "rigid-body-physics", "note": "Cars, trucks, and other vehicles are physics bodies whose mass and speed load the bridge.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "scenario-objectives", "note": "Levels fix anchor points, allowed materials, budget, and vehicle routes.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "signal-circuits", "note": "A multi-phase hydraulics controller fires pistons when vehicles reach checkpoints.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "content-sharing", "note": "Sandbox designs are published as Workshop levels, and test runs export as GIF replays.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "content", "multiplayer": [ "single", "async-shared" ], "name": "Poly Bridge", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "top-down-2d", "platforms": [ "pc", "mobile" ], "player_role": "engineer-designer", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gg" }, "sim_domain": [ "physical-mechanical" ], "sim_scale": "facility", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-poly-bridge", "src-steam-2026-poly-bridge" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "construction-engineering", "summary": "A bridge-building puzzle game where the player places beams and roads from materials with different costs and strengths under a budget, then runs a physics test as vehicles cross.", "time_model": "run-on-demand", "type": "game", "win_structure": "scenario-goals", "year": 2015, "year_full_release": 2016 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C16", "core_count": 2, "family_profile": { "control-automation": 2, "environment-ecology": 1, "progression-goals": 1, "space-construction": 1 }, "incoming": { "influenced": [ "black-and-white", "civilization", "from-dust" ] }, "mechanic_count": 5 }, "agency_model": [ "supernatural-intervention", "indirect-incentive" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "core_loop": "raise and lower land to make flat ground -> followers settle and build houses -> houses breed followers and raise mana -> spend mana on knights, earthquakes, swamps, volcanoes, and floods -> overwhelm the rival deity's followers", "design_notes": "Populous established the god game by making terrain the player's main tool and population the player's currency: flat land lets followers build larger houses, houses produce followers, and followers produce mana for powers, so shaping the land is also running the economy. The landscape type of each world (desert, lava, snow and ice) changes how followers develop. Population growth from housing has no mechanic id yet (proposal filed). The game ships 500 worlds, each won by outgrowing and destroying the opposing population.", "developer": "Bullfrog Productions", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "hard-restart", "fidelity": "abstract", "id": "populous", "influence": 5, "mechanics": [ { "id": "terraforming", "note": "Raising and lowering land is the basic power; its main use is creating flat ground on which followers can build larger settlements.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "god-powers", "note": "Mana from the follower population unlocks progressively stronger interventions: knights, earthquakes, swamps, volcanoes, and floods.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "unit-commands", "note": "A papal magnet and behavior modes send followers to settle, gather, or fight.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "habitat-suitability", "note": "Landscape type changes how followers develop.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "scenario-objectives", "note": "500 worlds, each won by defeating the enemy's followers.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single", "competitive" ], "name": "Populous", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "isometric", "platforms": [ "pc", "console", "handheld" ], "player_role": "god", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gb" }, "sim_domain": [ "planetary-natural", "military-conflict" ], "sim_scale": "region", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-populous" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "god-game", "summary": "The first god game, in which the player raises and lowers land so followers can build and multiply, then spends the mana they generate on disasters against a rival deity's people.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "competitive-victory", "year": 1989 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C21", "core_count": 1, "family_profile": { "control-automation": 1, "economy-finance": 1, "operation-procedure": 1, "progression-goals": 1 }, "mechanic_count": 4 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar" ], "agent_count_order": "none", "core_loop": "accept a job -> pick nozzle and soap -> wash surfaces -> per-part progress reaches 100 percent -> job pays -> buy washer upgrades -> next job", "design_notes": "The simulation is a per-surface dirt state: each surface carries layers (dirt, grime, lichen, moss, rust) that the spray removes according to nozzle, soap, and range, and every object reports its percentage done. Four nozzles trade power against spray width, so play is matching the tool to the layer and distance. Progress bars per object and a highlight for remaining dirt make completion fully legible, and the career's story arrives as client text messages rather than through the simulation.", "developer": "FuturLab", "emergence": 1, "failure_model": "none", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "powerwash-simulator", "influence": 2, "mechanics": [ { "id": "surface-work-tools", "note": "Four nozzles with different power and spray width and surface-specific soaps remove dirt, grime, lichen, moss, and rust; progress bars track each object and the level, and a button highlights remaining dirt.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "contracts-orders", "note": "Career mode in the town of Muckingham offers 38 main jobs plus bonus jobs whose pay buys upgrades and cosmetics.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "direct-avatar", "note": "Ladders and scaffolding reach higher surfaces.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "scenario-objectives", "note": "Challenge mode limits water or time and ranks the result.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single", "coop" ], "name": "PowerWash Simulator", "narrative_mode": "authored", "perspective": "first-person", "platforms": [ "pc", "console", "handheld", "vr", "mobile" ], "player_role": "worker", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gf" }, "sim_domain": [ "occupational" ], "sim_scale": "individual", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-powerwash-simulator" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "job-sim", "summary": "A first-person cleaning sim in which the player power-washes vehicles and buildings, choosing nozzles and soaps to strip dirt layers until every part reports clean.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "completion", "year": 2021, "year_full_release": 2022 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C15", "core_count": 4, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 2, "biology-health": 1, "economy-finance": 1, "narrative-generation": 1, "population-lineage": 1, "progression-goals": 1, "time-pacing": 2 }, "mechanic_count": 9 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-unit", "caretaking-interaction", "direct-avatar" ], "agent_count_order": "1", "core_loop": "set three activity periods for the month -> training and jobs change attributes, money, and fatigue -> events and festivals test her attributes -> rest or vacation to prevent illness -> she ages a year -> at 18 her attributes select a career ending", "design_notes": "Takami Akai designed the sequel to answer complaints that the original was repetitive, adding more reactions and events around a schedule-and-attributes core. Each month splits into early, middle, and late periods, each assigned to training (academic, artistic, religious, military, or magical), a part-time job, adventure, or free time, under a small annual income. Jobs unlock with age and pay promotion and streak bonuses, rival girls age alongside the daughter as benchmarks, and October festivals hold contests in martial arts, dance, art, and cooking. At 18 her attributes and history select one of 74 career endings, a branching-outcome model captured by the care-dependent-development mechanic.", "developer": "Gainax", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "abstract", "id": "princess-maker-2", "influence": 3, "mechanics": [ { "id": "agent-skills", "note": "Training courses and part-time jobs raise and lower her attributes; attributes gate jobs, decide October festival contests in martial arts, dance, art, and cooking against rival girls, and select the final career.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "daily-action-budget", "note": "Each month has three activity slots (early, middle, late), so every period spent training, working, adventuring, or resting is a period not spent on the others.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "lifecycle-aging", "note": "The daughter ages from 10 to 18; jobs and events unlock with age, and the game ends at 18.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "career-ladder", "note": "Repeating a part-time job leads to promotions, higher pay, and bonuses for unbroken success streaks.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "needs-decay", "note": "Stress from work and training is relieved by free time, vacations, spa stays, or bed rest; poor rest management leads to illness and weaker performance.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "budget-treasury", "note": "A small annual income pays for lessons, clothing, food, treatment, and shopping; jobs supplement it.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "turn-structure", "note": "The month is the turn, split into three phases that resolve after the player sets the schedule.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "triggered-event-chains", "note": "Events and reactions fire on age, attributes, and season, leading into 74 career endings with retrospective sequences.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "care-dependent-development", "note": "Eight years of scheduled training, jobs, and rest shape the daughter's attributes, and at 18 her attributes and history select one of 74 career endings.", "role": "core" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Princess Maker 2", "narrative_mode": "hybrid", "perspective": "text-ui", "platforms": [ "pc", "console", "handheld", "mobile" ], "player_role": "caretaker", "production_tier": "aa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gc" }, "sim_domain": [ "domestic-personal", "social-interpersonal" ], "sim_scale": "individual", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-princess-maker-2" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "life-sim", "summary": "A raising sim in which the player, as a father figure, schedules a daughter's training, part-time jobs, rest, and adventures from age 10 to 18, and her accumulated attributes decide one of 74 endings.", "time_model": "turn-based", "type": "game", "win_structure": "scenario-goals", "year": 1993 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C01", "core_count": 5, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 4, "economy-finance": 3, "environment-ecology": 1, "governance-policy": 1, "logistics-networks": 1, "multiplayer-persistence": 2, "population-lineage": 1, "progression-goals": 1, "resources-production": 1, "risk-failure": 1, "space-construction": 1, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "influenced": [ "oxygen-not-included" ], "precedent_for": [ "intent-level-orders" ] }, "mechanic_count": 18 }, "agency_model": [ "zoning-placement", "policy-parameter", "indirect-incentive", "direct-unit" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "core_loop": "build cells, canteens, and yards -> set the hourly regime -> prisoners pursue needs within the schedule -> unmet needs raise misconduct, contraband, and riots -> hire staff, run programs, and claim grants -> expand capacity for more prisoners and income", "design_notes": "Control is indirect: the player cannot order prisoners, only shape the regime, the buildings that satisfy each need, and the staff who enforce rules. Each of about 21 needs is a charge from 1 to 10 satisfied by specific objects for set durations (a phone booth takes 25 minutes, a shower 20), and needs left at the top charge produce side effects. Information itself is a staffed system: features such as viewing finances unlock only after hiring the matching staff member, such as an accountant. Prisoners fall into five security levels with different temperaments, sentence lengths, and cashflow, and reform and labor programs reduce recidivism, which feeds the prison's grade.", "developer": "Introversion Software", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "systemic", "id": "prison-architect", "influence": 3, "influenced_by": [ "theme-hospital", "dwarf-fortress" ], "mechanics": [ { "id": "needs-decay", "note": "About 21 prisoner needs (bladder, food, sleep, hygiene, freedom, family, privacy, spirituality, and others) each charge from 1 to 10 and are reset by specific objects or activities; a need at 10 triggers its side effect, and reports color needs from green to red.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "daily-schedules", "note": "Hiring a Warden unlocks an hourly regime per risk category with Lockup, Sleep, Eat, Yard, Shower, Free Time, and Work blocks; each block confines prisoners to areas rather than forcing actions, so needs are met only where the current block lets prisoners go.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "free-placement", "note": "The prison is drawn tile by tile: foundations, walls, doors, and objects are placed, then workmen build them, and room types are assigned to enclosed areas that contain required objects.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "stability-unrest", "note": "Needs left unmet for long periods make prisoners irritated, then likely to fight, attack staff, attempt escape, or riot, and violence spreads to nearby prisoners until guards restore order.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "crime-policing", "note": "Guards, dog handlers, armed guards, and snitches counter contraband, gangs, and escape attempts through patrols, searches, and lockdowns.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "budget-treasury", "note": "Income per prisoner per day against staff wages and construction.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "staff-hiring", "note": "Staff such as guards, cooks, janitors, doctors, psychologists, and lawyers are hired individually, and administrators unlock features.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "tech-tree", "note": "A bureaucracy research tree unlocked through administrative staff.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "contracts-orders", "note": "Federal grants pay out for meeting stated construction or program objectives.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "population-strata", "note": "Five security levels with different temperaments, sentence lengths, and cashflow, plus death row.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "agent-pathfinding", "note": "Crowd flow through doors and corridors shapes congestion and fights.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "power-grid", "note": "Generators and cables power doors, lights, and kitchens.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "fluid-pipe-network", "note": "Water pumps and pipes supply showers and toilets.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "fire-spread", "note": "Fires spread through the prison and must be fought by firemen.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "content-sharing", "note": "Player prisons are shared online, and Escape Mode lets players break out of shared prisons.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "utility-action-selection", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "note": "Data files and Lua scripts distributed through Steam Workshop.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "scripting", "multiplayer": [ "single", "async-shared" ], "name": "Prison Architect", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "top-down-2d", "platforms": [ "pc", "console", "mobile", "handheld" ], "player_role": "manager-owner", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gb", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes", "2026-10-25-contributor-readiness" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "social-interpersonal", "economic" ], "sim_scale": "facility", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-prison-architect", "src-steam-2026-prison-architect", "src-prisonarchitectwiki-2026-needs", "src-paradoxwikis-2026-prison-architect-regime" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "management-tycoon", "subgenre_secondary": [ "colony-sim" ], "summary": "A prison management sim in which the player builds a facility, sets an hourly regime, and staffs it while hundreds of prisoners pursue needs whose neglect leads to fights, escapes, and riots.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2012, "year_full_release": 2015 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C01", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 1, "biology-health": 1, "control-automation": 1, "economy-finance": 2, "logistics-networks": 1, "progression-goals": 1, "space-construction": 2, "time-pacing": 1 }, "mechanic_count": 10 }, "agency_model": [ "zoning-placement", "direct-unit" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "core_loop": "sign insurer contracts -> patients arrive with complaints -> doctors order examinations and lab tests -> revealed symptoms narrow the diagnosis -> treat, hospitalize, or operate -> insurers pay -> build departments and hire staff", "design_notes": "Oxymoron Games reduced medicine to symptom rules: each diagnosis has symptoms with tuned occurrence frequencies, examinations reveal them, and a diagnosis becomes clear once enough are found; frequencies were set so a case is rarely obvious after the first exam. Patients reach the hospital through insurance company contracts, and the developers say the resulting economy came to resemble the American system. The free Doctor Mode update lets the player make individual doctors' exam and treatment choices, turning the facility sim into a diagnosis game.", "developer": "Oxymoron Games", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "project-hospital", "influence": 1, "mechanics": [ { "id": "diagnosis-treatment", "note": "Each patient has a hidden diagnosis; doctors order examinations, lab tests, and equipment procedures that each reveal symptoms, symptom frequencies are tuned so one exam rarely settles a case, and treatment, hospitalization, or surgery follows.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "staff-hiring", "note": "The player hires and specializes doctors, nurses, lab staff, and janitors and manages their job satisfaction; the Hospital Services DLC adds staff training.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "free-placement", "note": "The player lays foundations, walls, floor tiles, doors, and windows and places equipment for each department, or starts from prefabs.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "room-recognition", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "agent-skills", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "budget-treasury", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "service-queues", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "unit-commands", "note": "Doctor Mode (2019) lets the player choose exams, diagnoses, and treatments for individual doctors and their patients.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "scenario-objectives", "note": "A campaign and six challenge levels set goals; sandbox mode removes them.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "content", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Project Hospital", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "isometric", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "manager-owner", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gf", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "medical", "economic" ], "sim_scale": "facility", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-project-hospital", "src-jgeekstudies-2020-project-hospital", "src-steam-2026-project-hospital" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "medical-sim", "subgenre_secondary": [ "management-tycoon" ], "summary": "A hospital management sim in which the player builds departments and hires staff while doctors diagnose patients by ordering examinations that reveal symptoms until one diagnosis remains.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "scenario-goals", "year": 2018 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C08", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 1, "economy-finance": 1, "governance-policy": 1, "narrative-generation": 1, "resources-production": 2, "social-relations": 2 }, "incoming": { "deploys": [ "llm-agent-societies" ], "precedent_for": [ "llm-society-terrarium" ] }, "mechanic_count": 8 }, "agency_model": [ "indirect-incentive" ], "agent_count_order": "1k", "claims": [ { "confidence": "high", "sources": [ "src-altera-2024-project-sid" ], "text": "Experiments ranged from 10 to 500 agents in reported results; runs above 1,000 agents were attempted but exceeded the Minecraft server's capacity." } ], "core_loop": "seed agents with personas and community goals -> concurrent modules perceive, remember, talk, and act in Minecraft -> cognitive controller commits a coherent decision -> roles specialize and rules are paid, debated, and amended -> beliefs and memes spread between towns", "design_notes": "PIANO runs about ten modules concurrently at different speeds (memory, action awareness, goal generation, social awareness, talking, skill execution), with fast non-language reflex networks and a cognitive controller that acts as a bottleneck and broadcasts one decision so speech and action stay consistent; GPT-4o was the strongest base model. In 30-agent runs agents settled into persistent roles (farmer, miner, engineer, guard, explorer, blacksmith) that collapsed without the social module. In a 29-agent constitution experiment with a 20 percent tax paid into community chests every 120 seconds, pro- and anti-tax influencers shifted votes, amendments passed, and payments followed the new rate. In a 500-agent run, Pastafarianism seeded by 20 priests spread to other towns; 1,000-agent attempts exceeded the Minecraft server's capacity. The preprint states no public code release.", "developer": "Altera", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "none", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "project-sid", "influence": 2, "influenced_by": [ "generative-agents-smallville" ], "mechanics": [ { "id": "elections", "note": "Constituents give feedback on a constitution, amendments are generated, agents vote, and the amended constitution is distributed on a fixed schedule (feedback at 300 s, vote at 420 s, distribution at 600 s).", "role": "core" }, { "id": "taxation", "note": "Agents deposit a share of inventory into community chests every 120 seconds at the constitutional rate, starting at 20 percent; when amendments cut it to 5-10 percent, payments fell to about 9 percent.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "gossip-propagation", "note": "Memes and a religion (Pastafarianism, seeded by 20 priests in one town) spread through agent conversations and travel; conversion was tracked by keyword use and had not saturated after two hours.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "memories-thoughts", "note": "A memory module stores conversations, actions, and observations across short and long timescales.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "relationship-values", "note": "A social-awareness module infers other agents' sentiment, and the paper compares perceived with true likeability.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "hand-crafting", "note": "Agents gather and craft Minecraft items; a 49-agent group plateaued at about 320 unique items over four hours.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "resource-extraction", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "generative-content", "note": "Goal generation, talking, and the cognitive controller run on language-model calls, with GPT-4o as the base model in the strongest configuration.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Project Sid", "narrative_mode": "generative", "perspective": "free-3d", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "observer-gardener", "production_tier": "academic", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gd" }, "sim_domain": [ "social-interpersonal", "political-governance" ], "sim_scale": "settlement", "sources": [ "src-altera-2024-project-sid" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "ai-native", "subgenre_secondary": [ "social-sim", "political-sim" ], "summary": "An Altera research demonstration that runs 10 to 1,000-plus language-model agents with the concurrent PIANO architecture in Minecraft to study role specialization, collective rule-making, and cultural transmission.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2024 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C06", "core_count": 4, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 2, "biology-health": 2, "environment-ecology": 3, "information-legibility": 1, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "physics-materials": 1, "resources-production": 3, "risk-failure": 2, "space-construction": 1, "time-pacing": 2 }, "mechanic_count": 18 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar" ], "agent_count_order": "1k", "core_loop": "loot houses and stores -> avoid or fight zombies drawn by sight and noise -> manage hunger, fatigue, injuries, and moodles -> utilities fail and seasons turn -> barricade, farm, and level skills -> survive until death", "design_notes": "The framing question is how the character dies, not whether: zombie infection is always fatal in an unmodified game, so play is about extending a doomed run. Water and power shut off within the first month, after which erosion and overgrowth spread, giving the sandbox a scheduled decline. Zombies respond to sight and hearing and hordes migrate, so noise from actions shapes risk; there is no mechanic id for noise attraction yet (proposal filed). The game has been in early access since a paid tech demo in May 2011, with Steam early access from November 2013 and Build 42 in open beta from December 2024.", "developer": "The Indie Stone", "emergence": 4, "failure_model": "permadeath", "fidelity": "systemic", "id": "project-zomboid", "influence": 2, "mechanics": [ { "id": "survival-meters", "note": "Moodles for hunger, thirst, fatigue, endurance, panic, stress, boredom, unhappiness, temperature, wetness, pain, bleeding, and sickness each grow in severity and penalize combat, movement, carrying, or healing.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "injury-body-model", "note": "Wounds such as scratches, lacerations, bites, and fractures are tracked per body part with bleeding and bandaging; zombie infection is spread by saliva and blood and is always fatal.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "agent-skills", "note": "Skills such as carpentry and cooking level from activities, and skill books and magazines speed or unlock progress.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "crisis-countdown", "note": "Water and power shut off within about a month, forcing preparation.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "personality-traits", "note": "Occupation and positive or negative traits are chosen at character creation; occupation also sets spawn location.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "hand-crafting", "note": "Weapons, tools, and barricades are crafted; Build 42 overhauled crafting.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "free-placement", "note": "Carpentry builds walls, barricades, and forts.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "crop-cultivation", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "seasons", "note": "A climate system with seasons changes gear needs.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "weather", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "day-night-cycle", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "spoilage", "note": "Food rots, and refrigeration ends when power fails.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "vehicle-dynamics", "note": "Vehicles have physics and part condition.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "fog-of-war", "note": "A vision cone limits what the survivor sees.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "permadeath", "note": "Death ends the character; a new survivor can start in the same world.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "note": "Full Lua modding through the Steam Workshop.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "stimulus-attraction", "note": "Zombies respond to sight and hearing, so noise from actions such as gunfire or breaking windows draws them toward the survivor, and hordes migrate.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "scripting", "multiplayer": [ "single", "coop" ], "name": "Project Zomboid", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "isometric", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "inhabitant", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gb", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "biological-ecological", "urban" ], "sim_scale": "individual", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-project-zomboid", "src-steam-2026-project-zomboid", "src-pzwiki-2026-moodles" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "survival-sim", "subgenre_secondary": [ "sandbox-world" ], "summary": "An isometric zombie survival sandbox in which one survivor manages moodles, injuries, skills, and failing utilities across a large Kentucky map until an inevitable death.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "survival-duration", "year": 2011 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C02", "core_count": 2, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 3, "progression-goals": 1, "social-relations": 2 }, "mechanic_count": 6 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-unit" ], "agent_count_order": "10", "core_loop": "pick a level goal -> choose an initiator, a target, and a social exchange -> rules score volition and acceptance -> relationships, statuses, and history update -> new exchanges open -> the goal is met or the story turns another way", "design_notes": "Prom Week runs on Comme il Faut (CiF), which its UCSC authors describe as making social relationships playable: characters have traits, interests, statuses, and directed networks of liking, attraction, and respect, and more than 5,000 social considerations govern what each character wants and how others respond. The player never writes dialogue but chooses which social exchange a character initiates; CiF offers the exchanges a character is inclined toward, ranked by likelihood, and resolves acceptance from the social state of everyone involved, including what third parties think. Levels set story goals such as getting two characters to date, which turns the rule base into a puzzle with many solutions.", "developer": "UC Santa Cruz Expressive Intelligence Studio", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "systemic", "id": "prom-week", "influence": 2, "mechanics": [ { "id": "social-exchanges", "note": "Exchanges such as winking, being friendly, or being mean have preconditions; CiF rules decide whether the target accepts and update networks and statuses.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "relationship-values", "note": "Directed social networks track how much each character likes, is attracted to, and respects each other character; exchanges and third parties' opinions move the values.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "utility-action-selection", "note": "A character's volition for each exchange is scored from matching rules, and only exchanges it is inclined toward are offered, ranked by likelihood.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "personality-traits", "note": "Traits and interests weight which rules apply to a character.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "memories-thoughts", "note": "Past exchanges are stored as social history that later rules reference.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "scenario-objectives", "note": "Each level sets social goals, such as getting two named characters to date.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Prom Week", "narrative_mode": "hybrid", "perspective": "top-down-2d", "platforms": [ "web" ], "player_role": "overseer", "production_tier": "academic", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gc" }, "sim_domain": [ "social-interpersonal" ], "sim_scale": "household", "sources": [ "src-mccoy-2013-prom-week", "src-mccoy-2010-the-prom", "src-treanor-2012-prom-week-released" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "social-sim", "summary": "A 2012 browser social sim in which the player picks social exchanges among 18 high school students in the week before prom, with the Comme il Faut rule system deciding who wants to do what and how targets respond.", "time_model": "turn-based", "type": "game", "win_structure": "scenario-goals", "year": 2012 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C04", "core_count": 6, "family_profile": { "control-automation": 1, "economy-finance": 5, "logistics-networks": 3, "progression-goals": 1, "resources-production": 1, "space-construction": 2, "time-pacing": 2 }, "incoming": { "influenced": [ "civilization", "offworld-trading-company", "transport-tycoon" ] }, "mechanic_count": 15 }, "agency_model": [ "zoning-placement", "direct-unit", "policy-parameter" ], "agent_count_order": "10", "aliases": [ "Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon" ], "core_loop": "lay track and place stations -> buy trains and set consists and stops -> carry cargo to stations where it is demanded -> revenue and industry growth -> raise capital through bonds and stock -> defend against rival barons", "design_notes": "Railroad Tycoon joins a train-operations model to a corporate-finance model. Stations come in four sizes (signal tower, depot, station, terminal) with growing service areas, and an economy setting chooses between a simple economy where big cities buy almost anything and a complex one where they buy only certain goods. The company starts with $1 million split between equity and a loan, raises more through bonds, and trades in a small stock market where rival barons attempt buyouts and rate wars. Meier took the idea from the board game 1830 and also cited SimCity. Track construction has no matching mechanic in the taxonomy (proposed as track-laying), and dated vehicle availability is proposed as dated-tech-timeline.", "developer": "MPS Labs (MicroProse)", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "hard-restart", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "railroad-tycoon", "influence": 4, "influenced_by": [ "simcity-1989" ], "mechanics": [ { "id": "vehicle-route-scheduling", "note": "Each train gets ordered stops and a consist of mail, passenger, and freight cars for nine commodity types; consists can be changed at any stop.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "supply-demand-pricing", "note": "Stations supply and demand goods and passengers; under the complex economy cities accept only certain products, so routing follows demand.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "equity-buyouts", "note": "A small stock market lets the player trade its own and rival stock; rivals use stock dealings to try to take over the player's railroad.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "rival-firms", "note": "AI railroad barons build competing lines and start rate wars over shared stations.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "free-placement", "note": "Track is laid on a square tile grid and up to 32 stations are placed; the first station gets the engine shop where trains are built.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "service-coverage", "note": "Depots, stations, and terminals draw cargo from progressively larger surrounding areas.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "rail-signaling", "note": "Signal towers act as passing loops and control train movements on shared track.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "production-chain", "note": "Industries consume delivered freight and produce new cargo; players can build additional industries.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "loans-debt", "note": "Starting capital is half a loan; bonds raise more at interest rates tied to the economy.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "periodic-ticks", "note": "Accounts settle in two-year periods across a century of play.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "unit-commands", "note": "Players can take direct control of individual train movements.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "delivery-time-payment", "note": "Delivery revenue depends on cargo type, distance, and travel time, so fast trains earn more for passengers and mail.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "dated-tech-timeline", "note": "New locomotive types become available as the calendar advances through the eras, from early steam engines toward diesels.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "track-laying", "note": "Track is laid tile by tile across terrain whose slope and features add cost, linking up to 32 stations.", "role": "core" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Railroad Tycoon", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "top-down-2d", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "manager-owner", "production_tier": "aa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-ge" }, "sim_domain": [ "industrial-logistics", "economic" ], "sim_scale": "region", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-railroad-tycoon", "src-wikipedia-sid-meier" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "transport-logistics", "subgenre_secondary": [ "business-economic-sim" ], "summary": "A railroad business sim in which the player lays track, builds stations, schedules trains to meet regional supply and demand, and battles rival barons through the stock market.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "score-ranking", "year": 1990 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C05", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "economy-finance": 1, "governance-policy": 4, "narrative-generation": 1, "progression-goals": 1, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "calibrated-serious-sims" ] }, "mechanic_count": 8 }, "agency_model": [ "policy-parameter", "direct-unit" ], "agent_count_order": "aggregate", "aliases": [ "Rebel Inc: Escalation" ], "core_loop": "fund civilian initiatives in regions -> popular support rises -> spending raises corruption and inflation -> an insurgency emerges and contests regions -> deploy troops, counter corruption, or negotiate -> stabilize the country to win", "design_notes": "Rebel Inc. inverts Ndemic's earlier Plague Inc.: instead of spreading a disease, the player contains an insurgency by building popular support, and spending itself generates corruption and inflation. The tension is between civilian initiatives that win support slowly and military spending that holds ground without building support. Corruption as a side effect of spending is not yet a mechanic in the taxonomy (proposal corruption-leakage).", "developer": "Ndemic Creations", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "hard-restart", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "rebel-inc", "influence": 1, "influenced_by": [ "plague-inc" ], "mechanics": [ { "id": "budget-treasury", "note": "A monthly budget funds infrastructure, jobs, education, roads, and military spending; the more initiatives the player funds, the more corruption and inflation rise, and the Economist governor receives the whole budget annually.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "stability-unrest", "note": "An insurgency emerges partway through and contests regions against coalition forces; later, peace can be negotiated with insurgent leaders.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "citizen-satisfaction", "note": "Civilian initiatives raise popular support region by region, and stabilizing the country without letting insurgents take control is the goal.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "policy-toggles", "note": "A governance tab offers anti-corruption measures.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "triggered-event-chains", "note": "Random events interrupt plans and offer choices.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "scenario-objectives", "note": "Each region has its own geography, and selectable governors such as the Economist and the Warlord change the rules.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "corruption-leakage", "note": "Funding more civilian initiatives raises corruption and inflation, which erode what the monthly budget achieves; the governance tab offers anti-corruption measures.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Rebel Inc.", "narrative_mode": "hybrid", "perspective": "top-down-2d", "platforms": [ "mobile", "pc" ], "player_role": "ruler-statesman", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gi", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "political-governance", "military-conflict", "economic" ], "sim_scale": "region", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-rebel-inc" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "political-sim", "subgenre_secondary": [ "wargame" ], "summary": "A counterinsurgency strategy game in which the player, as a coalition governor, spends a monthly budget on civilian and military initiatives to build popular support and stabilize regions of a war-torn country while corruption, inflation, and an insurgency push back.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "scenario-goals", "year": 2018 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C15", "core_count": 2, "family_profile": { "narrative-generation": 2, "population-lineage": 1, "progression-goals": 1, "risk-failure": 1 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "content-elastic-events" ] }, "mechanic_count": 5 }, "agency_model": [ "policy-parameter" ], "agent_count_order": "none", "boundary_case": true, "core_loop": "draw an adviser's card -> swipe left or right -> church, people, army, and treasury meters shift -> a meter hits empty or full -> the king dies -> the next reign begins with unlocked cards", "design_notes": "Reigns reduces governance to four bounded meters in which both extremes are fatal, so every choice is a balancing act rather than a maximization. The swipe interface, modeled on Tinder, keeps each decision binary and fast. It is a boundary case included for the dilemma-card mechanic and its use of death as progress between reigns.", "developer": "Nerial", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "permadeath", "fidelity": "abstract", "id": "reigns", "influence": 3, "mechanics": [ { "id": "dilemma-cards", "note": "Advisers present cards that the player swipes left or right; each choice moves one or more of four meters (church, people, army, treasury), and the reign ends when any meter becomes completely full or completely empty.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "dynasty-succession", "note": "When a king's reign ends, play continues with a new king; unlocked cards and some effects carry across reigns, and the in-game years keep advancing.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "triggered-event-chains", "note": "Story cards chain across reigns, such as the Devil's visits in the years 666, 1332, and 1998.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "milestone-unlocks", "note": "Completing tasks unlocks new cards.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "permadeath", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Reigns", "narrative_mode": "hybrid", "perspective": "text-ui", "platforms": [ "pc", "mobile", "console", "handheld" ], "player_role": "ruler-statesman", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gi" }, "sim_domain": [ "political-governance" ], "sim_scale": "nation", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-reigns" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "political-sim", "summary": "A swipe-based card game in which the player, as a succession of medieval monarchs, accepts or rejects advisers' requests that push church, people, army, and treasury meters, and each reign ends when any meter empties or fills.", "time_model": "turn-based", "type": "game", "win_structure": "survival-duration", "year": 2016 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C02", "core_count": 7, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 8, "biology-health": 1, "conflict-defense": 1, "control-automation": 1, "environment-ecology": 1, "information-legibility": 1, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "narrative-generation": 1, "resources-production": 3, "risk-failure": 2, "social-relations": 1, "space-construction": 2, "time-pacing": 1, "world-generation": 1 }, "incoming": { "influenced": [ "going-medieval", "space-haven" ], "precedent_for": [ "causal-why-query", "drama-aware-storyteller", "dream-replay-layer", "illustrated-chronicles", "intent-level-orders", "language-modding", "neural-npc-motion", "parallel-autobalance", "salience-gated-llm-agents" ] }, "mechanic_count": 25 }, "agency_model": [ "order-queue", "indirect-incentive", "direct-unit" ], "agent_count_order": "10", "core_loop": "designate work -> colonists self-assign by priority -> needs and moods shift -> storyteller injects events -> colony adapts or collapses", "design_notes": "Tynan Sylvester describes RimWorld as a story generator. Its systems are chosen for how legible and story-relevant their outputs are rather than for realism: thoughts are itemized with sources and durations, injuries are named body parts, and raids scale with colony wealth to keep tension.", "developer": "Ludeon Studios", "emergence": 5, "failure_model": "cascading-collapse", "fidelity": "systemic", "id": "rimworld", "influence": 4, "influenced_by": [ "dwarf-fortress" ], "mechanics": [ { "id": "storyteller-director", "note": "Selectable storytellers (Cassandra, Phoebe, Randy) choose incidents using a threat budget derived from colony wealth and time since the last major event.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "needs-decay", "note": "Colonists track food, rest, recreation, comfort, beauty, and other needs whose levels feed mood.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "mood-breakdown", "note": "Mood below trait-adjusted break thresholds triggers minor, major, or extreme mental breaks; high mood can grant inspirations.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "memories-thoughts", "note": "Every mood effect is an itemized thought with a source and expiry, visible in the needs tab.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "work-priorities", "note": "A work tab matrix sets 1-4 priorities per colonist per job type; colonists self-assign.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "injury-body-model", "note": "Bodies are hierarchies of parts with hit points, bleeding, infection, scars, and prosthetics that change capacities like moving and manipulation.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "adaptive-threat-scaling", "note": "Raid strength scales with colony wealth, number of colonists, and difficulty, so growth raises danger.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "designation-orders", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "personality-traits", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "agent-skills", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "relationship-values", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "room-recognition", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "decoration-beauty", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "raid-defense", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "crop-cultivation", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "spoilage", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "procedural-characters", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "agent-inspection", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "permadeath", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "autonomy-levels", "note": "Drafting switches a colonist from self-assigned work to direct player control for combat or emergencies.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "utility-action-selection", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "fire-spread", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "storage-capacity", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "note": "XML definitions and C# assemblies, usually patched in with Harmony, distributed through Steam Workshop.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "total-conversion", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "RimWorld", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "top-down-2d", "platforms": [ "pc", "console" ], "player_role": "overseer", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-23-bootstrap", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes", "2026-10-25-contributor-readiness", "2026-10-25-store-ids-pilot" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "social-interpersonal", "biological-ecological", "military-conflict" ], "sim_scale": "settlement", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-rimworld" ], "status": "sourced", "store_ids": { "steam": 294100 }, "subgenre": "colony-sim", "subgenre_secondary": [ "survival-sim" ], "summary": "A colony sim where a few named colonists with needs, traits, injuries, and relationships survive on a frontier planet while a storyteller AI paces events.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2013, "year_full_release": 2018 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C01", "core_count": 5, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 4, "economy-finance": 4, "information-legibility": 1, "logistics-networks": 1, "progression-goals": 2, "risk-failure": 1, "space-construction": 6, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "influenced": [ "planet-coaster" ], "precedent_for": [ "human-calibrated-customers", "qd-scenario-libraries" ] }, "mechanic_count": 20 }, "agency_model": [ "zoning-placement", "design-then-test", "policy-parameter" ], "agent_count_order": "1k", "core_loop": "build paths, rides, and shops -> design coasters and test their ratings -> guests choose rides by intensity preference and budget -> thoughts reveal problems -> adjust prices, staff, and layout -> meet the scenario goal", "design_notes": "RollerCoaster Tycoon makes ride design measurable: every built ride is test-run and rated on excitement, intensity, and nausea, and each guest has a preferred intensity and a nausea tolerance, so the ratings decide who will ride and who gets sick afterward. Guests are individual agents with money, needs, and a stream of readable thoughts, which makes park problems inspectable one guest at a time. Rides lose reliability with age and break down unless mechanics inspect them on a player-set interval. Scenario goals (guest counts and park rating by a deadline) chain 21 base parks. OpenRCT2, a reimplementation of RCT2, carries the systems forward, and Planet Coaster and Parkitect are described as spiritual successors.", "developer": "Chris Sawyer Productions", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "hard-restart", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "rollercoaster-tycoon", "influence": 4, "influenced_by": [ "transport-tycoon" ], "mechanics": [ { "id": "design-performance-rating", "note": "Each ride is test-run and rated on excitement, intensity, and nausea from its track geometry, speeds, and g-forces; ratings set demand and fair price.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "crowd-preferences", "note": "Guests have money, a preferred ride intensity, a nausea tolerance, and needs, and they report thoughts such as a ride being too intense or a price too high.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "modular-assembly", "note": "Coasters are built track piece by piece on a tile grid, choosing direction, height, steepness, and elements such as loops and corkscrews.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "customer-value-choice", "note": "Guests compare ride and shop prices with ride value and their remaining cash; overpriced items show up as complaints in guest thoughts.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "wear-breakdown", "note": "Ride reliability decays with use and age; breakdown chance rises as reliability falls, and mechanics inspect and repair on a set interval.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "staff-hiring", "note": "Handymen sweep, empty bins, and mow; mechanics fix rides; security guards prevent vandalism; entertainers cheer guests.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "agent-inspection", "note": "Clicking a guest shows cash, needs, thoughts, and ride history.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "needs-decay", "note": "Guests get hungry, thirsty, tired, and need toilets during a visit.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "service-queues", "note": "Guests wait in ride queues and leave long lines unhappy.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "terraforming", "note": "Land can be raised and lowered and water added to fit rides and add appeal.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "scenario-objectives", "note": "Each of 21 base scenarios sets a goal such as a guest count with a minimum park rating by a deadline; completing one unlocks the next.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "tech-tree", "note": "Paid research unlocks new rides and improvements over time.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "decoration-beauty", "note": "Scenery and trees improve guest views and ride appeal.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "loans-debt", "note": "Parks start with a loan, such as $50,000 in Mega Park.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "agent-pathfinding", "note": "Guests navigate the path network and can get lost in mazes of paths.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "advertising-awareness", "note": "The marketing panel runs time-limited paid campaigns, such as park or ride advertising and free-entry or half-price vouchers, that raise guest arrivals or demand for a chosen ride or stall while they last.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "track-laying", "note": "Coaster track is built piece by piece on the tile grid by direction, height, steepness, and elements such as loops and corkscrews, and the result is rated by test run.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "free-placement", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "utility-action-selection", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "content", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "RollerCoaster Tycoon", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "isometric", "platforms": [ "pc", "console" ], "player_role": "manager-owner", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-ge", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "economic", "physical-mechanical" ], "sim_scale": "facility", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-rollercoaster-tycoon", "src-wikipedia-rollercoaster-tycoon-series" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "management-tycoon", "summary": "An amusement park management game in which the player builds rides and custom coasters piece by piece, rated for excitement, intensity, and nausea, to satisfy guests with individual preferences and meet scenario goals.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "scenario-goals", "year": 1999 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C04", "core_count": 6, "family_profile": { "control-automation": 3, "logistics-networks": 4, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "progression-goals": 2, "resources-production": 7, "space-construction": 1 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "bottleneck-explainer", "generated-recipe-graphs", "teachable-sim-companion" ] }, "mechanic_count": 18 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar", "zoning-placement" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "claims": [ { "confidence": "medium", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-satisfactory" ], "text": "Press coverage compares Satisfactory's building to Factorio, and the game is widely treated as a 3D first-person take on Factorio's factory loop; the cited source records the comparison rather than a developer statement of influence." } ], "core_loop": "scout resource nodes -> place miners -> belt ore through smelters, constructors, and assemblers -> deliver parts to the HUB and Space Elevator -> unlock the next tier -> expand power and logistics to distant nodes", "design_notes": "Satisfactory moves the Factorio-style ratio puzzle into a hand-built 3D world explored on foot, so verticality, foundations, and architecture become part of layout and many players build for appearance as well as throughput. Resource nodes never deplete and are graded impure, normal, or pure (0.5x, 1x, 2x), so expansion is driven by needing more node types and output rather than by exhaustion. The power grid fails as a whole: when demand exceeds supply and storage is empty the fuse trips and every connected building stops until the player resets it, unlike grids that slow machines proportionally. Clock speed (1% to 250%, with Power Shards and a power exponent of about 1.32) and 106 alternate recipes from crash-site hard drives give each factory a recipe-selection layer that the taxonomy folds into production-chain; this run proposed a machine-boosting mechanic for clock speed and similar systems, and a megaproject-sink mechanic for the Space Elevator. There are no base-raiding enemies; fauna threaten only the pioneer.", "developer": "Coffee Stain Studios", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "satisfactory", "influence": 3, "influenced_by": [ "factorio" ], "mechanics": [ { "id": "production-chain", "note": "Smelters, constructors, assemblers, manufacturers, refineries, and blenders run per-minute recipes; 106 alternate recipes chosen from hard-drive scans swap inputs, and clock speed from 1% to 250% rescales any machine.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "conveyor-transport", "note": "Six belt tiers carry 60, 120, 270, 480, 780, and 1,200 items per minute, with splitters, mergers, lifts, and smart splitters routing flows in 3D.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "resource-extraction", "note": "Miners Mk.1 to Mk.3 sit on infinite ore nodes whose purity multiplies output by 0.5, 1, or 2; water extractors, oil extractors, and resource well pressurizers tap fluids.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "power-grid", "note": "Generators from 30 MW biomass burners to 2,500 MW nuclear plants feed one grid; if consumption exceeds production with storage empty, the fuse trips and all connected buildings stop until reset.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "tech-tree", "note": "HUB milestones are unlocked by delivering crafted parts tier by tier, Space Elevator phases gate tiers 3 to 9, and the MAM researches alien items, power slugs, and hard drives.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "direct-avatar", "note": "The pioneer walks, jetpacks, ziplines, and drives across a hand-built map, building only within reach and gathering power slugs, hard drives, and samples on foot.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "free-placement", "note": "Foundations, walls, and ramps snap to a grid at any height, so factories are stacked floors connected by belt lifts and pipes.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "fluid-pipe-network", "note": "Pipelines carry 300 or 600 m3 per minute; liquids need head lift supplied by pumps, while gases do not.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "vehicle-route-scheduling", "note": "Trains follow station timetables, trucks and tractors replay recorded routes, and drones shuttle between a home port and one linked port on battery or packaged fuel.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "rail-signaling", "note": "Block and path signals divide track so several trains can share a network.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "blueprints", "note": "A Blueprint Designer (40 x 40 m at Mk.1, larger tiers in 1.0) saves layouts that appear as build-menu entries and draw materials from storage or inventory.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "storage-capacity", "note": "Storage containers, fluid buffers, and industrial tanks buffer production; the Dimensional Depot uploads items for remote building.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "byproducts-waste", "note": "Refinery recipes emit heavy oil residue or polymer resin that must be routed or the line backs up, and nuclear plants emit waste that has to be stored or reprocessed.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "hand-crafting", "note": "Early parts are crafted at a craft bench by holding a button, and equipment is made at the equipment workshop.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "note": "The community-run Satisfactory Mod Loader adds new buildings, recipes, and logic on top of the Unreal Engine game.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "megaproject-sink", "note": "The Space Elevator takes five Project Assembly phases of crafted parts, from 50 Smart Plating in phase 1 to Nuclear Pasta and Ballistic Warp Drives in phase 5, and its phases unlock tiers 3 to 9 and the ending.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "machine-boosting", "note": "Clock speed from 1% to 250% rescales any machine; each of up to three Power Shards raises the cap by 50 points, and power scales with exponent about 1.32, so 250% draws about 336% of base power.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "programming-by-demonstration", "note": "Trucks and tractors replay a route the player records by driving it once, stopping at truck stations along the recorded path.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "scripting", "multiplayer": [ "single", "coop" ], "name": "Satisfactory", "narrative_mode": "authored", "perspective": "first-person", "platforms": [ "pc", "console" ], "player_role": "engineer-designer", "production_tier": "aa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gh" }, "sim_domain": [ "industrial-logistics", "physical-mechanical" ], "sim_scale": "facility", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-satisfactory", "src-satisfactorywiki-2026-resource-node", "src-satisfactorywiki-2026-conveyor-belts", "src-satisfactorywiki-2026-power", "src-satisfactorywiki-2026-alternate-recipes", "src-satisfactorywiki-2026-space-elevator", "src-satisfactorywiki-2026-pipeline", "src-satisfactorywiki-2026-blueprint-designer", "src-satisfactorywiki-2026-clock-speed", "src-satisfactorywiki-2026-drone" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "factory-automation", "summary": "A first-person 3D factory automation game in which a pioneer taps infinite resource nodes on an alien planet and connects machines with belts, pipes, trains, and drones to deliver project parts to FICSIT's Space Elevator.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2019, "year_full_release": 2024 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C01", "core_count": 5, "family_profile": { "control-automation": 1, "economy-finance": 3, "environment-ecology": 1, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "progression-goals": 1, "resources-production": 3, "risk-failure": 1, "space-construction": 1 }, "mechanic_count": 12 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar", "direct-unit" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "core_loop": "grow or cook a base product -> mix in ingredients to add effects -> sell to customers who want those effects -> avoid police searches and curfews -> hire dealers and staff -> buy properties -> unlock new regions", "design_notes": "Schedule I runs a production business through a first-person avatar: the player waters plants, operates mixing and cooking stations, and walks or drives deals across Hyland Point before hiring dealers, botanists, cooks, and janitors to automate the chain. Mixing common ingredients such as soft drinks or paracetamol into a product adds effects that raise its sale value, and customers want particular effects, so recipe discovery is the product-development layer. Police pressure rises with growth through random searches, roadblocks, and curfews, and being seen breaking the law sets a wanted status, a player-heat rule the taxonomy lacks (proposed as heat-wanted-level). The game is in early access, with an exit planned for Q4 2027.", "developer": "TVGS", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "schedule-i", "influence": 1, "mechanics": [ { "id": "product-development", "note": "Mixing ingredients such as soft drinks or paracetamol into a base product adds named effects that raise its value and match customer preferences.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "customer-value-choice", "note": "Customers have preferred effects and price tolerances; matching them builds repeat orders and relationships that open further customers.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "crop-cultivation", "note": "Plants are grown in pots with soil and water over a growth timer, then harvested as the base product.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "direct-avatar", "note": "The player personally grows, cooks, mixes, and delivers in first person until staff take over.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "staff-hiring", "note": "Dealers sell to their own customer lists for a cut, and botanists, cooks, and janitors run production at owned properties.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "crime-policing", "note": "Police pressure grows with operations through patrols, random searches, roadblocks, and night curfews; being seen raises a wanted status that can end in arrest.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "production-chain", "note": "Higher products need multi-step chains such as cooking methamphetamine at chemistry stations.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "quality-tiers", "note": "Product quality varies with inputs such as soil and additives and affects price.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "day-night-cycle", "note": "A daily clock with a night curfew shapes when deals can be made.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "free-placement", "note": "Grow tents, stations, and storage are placed inside bought properties.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "milestone-unlocks", "note": "Rank and story progress unlock new regions, customers, and equipment.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "note": "No official API at release; mods load through the de facto MelonLoader.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "scripting", "multiplayer": [ "single", "coop" ], "name": "Schedule I", "narrative_mode": "authored", "perspective": "first-person", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "manager-owner", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-ge", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-25-contributor-readiness" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "economic", "industrial-logistics" ], "sim_scale": "city", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-schedule-i", "src-steam-2026-schedule-i" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "business-economic-sim", "summary": "A first-person crime business sim in which the player grows and cooks drugs, mixes ingredients to create products with effects customers want, sells them around a city under police pressure, and automates production with hired staff.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "campaign", "year": 2025 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C12", "core_count": 6, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 1, "conflict-defense": 1, "control-automation": 2, "economy-finance": 1, "multiplayer-persistence": 2, "population-lineage": 1, "progression-goals": 1, "resources-production": 1, "risk-failure": 1, "space-construction": 1 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "sims-as-agent-benchmarks", "specification-programming-games" ] }, "mechanic_count": 12 }, "agency_model": [ "programmatic" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "claims": [ { "confidence": "medium", "sources": [ "src-screeps-2014-indiegogo-updates", "src-screeps-2015-game-situation-review", "src-screeps-2016-private-server-released", "src-steam-2026-screeps-world" ], "text": "In late 2014 Screeps was publicly playable in its browser Simulation mode during its Indiegogo campaign, and a December 2015 post dates the initial launch a year earlier; the persistent MMO opened to backers in May 2015, and the Steam full release followed on 2016-11-16. `year` records the 2014 public launch." } ], "core_loop": "write and commit JavaScript -> each tick the script reads room state and issues orders -> creeps harvest energy for spawns, extensions, and the controller -> controller levels unlock structures -> claim and defend rooms against other players' code -> profile and rewrite code within the CPU limit", "design_notes": "Screeps removes direct control entirely: the only input to the persistent world is the player's main module, which the server runs once per tick against a fixed snapshot, queuing commands that resolve together at tick end, so the colony keeps acting while the player is offline. Computation is the scarce resource: each tick has a CPU limit (20 without CPU Unlock, otherwise rising with Global Control Level to 300), with unused CPU banked in a 10,000-unit bucket that allows bursts of up to 500. Creeps are designed in code as bodies of up to 50 parts (WORK, CARRY, MOVE, ATTACK, RANGED_ATTACK, HEAL, CLAIM, TOUGH) that set cost, ability, and fatigue, and they die after 1,500 ticks, so a colony is a replacement pipeline. Room Controller Levels 1 to 8 unlock structures and decay if not fed energy, and every player's AI meets the others in shared 50x50 rooms, so strategy is emergent competition between programs. The server is open source and runnable privately.", "developer": "Screeps, LLC", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "abstract", "id": "screeps", "influence": 2, "influenced_by": [], "mechanics": [ { "id": "player-programming", "note": "Players write JavaScript (or C, C++, Rust, Go, C#, and others via WebAssembly) whose main loop runs every tick under a per-tick CPU limit with a 10,000-unit bucket; globals reset between ticks and actions resolve together at tick end.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "persistent-world", "note": "Official shards run continuously with ticks every 2 to 5 seconds, so colonies harvest, build, and fight while their owners are offline; rooms link through exits and shards through portals.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "modular-assembly", "note": "Code spawns creeps from up to 50 body parts of eight types; part counts set harvest, carry, attack, and heal rates, MOVE parts offset fatigue of 1, 2, or 10 per part on road, plain, or swamp, and each part has 100 hits.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "resource-extraction", "note": "WORK parts harvest energy from sources that refill every 300 ticks, and extractors at RCL 6 mine minerals for labs and the market.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "tech-tree", "note": "Energy spent on a room controller raises its level from 1 to 8 at cumulative costs up to 10.9 million, unlocking spawns, extensions, towers, storage, links, labs, terminal, factory, observer, and nuker; unfed controllers downgrade and become neutral.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "raid-defense", "note": "Towers, ramparts, and walls defend rooms against other players and NPC invaders, and a newly placed first spawn grants safe mode.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "player-driven-market", "note": "Terminals post public buy and sell orders priced in credits with a 5% order fee; the party executing a deal pays an energy cost that grows with distance, and NPC terminals sit at highway crossroads.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "agent-pathfinding", "note": "Movement costs are 1 on roads, 2 on plains, and 10 on swamps, and route searches consume the player's CPU, so caching paths is a core optimization.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "wear-breakdown", "note": "Roads and other structures lose hits over time and must be repaired by creeps.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "lifecycle-aging", "note": "Every creep dies after 1,500 ticks, so code must schedule replacements before roles go unfilled.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "note": "The open-source private server supports mods and community servers that change rules and tick rates.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "execution-budget", "note": "Each tick has a CPU limit (20 without CPU Unlock), unused CPU banks in a bucket of up to 10,000, a tick may burst to 500, and scripts are terminated at the limit, so pathfinding and caching strategies are shaped by CPU cost.", "role": "core" } ], "modding": "scripting", "multiplayer": [ "persistent-mmo", "competitive", "single" ], "name": "Screeps", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "top-down-2d", "platforms": [ "pc", "web" ], "player_role": "programmer", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gh" }, "sim_domain": [ "computational-abstract", "military-conflict", "economic" ], "sim_scale": "region", "sources": [ "src-steam-2026-screeps-world", "src-screeps-2026-docs-introduction", "src-screeps-2026-docs-creeps", "src-screeps-2026-docs-control", "src-screeps-2026-docs-market", "src-screeps-2026-docs-cpu-limit", "src-screeps-2026-docs-game-loop", "src-screeps-2014-indiegogo-updates", "src-screeps-2015-game-situation-review", "src-screeps-2016-private-server-released" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "programming-sim", "subgenre_secondary": [ "mmo-world" ], "summary": "A persistent MMO strategy game in which players control colonies only by writing JavaScript that the server runs every tick, directing creeps assembled from body parts to harvest energy, upgrade room controllers, trade, and fight other players' code under a CPU budget.", "time_model": "asynchronous-persistent", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2014, "year_full_release": 2016 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C14", "core_count": 4, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 2, "biology-health": 1, "environment-ecology": 1, "population-lineage": 1, "risk-failure": 1, "social-relations": 1, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "trainable-creatures-revival" ] }, "mechanic_count": 8 }, "agency_model": [ "caretaking-interaction", "conversational" ], "agent_count_order": "1", "core_loop": "check the tank each real day -> adjust heat, clean water, and feed -> talk to Seaman through the microphone -> it learns words and asks about the player -> the life stage advances through breeding and die-off -> raise the Frogman generation and release it", "design_notes": "Yoot Saito built Seaman around speech: a microphone accessory lets the player answer questions and make small talk, early Gillmen repeat the player's words back as gibberish, and the creature's vocabulary grows while it keeps insulting the player. The care loop is sparse but strict, with roughly one check per real day needed to keep it alive, so the game paces itself to the player's calendar. Its life cycle is scripted and harsh: Gillmen fight until two remain, Podfish die after mating, Tadmen eat each other until two remain, and the final Frogmen are released into the wild. Leonard Nimoy narrates the English version as a guide who explains only part of the rules.", "developer": "Vivarium", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "hard-restart", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "seaman", "influence": 2, "mechanics": [ { "id": "creature-care", "note": "The player sets tank heat, cleans dirty water, and supplies food, and later runs a sprinkler to keep Frogmen moist.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "natural-language-interaction", "note": "Microphone speech is matched against the creature's current vocabulary; it asks for the player's birthday and other details and answers in conversation.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "lifecycle-aging", "note": "Mushroomer, Gillman, Podfish, Tadman, and Frogman stages; Podfish parents die after mating and the aquarium becomes a terrarium.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "real-time-clock", "note": "Time follows the real calendar; going much longer than a day without a check can kill the creature.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "creature-learning", "note": "Vocabulary grows through conversation, and the creature becomes tamer over time.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "memories-thoughts", "note": "It remembers facts the player shares, such as a birthday, and later tells historical events from that date.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "habitat-suitability", "note": "Tank temperature and water cleanliness must suit the current life stage.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "permadeath", "note": "A neglected creature dies permanently.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Seaman", "narrative_mode": "hybrid", "perspective": "first-person", "platforms": [ "console" ], "player_role": "caretaker", "production_tier": "aa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gc" }, "sim_domain": [ "biological-ecological", "social-interpersonal" ], "sim_scale": "individual", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-seaman" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "virtual-pet", "summary": "A Dreamcast virtual pet in which the player talks through a microphone to a sardonic human-faced fish, managing its tank's heat, water, and food while it matures through five life stages.", "time_model": "real-world-clock", "type": "game", "win_structure": "completion", "year": 1999 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C12", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "control-automation": 2, "economy-finance": 1, "multiplayer-persistence": 4, "physics-materials": 1, "space-construction": 1 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "ai-liquidity-in-player-markets" ] }, "mechanic_count": 9 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar", "programmatic" ], "agent_count_order": "10k-plus", "aliases": [ "SL" ], "boundary_case": true, "core_loop": "customize an avatar -> buy or rent land in a region -> build objects from prims and mesh -> script behavior in LSL -> sell creations, land, or services for Linden Dollars -> exchange Linden Dollars on the LindeX", "design_notes": "Linden Lab describes Second Life as a platform rather than a game: it has no set objective, and almost all content is built and scripted by residents, who keep copyright to it. It is a boundary case included for its user-content pipeline, server-side object scripting, and a virtual currency with a real-money exchange that produced real income for some residents. Each region is simulated on its own CPU core with Havok physics, which caps how many avatars and objects a place can hold.", "developer": "Linden Lab", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "none", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "second-life", "influence": 3, "mechanics": [ { "id": "persistent-world", "note": "The world is a grid of 256 by 256 meter regions, each simulated on a dedicated CPU core with Havok physics and capped at 40 avatars on the mainland or 100 on private islands.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "player-programming", "note": "Objects run Linden Scripting Language scripts on Linden Lab's servers, which is how built objects become interactive.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "player-driven-market", "note": "Residents trade land, goods, and services for Linden Dollars, which are bought and sold for real currency on the LindeX exchange; the Marketplace has listed about 2.1 million items.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "modular-assembly", "note": "Objects are built from linked primitives, up to 256 per linked set, or from imported mesh.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "rigid-body-physics", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "content-sharing", "note": "Creators keep copyright to their content and sell it to other residents.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "player-organizations", "note": "Groups give residents shared chat and voice channels.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "direct-avatar", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "note": "The Linden Scripting Language attaches scripts to in-world objects.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "scripting", "multiplayer": [ "persistent-mmo" ], "name": "Second Life", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "third-person", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "inhabitant", "production_tier": "aa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gi", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-25-contributor-readiness" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "economic", "social-interpersonal" ], "sim_scale": "region", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-second-life" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "mmo-world", "subgenre_secondary": [ "sandbox-world" ], "summary": "A persistent 3D virtual world in which residents build objects from prims and meshes, script them in the Linden Scripting Language, own land in server-simulated regions, and trade goods and land for Linden Dollars exchangeable for real currency.", "time_model": "asynchronous-persistent", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2003 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C04", "core_count": 5, "family_profile": { "control-automation": 2, "logistics-networks": 3, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "progression-goals": 2, "resources-production": 2, "space-construction": 2 }, "mechanic_count": 12 }, "agency_model": [ "zoning-placement", "programmatic" ], "agent_count_order": "none", "claims": [ { "confidence": "high", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-shapez-2" ], "text": "shapez 2 is the sequel to Shapez (2020, also known as shapez.io), which has no entry in this dataset, so the lineage is recorded here rather than as an influenced_by edge." }, { "confidence": "high", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-shapez-2", "src-steam-2026-shapez-2" ], "text": "Early access began on 2024-08-15 and version 1.0 released on 2026-04-23." } ], "core_loop": "read the requested shape code -> extract raw shapes from asteroids -> cut, rotate, stack, and paint on belts across levels -> deliver to the Vortex -> earn platform units and research -> build bigger platforms and train networks", "design_notes": "shapez 2 removes enemies, money, and building costs (all buildings are free) and keeps only the throughput puzzle: the product is an abstract shape of up to four layers of four quadrants, each part with a type and one of nine colors, written as a shape code. Parts obey a support rule (no floating pieces) and crystals shatter when cut from or stacked onto other crystals, so processing order is part of the puzzle. Space is the scarce resource: machines sit on space platforms whose count is limited by Platform Units earned from goals, and platforms connect through edge notches, space belts, and colored train lines whose routing is set per color at splitters. After the fixed milestones, operator goal lines grow exponentially in cost per level (for example 15,000 shapes at 18% growth), turning the endgame into scaling a design rather than designing a new one.", "developer": "tobspr Games", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "none", "fidelity": "abstract", "id": "shapez-2", "influence": 2, "influenced_by": [], "mechanics": [ { "id": "production-chain", "note": "Cutters, rotators, stackers, swappers, painters, pin pushers, and crystal generators each transform shapes by fixed rules; a target shape code implies a processing sequence the player must lay out.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "conveyor-transport", "note": "Belts, splitters, mergers, and lifts move shapes across three building levels per platform, and space belts carry them between platforms.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "tech-tree", "note": "Delivering each milestone's required shapes to the Vortex unlocks the next buildings and mechanics, such as fluids, painting, crystals, and trains; afterwards, operator goal lines with exponentially rising shape costs reward platform units, blueprint points, and research points.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "free-placement", "note": "Space platforms in 20x20 chunks are the limited building surface, capped by Platform Units, with notches at chunk edges as the only connection points between platforms.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "blueprints", "note": "Copying and pasting factory sections costs Blueprint Points earned from goals, making repeated modules the intended way to scale.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "vertical-layers", "note": "Each platform has three stacked building levels, and shapes carry up to four or five vertical layers that must be supported from below.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "vehicle-route-scheduling", "note": "Space trains load fixed-size packages at loader stations and unload at stops; each rail carries trains of several colors that take their own color's branch at splitters, and wagons hold one package per machine level.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "fluid-pipe-network", "note": "Pipes and space pipes carry fluids such as paint from asteroid pumps to painters, and fluid launchers move them across notches.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "signal-circuits", "note": "Wire machines carry signals that read and control machines, and wireless senders and receivers pass signals across platform notches.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "resource-extraction", "note": "Asteroid miners and pumps on platforms extract raw shape fields and fluid deposits from a procedurally generated world.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "note": "Mods load natively through the ShapezShifter API and are distributed on Steam Workshop.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "megaproject-sink", "note": "After the fixed milestones, operator goal lines at the Vortex demand shapes in quantities that grow exponentially per level (for example 15,000 shapes at 18% growth), absorbing late-game output.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "scripting", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "shapez 2", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "free-3d", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "engineer-designer", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gh" }, "sim_domain": [ "computational-abstract", "industrial-logistics" ], "sim_scale": "facility", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-shapez-2", "src-steam-2026-shapez-2", "src-shapez2wiki-2026-shapes", "src-shapez2wiki-2026-trains", "src-shapez2wiki-2026-operator-level", "src-shapez2wiki-2026-space-platforms", "src-shapez2wiki-2026-modding" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "factory-automation", "summary": "A combat-free factory automation game in which the player builds multi-level factories on space platforms that cut, rotate, stack, and paint layered geometric shapes and deliver them to a central Vortex to meet escalating milestone and operator goals.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2024, "year_full_release": 2026 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C10", "core_count": 2, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 1, "conflict-defense": 1, "control-automation": 1, "environment-ecology": 2, "information-legibility": 1, "operation-procedure": 1, "physics-materials": 1, "progression-goals": 1, "time-pacing": 1 }, "mechanic_count": 10 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar", "direct-unit" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "aliases": [ "SH3" ], "core_loop": "receive a patrol grid -> transit under time compression -> detect contacts -> identify the target and solve speed, angle on the bow, and gyro angle -> fire torpedoes -> evade escorts -> return to base and promote crew", "design_notes": "The campaign engine generates convoys, destroyer escorts, and task forces in each patrol area rather than scripting engagements, so a career starting between 1939 and 1943 is a sequence of unplanned encounters. Realism settings scale the procedure: at the hardest, the player identifies class and nationality and computes speed, angle on the bow, and gyro angle; with manual targeting off a Weapons Officer solves the problem while approach geometry still matters. Crew members persist between patrols with rank, experience, morale, and decorations.", "developer": "Ubisoft Bucharest", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "hard-restart", "fidelity": "systemic", "id": "silent-hunter-3", "influence": 2, "mechanics": [ { "id": "military-operations", "note": "The campaign engine generates convoys, destroyer escorts, and task forces in assigned patrol grids, and the player chooses targets and approaches.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "procedural-checklists", "note": "Manual targeting requires identifying a vessel's class and nationality and computing its speed, angle on the bow, and gyro angle before setting torpedo depth and spread.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "agent-skills", "note": "Crew members carry rank, experience, morale, and decorations between patrols.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "career-ladder", "note": "A career begins at the rank of Lieutenant, Jr., with a U-boat base assignment between 1939 and 1943.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "delegation-to-ai", "note": "With manual targeting off, a Weapons Officer computes the firing solution.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "fog-of-war", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "weather", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "day-night-cycle", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "projectile-ballistics", "note": "Torpedoes run at a set speed, depth, and gyro angle toward an intercept computed from target speed and angle on the bow, so a bad solution misses.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "content", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Silent Hunter III", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "first-person", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "commander", "production_tier": "aa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gf" }, "sim_domain": [ "military-conflict", "physical-mechanical" ], "sim_scale": "individual", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-silent-hunter-3" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "vehicle-sim", "subgenre_secondary": [ "wargame" ], "summary": "A World War II U-boat sim with a dynamic campaign that generates convoys and escorts, manual torpedo targeting, and a persistent crew that gains rank, experience, and morale across patrols.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "campaign", "year": 2005 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C03", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 1, "control-automation": 2, "environment-ecology": 1, "population-lineage": 2, "progression-goals": 1, "risk-failure": 1, "space-construction": 1, "time-pacing": 1 }, "mechanic_count": 10 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar", "indirect-incentive", "policy-parameter" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "aliases": [ "SimAnt: The Electronic Ant Colony" ], "core_loop": "steer the yellow ant -> lay trails and recruit followers to food or the red nest -> colony grows under caste allocation -> fight the red colony and survive hazards -> send young queens and drones to found new nests -> take the yard and drive out the humans", "design_notes": "Will Wright drew on Hölldobler and Wilson's The Ants to show emergence: individual ants follow simple rules, and the player's main lever on the colony is the trail field that other ants follow, not orders. The player embodies one ant and can swap into any other, which pairs a direct-avatar view with colony-level allocation of workers, soldiers, and breeders. Rain washes away trails and floods nests, and lawnmowers, bug spray, spiders, and antlions kill ants, so the environment erodes the information the player lays down. Trail-following agents are not yet a mechanic in the taxonomy (proposal stigmergic-trails).", "developer": "Maxis", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "hard-restart", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "simant", "influence": 2, "mechanics": [ { "id": "direct-avatar", "note": "The player is one yellow ant that digs, carries food and pebbles, receives food by trophallaxis, and fights; double-clicking another ant moves control to it.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "unit-commands", "note": "The yellow ant lays trails to food or enemy nests that other black ants follow, and can recruit a group of nearby ants to follow it into fights against spiders, caterpillars, antlions, or red ants.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "population-strata", "note": "The colony divides into workers (forage, dig, tend brood), soldiers (fight, eat more, cannot tend brood), the queen, and winged breeders, and the player sets the balance.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "work-priorities", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "lifecycle-aging", "note": "The queen lays eggs that become larvae and adults; young queens and drones mate to found colonies in new map squares.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "weather", "note": "Rain washes away trails and can flood nests.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "random-disasters", "note": "Human footsteps, lawnmowers, bug spray, and electrical outlets kill ants without warning.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "vertical-layers", "note": "Surface yard play is viewed from above while nests are shown in side view underground.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "scenario-objectives", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "SimAnt", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "top-down-2d", "platforms": [ "pc", "console" ], "player_role": "inhabitant", "production_tier": "aa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gd", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "biological-ecological" ], "sim_scale": "settlement", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-simant" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "artificial-life", "subgenre_secondary": [ "colony-sim" ], "summary": "A Maxis ant-colony simulation in which the player controls one yellow ant that lays trails and recruits nestmates while managing a black colony's castes against a rival red colony, predators, and the household.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "competitive-victory", "year": 1991 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C07", "core_count": 5, "family_profile": { "economy-finance": 4, "environment-ecology": 2, "governance-policy": 1, "information-legibility": 1, "logistics-networks": 2, "progression-goals": 1, "resources-production": 1, "risk-failure": 2, "space-construction": 2, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "influenced": [ "caesar-3", "civilization", "fallout-shelter", "railroad-tycoon", "simcity-2000" ], "precedent_for": [ "participatory-planning-sandboxes" ] }, "mechanic_count": 17 }, "agency_model": [ "zoning-placement", "policy-parameter" ], "agent_count_order": "aggregate", "aliases": [ "SimCity Classic", "Micropolis" ], "core_loop": "zone residential, commercial, and industrial land -> connect roads and power -> RCI demand and land value grow zones -> collect taxes each year -> fund police, fire, and roads -> respond to crime, pollution, traffic, and disasters", "design_notes": "Will Wright grew the game out of the map editor he built for Raid on Bungeling Bay and drew its model from Jay Forrester's Urban Dynamics. The simulation is a set of coarse grid maps (land value, crime, pollution, traffic density, police and fire effect) recomputed in passes, plus three RCI demand valves that integrate city-wide balance; a zone grows when its local score plus the valve passes a random test. The 2008 GPL release as Micropolis made these update rules, including crime = 128 - land value + density - police effect, inspectable.", "developer": "Maxis", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "systemic", "id": "simcity-1989", "influence": 5, "mechanics": [ { "id": "zoning", "note": "The player paints 3x3 residential, commercial, and industrial zones; simulated developers build, densify, or abandon them.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "rci-demand", "note": "Three valves move by the ratio of projected to actual residents, commerce, and industry plus a tax offset, clamped to +/-2000 or +/-1500 (Micropolis source).", "role": "core" }, { "id": "land-value", "note": "Each 2x2 block's value falls with distance from the population-weighted center, rises near trees and water, and drops with pollution and high crime, clamped to 1-250.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "power-grid", "note": "Zones must connect to coal or nuclear plants through power lines or adjacent zones; unpowered zones do not grow and lower the city score.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "budget-treasury", "note": "Tax revenue is collected periodically from population, land value, and tax rate; police, fire, and road funding fractions scale their effects, and underfunded roads decay.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "taxation", "note": "One city-wide tax rate adds a positive offset to demand at low rates and a negative offset at high rates.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "service-coverage", "note": "Police and fire stations write funding-scaled effect values to a block map that is smoothed outward.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "crime-policing", "note": "Crime per cell is 128 - land value + density minus smoothed police effect, clamped 0-250.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "pollution-spread", "note": "Industry and traffic write a pollution map that depresses land value and can summon the monster.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "traffic-congestion", "note": "Zones generate trips along roads; the resulting traffic density map adds to pollution and complaints.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "data-overlays", "note": "Map windows show land value, crime, pollution, traffic density, police and fire coverage, and population density.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "random-disasters", "note": "Fire, flood, tornado, earthquake, and a pollution-gated monster fire at 1/481, 1/241, or 1/61 per cycle by difficulty.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "scenario-objectives", "note": "Time-limited scenarios such as Detroit 1972 set a goal to reach before the clock ends, added at Broderbund's suggestion.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "citizen-satisfaction", "note": "A yearly evaluation turns problem scores into a 0-1000 rating and an approval poll.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "free-placement", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "fire-spread", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "content", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "SimCity", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "top-down-2d", "platforms": [ "pc", "console", "mobile" ], "player_role": "planner-mayor", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-ga", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "urban", "economic" ], "sim_scale": "city", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-simcity-1989", "src-hopkins-2008-micropolis" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "city-builder", "summary": "The city builder in which a mayor zones residential, commercial, and industrial land, lays power and roads, and sets taxes while grid maps of land value, crime, pollution, and traffic drive where the city grows.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 1989 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C07", "core_count": 4, "family_profile": { "economy-finance": 5, "environment-ecology": 1, "governance-policy": 1, "logistics-networks": 3, "progression-goals": 1, "resources-production": 1, "risk-failure": 1, "space-construction": 4, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "influenced": [ "simcity-4", "transport-tycoon" ] }, "mechanic_count": 18 }, "agency_model": [ "zoning-placement", "policy-parameter" ], "agent_count_order": "aggregate", "core_loop": "shape terrain and zone light or dense residential, commercial, industrial land -> lay power lines, water pipes, roads, and rail -> demand and land value grow zones -> set per-zone tax rates, ordinances, and bonds -> fund schools, hospitals, police, and fire -> rebuild aging plants", "design_notes": "SimCity 2000 keeps the original's grid-map model but adds a second plane: an underground view for water pipes, subways, and road tunnels, so infrastructure is laid on a separate layer from zoning. Finance gains levers (three tax rates, ordinances, bonds), and most of the nine power plant types have limited lifespans, so replacement becomes a recurring capital cost. Yearly newspapers built from city state replace the score screen, and extreme deficit spending ends the game.", "developer": "Maxis", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "systemic", "id": "simcity-2000", "influence": 3, "influenced_by": [ "simcity-1989" ], "mechanics": [ { "id": "zoning", "note": "Residential, commercial, and industrial zones in light and dense variants, plus seaport and airport zones.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "rci-demand", "note": "Demand bars for residential, commercial, and industrial land, raised by connections to neighbor cities.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "power-grid", "note": "Nine plant types including wind, hydro, solar, fusion, and microwave; most have limited lifespans and must be rebuilt.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "budget-treasury", "note": "Yearly budget with department funding; extreme deficit spending ends the game.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "taxation", "note": "Separate tax rates for residential, commercial, and industrial zones.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "loans-debt", "note": "The player issues bonds to raise capital and pays interest on them.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "policy-toggles", "note": "City ordinances enacted for ongoing cost and effect.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "vertical-layers", "note": "An underground layer holds water pipes, subways, and road tunnels separate from the surface.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "fluid-pipe-network", "note": "Water from pumps travels through underground pipes to zones.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "terraforming", "note": "Land has elevation that the player can raise or lower before and during play.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "service-coverage", "note": "Schools, libraries, museums, hospitals, police, and fire stations cover surrounding zones.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "land-value", "note": "Query tool shows land value per tile, which shapes development.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "traffic-congestion", "note": "Query tool reports traffic on roads; highways and transit relieve it.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "random-disasters", "note": "Disasters strike in play, and scenarios based on real cities stage specific ones.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "dated-tech-timeline", "note": "Power plant types such as solar, fusion, and microwave and buildings such as arcologies become available in set invention years as the city's calendar advances.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "free-placement", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "fire-spread", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "content", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "SimCity 2000", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "isometric", "platforms": [ "pc", "console", "handheld", "mobile" ], "player_role": "planner-mayor", "production_tier": "aa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-ga", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "urban", "economic" ], "sim_scale": "city", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-simcity-2000" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "city-builder", "summary": "The isometric sequel to SimCity that adds terrain elevation, an underground layer of water pipes and subways, separate zone tax rates, bonds, ordinances, and power plants that age out.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 1993 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C07", "core_count": 4, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 1, "economy-finance": 2, "environment-ecology": 1, "logistics-networks": 3, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "population-lineage": 1, "resources-production": 2, "space-construction": 2, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "agent-ambassadors-async", "mean-field-crowds" ] }, "mechanic_count": 14 }, "agency_model": [ "zoning-placement", "policy-parameter" ], "agent_count_order": "1k", "core_loop": "zone along roads -> GlassBox agents carry workers, goods, power, water, and sewage between buildings -> specialize the city in industries such as manufacturing, education, or tourism -> trade surpluses and share services with region neighbors -> pool resources into Great Works", "design_notes": "GlassBox replaces statistical maps with units that hold resource bins and agents that move resources between them, so a house holds a count of people and food, water travels as units, and traffic jams are the visible sum of commuting agents. Agents take the first available job and the first empty home rather than keeping persistent lives, and vehicles take the shortest route instead of the least loaded one, which players read as pathfinding errors. Cities were smaller than earlier games by design, and region play links them asynchronously through shared services, trade, and Great Works.", "developer": "Maxis Emeryville", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "systemic", "id": "simcity-2013", "influence": 2, "influenced_by": [ "simcity-4" ], "mechanics": [ { "id": "zoning", "note": "Residential, commercial, and industrial zones are painted along roads; buildings develop inside them.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "agent-pathfinding", "note": "Sims go to the first job and first empty home they find; vehicles take the shortest route rather than the one with spare capacity.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "traffic-congestion", "note": "Jams emerge from masses of commuting Sim agents on the road network.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "async-shared-region", "note": "Cities in a region connect by highway, rail, and water, trade resources, share services, and pool wealth into Great Works such as an arcology.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "power-grid", "note": "Power is carried as resource units from plants to buildings.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "fluid-pipe-network", "note": "Water and sewage move as units through pipes between pumps, treatment, and buildings.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "deposit-depletion", "note": "Map resources are mostly finite, though groundwater recharges.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "supply-demand-pricing", "note": "A simulated global market raises and lowers prices of key resources with supply and demand.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "service-coverage", "note": "Service buildings dispatch vehicle agents to calls.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "pollution-spread", "note": "Pollution and traffic cross city borders within a region.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "population-strata", "note": "Residents and businesses come in wealth levels with different demands.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "budget-treasury", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "free-placement", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single", "async-shared" ], "name": "SimCity (2013)", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "free-3d", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "planner-mayor", "production_tier": "aaa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-ga", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "urban", "economic" ], "sim_scale": "city", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-simcity-2013", "src-cifaldi-2012-glassbox-engine" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "city-builder", "summary": "A SimCity reboot built on the agent-based GlassBox engine, in which agents carry workers, power, water, and goods between buildings and small cities share a region over an always-online connection.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2013 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C07", "core_count": 4, "family_profile": { "economy-finance": 4, "environment-ecology": 1, "governance-policy": 1, "information-legibility": 1, "logistics-networks": 3, "population-lineage": 1, "risk-failure": 1, "space-construction": 3, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "influenced": [ "cities-skylines", "simcity-2013" ] }, "mechanic_count": 16 }, "agency_model": [ "zoning-placement", "policy-parameter" ], "agent_count_order": "aggregate", "core_loop": "terraform in God mode -> zone residential, commercial, industrial land at a density and connect roads -> wealth-level demand and desirability grow buildings -> set taxes and per-building service funding -> trade power, water, and garbage with neighbor cities -> grow the region", "design_notes": "SimCity 4 splits each zone type by wealth level, so demand and desirability are tracked per class and neighborhoods can decay or gentrify as conditions change. Cities of 1 to 4 km per side sit in a region and exchange water, electricity, and garbage disposal through neighbor deals, letting several specialized cities depend on each other; this single-player region has no exact match in the taxonomy (see run proposal). Its commute model drew praise from urban planner Jeff Speck, and the Building Architect Tool (2004) sustained a content community for over two decades.", "developer": "Maxis", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "systemic", "id": "simcity-4", "influence": 2, "influenced_by": [ "simcity-2000" ], "mechanics": [ { "id": "zoning", "note": "Residential, commercial, and industrial zones at low, medium, and high density, with agriculture as a separate industrial zone; buildings need road frontage.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "rci-demand", "note": "Demand is reported separately for each wealth level of residents and for commercial and industrial subtypes.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "land-value", "note": "Desirability is computed separately for each wealth level, so the same lot attracts different classes as services and nuisances change.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "traffic-congestion", "note": "Commuters route trips over roads, rail, and transit; Rush Hour adds traffic flow tracing, avenues, and elevated rail.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "population-strata", "note": "Buildings belong to wealth levels and size stages; areas decay or gentrify.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "public-transit", "note": "Bus, subway, and rail stations carry commuters; Rush Hour adds elevated rail.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "budget-treasury", "note": "Civic buildings need ongoing funding set per building.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "taxation", "note": "Tax rates per zone type and wealth level.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "service-coverage", "note": "Schools, hospitals, police, and fire buildings cover areas; they lose output and gain maintenance cost as they age.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "policy-toggles", "note": "City ordinances with monthly costs and effects.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "terraforming", "note": "God mode reshapes terrain; most terraforming locks once a city is founded.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "random-disasters", "note": "God mode triggers disasters on the city.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "advisors", "note": "Mayor mode advisors comment on problems and suggest actions.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "pollution-spread", "note": "Industry and traffic pollute and reduce desirability.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "free-placement", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "content", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "SimCity 4", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "isometric", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "planner-mayor", "production_tier": "aaa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-ga", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "urban", "economic" ], "sim_scale": "city", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-simcity-4" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "city-builder", "summary": "A city builder in which several cities share a region map and trade utilities, while zones develop by density and wealth level and a commute model routes trips across roads and transit.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2003 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C16", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "control-automation": 1, "environment-ecology": 3, "information-legibility": 1, "population-lineage": 1, "progression-goals": 1, "risk-failure": 1, "space-construction": 1, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "learned-weather-layer" ] }, "mechanic_count": 10 }, "agency_model": [ "policy-parameter", "supernatural-intervention" ], "agent_count_order": "aggregate", "aliases": [ "SimEarth: The Living Planet" ], "core_loop": "set geological, atmospheric, and biological rates -> climate and biomes evolve -> taxa spread, mutate, and diversify -> one sapient species advances through seven ages -> pollution, war, and disasters feed back on climate -> spend energy on interventions", "design_notes": "Will Wright and Fred Haslam built SimEarth with James Lovelock as adviser, and its models encode Gaian feedback: volcanic dust cools the planet, warming melts ice caps and raises seas, and life alters atmospheric gas fractions shown to three decimal places. The player mostly acts through control panels that set rates such as continental drift, reproduction, and mutation, plus energy-priced interventions (50 units per terrain square, 500 per terraforming device), so play is closer to tuning coupled systems than to directing agents. Scenarios include Daisyworld, Lovelock's minimal model of temperature regulation by daisy color, and terraforming Mars and Venus.", "developer": "Maxis", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "cascading-collapse", "fidelity": "systemic", "id": "simearth", "influence": 2, "mechanics": [ { "id": "planetary-climate", "note": "Atmospheric composition, temperature, ocean level, and biomes evolve together under Gaian feedback; volcanic dust cools, warming melts ice caps, extreme heat boils oceans, and Daisyworld reduces it to daisies regulating temperature.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "god-powers", "note": "Placing terrain, life, monoliths, oxygen generators, and terraforming devices costs energy (50 per terrain square, 500 per device) from a budget that grows with planetary development.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "natural-selection", "note": "Taxa from prokaryotes to mammals spread and diversify by environment, with player-set reproduction and mutation rates; mass extinctions are often followed by renewed radiation, and any multicellular taxon can become sapient.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "habitat-suitability", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "terraforming", "note": "Mars, Venus, Ice Planet, and Dune scenarios ask the player to make hostile planets habitable.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "random-disasters", "note": "Hurricanes, wildfires, earthquakes, tsunamis, and meteors occur, with disease and pollution scaling with population.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "pollution-spread", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "scenario-objectives", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "data-overlays", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "SimEarth", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "top-down-2d", "platforms": [ "pc", "console" ], "player_role": "god", "production_tier": "aa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gd" }, "sim_domain": [ "planetary-natural", "biological-ecological" ], "sim_scale": "planet", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-simearth" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "god-game", "subgenre_secondary": [ "ecosystem-evolution" ], "summary": "A planetary god game built on James Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis in which geology, atmosphere, climate, life, and civilization models interact over billions of years under the player's parameter changes and interventions.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 1990 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C16", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "environment-ecology": 2, "information-legibility": 1, "population-lineage": 3, "space-construction": 1, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "open-ended-evolution-sandbox" ] }, "mechanic_count": 8 }, "agency_model": [ "design-then-test", "policy-parameter", "supernatural-intervention" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "aliases": [ "SimLife: The Genetic Playground" ], "core_loop": "design species genes and world physics -> plants grow and animals eat, breed, and mutate -> populations boom, crash, or go extinct -> read graphs -> edit genes or environment and run again", "design_notes": "Designed by Ken Karakotsios, SimLife moves the player's control point down to the genome: plant and animal species are edited gene by gene, and the world's physical parameters can be changed, so the toy is about running ecological and evolutionary experiments rather than pursuing goals. Where SimEarth aggregates taxa into planetary stocks, SimLife works at the scale of a landscape and its individual species, mixing exclusive designed animals such as the Killer Penguin and Monkeyphant with player-made ones. Direct gene editing matches the genome-modification proposal from run catalog-ge.", "developer": "Maxis", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "simlife", "influence": 2, "mechanics": [ { "id": "trait-inheritance", "note": "The player edits the genetics of plant and animal species directly, and offspring inherit those genes with variation.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "natural-selection", "note": "Evolution is simulated and can be steered; species whose genes fit the designed environment persist while others decline.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "food-web", "note": "Designed ecosystems pair plant species with the animals that eat them, so gene edits ripple through who can feed on whom.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "habitat-suitability", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "terraforming", "note": "Players create and modify worlds and environments as well as species.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "lifecycle-aging", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "stats-dashboards", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "SimLife", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "top-down-2d", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "observer-gardener", "production_tier": "aa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gd" }, "sim_domain": [ "biological-ecological" ], "sim_scale": "region", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-simlife" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "artificial-life", "subgenre_secondary": [ "ecosystem-evolution" ], "summary": "A Maxis artificial-life toy in which the player edits plant and animal genes, landscape, and the world's physical parameters, then watches food chains and evolution play out.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 1992 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C07", "core_count": 4, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 2, "economy-finance": 1, "logistics-networks": 1, "progression-goals": 1, "risk-failure": 1, "space-construction": 2, "time-pacing": 1 }, "mechanic_count": 9 }, "agency_model": [ "zoning-placement", "policy-parameter" ], "agent_count_order": "1k", "aliases": [ "The Tower" ], "core_loop": "build floors, lobbies, and elevators -> place offices, condos, hotels, and shops -> tenants travel by elevator on daily routines -> long waits raise stress and drive tenants out -> rent and population raise the star rating -> unlock new facilities", "design_notes": "SimTower turns a building into a vertical transit problem: standard elevators span up to 30 floors and express elevators the full height, so the player designs shafts, sky lobbies, and stops to keep queues short as the tower grows toward 100 floors above ground and 9 below. Tenant stress, not money alone, gates the star rating from one to five and finally the Tower rating, which needs a cathedral on top. Events such as a terrorist bomb ransom, VIP visits that can unlock a star, fires, and pests interrupt the routine.", "developer": "OPeNBooK (Yoot Saito)", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "simtower", "influence": 2, "mechanics": [ { "id": "service-queues", "note": "Tenants wait at elevator lobbies; long waits raise stress, and stressed tenants move out.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "free-placement", "note": "Floors and tenant units are placed on a side-view grid; tenant type and position set elevator demand.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "daily-schedules", "note": "Office workers, residents, shoppers, and hotel guests travel at different times of day, creating rush periods at lobbies.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "milestone-unlocks", "note": "Population and conditions advance the tower from one to five stars and then to Tower status, each step unlocking facility types.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "vertical-layers", "note": "Up to 100 floors above ground and 9 below; standard elevators span 30 floors, express elevators the full height.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "agent-pathfinding", "note": "People route between floors by elevators, escalators, and stairs.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "budget-treasury", "note": "Rent and sales income fund construction.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "random-disasters", "note": "Terrorist bomb threats with a ransom or search, fires, and pest infestations.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "SimTower", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "top-down-2d", "platforms": [ "pc", "console" ], "player_role": "manager-owner", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-ga", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "urban", "economic" ], "sim_scale": "facility", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-simtower" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "management-tycoon", "subgenre_secondary": [ "city-builder" ], "summary": "A skyscraper management game in which the player stacks offices, condos, hotels, and shops and designs elevator service so tenants on daily routines do not wait long enough to stress out and leave.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "completion", "year": 1994 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C11", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "control-automation": 1, "economy-finance": 1, "information-legibility": 1, "physics-materials": 2, "progression-goals": 1, "risk-failure": 1 }, "mechanic_count": 7 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar" ], "agent_count_order": "none", "core_loop": "take a delivery or repair task -> pick truck, tires, and attachments -> drive into deforming mud, snow, or water -> recover when stuck -> deliver cargo -> earn money and rank -> unlock upgrades and new trucks", "design_notes": "Terrain is the antagonist: mud, snow, and water respond to vehicle weight, speed, and momentum, so route choice and tire type matter more than speed, and optional timed contests pay more for faster completion. The physics engine is the one Pavel Zagrebelnyy built for MudRunner, the sequel to Spintires. Mechanical upgrades such as snorkels and chain tires are gated behind progress thresholds, and up to four players can share a map.", "developer": "Saber Interactive", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "systemic", "id": "snowrunner", "influence": 2, "mechanics": [ { "id": "terrain-deformation", "note": "Mud, snow, and water react to each truck's weight, speed, and momentum, so ground conditions change as vehicles pass and can bog down underpowered or wrongly fitted trucks.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "vehicle-dynamics", "note": "Tire types, frame attachments, and accessories such as exhaust snorkels for deep water and chain tires for snow change how each of over 60 trucks copes with terrain.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "contracts-orders", "note": "Missions deliver cargo or complete construction and repair jobs; optional timed contests pay more the faster they are finished.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "wear-breakdown", "note": "Damage is shown on the vehicle model and in the interface and must be repaired.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "milestone-unlocks", "note": "Mechanical upgrades require reaching a progress threshold.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "fog-of-war", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "embodied-skill-control", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "content", "multiplayer": [ "single", "coop" ], "name": "SnowRunner", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "third-person", "platforms": [ "pc", "console", "handheld" ], "player_role": "operator-pilot", "production_tier": "aa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gf" }, "sim_domain": [ "physical-mechanical", "industrial-logistics" ], "sim_scale": "individual", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-snowrunner", "src-steam-2026-snowrunner" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "vehicle-sim", "summary": "An off-road trucking sim in which the player hauls cargo across mud, snow, and water whose surfaces deform under each truck's weight and tires, upgrading a fleet to reach harder terrain.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "completion", "year": 2020 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C03", "core_count": 2, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 2, "control-automation": 1, "economy-finance": 1, "governance-policy": 1, "logistics-networks": 1, "population-lineage": 1, "resources-production": 1, "social-relations": 1, "space-construction": 1, "time-pacing": 1 }, "mechanic_count": 11 }, "agency_model": [ "zoning-placement", "policy-parameter", "direct-unit" ], "agent_count_order": "10k-plus", "core_loop": "lay out houses, streets, and workshops -> tens of thousands of citizens and slaves work, worship, and seek their desires -> appoint nobles to run the realm -> supply and train armies -> fight real-time battles -> trade, ally, or conquer neighboring kingdoms", "design_notes": "Songs of Syx scales individual simulation to city size: each of tens of thousands of citizens and slaves has a race, religion, fears, and desires, and each soldier in battles of up to 50,000 units needs supplies. Nobles can be appointed or imported to manage the kingdom but may try to usurp the player. The game has been in early access since September 2020 with no fixed 1.0 date.", "developer": "Gamatron AB", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "systemic", "id": "songs-of-syx", "influence": 1, "mechanics": [ { "id": "population-strata", "note": "Citizens and slaves of several races, each with distinct needs, religion, and roles.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "unit-commands", "note": "Real-time battles of up to 50,000 individual units commanded by the player.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "needs-decay", "note": "Each citizen's needs and desires drive behavior.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "agent-pathfinding", "note": "Tens of thousands of agents path through streets to work and services.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "supply-lines", "note": "Every soldier must be supplied.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "faction-diplomacy", "note": "Alliances, trade, and war with other kingdoms.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "trade-routes", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "production-chain", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "stability-unrest", "note": "Appointed nobles may try to usurp the ruler.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "free-placement", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "content", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Songs of Syx", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "top-down-2d", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "ruler-statesman", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-ga", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "urban", "military-conflict", "political-governance" ], "sim_scale": "city", "sources": [ "src-steam-2026-songs-of-syx" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "city-builder", "subgenre_secondary": [ "grand-strategy" ], "summary": "A low-fantasy city builder in which tens of thousands of individually simulated citizens and slaves of several races live in a growing city-state whose armies of up to 50,000 units fight real-time battles.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2020 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C09", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "biology-health": 1, "control-automation": 3, "logistics-networks": 1, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "physics-materials": 3, "resources-production": 3, "risk-failure": 1, "space-construction": 1 }, "mechanic_count": 14 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar", "programmatic" ], "agent_count_order": "10", "core_loop": "mine ore from voxel asteroids and planets -> refine and assemble components -> weld blocks into ship or station grids -> power and pilot under inertia -> collide, fight, or deform -> repair and redesign", "design_notes": "Space Engineers treats a ship as a grid of blocks where each block has mass, inertia, and hit points, and functional blocks (thrusters per direction, gyroscopes, reactors, cockpits) decide whether it can move at all; there is no ship stat sheet apart from the blocks. Collisions and weapons deform or destroy individual blocks, and terrain is editable voxels, so construction, mining, and damage share one physical model. Survival mode adds a refine-assemble production chain and suit oxygen and energy, and an in-game programmable block lets players automate ships with scripts.", "developer": "Keen Software House", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "systemic", "id": "space-engineers", "influence": 2, "mechanics": [ { "id": "modular-assembly", "note": "Ships and stations are small or large grids of armor and functional blocks; thrusters only push along their facing, so thrust coverage on each axis, gyroscope count, and power supply decide handling.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "rigid-body-physics", "note": "Volumetric physics gives every block mass and inertia; ships drift under Newtonian motion with optional inertia dampeners, and gravity generators and planets pull loose objects.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "voxel-destruction", "note": "Asteroid and planet voxels can be drilled and carved, and armor blocks deform or break block by block under collisions and weapon fire.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "resource-extraction", "note": "Hand drills and ship drills mine ore from voxel deposits.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "production-chain", "note": "Refineries turn ore into ingots and assemblers turn ingots into components for welding.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "conveyor-transport", "note": "Conveyor blocks connect inventories so refineries, assemblers, and cargo containers move items automatically, with sorters filtering flow.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "power-grid", "note": "Reactors, solar panels, batteries, and hydrogen engines feed every functional block on a grid; unpowered blocks stop.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "player-programming", "note": "The programmable block runs player-written C# scripts that read and command blocks on the grid.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "signal-circuits", "note": "Sensors, timer blocks, and event controllers trigger block actions without code.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "survival-meters", "note": "In survival the suit tracks health, energy, oxygen, and hydrogen.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "fluid-gas-simulation", "note": "Air vents pressurize sealed rooms with oxygen; breaches depressurize them.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "blueprints", "note": "Grids save as blueprints that a projector block displays for welding and that are shared on Steam Workshop.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "note": "A C# modding API, Workshop, and mod.io support custom blocks and logic.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "subsystem-damage", "note": "Each block has hit points, and damaged functional blocks such as thrusters, reactors, and gyroscopes stop working until welded back.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "scripting", "multiplayer": [ "single", "coop", "competitive" ], "name": "Space Engineers", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "first-person", "platforms": [ "pc", "console" ], "player_role": "engineer-designer", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gg" }, "sim_domain": [ "physical-mechanical", "cosmic-space", "industrial-logistics" ], "sim_scale": "facility", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-space-engineers", "src-steam-2026-space-engineers" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "sandbox-world", "subgenre_secondary": [ "construction-engineering", "space-sim" ], "summary": "A voxel sandbox where players mine asteroids and planets and build ships and stations block by block, with every block carrying mass, inertia, power needs, and damage under Newtonian physics.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2013, "year_full_release": 2019 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C02", "core_count": 4, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 5, "control-automation": 1, "environment-ecology": 1, "physics-materials": 2, "resources-production": 3, "social-relations": 2, "space-construction": 1, "time-pacing": 1, "world-generation": 1 }, "mechanic_count": 17 }, "agency_model": [ "zoning-placement", "order-queue", "indirect-incentive", "direct-unit" ], "agent_count_order": "10", "core_loop": "build the ship tile by tile -> balance oxygen, CO2, temperature, and power -> crew work and meet needs -> jump through hyperspace to a new sector -> mine, salvage derelicts, trade, or fight factions -> grow the ship and crew", "design_notes": "Bugbyte describes it as combining RimWorld-style emergent storytelling with a tile-based gas simulation, and names RimWorld, Dwarf Fortress, Spacebase DF-9, and Oxygen Not Included as inspirations. The ship is both the base and the vehicle, so layout choices (a bed beside the ship core disrupts sleep) and life support are coupled to combat, where fire, smoke, gas, and hull breaches cascade through the same simulation. Early access began in May 2020 and 1.0 shipped in May 2026.", "developer": "Bugbyte", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "cascading-collapse", "fidelity": "systemic", "id": "space-haven", "influence": 1, "influenced_by": [ "rimworld", "dwarf-fortress", "oxygen-not-included" ], "mechanics": [ { "id": "fluid-gas-simulation", "note": "Each tile holds gas quantities; life support modules produce oxygen and remove CO2, and hazardous gases from facilities, fires, or explosions spread until scrubbed or vented.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "free-placement", "note": "Hull, walls, doors, and facilities are placed freely tile by tile to form the ship, which can be expanded or rebuilt at any time.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "needs-decay", "note": "Crew needs for food, sleep, comfort, safety, and friends drive mood, alongside conditions such as starvation or feeling unhygienic.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "mood-breakdown", "note": "Neglected crew suffer mental breaks ranging from starting fights to venting other crew into space.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "heat-transfer", "note": "Thermal regulators keep compartments at comfortable temperatures.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "power-grid", "note": "Power nodes distribute electricity across the ship.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "relationship-values", "note": "Crew relationships added in 2022.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "personality-traits", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "agent-skills", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "reputation", "note": "Standing with pirates, slavers, merchants, cults, and android factions.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "resource-extraction", "note": "Asteroids are mined for raw materials.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "production-chain", "note": "Raw materials are refined into building materials.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "unit-commands", "note": "Crew are drafted and equipped for ground combat and away missions.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "fire-spread", "note": "Fire and smoke spread through damaged compartments.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "procedural-terrain", "note": "Each playthrough generates a new galaxy of sectors, stations, and ships.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "utility-action-selection", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "content", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Space Haven", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "top-down-2d", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "overseer", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gb", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "social-interpersonal", "physical-mechanical", "cosmic-space" ], "sim_scale": "household", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-space-haven", "src-steam-2026-space-haven", "src-bugbyte-2026-space-haven" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "colony-sim", "subgenre_secondary": [ "space-sim" ], "summary": "A spaceship colony sim in which the player builds a ship tile by tile and keeps a crew with needs, moods, and relationships alive inside a tile-based simulation of oxygen, CO2, heat, and power.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2020, "year_full_release": 2026 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C20", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "control-automation": 1, "information-legibility": 1, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "progression-goals": 1, "resources-production": 1, "space-construction": 1 }, "incoming": { "influenced": [ "opus-magnum" ], "precedent_for": [ "mechanic-discovery-search", "specification-programming-games" ] }, "mechanic_count": 6 }, "agency_model": [ "programmatic", "design-then-test" ], "agent_count_order": "none", "boundary_case": true, "claims": [ { "confidence": "high", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-spacechem" ], "text": "Barth's earlier Flash game The Codex of Alchemical Engineering (2008), which is not in this dataset, is the documented precursor of SpaceChem's manipulator puzzles." } ], "core_loop": "read the input and output molecules -> place waldo paths and instruction icons in a 10x8 reactor -> run and debug collisions -> meet the output quota -> compare cycles, reactors, and instructions on histograms -> optimize or move on", "design_notes": "SpaceChem made the program itself the factory: each 10x8 reactor holds two waldos, red and blue, programmed independently or synchronized by instruction icons laid on the grid, and multiple reactors connect on a planet-surface pipeline so one reactor's output feeds another. Execution is deterministic, so a solution either produces the quota or deadlocks or collides, and success is followed by global histograms of cycles, reactors, and instructions that Zach Barth designed to show where a solution sits without the intimidation of a ranked leaderboard. Each planet ends in a defense level where production must keep pace with an attacker. Barth expanded the manipulator puzzles of his 2008 Flash game The Codex of Alchemical Engineering, and the instruction-grid plus histogram template recurs across Zachtronics' later games. ResearchNet let players share puzzles.", "developer": "Zachtronics", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "none", "fidelity": "abstract", "id": "spacechem", "influence": 3, "influenced_by": [], "mechanics": [ { "id": "player-programming", "note": "Two waldos per reactor, red and blue, follow player-placed paths and instruction icons that pick up, rotate, drop, bond, and route atoms, programmed independently or synchronized, with deterministic and visible execution.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "design-performance-rating", "note": "A solution passes when it outputs the required molecule quota and is then scored on cycles, number of reactors, and number of instructions used.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "comparative-histograms", "note": "After completion the player's cycles, reactors, and instructions are plotted on global histograms of other players' solutions, chosen over a ranked leaderboard to avoid discouraging players.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "production-chain", "note": "Reactors placed on a larger planet map pass molecules through pipelines, so later puzzles split a synthesis across several reactors, some limited to tasks such as breaking bonds, with fission and fusion nodes.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "scenario-objectives", "note": "Each puzzle fixes inputs, target outputs, available reactor types, and quotas; defense levels add a time pressure from an attacking enemy.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "content-sharing", "note": "ResearchNet distributes user-made puzzles that other players download and solve.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "content", "multiplayer": [ "single", "async-shared" ], "name": "SpaceChem", "narrative_mode": "authored", "perspective": "top-down-2d", "platforms": [ "pc", "mobile" ], "player_role": "programmer", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gh" }, "sim_domain": [ "computational-abstract", "industrial-logistics" ], "sim_scale": "micro", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-spacechem" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "programming-sim", "subgenre_secondary": [ "factory-automation" ], "summary": "A programming puzzle game in which the player lays out instruction paths for two waldos in grid reactors that grab, bond, rotate, and split atoms into target molecules, with each solution scored on cycles, reactors, and instructions against global histograms.", "time_model": "run-on-demand", "type": "game", "win_structure": "campaign", "year": 2011 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C16", "core_count": 2, "family_profile": { "control-automation": 1, "environment-ecology": 1, "information-legibility": 2, "population-lineage": 3, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "open-ended-evolution-sandbox" ] }, "mechanic_count": 8 }, "agency_model": [ "supernatural-intervention", "policy-parameter", "indirect-incentive" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "aliases": [ "Species ALRE", "Species" ], "claims": [ { "confidence": "high", "sources": [ "src-quasar-2012-species-alpha-release", "src-steam-2026-species-alre" ], "text": "The free Proof of Concept Demo Alpha 0.4.0 was publicly released on 2012-05-27, and the game entered Steam Early Access on 2018-09-28 without a later 1.0 release." }, { "confidence": "medium", "sources": [ "src-steam-2026-species-alre", "src-revolutionarygames-2016-thrive-vs-species" ], "text": "The developer is credited only by the handle Quasar on Steam and the development blog; no personal name was found in the sources checked." } ], "core_loop": "creatures feed, pay energy costs, and reproduce -> offspring genomes mutate -> environment and rovers decide who eats and who starves -> trait averages drift and lineages split into species -> player edits genes, climate, or triggers ice ages and floods -> watch the clade diagram branch", "design_notes": "Species, built by a single developer known as Quasar, simulates evolution with no fitness function: genes are numbers, most mutations add a random value in [-1, 1] scaled by a background mutation rate and radiation, and survival is whatever the body and environment allow. Energy costs come from analyzing each creature's skeleton for internal forces and torques, so morphology has a physical price, and creatures can eat only what their head reaches. Species are not predefined: a species is a population that can interbreed within a genetic distance, and it splits only when intermediate forms die out, which the clade diagram records. Species defined at runtime by genetic distance are not yet a mechanic in the taxonomy (proposal runtime-speciation). A free alpha (0.4.0) was public from 2012, and the Steam Early Access build from 2018 has not reached 1.0.", "developer": "Quasar", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "none", "fidelity": "systemic", "id": "species-alre", "influence": 1, "mechanics": [ { "id": "trait-inheritance", "note": "Each creature's body and behavior come from numeric genes; offspring are randomly modified copies of one or more parents, with most mutations a random value in [-1, 1] times a modifier for background mutation rate and radiation.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "natural-selection", "note": "No fitness score exists; creatures that cannot pay skeleton-derived energy costs, reach food, or tolerate local climate fail to reproduce, so trait averages drift and lineages speciate.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "habitat-suitability", "note": "Climate varies across the map, and climate control devices create local cold, hot, fertile, or dead ground.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "god-powers", "note": "The player triggers ice ages and world floods, programs rovers to feed or kill creatures by genetic distance to a target genome, and edits genomes in an isolated nursery.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "lifecycle-aging", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "agent-inspection", "note": "Creature inspection shows each individual's DNA and stats.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "stats-dashboards", "note": "Species averages over time, a clade diagram (Tree of Life), a satellite range map, and a web-of-life view of genetic variety.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "content", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Species: Artificial Life, Real Evolution", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "free-3d", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "observer-gardener", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gd" }, "sim_domain": [ "biological-ecological" ], "sim_scale": "region", "sources": [ "src-steam-2026-species-alre", "src-quasar-2012-species-alpha-release", "src-quasar-2014-species-0-7-0", "src-revolutionarygames-2016-thrive-vs-species" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "artificial-life", "subgenre_secondary": [ "ecosystem-evolution" ], "summary": "A solo-developed evolution simulator in which creatures defined by numeric genes mutate, breed, and speciate in real time across a 3D world while the player observes, edits the gene pool, and alters climate.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2012 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C23", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "control-automation": 2, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "progression-goals": 1, "social-relations": 1, "space-construction": 2, "world-generation": 1 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "open-ended-evolution-sandbox" ] }, "mechanic_count": 8 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar", "direct-unit", "design-then-test" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "core_loop": "eat to earn DNA points -> edit body parts to change abilities -> befriend or fight other species -> stage completes and grants consequence traits -> next stage changes the rules -> colonize and terraform planets -> creations upload to the Sporepedia and populate other players' galaxies", "design_notes": "Spore's evolution is player design rather than selection: body parts bought with DNA points set speed, attack, and social abilities directly, and nothing is inherited by differential survival. Its distinctive system is the part-based editors (18 share one interface) whose creations are stored as compact descriptions of a few kilobytes and reconstructed procedurally, which let Maxis upload every creation and redistribute them as the inhabitants of other players' galaxies (over 100 million by May 2009). Each of the five stages swaps in a different genre's rules, and play style in each stage assigns consequence traits that carry forward.", "developer": "Maxis", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "spore", "influence": 2, "mechanics": [ { "id": "modular-assembly", "note": "Creature, building, and vehicle editors assemble parts such as mouths, legs, and arms whose choice sets abilities, diet options, and stats; textures and animation are applied procedurally to the assembled topology.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "content-sharing", "note": "Every creation uploads automatically to the Sporepedia and is redistributed to populate other players' worlds, so other players' designs fill the galaxy without manual import.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "milestone-unlocks", "note": "Each stage ends at a progress threshold and hands the species to a new rule set (cell, creature, tribal, civilization, space), with three consequence traits awarded from how aggressive or social the player was.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "direct-avatar", "note": "The player directly steers the cell, the creature, and later a spaceship.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "unit-commands", "note": "Tribal and civilization stages switch to commanding up to 12 tribe members, then vehicles and cities.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "faction-diplomacy", "note": "Creature-stage species, tribes, nations, and space empires such as the Grox can be befriended through social actions or conquered.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "terraforming", "note": "In the space stage rocky planets can be terraformed, their ecosystems changed, and features such as mountains and lakes added.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "procedural-terrain", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "content", "multiplayer": [ "single", "async-shared" ], "name": "Spore", "narrative_mode": "hybrid", "perspective": "free-3d", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "god", "production_tier": "aaa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gd", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-25-contributor-readiness" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "biological-ecological", "cosmic-space" ], "sim_scale": "interplanetary", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-spore" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "ecosystem-evolution", "subgenre_secondary": [ "god-game", "4x-strategy" ], "summary": "A five-stage game in which the player guides a species from cell to galactic empire, building its body, vehicles, and buildings in part-based editors whose creations are shared automatically through the Sporepedia.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "campaign", "year": 2008 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C18", "core_count": 5, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 2, "biology-health": 1, "environment-ecology": 2, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "narrative-generation": 1, "progression-goals": 1, "resources-production": 4, "social-relations": 2, "space-construction": 1, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "content-elastic-events" ] }, "mechanic_count": 16 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar", "zoning-placement" ], "agent_count_order": "10", "core_loop": "plan the day -> spend energy watering, harvesting, mining, or fishing -> sell crops and artisan goods -> buy seeds, tools, and buildings -> gift and talk to villagers -> complete Community Center bundles -> new areas and seasons open", "design_notes": "Eric Barone built Stardew Valley alone over about five years in response to Harvest Moon, keeping its seasonal crop calendar and town relationships while leaving the long-term structure open-ended. Each day is bounded by an energy bar refilled each morning and a clock that forces sleep, so play is a daily allocation problem across farming, foraging, fishing, mining, and socializing. Friendship is a point stock (250 points per heart, 10 hearts for most villagers) that loses 2 points per day without conversation and accepts two gifts per week, with birthday gifts worth eight times as much. Community Center bundles make collection the main progression gate.", "developer": "ConcernedApe", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "stardew-valley", "influence": 4, "influenced_by": [ "harvest-moon" ], "mechanics": [ { "id": "crop-cultivation", "note": "Seasonal seeds need daily watering (rain or sprinklers substitute) and grow through stages over set day counts; most crops must be harvested before the season changes.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "seasons", "note": "Four 28-day seasons gate which crops grow, which fish and forage appear, and which festivals occur.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "daily-action-budget", "note": "An energy bar refills each morning, drains with tool use, and is restored by food; the clock forces bed by 2 a.m. or the player passes out and loses money.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "relationship-values", "note": "Each villager has a friendship stock of 250 points per heart up to 10 hearts; it decays 2 points per day without talking, takes two gifts a week, multiplies birthday gifts by 8, and unlocks heart events.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "collection-goals", "note": "Community Center bundles ask for sets of crops, forage, fish, and artisan goods; completed rooms repair town infrastructure and unlock areas, and the museum collects minerals and artifacts.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "animal-husbandry", "note": "Barns and coops house animals that produce eggs, milk, and wool when fed and cared for; animals cannot be slaughtered.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "romance-family", "note": "Twelve marriage candidates regardless of player gender; spouses help with chores, and couples can have children.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "agent-skills", "note": "Farming, foraging, fishing, mining, and combat levels rise with practice and unlock recipes and professions.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "production-chain", "note": "Kegs, preserves jars, and other machines convert crops and animal products into higher-value artisan goods over fixed processing times.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "quality-tiers", "note": "Crops and animal products come in normal, silver, gold, and iridium quality.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "villager-requests", "note": "A help-wanted board posts item, fishing, and slaying requests from townspeople.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "hand-crafting", "note": "Recipes turn gathered materials into sprinklers, fences, machines, and bombs.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "daily-schedules", "note": "Villagers follow routines that vary by weekday, season, and weather.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "weather", "note": "Rain waters crops and changes fish and villager routines.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "free-placement", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "note": "SMAPI, the de facto mod loader, runs C# mods and content packs.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "scripting", "multiplayer": [ "single", "coop" ], "name": "Stardew Valley", "narrative_mode": "hybrid", "perspective": "top-down-2d", "platforms": [ "pc", "console", "handheld", "mobile" ], "player_role": "inhabitant", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gc", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes", "2026-10-25-contributor-readiness" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "biological-ecological", "social-interpersonal", "economic" ], "sim_scale": "facility", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-stardew-valley", "src-stardewwiki-2026-friendship", "src-stardewvalleywiki-2026-bundles" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "farming-sim", "subgenre_secondary": [ "life-sim" ], "summary": "A farming and life sim in which the player restores an inherited farm over four 28-day seasons, splitting a daily energy budget among crops, animals, mining, fishing, and friendships with Pelican Town's residents.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2016 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C06", "core_count": 4, "family_profile": { "biology-health": 1, "control-automation": 2, "logistics-networks": 1, "physics-materials": 2, "resources-production": 4, "space-construction": 2 }, "mechanic_count": 12 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar", "programmatic" ], "agent_count_order": "none", "core_loop": "land with a starter kit -> mine and smelt ore -> build an airtight frame -> pipe, filter, and heat a breathable atmosphere -> power and automate with logic chips -> expand while fixing pressure, fire, and temperature failures", "design_notes": "The atmosphere is the main simulated system: each sealed volume and pipe network carries a mix of gases with temperature and pressure, so heating a room raises its pressure, mixing fuel and oxygen can burn or explode, and a pressure difference across a wall can blow it out. Survival needs are deliberately front-loaded; later play is building plant that keeps the atmosphere stable, then automating it with IC10 chips programmed in an assembly language. The game has been in early access since 2017.", "developer": "RocketWerkz", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "systemic", "id": "stationeers", "influence": 1, "mechanics": [ { "id": "fluid-gas-simulation", "note": "Rooms and pipe networks hold mixtures of oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, volatiles, pollutants, and water with pressure and temperature; gases mix, and combustion consumes fuel and oxygen and releases heat.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "heat-transfer", "note": "Gas temperature changes pressure and habitability; radiators, heat exchangers, heaters, and coolers move heat between pipes, rooms, and the planet's atmosphere.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "fluid-pipe-network", "note": "Pipes, pumps, filtration units, mixers, and regulators route gases between devices; pipes and tanks fail when pressure exceeds their rating.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "survival-meters", "note": "Early survival requires breathable gas, food, water, and suit temperature; suits carry tanks and filters until a habitat is sealed.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "power-grid", "note": "Solar panels, generators, and batteries feed cable networks; overloaded cables burn out.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "player-programming", "note": "IC10 chips run player-written assembly that reads and writes device logic values such as pressure and temperature.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "signal-circuits", "note": "Logic readers, writers, memory, and sensors chain devices without code.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "resource-extraction", "note": "Ore is mined from deformable voxel terrain.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "production-chain", "note": "Furnaces and arc furnaces smelt ore into ingots, and autolathes and other fabricators turn ingots into kits.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "crop-cultivation", "note": "Hydroponic plants need light, water, and suitable gases, and exchange carbon dioxide for oxygen.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "structural-integrity", "note": "Walls hold limited pressure differences; exceeding them causes fatigue and explosive decompression.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "free-placement", "note": "Frames, walls, pipes, and devices are placed on a grid piece by piece, and placement decides airtightness.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "content", "multiplayer": [ "single", "coop" ], "name": "Stationeers", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "first-person", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "engineer-designer", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gg" }, "sim_domain": [ "physical-mechanical", "industrial-logistics", "cosmic-space" ], "sim_scale": "facility", "sources": [ "src-steam-2026-stationeers" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "survival-sim", "subgenre_secondary": [ "sandbox-world" ], "summary": "A first-person space station survival game whose core is an atmospheric simulation of gas mixtures, pressure, temperature, and combustion that the player must engineer with pipes, power, and programmable logic.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2017 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C05", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 1, "conflict-defense": 3, "control-automation": 1, "governance-policy": 5, "information-legibility": 1, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "narrative-generation": 1, "population-lineage": 2, "progression-goals": 1, "resources-production": 1, "social-relations": 1, "space-construction": 1, "time-pacing": 1, "world-generation": 1 }, "incoming": { "influenced": [ "dyson-sphere-program" ], "precedent_for": [ "explained-delegation", "negotiating-faction-ai", "scientists-not-tech-trees" ] }, "mechanic_count": 21 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-unit", "policy-parameter", "zoning-placement" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "core_loop": "survey systems with science ships -> claim systems and colonize planets -> build districts that create jobs for pops -> draw research cards and build fleets -> negotiate or fight neighboring empires -> survive the late-game crisis", "design_notes": "Stellaris combines a space 4X opening (survey, claim, colonize) with Paradox grand strategy systems: real time with pause, internal factions, and event chains. Its research model replaces a visible tree with weighted random card draws, so two runs of the same empire research in different orders. Hyperlane-only travel turns the galaxy into a graph with chokepoints. Henrik Fahraeus named Star Control II, Master of Orion II, and Europa Universalis IV as roughly equal influences.", "developer": "Paradox Development Studio", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "stellaris", "influence": 2, "influenced_by": [ "europa-universalis-4" ], "mechanics": [ { "id": "tech-tree", "note": "Physics, society, and engineering research each offer three semi-random project cards weighted by ethics, the scientist's traits, and known technologies; rare technologies and anomaly-granted cards vary each run, and costs rise as the game goes on.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "population-strata", "note": "Pops fill jobs created by planetary districts and buildings in worker, specialist, and ruler strata; each job consumes and produces resources such as energy, minerals, food, consumer goods, and alloys.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "triggered-event-chains", "note": "Anomalies found by science ships open authored event chains, and galactic crises such as marauder invasions, awakened machine empires, and extradimensional invaders begin after set periods.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "faction-diplomacy", "note": "Empires negotiate, form federations, and go to war; ethics such as xenophobe or xenophile shape AI attitudes.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "interest-groups", "note": "Pops join political factions according to ethics, and faction support produces unity.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "stability-unrest", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "delegation-to-ai", "note": "Planets beyond the core limit can be grouped into sectors run by AI governors with a player-set focus.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modular-assembly", "note": "Ships are designed from hull sections and components.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "procedural-terrain", "note": "Each galaxy is generated with star systems linked only by hyperlanes.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "personality-traits", "note": "Species traits and leader traits modify output and behavior.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "policy-toggles", "note": "Ethics, civics, policies, and edicts change empire rules.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "goods-consumption", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "fog-of-war", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "political-capital", "note": "Unity, produced partly by faction support, buys traditions, and influence pays for new outposts and territorial claims.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "corruption-leakage", "note": "Empire size grows with systems, colonies, and pops, and size beyond administrative capacity raises technology and tradition costs; bureaucrat jobs add capacity to offset it.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "culture-religion-conversion", "note": "Each pop holds an ethic that drifts toward ethics with higher attraction, modified by government ethics, policies, and living conditions, and pop ethics decide faction membership.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "territorial-control", "note": "Empires take systems by building outposts, borders follow owned systems, and claims bought with influence set what wars can take.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "war-score-peace", "note": "War exhaustion rises from losses and occupation, and a side at maximum exhaustion can be forced into a status quo peace.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "stat-combat-resolution", "note": "Fleet battles resolve from ship weapons, shields, armor, and hull values against each other, and ground combat compares army attack and health.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "note": "Script and data files define species, events, and technologies; total conversions replace the setting.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "total-conversion", "multiplayer": [ "single", "competitive" ], "name": "Stellaris", "narrative_mode": "hybrid", "perspective": "free-3d", "platforms": [ "pc", "console" ], "player_role": "ruler-statesman", "production_tier": "aa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gi", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-25-contributor-readiness" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "cosmic-space", "political-governance", "military-conflict" ], "sim_scale": "interplanetary", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-stellaris", "src-paradox-2015-stellaris-dev-diary-11", "src-paradox-2016-stellaris-dev-diary-21-sectors" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "4x-strategy", "subgenre_secondary": [ "grand-strategy" ], "summary": "A real-time-with-pause space 4X and grand strategy game in which the player designs a species and empire, expands across a procedurally generated hyperlane galaxy from 2200, manages pops, jobs, ethics-based factions, and research card draws, and faces late-game crises.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "competitive-victory", "year": 2016 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C06", "core_count": 2, "family_profile": { "biology-health": 1, "control-automation": 1, "environment-ecology": 1, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "resources-production": 3, "risk-failure": 1, "space-construction": 1 }, "mechanic_count": 9 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "boundary_case": true, "core_loop": "dive from the lifepod -> gather resources and recover blueprints -> craft tools, vehicles, and base modules -> manage oxygen, food, and water -> dive deeper into new biomes and story sites -> build the means to escape the planet", "design_notes": "Included as a boundary case: the map, story, and progression are hand-authored, and the simulated layer is a set of survival meters plus base power and fauna behavior. Oxygen is the distinctive meter because it ties survival to depth and distance from air, making range a resource. Mode settings remove meters to change genre: Freedom drops hunger and thirst, Creative drops all depleting stats, and Hardcore adds permanent death without low-oxygen warnings.", "developer": "Unknown Worlds Entertainment", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "subnautica", "influence": 3, "mechanics": [ { "id": "survival-meters", "note": "Health, hunger, thirst, and oxygen deplete in Survival mode; oxygen limits each dive's depth and duration, Freedom mode removes hunger and thirst, and Creative removes all depleting stats.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "hand-crafting", "note": "Gathered resources are crafted into tools, base parts, and submersibles from blueprints the player has recovered.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "free-placement", "note": "Bases are assembled from placed modules.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "power-grid", "note": "Bases and vehicles need energy sources.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "day-night-cycle", "note": "A day-night cycle and frequent eclipses change visibility.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "spoilage", "note": "Cooked fish spoils over time; cured fish does not.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "permadeath", "note": "Optional in Hardcore mode.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "direct-avatar", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "note": "No official API; mods load through de facto loaders such as BepInEx.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "scripting", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Subnautica", "narrative_mode": "authored", "perspective": "first-person", "platforms": [ "pc", "console", "handheld", "mobile" ], "player_role": "inhabitant", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gb", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-25-contributor-readiness" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "biological-ecological" ], "sim_scale": "individual", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-subnautica" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "survival-sim", "summary": "An underwater survival game on an ocean planet where the player manages oxygen, food, and water while crafting tools, submersibles, and bases to explore deeper and escape.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "completion", "year": 2014, "year_full_release": 2018 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C08", "core_count": 2, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 1, "control-automation": 1, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "narrative-generation": 1, "progression-goals": 1, "social-relations": 1 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "local-first-ai-sims" ] }, "mechanic_count": 6 }, "agency_model": [ "conversational", "direct-avatar" ], "agent_count_order": "10", "boundary_case": true, "claims": [ { "confidence": "medium", "sources": [ "src-proxima-2023-suck-up-terms", "src-proxima-2026-suck-up-site", "src-steam-2026-suck-up" ], "text": "Suck Up! was publicly playable through Proxima's own launcher before its Steam 1.0 release on 2025-10-01; the site's terms, last updated 2023-12-05, already metered AI-model use in tokens, and the site calls the launcher build early access." } ], "core_loop": "pick a disguise -> knock on a resident's door -> speak a pitch aloud -> the model replies in character and weighs trust -> get invited in and feed, or get refused -> next house", "design_notes": "At runtime a language model plays each resident: the player's spoken words go to a hosted model (the Steam page lists ChatGPT from OpenAI; the December 2023 terms name GPT 3.5 and Llama 2 and meter use in tokens) along with the resident's authored personality, and its reply, delivered in voiced audio, decides whether the player has earned entry. The challenge is social engineering against a model that has been told to be suspicious, so disguises (knight, superhero, a previous victim) work as context that changes the model's judgment. Players author new residents' personalities and whole neighborhoods and share them on Steam Workshop. It is a boundary case: the persuasion is judged by the model rather than by a simulated social state.", "developer": "Proxima Enterprises", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "suck-up", "influence": 1, "mechanics": [ { "id": "natural-language-interaction", "note": "The player talks to residents with a real microphone, and the store page says responses depend on tone and strategy.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "generative-content", "note": "A hosted language model (ChatGPT from OpenAI per the store page) generates each resident's reply and in-character decision in real time from its personality prompt and the conversation.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "personality-traits", "note": "Each resident has an authored personality and behaviors that condition the model, and players can write their own.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "content-sharing", "note": "Steam Workshop shares player-made characters and full neighborhoods.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "direct-avatar", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "scenario-objectives", "note": "Modes include Love Bites (split up couples at a Valentine's Day party) and Mic Drop (rap battles against characters).", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "content", "multiplayer": [ "single", "async-shared" ], "name": "Suck Up!", "narrative_mode": "generative", "perspective": "third-person", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "inhabitant", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gd" }, "sim_domain": [ "social-interpersonal" ], "sim_scale": "individual", "sources": [ "src-steam-2026-suck-up", "src-proxima-2026-suck-up-site", "src-proxima-2023-suck-up-terms" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "ai-native", "subgenre_secondary": [ "social-sim" ], "summary": "A voice-controlled comedy game in which the player, as a disguised vampire, talks AI-driven townspeople into letting them inside, with each resident's replies generated by a language model from its personality and the player's words.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "scenario-goals", "year": 2023, "year_full_release": 2025 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C09", "core_count": 2, "family_profile": { "biology-health": 1, "control-automation": 1, "physics-materials": 1, "progression-goals": 1 }, "mechanic_count": 4 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar" ], "agent_count_order": "none", "aliases": [ "Surgeon Simulator 2013", "Surgeon Simulator: Experience Reality" ], "boundary_case": true, "core_loop": "pick a procedure -> move the hand and press finger keys to grab tools -> cut, break, and remove body parts -> place the new organ -> keep Bob alive -> score and time", "design_notes": "Made in 48 hours at the 2013 Global Game Jam, the game turns control difficulty into the content: the mouse moves the hand, a mouse button rotates or lowers it, and A, W, E, R, and Space close individual fingers, a scheme modeled on Jurassic Park: Trespasser. Tools and organs are rigid bodies, so most outcomes come from collisions and dropped objects rather than authored surgical steps. Medicine is a comic frame with a thin vital-sign model; a heart rate at zero requires charging the defibrillators. Included as a boundary case for embodied control.", "developer": "Bossa Studios", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "hard-restart", "fidelity": "abstract", "id": "surgeon-simulator", "influence": 2, "mechanics": [ { "id": "embodied-skill-control", "note": "The mouse moves the hand, holding the right button rotates it, the left button lowers it, and A, W, E, R, and Space each close one finger, so grasping a scalpel is itself the challenge.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "rigid-body-physics", "note": "Instruments, organs, and bones are physics objects that collide, slip, and fall, so most mistakes are physical accidents rather than authored failure states.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "injury-body-model", "note": "Damage to the patient drives a small vital-sign model; when heart rate reaches 0 the player must charge the defibrillators.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "scenario-objectives", "note": "Procedures such as heart and kidney transplants are replayed in an operating room, a bouncing ambulance, and zero gravity.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single", "coop" ], "name": "Surgeon Simulator", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "first-person", "platforms": [ "pc", "mobile", "console", "handheld", "vr" ], "player_role": "worker", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gf" }, "sim_domain": [ "medical", "physical-mechanical" ], "sim_scale": "individual", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-surgeon-simulator", "src-invenglobal-2016-surgeon-simulator-vr" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "medical-sim", "summary": "A physics comedy surgery game in which the player controls one hand with separate finger keys to perform transplants on the patient Bob before his vital signs fail.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "scenario-goals", "year": 2013 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C01", "core_count": 4, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 3, "environment-ecology": 1, "logistics-networks": 3, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "narrative-generation": 1, "progression-goals": 1, "resources-production": 2, "risk-failure": 2, "space-construction": 1, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "branch-preview-forecasts" ] }, "mechanic_count": 16 }, "agency_model": [ "zoning-placement", "indirect-incentive" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "core_loop": "land rockets with drones and prefabs -> drones build power, water, and oxygen infrastructure -> build domes and bring colonists from Earth -> colonists' traits, comfort, and sanity drive work and stability -> research and export rare metals for funding -> weather disasters and Mysteries", "design_notes": "Surviving Mars splits construction from population: drones working within range of hubs build and maintain everything, and colonists arrive only after domes have power, water, and oxygen. Colonists carry traits, flaws, and specializations and track morale, comfort, sanity, and health, so dome services decide whether they work, turn Earthsick, or rebel. Mysteries layer authored storylines (plagues, rival corporations, AI revolts, alien contact) on top of disasters such as dust storms, meteors, and cold waves.", "developer": "Haemimont Games", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "cascading-collapse", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "surviving-mars", "influence": 1, "mechanics": [ { "id": "power-grid", "note": "Generators and batteries feed cable networks to domes and buildings; a dome without power, water, or oxygen cannot sustain colonists.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "fluid-pipe-network", "note": "Water and oxygen travel by pipe from extractors and producers to domes.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "hauling-jobs", "note": "Drones within a hub's range carry resources, build, and maintain buildings.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "tech-tree", "note": "Research spans physics, engineering, social, biotechnology, and robotics fields.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "service-coverage", "note": "Drone hubs and dome services serve within a range.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "personality-traits", "note": "Colonists have traits, flaws, and specializations that suit them to jobs.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "needs-decay", "note": "Comfort, sanity, health, and morale change with services and events.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "mood-breakdown", "note": "Unhappy colonists may become Earthsick or rebels.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "random-disasters", "note": "Dust storms, meteor storms, cold waves, and dust devils.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "wear-breakdown", "note": "Buildings need drone maintenance to keep working.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "planetary-climate", "note": "Green Planet (2019) adds terraforming of atmosphere, temperature, and water.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "triggered-event-chains", "note": "Mysteries run storylines such as plagues, rival corporations, AI revolts, and alien contact.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "resource-extraction", "note": "Metals, rare metals, concrete, and water are extracted; rare metal exports fund imports.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "free-placement", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "note": "An official mod editor with Lua scripting.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "scripting", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Surviving Mars", "narrative_mode": "hybrid", "perspective": "free-3d", "platforms": [ "pc", "console" ], "player_role": "planner-mayor", "production_tier": "aa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-ga", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes", "2026-10-25-contributor-readiness" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "urban", "cosmic-space", "planetary-natural" ], "sim_scale": "settlement", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-surviving-mars" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "city-builder", "subgenre_secondary": [ "colony-sim" ], "summary": "A Mars colony city builder in which drones build power, water, and oxygen networks before colonists with traits arrive in domes, while research, Earth sponsors, and dust storms, meteors, and cold waves shape survival.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2018 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C15", "core_count": 2, "family_profile": { "economy-finance": 1, "governance-policy": 1, "information-legibility": 1, "narrative-generation": 2, "social-relations": 1 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "natural-language-legislation" ] }, "mechanic_count": 6 }, "agency_model": [ "policy-parameter" ], "agent_count_order": "none", "boundary_case": true, "core_loop": "read briefings and dialogue -> choose responses and policy decisions -> budget, alignment, and story flags update -> later options open or close -> reach an ending and a political-compass result", "design_notes": "Suzerain is mostly authored text, about 450,000 words, in which choices are recorded as state: the budget and accumulated decisions gate later dialogue options and endings. It is a boundary case included for how a political game can run on dilemma choices and state-gated story branches rather than an equation network. The ending screen places the player on an in-universe political compass computed from choices made across the term.", "developer": "Torpor Games", "emergence": 1, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "suzerain", "influence": 1, "mechanics": [ { "id": "dilemma-cards", "note": "Ministers, advisers, and family members present situations as dialogue, and multiple-choice responses on constitutional reform, economic model, security, and welfare trade off budget, alignment, and later options.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "triggered-event-chains", "note": "Story chapters branch on recorded choices, opening or closing later scenes and deciding which ending the term reaches.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "budget-treasury", "note": "Available budget and resources are shown and drawn down by decisions.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "faction-diplomacy", "note": "Sordland can side with the western or eastern bloc or stay neutral, and deals with its neighbor Rumburg.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "policy-toggles", "note": "Major choices set constitutional reforms and a market-driven or centrally planned economy.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "advisors", "note": "Ministers and advisers brief the president and argue positions.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Suzerain", "narrative_mode": "authored", "perspective": "text-ui", "platforms": [ "pc", "console", "handheld", "mobile" ], "player_role": "ruler-statesman", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gi" }, "sim_domain": [ "political-governance", "social-interpersonal" ], "sim_scale": "nation", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-suzerain" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "political-sim", "summary": "A text-based political narrative game in which the player, as newly elected President Anton Rayne of Sordland, makes dialogue and policy choices across one term that shift the budget, foreign alignment, and constitutional reform toward one of several endings.", "time_model": "turn-based", "type": "game", "win_structure": "campaign", "year": 2020 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C14", "core_count": 4, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 1, "biology-health": 2, "environment-ecology": 1, "information-legibility": 1, "population-lineage": 1, "risk-failure": 1, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "trainable-creatures-revival" ] }, "mechanic_count": 8 }, "agency_model": [ "caretaking-interaction" ], "agent_count_order": "1", "core_loop": "pet calls for attention -> feed a meal or snack, play, scold, clean, or give medicine -> meters and care history accumulate -> pet ages after each sleep -> care history selects its next form -> it lives on or dies", "design_notes": "Aki Maita and Akihiro Yokoi reduced a pet to three meters (Hunger, Happy, Training) plus droppings and sickness on a three-button LCD device that runs continuously; early units could pause only through the clock settings. Meals fill Hunger, snacks and a minigame raise Happy but excess snacks cause illness, scolding when the pet calls for attention fills Training, and uncleaned droppings lead to sickness shown by a skull. Each life stage lasts a set number of days and age advances when the pet wakes, and care quality selects the adult character, turning care history into a visible outcome (proposed as care-dependent-development).", "developer": "Bandai", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "hard-restart", "fidelity": "abstract", "id": "tamagotchi", "influence": 4, "mechanics": [ { "id": "creature-care", "note": "Care actions are meal, snack, game, scold, clean, and medicine; meals are limited by fullness while snacks are not, and excess snacks cause sickness.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "needs-decay", "note": "Hunger and Happy meters, shown as hearts, deplete over real time and are refilled by meals, snacks, and the minigame.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "real-time-clock", "note": "The pet lives on the device clock set at hatching and sleeps nightly; time keeps passing between check-ins.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "lifecycle-aging", "note": "Baby, Child, Teenager, Adult, and Special stages (plus Senior in some models) each last a set number of days, with age advancing on waking; old age eventually ends its life.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "permadeath", "note": "Poor care, sickness, or old age kills the pet; the A and C buttons start a new egg.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "day-night-cycle", "note": "A nightly sleep period suspends care demands and marks age increments.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "alerts-feed", "note": "The device beeps and shows an attention icon when the pet needs care or calls for discipline.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "care-dependent-development", "note": "Care quality during each life stage, such as unanswered calls, overfeeding snacks, and uncleaned droppings, selects the next form, so the same egg can grow into different adult characters.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Tamagotchi", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "device-lcd", "platforms": [ "dedicated-device" ], "player_role": "caretaker", "production_tier": "aa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gc" }, "sim_domain": [ "biological-ecological" ], "sim_scale": "individual", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-tamagotchi" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "virtual-pet", "summary": "A 1996 keychain virtual pet whose hunger, happiness, and training meters run on a real-time clock, and whose care quality determines which adult form it grows into and how long it lives.", "time_model": "real-world-clock", "type": "game", "win_structure": "survival-duration", "year": 1996 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C09", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "environment-ecology": 1, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "physics-materials": 3, "progression-goals": 1, "space-construction": 1, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "learned-material-surrogates" ] }, "mechanic_count": 8 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar" ], "agent_count_order": "10", "core_loop": "survey the level -> cut, blast, and ram a route through voxel structures -> stage vehicles and ramps -> trigger the alarm by taking a target -> grab the rest along the planned path before the timer ends", "design_notes": "Every object is made of small voxels with material types (wood, plaster, brick, metal, glass), and disconnected chunks become rigid bodies that fall, roll, and burn, so geometry is a resource the player spends. The design separates an unlimited planning phase from a timed execution phase: picking up a connected target starts a 60-second alarm, so the player engineers shortcuts with tools, explosives, and vehicles before the first grab. Materials resist tools differently, and fire spreads through wood, which turns construction knowledge into route planning.", "developer": "Tuxedo Labs", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "hard-restart", "fidelity": "systemic", "id": "teardown", "influence": 2, "mechanics": [ { "id": "voxel-destruction", "note": "Levels are made of small voxels whose material sets which tools can break them; the sledgehammer breaks soft materials, the blowtorch cuts metal, and explosives remove volumes.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "rigid-body-physics", "note": "Voxel chunks cut loose become dynamic bodies with mass that fall, roll, and crush; vehicles and cranes push and lift them.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "crisis-countdown", "note": "In most heists taking an alarmed target starts a 60-second timer to reach the getaway vehicle, so the route must be prepared during an unlimited setup phase.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "fire-spread", "note": "Fire spreads across wood and other flammables and can burn targets or open routes; burning structures weaken and fall.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "material-interactions", "note": "Materials respond differently to each tool and to fire; a fire extinguisher puts fires out.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "structural-integrity", "note": "Sections cut off from all supports fall, so removing pillars can drop a floor.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "scenario-objectives", "note": "40 campaign missions specify targets, optional targets, and conditions such as stealing, destroying, or collecting evidence.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "note": "Lua scripting, a level editor, and Steam Workshop support custom levels, tools, and modes.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "scripting", "multiplayer": [ "single", "coop", "competitive" ], "name": "Teardown", "narrative_mode": "authored", "perspective": "first-person", "platforms": [ "pc", "console" ], "player_role": "inhabitant", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gg" }, "sim_domain": [ "physical-mechanical" ], "sim_scale": "facility", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-teardown" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "physics-sandbox", "summary": "A heist and destruction game set in fully destructible voxel levels where the player plans a route by cutting, smashing, and driving through structures, then races a 60-second alarm timer to grab the targets.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "campaign", "year": 2020, "year_full_release": 2022 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C16", "core_count": 2, "family_profile": { "economy-finance": 1, "environment-ecology": 2, "progression-goals": 1, "space-construction": 2 }, "mechanic_count": 6 }, "agency_model": [ "zoning-placement" ], "agent_count_order": "none", "core_loop": "place wind turbines on rock -> power toxin scrubbers that clean soil -> irrigate and pump water into riverbeds -> upgrade to grow wetlands, meadows, and forest -> attract animals and restore weather -> recycle every building and leave", "design_notes": "It inverts the city-builder loop: growth is measured in restored tiles rather than population, and points earned per restored tile are the only currency for further buildings, so efficient placement compounds. The final step requires recycling all infrastructure to build an airship and leave, so a layout must be removable as well as productive. Subgenre is set to city-builder because its lineage is placement and budget puzzles rather than population or evolution modeling. It began as a Ludum Dare 45 entry in October 2019.", "developer": "Free Lives", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "terra-nil", "influence": 1, "mechanics": [ { "id": "free-placement", "note": "Buildings have placement rules: wind turbines go only on stone tiles and power toxin scrubbers, which clean soil so irrigators can green it.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "budget-treasury", "note": "Each restored tile earns points, and points are the only currency for buildings and upgrades, so a map can stall if spending outruns restoration.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "hydrology", "note": "Pumps refill dried riverbeds and tools carve new rivers.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "terraforming", "note": "Tools create new rivers and some stone tiles.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "habitat-suitability", "note": "Restored biomes attract deer, birds, fish, and bears.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "scenario-objectives", "note": "Each map sets restoration targets before the player can recycle buildings and leave.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Terra Nil", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "isometric", "platforms": [ "pc", "mobile", "console", "handheld" ], "player_role": "caretaker", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gb" }, "sim_domain": [ "biological-ecological", "planetary-natural" ], "sim_scale": "region", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-terra-nil" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "city-builder", "subgenre_secondary": [ "ecosystem-evolution" ], "summary": "A reverse city builder in which the player places machines to clean toxic soil, restore water, and grow biomes on a barren map, then recycles every building and leaves.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "scenario-goals", "year": 2023 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C20", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "control-automation": 2, "progression-goals": 1, "resources-production": 1, "space-construction": 2 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "specification-programming-games" ] }, "mechanic_count": 6 }, "agency_model": [ "programmatic" ], "agent_count_order": "10", "claims": [ { "confidence": "high", "sources": [ "src-steam-2026-the-farmer-was-replaced", "src-gamesmarket-2025-the-farmer-was-replaced-1-0" ], "text": "Early access began on 2023-02-10, and version 1.0 released on 2025-10-10 with multiple drones and a revamped tech tree, published by Metaroot." } ], "core_loop": "write a drone program -> execute it on the farm grid -> plant, water, and harvest crops -> spend harvests on unlocks -> new language features and crops change what code is worth writing -> optimize for speed and leaderboard times", "design_notes": "The Farmer Was Replaced teaches programming by making farm labor too slow to do any other way: the drone does nothing unless code tells it to, and the language itself is unlocked piecemeal (loops, variables, functions, lists, dictionaries) with farm expansion and new crops. Execution is metered in simulated ticks rather than real CPU: literals and assignment are free, arithmetic and getters cost 1 tick, and a successful move() costs 200, so optimization means reducing drone actions more than reducing statements. Crops add algorithmic puzzles: polyculture companions requested within three moves multiply yield, harvesting the sunflower with the most petals (out of at least ten) gives eight times the power that doubles drone speed, and mazes and dinosaurs need search-style code. Leaderboards run the player's program as fixed-start simulations totaling at least two hours and score the average time. Code lives in .py files that external editors can edit.", "developer": "Timon Herzog", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "none", "fidelity": "abstract", "id": "the-farmer-was-replaced", "influence": 1, "influenced_by": [], "mechanics": [ { "id": "player-programming", "note": "A Python-like language stored in .py files drives the drone; every operation has a tick cost (arithmetic 1, a successful move 200, a failed action 1) that scales with the speed factor, and Megafarm adds more drones.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "crop-cultivation", "note": "Grass, bushes, trees, carrots, pumpkins, cactus, and sunflowers are planted, grown, and harvested by the drone, with Watering and Fertilizer unlocks that act on growth.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "tech-tree", "note": "Harvested resources buy unlocks with prerequisites, including farm expansion, speed, loops, variables, functions, lists, dictionaries, polyculture, mazes, dinosaurs, and the leaderboard.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "adjacency-scoring", "note": "Under polyculture, grass, bushes, trees, and carrots request a different companion plant on a tile within three moves, found with get_companion(); planting it multiplies yield, 5x before upgrades and doubling per upgrade.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "design-performance-rating", "note": "Leaderboards run the player's program from fixed starts until a resource target is met, repeated to at least two hours, and score the average completion time.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "execution-budget", "note": "Every operation costs simulated ticks (arithmetic 1, a successful move() 200, a failed action 1), so optimizing means cutting drone actions more than statements.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "The Farmer Was Replaced", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "isometric", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "programmer", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gh" }, "sim_domain": [ "computational-abstract", "biological-ecological" ], "sim_scale": "facility", "sources": [ "src-steam-2026-the-farmer-was-replaced", "src-gamesmarket-2025-the-farmer-was-replaced-1-0", "src-tfwrwiki-2026-operation-costs", "src-tfwrwiki-2026-leaderboard", "src-tfwrwiki-2026-polyculture", "src-tfwrwiki-2026-sunflowers", "src-tfwrwiki-2026-unlocks" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "programming-sim", "subgenre_secondary": [ "farming-sim" ], "summary": "A programming game in which the player writes Python-like code for a farming drone on a grid farm, where every operation costs simulated ticks, and harvests crops to buy unlocks for language features, farm size, more drones, and new crops.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "completion", "year": 2023, "year_full_release": 2025 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C09", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "control-automation": 1, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "physics-materials": 2, "progression-goals": 1, "space-construction": 1 }, "mechanic_count": 6 }, "agency_model": [ "design-then-test" ], "agent_count_order": "none", "aliases": [ "TIM" ], "core_loop": "read the puzzle goal -> place the supplied parts among fixed objects -> start the machine -> watch the chain reaction -> adjust positions until the goal triggers", "design_notes": "Each puzzle fixes some objects in a side-view scene and hands the player a small inventory of parts; the solution is a chain reaction where each part triggers the next, such as a ball dropping on a seesaw that frees a mouse that runs toward cheese. The physics engine models gravity and air pressure as global settings and has no random number generator, so a design behaves the same on every run and solutions are verifiable. A freeform mode exposes all parts so players can make puzzles for others.", "developer": "Jeff Tunnell Productions", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "the-incredible-machine", "influence": 3, "mechanics": [ { "id": "modular-assembly", "note": "Levels supply a limited inventory of parts such as balls, ropes, pulleys, belts, electrical generators, cats, and mice that the player places among fixed objects; parts act on each other by contact, rope, or belt.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "rigid-body-physics", "note": "A deterministic 2D physics engine with no random number generator moves balls, seesaws, and falling objects under level-set gravity and air pressure, so the same design always gives the same run.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "scenario-objectives", "note": "Each puzzle states one simple goal, such as moving an object to a target, that must be met with only the parts provided.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "material-interactions", "note": "Some parts react to others by fixed rules, such as a mouse running toward cheese.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "signal-circuits", "note": "Electrical generators driven by other parts power electrical devices in the contraption.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "content-sharing", "note": "Freeform mode saves player-built puzzles, using any part, for others to solve.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "content", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "The Incredible Machine", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "top-down-2d", "platforms": [ "pc", "console" ], "player_role": "engineer-designer", "production_tier": "aa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gg" }, "sim_domain": [ "physical-mechanical" ], "sim_scale": "individual", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-the-incredible-machine" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "construction-engineering", "summary": "A Rube Goldberg puzzle game in which the player places supplied parts such as balls, ropes, pulleys, belts, and animals into a level so that a deterministic physics run completes a simple goal.", "time_model": "run-on-demand", "type": "game", "win_structure": "scenario-goals", "year": 1993 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C06", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "biology-health": 1, "control-automation": 1, "environment-ecology": 2, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "resources-production": 3, "risk-failure": 2 }, "mechanic_count": 10 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar" ], "agent_count_order": "10", "core_loop": "explore a frozen region -> scavenge, hunt, and harvest -> manage calories, thirst, fatigue, and warmth -> weather, night, and wildlife threaten condition -> craft, repair, and shelter -> survive another day until death", "design_notes": "Survival mode has no zombies or authored goal; the cold, wildlife, and dwindling supplies are the opposition, and death deletes the save. All needs feed a single condition stock: an empty warmth bar drains condition about 20% per hour while empty hunger or fatigue drain about 1% and thirst 2%, so cold is the fast killer and food is the slow one. Time is treated as the scarce resource because every action costs calories and in-game hours. The episodic Wintermute story mode has no permadeath.", "developer": "Hinterland Studio", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "hard-restart", "fidelity": "systemic", "id": "the-long-dark", "influence": 2, "mechanics": [ { "id": "survival-meters", "note": "Warmth, fatigue, hunger, and thirst feed one condition stock; when a need is empty, condition drains per hour (warmth 20%, fatigue 1%, hunger 1%, thirst 2%), and afflictions such as hypothermia, frostbite, and dysentery drain or cap it.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "weather", "note": "Wind, falling temperatures, and blizzards change how fast warmth drops and how far the player can travel; nights are significantly colder.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "permadeath", "note": "In Survival mode the save is deleted on death; a later DLC option allows up to three resurrections per save at a difficulty cost, and Misery mode always uses permadeath.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "day-night-cycle", "note": "Nights are darker and colder, shaping travel and shelter.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "hand-crafting", "note": "Hides, guts, and wood are crafted into clothing, tools, and arrows.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "wear-breakdown", "note": "Clothing and tools lose condition with use and must be repaired.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "spoilage", "note": "Food loses condition over time.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "deposit-depletion", "note": "Manufactured supplies are finite, so long runs shift from looting to hunting and crafting.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "direct-avatar", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "note": "No official API; mods load through the de facto MelonLoader.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "scripting", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "The Long Dark", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "first-person", "platforms": [ "pc", "console", "handheld" ], "player_role": "inhabitant", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gb", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-25-contributor-readiness" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "biological-ecological", "planetary-natural" ], "sim_scale": "individual", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-the-long-dark", "src-steam-2026-the-long-dark", "src-longdarkwiki-2026-condition" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "survival-sim", "summary": "A first-person wilderness survival sim set in frozen northern Canada where the player manages warmth, calories, thirst, fatigue, and afflictions against cold, weather, and wildlife.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "survival-duration", "year": 2014, "year_full_release": 2017 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C06", "core_count": 4, "family_profile": { "control-automation": 1, "environment-ecology": 1, "multiplayer-persistence": 2, "physics-materials": 4, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "influenced": [ "noita" ], "precedent_for": [ "learned-material-surrogates" ] }, "mechanic_count": 9 }, "agency_model": [ "design-then-test", "policy-parameter" ], "agent_count_order": "none", "aliases": [ "TPT" ], "core_loop": "paint elements onto the grid -> unpause the simulation -> watch particles fall, flow, burn, and react under pressure, heat, and electricity -> adjust or add elements -> save and share the build", "design_notes": "The Powder Toy combines a per-particle falling-sand layer with coarser fields for air pressure, air velocity, and heat, so explosions push air, air moves powders, and temperature thresholds change element states such as ice to water to steam. Electricity runs through conductive elements via sparks, and players build working logic gates, engines, and nuclear reactors from them. Element count passed 250 by 2025; the source is GPLv3 and the in-game save browser is the main distribution channel for builds.", "developer": "The Powder Toy contributors", "emergence": 4, "failure_model": "none", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "the-powder-toy", "influence": 2, "mechanics": [ { "id": "falling-sand-materials", "note": "Each cell holds one particle of an element such as powder, liquid, gas, or solid, which moves by local rules each frame; element types numbered 258 as of February 2025.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "material-interactions", "note": "Element pairs react by rule: acid dissolves most materials, acid and base neutralize into salt water, fuels ignite, and neutrons from radioactive elements can drive chain reactions.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "heat-transfer", "note": "Particles carry temperature that conducts to neighbors; melting and boiling thresholds change states, and the heat display shows the field.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "fluid-gas-simulation", "note": "A coarser grid of air pressure and velocity moves particles and is pushed by explosions and fans and blocked by walls.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "signal-circuits", "note": "Sparks conduct through metals and semiconductors to power switches, logic gates, and machines built from elements.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "fire-spread", "note": "Fire and plasma ignite flammable elements and spread through fuel.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "content-sharing", "note": "An online save browser with votes and comments distributes community builds.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "note": "A Lua API adds elements and automation scripts; the source is GPLv3 on GitHub.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "note": "The simulation can be paused and stepped frame by frame.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "scripting", "multiplayer": [ "single", "async-shared" ], "name": "The Powder Toy", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "top-down-2d", "platforms": [ "pc", "mobile", "web" ], "player_role": "observer-gardener", "production_tier": "hobbyist", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gg" }, "sim_domain": [ "physical-mechanical", "computational-abstract" ], "sim_scale": "micro", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-the-powder-toy", "src-powdertoy-2026-official-site" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "physics-sandbox", "summary": "An open-source falling-sand sandbox where hundreds of elements interact cell by cell under simulated air pressure, heat, gravity, and electricity.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2008 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C02", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 6, "economy-finance": 1, "progression-goals": 1, "risk-failure": 1, "social-relations": 3, "space-construction": 2, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "influenced": [ "generative-agents-smallville", "inzoi", "oxygen-not-included", "paralives", "the-sims-2" ], "precedent_for": [ "salience-gated-llm-agents" ] }, "mechanic_count": 15 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-unit", "indirect-incentive", "zoning-placement" ], "agent_count_order": "10", "core_loop": "build and furnish the lot -> motives decay -> objects advertise motive gains and Sims act or take queued orders -> jobs pay for upgrades -> skills and friendships unlock promotions -> expand house and family", "design_notes": "Will Wright drew on Christopher Alexander's A Pattern Language, treating a house as a set of functional patterns judged by how well they serve the people living in it. Much of the behavioral logic sits in objects: each object advertises which motives it raises and by how much, and Sims with free will enabled choose among those advertisements weighted by their current motives. Sims are deliberately not fully autonomous, since paying bills, finding jobs, exercising, and having children need explicit commands, so the player alternates between architect and caretaker. Build and Buy modes pause time, separating spatial design from the live simulation.", "developer": "Maxis", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "permadeath", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "the-sims", "influence": 5, "influenced_by": [ "little-computer-people" ], "mechanics": [ { "id": "needs-decay", "note": "Eight motives (Hunger, Comfort, Hygiene, Bladder, Energy, Fun, Social, Room) decay at different rates; low motives drag down mood, and neglect can kill.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "smart-objects", "note": "Each of the 150-plus base-game objects advertises motive gains (a refrigerator advertises Hunger, a bed Energy), and Sims query the lot's objects to find interactions.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "free-placement", "note": "Build and Buy modes freeze time while the player lays walls, floors, and objects on a square tile grid; object quality and layout set how efficiently motives can be met.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "utility-action-selection", "note": "Free will scores advertised interactions against current motive levels so the most depleted motive tends to win; players can cancel queued autonomous actions.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "autonomy-levels", "note": "Free will is an option toggle; even with it on, bills, job hunting, exercise, and having children need commands.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "personality-traits", "note": "Twenty-five personality points are split across Neat, Outgoing, Active, Playful, and Nice, which change preferred activities and social outcomes.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "agent-skills", "note": "Cooking, Mechanical, Charisma, Body, Logic, and Creativity rise through objects such as bookshelves, mirrors, and chess tables, and gate promotions.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "career-ladder", "note": "Ten career tracks with ten levels each; promotions need skill points and a minimum number of household friends, and change salary and hours.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "budget-treasury", "note": "Every household starts with 20,000 simoleons regardless of size; wages, bills, and purchases set the balance.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "relationship-values", "note": "Each pair holds a relationship score moved by interactions and eroding without contact; friend counts feed promotions.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "social-exchanges", "note": "Talk, joke, compliment, hug, kiss, tease, slap, and similar interactions succeed or fail on relationship, mood, and personality.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "romance-family", "note": "Sims can become partners, marry, and have a baby by explicit command; neglected babies can be taken away by a social worker.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "decoration-beauty", "note": "The Room motive reflects lighting, cleanliness, and decorative value around the Sim.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "permadeath", "note": "Sims die from neglect or accidents and leave an urn or tombstone; the household continues without them.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "content", "multiplayer": [ "single", "coop" ], "name": "The Sims", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "isometric", "platforms": [ "pc", "console" ], "player_role": "caretaker", "production_tier": "aaa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gc", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "domestic-personal", "social-interpersonal" ], "sim_scale": "household", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-the-sims" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "life-sim", "summary": "A life sim in which the player builds a house and guides a household of Sims whose decaying motives, personalities, careers, and relationships produce an open-ended domestic story.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2000 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C02", "core_count": 5, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 7, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "population-lineage": 2, "progression-goals": 1, "risk-failure": 1, "social-relations": 3, "space-construction": 1, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "influenced": [ "the-sims-3" ] }, "mechanic_count": 17 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-unit", "indirect-incentive", "zoning-placement" ], "agent_count_order": "10", "core_loop": "create a household with aspirations -> wants and fears roll -> direct Sims to meet motives and wants -> aspiration meter and memories shift -> Sims age, marry, and have children who inherit genes -> continue with the next generation", "design_notes": "The Sims 2 turns the household sandbox into a generational one: babies become toddlers after 3 days, toddlers children after 4, children teens after 8, teens adults after 15, and adults elders after 29, and an elder's remaining life depends on the aspiration meter at the time of aging. Children inherit appearance and personality from both parents through dominant and recessive genes, and each Sim's aspiration (one of eight, such as Romance, Family, Knowledge, or Popularity) biases which wants and fears appear. The wants-and-fears panel is a short-horizon goal generator with no mechanic id yet (proposed as aspiration-wants). SimPE and Body Shop made behavior hacks and custom genetics routine in its mod community.", "developer": "Maxis", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "permadeath", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "the-sims-2", "influence": 3, "influenced_by": [ "the-sims" ], "mechanics": [ { "id": "needs-decay", "note": "Eight motives (Hunger, Comfort, Bladder, Energy, Fun, Social, Hygiene, Environment) decay and push Sims toward objects; failing motives cause refusals and, at the extreme, death.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "smart-objects", "note": "Objects advertise motive and skill gains that autonomous Sims weigh against their current motive levels.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "lifecycle-aging", "note": "Seven life stages (baby, toddler, child, teen, young adult with University, adult, elder) advance on fixed day counts; a birthday cake or Grow Up interaction ages a Sim early.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "trait-inheritance", "note": "Children inherit eye color, hair color, facial structure, and personality from both parents through dominant and recessive genes; pregnancy lasts 3 Sim days.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "memories-thoughts", "note": "Events such as a first kiss, a promotion, or a death are stored as memories that later shape wants and fears.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "personality-traits", "note": "Twenty-five points are spread over five opposed pairs (Neat/Sloppy, Outgoing/Shy, Active/Lazy, Playful/Serious, Nice/Grouchy); twelve zodiac presets give starting allocations.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "career-ladder", "note": "Careers have ten levels (25 tracks counting expansions); promotions need skills and a number of family friends, and chance cards can reward or cost the job.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "agent-skills", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "relationship-values", "note": "Each pair holds a daily and a lifetime relationship score that move with interactions.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "romance-family", "note": "Sims court, marry, and try for babies; Nightlife adds turn-ons and turn-offs shown as up to three chemistry bolts.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "social-exchanges", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "free-placement", "note": "Build and Buy modes in a free 3D camera; neighborhood terrain can be imported from SimCity 4.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "permadeath", "note": "Elders die of old age and other Sims of accidents or neglect; deaths become memories for survivors.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "aspiration-wants", "note": "Each Sim's aspiration (one of eight, such as Romance, Family, Knowledge, or Popularity) biases which wants and fears roll; fulfilled wants fill the aspiration meter, realized fears drain it, and an elder's remaining life depends on the meter.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "utility-action-selection", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "note": "No official API; tools such as SimPE edit package files and community hacks change behavior.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "scripting", "multiplayer": [ "single", "coop" ], "name": "The Sims 2", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "free-3d", "platforms": [ "pc", "console", "handheld", "mobile" ], "player_role": "caretaker", "production_tier": "aaa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gc", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes", "2026-10-25-contributor-readiness" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "domestic-personal", "social-interpersonal", "biological-ecological" ], "sim_scale": "household", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-the-sims-2", "src-strategywiki-2026-sims-2-careers" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "life-sim", "summary": "The 3D sequel to The Sims that adds aging through seven life stages, genetic inheritance, aspirations with wants and fears, and memories, so households play across generations.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2004 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C02", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 8, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "narrative-generation": 1, "population-lineage": 2, "progression-goals": 1, "risk-failure": 1, "social-relations": 3, "space-construction": 1, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "influenced": [ "the-sims-4" ] }, "mechanic_count": 19 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-unit", "indirect-incentive", "zoning-placement" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "core_loop": "pick traits and a lifetime wish -> moodlets from events stack into mood -> wishes and opportunities appear -> act across the open town -> earn Lifetime Happiness for rewards -> story progression advances other households", "design_notes": "Neighborhoods are seamless worlds, so Sims walk between lots without loading screens on PC, and Story Progression keeps households the player is not controlling aging, working, and forming relationships. Personality is a set of up to five discrete traits that unlock and bias interactions, and mood is the sum of moodlets, timed modifiers with named causes. Fulfilled wishes pay Lifetime Happiness points spent on Lifetime Rewards, replacing the wants and fears of The Sims 2. Off-screen story progression and wish generation are captured by the offscreen-life-progression and aspiration-wants mechanics.", "developer": "Maxis Redwood Shores", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "permadeath", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "the-sims-3", "influence": 3, "influenced_by": [ "the-sims-2" ], "mechanics": [ { "id": "personality-traits", "note": "Adult Sims hold up to five traits chosen from a list, replacing the point sliders of earlier games; traits add exclusive interactions and bias autonomous choices.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "memories-thoughts", "note": "Moodlets are named, timed mood modifiers (for example Nauseous during pregnancy) whose sum sets mood, which affects performance at work and school.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "needs-decay", "note": "Six motives (Hunger, Bladder, Energy, Social, Hygiene, Fun) decay and spawn negative moodlets when low.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "smart-objects", "note": "Objects advertise motive, skill, and fun gains; traits bias which advertisements a Sim picks.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "villager-requests", "note": "Opportunities arrive from neighbors, community lots, and jobs, such as skill requests or overtime, and pay cash, raises, or relationship gains.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "career-ladder", "note": "Twelve base careers that branch around level 6, plus part-time jobs; a performance style (Work Hard, Take It Easy, Suck Up to Boss) trades mood against promotion speed.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "agent-skills", "note": "Ten-level skills such as Logic, Cooking, Painting, Gardening, Writing, Guitar, Athletic, Handiness, Charisma, and Fishing feed careers and opportunities.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "lifecycle-aging", "note": "Seven life stages with an adjustable lifespan setting.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "relationship-values", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "romance-family", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "social-exchanges", "note": "Conversation menus offer trait- and mood-gated interactions whose acceptance depends on relationship state.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "daily-schedules", "note": "Jobs and school run on fixed hours at rabbit-hole buildings, structuring each household's day.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "free-placement", "note": "Build and Buy modes with Create-a-Style, which recolors walls, floors, objects, and clothing with any pattern and material.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "permadeath", "note": "Sims die of old age or of fire, starvation, drowning, or electrocution.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "aspiration-wants", "note": "A Lifetime Wish is chosen at creation and short-term wishes appear from traits and events; fulfilled wishes pay Lifetime Happiness points spent on Lifetime Rewards.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "offscreen-life-progression", "note": "Story Progression keeps households the player is not controlling aging, working, forming relationships, and moving around the open neighborhood; it can be switched off in the options.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "utility-action-selection", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "note": "Script mods load as packages, with frameworks such as NRaas, alongside custom content.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "scripting", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "The Sims 3", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "free-3d", "platforms": [ "pc", "console", "handheld", "mobile" ], "player_role": "caretaker", "production_tier": "aaa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gc", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes", "2026-10-25-contributor-readiness" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "domestic-personal", "social-interpersonal" ], "sim_scale": "household", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-the-sims-3", "src-simswiki-2026-motive" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "life-sim", "summary": "The third mainline Sims game, which places households in a seamless open neighborhood where unplayed Sims keep living, and replaces personality sliders with up to five traits and mood with stacked moodlets.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2009 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C02", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 9, "control-automation": 1, "multiplayer-persistence": 2, "population-lineage": 2, "progression-goals": 1, "social-relations": 3, "space-construction": 1, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "generative-decoration-catalogs", "neural-npc-motion" ] }, "mechanic_count": 20 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-unit", "indirect-incentive", "zoning-placement" ], "agent_count_order": "10", "core_loop": "build a home or download one from the Gallery -> moodlets from events and surroundings set the dominant emotion -> emotion unlocks interactions and speeds skills -> pursue aspiration milestones and a career -> earn rewards -> share households and builds", "design_notes": "The Sims 4 makes emotion the central state: moodlets from actions, events, objects, and social interactions carry an emotion type and weight, and the strongest set the Sim's single dominant emotion, which gates emotional interactions and speeds matching skills. Adult personality is three traits plus a bonus trait from the chosen aspiration, and completing aspiration milestones grants reward traits. Build mode treats rooms as units that can be moved, duplicated, saved to a library, and shared through the Gallery; the base game became free to play on 2022-10-18. Neighborhood Stories, a free update that advances unplayed households, is the offscreen-life-progression mechanic.", "developer": "Maxis", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "permadeath", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "the-sims-4", "influence": 2, "influenced_by": [ "the-sims-3" ], "mechanics": [ { "id": "memories-thoughts", "note": "Moodlets carry an emotion type (such as Happy, Focused, Flirty, Angry, Tense, or Sad), an intensity, and a timer; the highest-weighted emotion becomes the Sim's dominant emotion.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "personality-traits", "note": "Adults hold three traits and children and teens two, plus one bonus trait from the aspiration; traits add moodlets, autonomous behaviors, and exclusive interactions.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "needs-decay", "note": "Six needs (Hunger, Bladder, Energy, Social, Hygiene, Fun) decay and spawn negative moodlets such as Hungry or Bored when low.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "mood-breakdown", "note": "Dominant emotions unlock emotion-specific interactions and raise gain for matching skills (Inspired for creative, Focused for mental, Energized for physical); extreme states such as Hysterical can kill.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "smart-objects", "note": "Objects advertise need, skill, and emotion gains, and Sims multitask, such as talking while cooking.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "free-placement", "note": "Build mode draws walls and rooms, places premade rooms, and moves or duplicates whole rooms.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "blueprints", "note": "Sims, households, rooms, and lots can be saved to a personal library and placed again.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "content-sharing", "note": "The Gallery uploads and downloads Sims, households, rooms, and buildings from other players inside the game.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "lifecycle-aging", "note": "Newborn, infant, toddler, child, teen, young adult, adult, and elder; toddlers were added in 2017 and newborn and infant in 2023.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "career-ladder", "note": "Careers require related skills, for example Cooking and Mixology for Culinary.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "agent-skills", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "relationship-values", "note": "Separate friendship and romance bars per pair.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "romance-family", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "social-exchanges", "note": "Social menus are filtered by emotion and traits, with emotion-specific variants of interactions.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "autonomy-levels", "note": "Free will can be toggled; with it off Sims act only on player orders except for urgent needs.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "aspiration-wants", "note": "The chosen aspiration grants a bonus trait and a track of milestones whose completion earns reward traits; short-term whims, later reworked as wants and fears, appear from emotions and traits.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "offscreen-life-progression", "note": "Neighborhood Stories, added in a free update, advances unplayed households with events such as moves, relationships, and births, with settings that limit which households and event types it may touch.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "utility-action-selection", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "note": "Python script mods and package files load from the Mods folder.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "scripting", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "The Sims 4", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "free-3d", "platforms": [ "pc", "console" ], "player_role": "caretaker", "production_tier": "aaa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gc", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes", "2026-10-25-contributor-readiness" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "domestic-personal", "social-interpersonal" ], "sim_scale": "household", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-the-sims-4", "src-simswiki-2026-motive" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "life-sim", "summary": "The fourth mainline Sims game, built around a dominant emotion computed from moodlets, three-trait personalities with aspiration rewards, multitasking, room-based building, and an in-game Gallery for sharing creations.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2014 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C01", "core_count": 4, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 3, "biology-health": 1, "economy-finance": 3, "environment-ecology": 1, "information-legibility": 1, "logistics-networks": 1, "progression-goals": 2, "risk-failure": 1, "social-relations": 1, "space-construction": 1, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "influenced": [ "prison-architect", "two-point-hospital" ] }, "mechanic_count": 16 }, "agency_model": [ "zoning-placement", "policy-parameter", "direct-unit" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "core_loop": "build rooms from blueprints -> hire and train staff -> patients queue for GP diagnosis and referrals -> treatment cures or kills -> fees and reputation -> research new rooms and meet level goals", "design_notes": "Theme Hospital turns medicine into routing. The GP and specialist diagnosis rooms raise a patient's diagnosis certainty, and the player sets the threshold at which treatment starts (it can be set above 100%), trading throughput against deaths from wrong cures. Rooms are fixed blueprints that need set furniture and, for some, specialist staff, so the staff roster and the floor plan gate each other. Machines that explode without a handyman, epidemics that can be covered up before the health inspector arrives, and timed emergencies add pressure on top of the queues. Much of the code came from Theme Park; CorsixTH is an open-source reimplementation with a level editor.", "developer": "Bullfrog Productions", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "hard-restart", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "theme-hospital", "influence": 3, "influenced_by": [ "theme-park" ], "mechanics": [ { "id": "diagnosis-treatment", "note": "A GP diagnoses or refers patients to specialist diagnosis rooms; treatment starts once certainty passes a player-set threshold, and diseases are fictional, such as Bloaty Head.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "free-placement", "note": "Rooms are placed as blueprints with doors and windows, then furnished with required items; many rooms must be researched first.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "staff-hiring", "note": "Doctors, nurses, handymen, and receptionists are hired with performance stats; some rooms need doctors with specialist skills.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "service-queues", "note": "Patients queue outside each room; the player can rearrange queues, and long waits push patients to leave.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "agent-skills", "note": "Doctors can be trained to gain skills and specialisms.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "wear-breakdown", "note": "Machines such as the Inflator need handyman servicing or they explode.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "contagion", "note": "Epidemics break out and can be covered up before a health inspector visits; failure brings fines and lost reputation.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "tech-tree", "note": "Research unlocks rooms, drugs, and machine improvements.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "reputation", "note": "Cures and deaths move a reputation that affects patient intake and level goals.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "needs-decay", "note": "Staff tire and need breaks under player-set break rules; patients need drinks and toilets.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "contracts-orders", "note": "Emergencies require curing a group of patients within a time limit for a bonus.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "scenario-objectives", "note": "Each level sets goals for money, reputation, cures, and hospital value; negative funds or too many deaths lose the level.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "advisors", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "loans-debt", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "utility-action-selection", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "content", "multiplayer": [ "single", "competitive" ], "name": "Theme Hospital", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "isometric", "platforms": [ "pc", "console" ], "player_role": "manager-owner", "production_tier": "aa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-ge", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "medical", "economic" ], "sim_scale": "facility", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-theme-hospital" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "management-tycoon", "subgenre_secondary": [ "medical-sim" ], "summary": "A hospital management game where the player builds rooms, hires and trains staff, and routes patients with comic diseases through diagnosis and treatment to meet level goals.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "scenario-goals", "year": 1997 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C01", "core_count": 5, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 3, "economy-finance": 5, "logistics-networks": 1, "progression-goals": 1, "risk-failure": 2, "space-construction": 1, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "influenced": [ "theme-hospital", "transport-tycoon" ] }, "mechanic_count": 14 }, "agency_model": [ "zoning-placement", "policy-parameter", "direct-unit" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "core_loop": "place rides, shops, and paths -> visitors arrive by bus and choose attractions -> tune prices and shop ingredients -> fund research and hire staff -> yearly judging against rivals -> sell the park and buy a plot abroad", "design_notes": "Theme Park gives every visitor its own record (about 200 bytes each) and lets the player change the product as well as its price: ingredient settings such as sugar in ice cream trade cost against whether customers return. The full-simulation level adds wage and supply negotiations, where failure means staff strikes or lost shipments, plus research funding and shares; the sandbox level removes them, so one engine serves three depths. Unhappy visitors attract thugs, which ties satisfaction to crime. Negotiation has no mechanic in the taxonomy (proposed as negotiation).", "developer": "Bullfrog Productions", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "theme-park", "influence": 4, "mechanics": [ { "id": "crowd-preferences", "note": "Each visitor is an individual with its own personality and arrives and leaves by bus; unhappy crowds draw thugs who vandalize and attack entertainers.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "customer-value-choice", "note": "Entry, ride, and shop prices plus ingredient levels such as sugar in ice cream decide what visitors buy and whether they come back.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "free-placement", "note": "Over thirty attractions, shops, toilets, and scenery are placed on a plot, with coasters needing laid-out track.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "wear-breakdown", "note": "Rides wear down and explode if mechanics do not maintain them; research can make rides more durable.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "staff-hiring", "note": "Entertainers, security guards, mechanics, and handymen are hired and their wages negotiated; understaffing brings litter, breakdowns, and crime.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "needs-decay", "note": "Visitors need food, drink, and toilets as their visit goes on.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "service-queues", "note": "Visitors queue for rides and shops.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "tech-tree", "note": "A funding level drives research into new items, ride durability, staff efficiency, and bus capacity.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "crime-policing", "note": "Thugs appear when visitors are unhappy; security guards counter them.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "rival-firms", "note": "The park is judged against rival parks each year.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "loans-debt", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "negotiation", "note": "On the full-simulation level, staff wage talks and supply negotiations are haggles; failed wage talks end in strikes and failed supply talks in lost shipments.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "utility-action-selection", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Theme Park", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "isometric", "platforms": [ "pc", "console", "handheld", "mobile" ], "player_role": "manager-owner", "production_tier": "aa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-ge", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "economic" ], "sim_scale": "facility", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-theme-park" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "management-tycoon", "subgenre_secondary": [ "business-economic-sim" ], "summary": "A theme park management game in which the player builds rides and shops, tunes prices and recipes for individually simulated visitors, and sells parks to expand worldwide.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "score-ranking", "year": 1994 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C15", "core_count": 4, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 3, "economy-finance": 1, "environment-ecology": 2, "information-legibility": 1, "narrative-generation": 2, "resources-production": 1, "risk-failure": 2 }, "incoming": { "influenced": [ "frostpunk" ], "precedent_for": [ "drama-aware-storyteller" ] }, "mechanic_count": 12 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-unit" ], "agent_count_order": "10", "core_loop": "spend the day in the shelter crafting, cooking, trading, and treating -> assign night roles -> one survivor scavenges a location -> encounters force moral choices -> hunger, wounds, illness, and mood shift -> survive until the ceasefire", "design_notes": "The game turns war into a resource-and-conscience problem: survival needs push the player toward theft or violence, and those acts lower survivors' mood, so material and moral states are coupled. A day-night split separates base management (snipers keep survivors inside by day) from risky scavenging by one chosen survivor, and the length of the war is randomized so the player cannot plan to a known end. The radio reports weather, prices, and war news that let the player anticipate shortages. It draws on the 1992-96 Siege of Sarajevo.", "developer": "11 bit studios", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "permadeath", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "this-war-of-mine", "influence": 2, "mechanics": [ { "id": "day-night-cycle", "note": "Snipers confine survivors to the shelter by day for crafting, cooking, and care; at night survivors are assigned to sleep, guard, or scavenge.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "needs-decay", "note": "Each survivor tracks hunger, fatigue, health, and mood, and the player must keep them up until the ceasefire.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "mood-breakdown", "note": "Mood falls with hunger, illness, loss of companions, and morally weighted acts such as stealing or killing; depressed or broken survivors refuse tasks and may leave the shelter or take their own lives.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "dilemma-cards", "note": "Scavenging encounters and visitors at the door pose choices, such as robbing vulnerable NPCs or giving away supplies, that trade material gain against mood and each survivor's ending.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "personality-traits", "note": "Each survivor has one or two traits, such as Good Cook, plus hidden stats.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "hand-crafting", "note": "Workshops craft weapons, alcohol, beds, stoves, and shelter upgrades from scavenged materials.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "forecasting", "note": "Radio broadcasts give weather warnings, economic updates, and war news.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "supply-demand-pricing", "note": "Barter values change with conditions announced on the radio.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "seasons", "note": "Winter raises demand for heating fuel.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "triggered-event-chains", "note": "Neighbors and strangers arrive with requests tied to the shelter's state.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "permadeath", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "stimulus-attraction", "note": "Noisy actions while scavenging at night, such as breaking through obstacles, can alert people at the location.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "content", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "This War of Mine", "narrative_mode": "hybrid", "perspective": "top-down-2d", "platforms": [ "pc", "mobile", "console", "handheld" ], "player_role": "overseer", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gb" }, "sim_domain": [ "military-conflict", "social-interpersonal", "domestic-personal" ], "sim_scale": "household", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-this-war-of-mine", "src-steam-2026-this-war-of-mine" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "survival-sim", "summary": "A survival sim about civilians in a besieged city who maintain a shelter by day, scavenge by night, and face moral choices that change their mood until a randomized ceasefire.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "survival-duration", "year": 2014 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C17", "core_count": 2, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 1, "control-automation": 1, "environment-ecology": 1, "logistics-networks": 1, "population-lineage": 1, "resources-production": 3, "space-construction": 3, "time-pacing": 2 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "learned-weather-layer" ] }, "mechanic_count": 13 }, "agency_model": [ "zoning-placement", "policy-parameter", "programmatic" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "core_loop": "dam and channel rivers -> irrigate farms and forests from stored water -> beavers work, eat, and seek wellbeing -> a drought or badtide cuts or poisons the flow -> stockpiles and reservoirs carry the colony through -> build upward and expand", "design_notes": "Water is a simulated field rather than a resource count: a 2D model adapted from erosion simulation linked each tile to four neighbors by virtual pipes and was replaced by 3D water in Update 6 (October 2024), so dams, floodgates, and canals change where moisture reaches crops. Recurring droughts grow harsher and badtides turn sources into contaminating badwater, so play alternates between building reservoirs and surviving a known dry period. Limited space pushes housing and workshops into vertical stacks, and sensors and relays let players automate floodgates.", "developer": "Mechanistry", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "cascading-collapse", "fidelity": "systemic", "id": "timberborn", "influence": 1, "mechanics": [ { "id": "hydrology", "note": "Tiles exchange water through virtual pipes with evaporation; moisture spreads to nearby land and falls off sharply uphill; dams, levees, floodgates, and canals redirect flow.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "crisis-countdown", "note": "Recurring droughts switch sources off and badtides release contaminating badwater; both grow harsher over time and are signalled in advance.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "terraforming", "note": "Explosives dig tunnels and reshape terrain.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "vertical-layers", "note": "Lodges and workshops stack on platforms; ziplines and tubeways move beavers between levels.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "crop-cultivation", "note": "Crops grow only on irrigated soil and fail when it dries.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "needs-decay", "note": "Beavers need food, water, rest, and wellbeing from diet variety, entertainment, and decorations.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "storage-capacity", "note": "Water tanks and warehouses buffer droughts.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "power-grid", "note": "Water wheels and other generators power workshops and bots through a connected network.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "signal-circuits", "note": "Sensors, relays, and counters control dams and factories.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "hauling-jobs", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "lifecycle-aging", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "free-placement", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "content", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Timberborn", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "free-3d", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "planner-mayor", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-ga", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "urban", "planetary-natural", "biological-ecological" ], "sim_scale": "settlement", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-timberborn", "src-steam-2026-timberborn", "src-amielanczyk-2023-timberborn-water" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "city-builder", "summary": "A city builder for beaver colonies in which simulated water flows over terrain, recurring droughts and toxic badtides cut or poison it, and players dam, channel, and store water while building upward.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2021, "year_full_release": 2026 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C24", "core_count": 1, "family_profile": { "space-construction": 3 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "generative-decoration-catalogs", "learned-build-assist", "symbolic-sim-neural-render" ] }, "mechanic_count": 3 }, "agency_model": [ "zoning-placement" ], "agent_count_order": "10", "boundary_case": true, "core_loop": "draw walls, paths, and building outlines -> procedural rules assemble bricks, roofs, doors, and supports to fit -> reshape terrain and add water -> ivy grows and sheep wander the paths -> keep editing", "design_notes": "Tiny Glade takes the Townscaper approach to freehand strokes: a path drawn through a building produces a door, and raising a building adds columns and beams to support it, so local rules respond to how elements meet. The two-person studio built it on a custom fork of the Rust engine Bevy. It is a boundary case: the only autonomous elements are ambient life such as growing ivy and wandering sheep.", "developer": "Pounce Light", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "none", "fidelity": "abstract", "id": "tiny-glade", "influence": 1, "mechanics": [ { "id": "procedural-build-assist", "note": "Walls, paths, and building outlines are turned into detailed geometry; a path through a building creates a door and raising a building adds supporting columns and beams.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "free-placement", "note": "Strokes are drawn freely without a grid.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "terraforming", "note": "Terrain height can be changed and rivers and ponds added.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Tiny Glade", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "free-3d", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "engineer-designer", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-ga" }, "sim_domain": [ "urban" ], "sim_scale": "settlement", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-tiny-glade", "src-steam-2026-tiny-glade" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "city-builder", "summary": "A medieval building sandbox in which drawn walls, paths, and building outlines are assembled by procedural rules into detailed castles and cottages, with no goals, management, or failure states.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2024 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C02", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 1, "multiplayer-persistence": 2, "narrative-generation": 1, "progression-goals": 1, "social-relations": 2, "time-pacing": 1 }, "mechanic_count": 8 }, "agency_model": [ "caretaking-interaction", "indirect-incentive" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "aliases": [ "Tomodachi Collection: New Life" ], "core_loop": "add Miis to the apartment -> Miis develop friendships, crushes, and quarrels -> they raise problems such as food, clothes, or advice -> solve problems to fill happiness and earn money -> level-up gifts and new island venues unlock -> couples marry and have children", "design_notes": "The player is an omnipotent observer who cannot control Miis directly and instead answers their requests, so most of the comedy comes from autonomous pairings and quarrels among Miis whose looks, names, voices, and personalities the player designed. Key relationship changes pass through player consent: the player approves a confession before it happens and resolves fights indirectly. The apartment holds up to 100 Miis, and a filled happiness meter levels a Mii up and earns it a present, so care is paced by a stream of small templated problems rather than decaying meters.", "developer": "Nintendo SPD", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "none", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "tomodachi-life", "influence": 2, "mechanics": [ { "id": "relationship-values", "note": "Miis form friendships and conflicts on their own; pairs can grow closer, fall into fights, or break up, and the player intervenes only indirectly.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "romance-family", "note": "Opposite-gender friends of similar age may develop crushes; the player approves the confession, couples can marry and have a child who later moves in or leaves via StreetPass.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "villager-requests", "note": "Miis raise problems such as wanting a food or outfit, needing relationship advice, or asking for a minigame; solving them raises happiness and pays money.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "personality-traits", "note": "Each Mii receives a personality at creation that shapes its behavior.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "milestone-unlocks", "note": "Adding Miis and completing objectives unlocks shops, an amusement park, a concert hall, a café, and other venues.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "content-sharing", "note": "Miis can be imported from Mii Maker or by scanning QR codes.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "async-shared-region", "note": "StreetPass sends grown children to other players' islands.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "real-time-clock", "note": "Island time follows the 3DS clock; at night the player can listen to sleeping Miis' dreams.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single", "async-shared" ], "name": "Tomodachi Life", "narrative_mode": "hybrid", "perspective": "isometric", "platforms": [ "handheld" ], "player_role": "caretaker", "production_tier": "aa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gc" }, "sim_domain": [ "social-interpersonal", "domestic-personal" ], "sim_scale": "settlement", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-tomodachi-life" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "life-sim", "subgenre_secondary": [ "social-sim" ], "summary": "A Nintendo 3DS life sim in which player-made Mii characters live in an island apartment building, form friendships, quarrels, and romances on their own, and ask the player to solve their problems.", "time_model": "real-world-clock", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2013 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C24", "core_count": 1, "family_profile": { "space-construction": 3 }, "incoming": { "deploys": [ "wave-function-collapse" ], "precedent_for": [ "learned-build-assist", "symbolic-sim-neural-render" ] }, "mechanic_count": 3 }, "agency_model": [ "zoning-placement" ], "agent_count_order": "none", "boundary_case": true, "core_loop": "click to add or remove a colored block on the irregular grid -> the solver picks modules for that cell and its neighbors -> arches, stairs, roofs, and gardens appear -> keep editing", "design_notes": "The grid is a subdivided, jittered hex grid of irregular quads, and each edit triggers a real-time wave function collapse that narrows the valid corner modules for the changed cells and their neighbors before decoration is applied. The player expresses only occupancy and color; all architectural detail is derived, which makes the game a pure case of procedural build assist. It is a boundary case because nothing evolves without the player; its author calls it more of a toy than a game.", "developer": "Oskar Stålberg", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "none", "fidelity": "abstract", "id": "townscaper", "influence": 2, "mechanics": [ { "id": "procedural-build-assist", "note": "Each block edit reruns a marching-cubes-style module lookup and a wave function collapse over affected cells, then adds windows, chimneys, and bushes; delay grows with structure size.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "free-placement", "note": "Colored blocks are added or removed anywhere on the grid, stacked vertically.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "room-recognition", "note": "Enclosed areas are detected and filled with gardens rather than paving.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Townscaper", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "free-3d", "platforms": [ "pc", "console", "handheld", "mobile", "web" ], "player_role": "engineer-designer", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-ga" }, "sim_domain": [ "urban" ], "sim_scale": "settlement", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-townscaper", "src-steam-2026-townscaper", "src-thompson-2022-how-townscaper-works" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "city-builder", "summary": "A town-building toy in which clicking colored blocks onto an irregular grid lets a wave function collapse solver assemble houses, arches, stairways, bridges, and gardens, with no goals or resources.", "time_model": "turn-based", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2020, "year_full_release": 2021 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C04", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "economy-finance": 5, "logistics-networks": 4, "progression-goals": 1, "resources-production": 2, "risk-failure": 1, "social-relations": 1, "space-construction": 3, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "influenced": [ "rollercoaster-tycoon" ] }, "mechanic_count": 18 }, "agency_model": [ "zoning-placement", "direct-unit" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "aliases": [ "Transport Tycoon Deluxe" ], "core_loop": "survey towns and industries -> build stations, track, roads, docks, and airports -> give vehicles order lists -> payment by cargo, distance, and delivery time -> station ratings and towns grow -> replace aging vehicles and expand", "design_notes": "Transport Tycoon extends Railroad Tycoon to four transport modes on one isometric map and makes cargo value decay with transit time, so mail suits short or fast routes while coal keeps its value over long hauls. Stations only collect from nearby towns and industries, and a station rating decides how much of an industry's output it receives, which rewards frequent, fast service. Vehicles lose reliability with age and new models arrive on a timeline from 1930 to 2030 (1950 to 2050 in Deluxe), so the fleet must be renewed; date-driven model availability is proposed as dated-tech-timeline. Town councils rate each company through the Local Authority system, which can block new stations. OpenTTD, a reverse-engineered reimplementation first released in 2004, continues the design.", "developer": "Chris Sawyer", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "hard-restart", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "transport-tycoon", "influence": 4, "influenced_by": [ "railroad-tycoon", "simcity-2000", "theme-park" ], "mechanics": [ { "id": "vehicle-route-scheduling", "note": "Trains, road vehicles, ships, aircraft, and helicopters run order lists between stations; revenue depends on cargo type, distance, quantity, and delivery time.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "service-coverage", "note": "Stations accept and supply cargo only within a catchment around them, and station ratings set how much nearby industries hand over.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "wear-breakdown", "note": "Vehicle reliability falls with age, breakdowns become more frequent, and vehicles must be serviced and eventually replaced; prototypes offer better specs with reliability risk.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "production-chain", "note": "Primary industries feed secondary ones and finished goods go to towns; poorly served industries can close.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "rail-signaling", "note": "Bi-directional signals in the original; Deluxe adds one-way signals.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "deposit-depletion", "note": "Some resource sites run out and new ones appear.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "reputation", "note": "Local Authority ratings per town fall with poor service and tree clearing and can block demolition and new stations.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "contracts-orders", "note": "Towns offer subsidies for serving specific routes.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "rival-firms", "note": "Up to seven AI transport companies compete for the same towns and industries.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "equity-buyouts", "note": "Deluxe adds trading company shares and buying out competitors.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "loans-debt", "note": "The company starts with an interest-bearing loan.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "road-network", "note": "Road vehicles use town roads and player-built roads from depots.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "free-placement", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "terraforming", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "delivery-time-payment", "note": "Revenue per delivery depends on cargo type, quantity, distance, and transit time; mail and passengers lose value quickly while coal tolerates long, slow hauls.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "dated-tech-timeline", "note": "Road, rail, sea, and air models are introduced on a timeline from 1930 to 2030 (1950 to 2050 in Deluxe), new models carry reliability risk, and aging fleets must be renewed as better models arrive.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "track-laying", "note": "Rail track, including slopes, bridges, and tunnels, is laid piece by piece on the isometric tile map, with costs for terrain changes and demolition.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "content", "multiplayer": [ "single", "competitive" ], "name": "Transport Tycoon", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "isometric", "platforms": [ "pc", "console", "mobile" ], "player_role": "manager-owner", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-ge", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "industrial-logistics", "economic" ], "sim_scale": "region", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-transport-tycoon" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "transport-logistics", "subgenre_secondary": [ "business-economic-sim" ], "summary": "A transport business sim in which the player builds road, rail, sea, and air networks between towns and industries over a century, earning by delivery speed and distance while vehicles age and break down.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "score-ranking", "year": 1994 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C05", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "economy-finance": 2, "governance-policy": 5, "population-lineage": 1, "resources-production": 1, "social-relations": 1, "space-construction": 1, "time-pacing": 1 }, "mechanic_count": 12 }, "agency_model": [ "zoning-placement", "policy-parameter" ], "agent_count_order": "1k", "core_loop": "build housing, jobs, and services across the islands -> each citizen's happiness and faction alignment shift with conditions -> issue edicts, trade, and raid to fund the treasury -> advance through four eras -> win elections or suppress rebels to stay in power", "design_notes": "Tropico couples a conventional production and services city builder to a political layer: each simulated citizen holds happiness and faction alignments, and those aggregate into election results and rebel recruitment. Edicts and policies trade one faction's approval against another's, so building decisions double as political ones. Tropico 6 moves play to an archipelago joined by bridges from the World Wars era onward and organizes progress into Colonial, World Wars, Cold War, and Modern eras.", "developer": "Limbic Entertainment", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "hard-restart", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "tropico-6", "influence": 1, "mechanics": [ { "id": "interest-groups", "note": "Political factions each approve or disapprove of El Presidente based on conditions and decisions that match their ideology.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "elections", "note": "Elections can be held or rigged; losing one removes El Presidente and ends the game.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "citizen-satisfaction", "note": "Each citizen's happiness across categories such as food, housing, and liberty aggregates into approval.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "policy-toggles", "note": "Edicts with costs and effects on factions and citizens.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "stability-unrest", "note": "Low approval breeds rebels, protests, and coup attempts.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "free-placement", "note": "Buildings placed freely across the islands; bridges connect islands from the World Wars era.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "trade-routes", "note": "Exports through docks fund the treasury.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "production-chain", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "budget-treasury", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "education-workforce", "note": "Skilled jobs require citizens with high school or college education.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "faction-diplomacy", "note": "Relations with foreign powers affect trade and aid.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single", "coop", "competitive" ], "name": "Tropico 6", "narrative_mode": "hybrid", "perspective": "free-3d", "platforms": [ "pc", "console", "handheld" ], "player_role": "ruler-statesman", "production_tier": "aa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-ga", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "urban", "political-governance", "economic" ], "sim_scale": "nation", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-tropico-6" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "city-builder", "subgenre_secondary": [ "political-sim" ], "summary": "A political city builder in which El Presidente develops an island archipelago across four eras while individually simulated citizens' happiness and faction loyalties decide elections, protests, and revolts.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "scenario-goals", "year": 2019 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C01", "core_count": 4, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 4, "biology-health": 1, "economy-finance": 2, "environment-ecology": 1, "logistics-networks": 1, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "progression-goals": 3, "risk-failure": 1, "space-construction": 2, "time-pacing": 1 }, "mechanic_count": 17 }, "agency_model": [ "zoning-placement", "policy-parameter", "direct-unit" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "core_loop": "build and decorate rooms -> hire staff with traits and train qualifications -> patients flow from GP to diagnosis to treatment -> cures earn money and reputation -> research and Kudosh unlock items -> earn stars to open the next hospital", "design_notes": "Two Point Hospital keeps Theme Hospital's room-blueprint and diagnosis-pipeline structure and adds a deeper staff layer: every hire has personality traits, a specialisation, and trainable qualifications, so the training room is a second production line beside the clinical one. Room prestige rises with room size and decoration and feeds staff happiness, which links interior design to staff retention. Progress spreads across many hospitals with one-to-three-star goals, and items unlock with Kudosh, a currency earned from challenges rather than money. Assistants can run marketing campaigns (proposed mechanic advertising-awareness).", "developer": "Two Point Studios", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "two-point-hospital", "influence": 2, "influenced_by": [ "theme-hospital" ], "mechanics": [ { "id": "diagnosis-treatment", "note": "Patients start in a GP's Office and move through further diagnostic rooms until diagnosed, then to a treatment room; illnesses are comic, such as Light-Headedness and Mock Star.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "staff-hiring", "note": "Doctors, nurses, janitors, and assistants come with personality traits and specialisations that change performance; wages and morale must be managed.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "service-queues", "note": "Patients queue at rooms while their health falls; untreated patients die, and long waits lower satisfaction.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "free-placement", "note": "Rooms are drawn and furnished with required machines, plus corridors with toilets, cafes, vending machines, and staff rooms.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "agent-skills", "note": "Staff earn qualifications in the training room that unlock or improve tasks.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "personality-traits", "note": "Staff traits change efficiency and behavior.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "decoration-beauty", "note": "Room prestige depends on size and decoration and affects staff happiness.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "needs-decay", "note": "Patients and staff need toilets, food, drinks, and rest.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "contagion", "note": "Later levels bring epidemics with a limited vaccine supply; immunizing every infected patient earns a reward.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "wear-breakdown", "note": "Machines degrade and need janitor maintenance.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "tech-tree", "note": "The Research room unlocks new rooms and machine upgrades.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "milestone-unlocks", "note": "Kudosh from challenges unlocks items; one star unlocks the next hospital.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "scenario-objectives", "note": "Each hospital has star objectives; extra objectives raise the rating to two or three stars.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "content-sharing", "note": "Steam Workshop support added in 2019.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "advertising-awareness", "note": "Assistants in the marketing room run paid campaigns that draw more patients, optionally targeted at specific illnesses.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "utility-action-selection", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "content", "multiplayer": [ "single", "coop", "competitive", "async-shared" ], "name": "Two Point Hospital", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "free-3d", "platforms": [ "pc", "console", "handheld" ], "player_role": "manager-owner", "production_tier": "aa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-ge", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "medical", "economic" ], "sim_scale": "facility", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-two-point-hospital" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "management-tycoon", "subgenre_secondary": [ "medical-sim" ], "summary": "A hospital management game and spiritual successor to Theme Hospital in which the player builds rooms, trains staff with traits and qualifications, and cures comic illnesses across a chain of hospitals.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "scenario-goals", "year": 2018 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C12", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 1, "control-automation": 1, "multiplayer-persistence": 4, "resources-production": 2, "risk-failure": 1, "social-relations": 1, "space-construction": 1 }, "incoming": { "influenced": [ "eve-online" ], "precedent_for": [ "ai-liquidity-in-player-markets" ] }, "mechanic_count": 11 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar" ], "agent_count_order": "1k", "aliases": [ "UO" ], "core_loop": "practice skills by using them -> gather resources and craft goods -> trade with other players -> build and furnish a house -> fight monsters or other players -> recover from death and re-equip", "design_notes": "Ultima Online tried to simulate a world rather than a set of classes: skills grow with practice, goods come from player crafting, and houses persist on the map. Its planned artificial-life ecology, in which animal behavior responded to ecological events, was removed during beta because players killed creatures faster than they could spawn. Unrestricted player killing at launch led to the 2000 Trammel and Felucca split into consensual and open PvP facets, an early rule-zoned world (proposal pvp-security-zones); fans later reverse-engineered it to build server emulators.", "developer": "Origin Systems", "emergence": 4, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "ultima-online", "influence": 4, "mechanics": [ { "id": "agent-skills", "note": "Progression is skill-based with no levels or classes; skills improve as the character uses them, so a character's abilities record what the player has practiced.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "persistent-world", "note": "Shards keep persistent player houses and goods; unrestricted PvP at launch was split in 2000 into a consensual-PvP Trammel facet and an open-PvP Felucca facet.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "hand-crafting", "note": "The economy is craft-based: players gather materials and craft the weapons, armor, and goods other players buy.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "resource-extraction", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "player-organizations", "note": "Player guilds such as Shadowclan formed persistent communities.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "reputation", "note": "Criminal acts against other players carry consequences whose rules changed over the game's life.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "free-placement", "note": "Players place houses on open land in the shared world.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "direct-avatar", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "loss-on-death", "note": "A dead character leaves a corpse that other players can loot; item insurance, added in 2003, keeps chosen items for a fee.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "pvp-security-zones", "note": "The 2000 Renaissance expansion split the world into Trammel, where player-versus-player combat is consensual, and Felucca, where it is open.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "note": "Player-run free shards on server emulators such as RunUO script new content in C#.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "scripting", "multiplayer": [ "persistent-mmo" ], "name": "Ultima Online", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "isometric", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "inhabitant", "production_tier": "aaa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gi", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-25-contributor-readiness" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "economic", "social-interpersonal" ], "sim_scale": "region", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-ultima-online" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "mmo-world", "subgenre_secondary": [ "rpg-sim" ], "summary": "A persistent fantasy MMO in which players progress through skills without classes or levels, craft goods for a player-driven economy, own persistent houses, and could attack each other anywhere until the 2000 split into Trammel and Felucca.", "time_model": "asynchronous-persistent", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 1997 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C19", "core_count": 2, "family_profile": { "environment-ecology": 1, "information-legibility": 1, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "physics-materials": 2, "space-construction": 1, "time-pacing": 1 }, "mechanic_count": 7 }, "agency_model": [ "policy-parameter", "design-then-test" ], "agent_count_order": "none", "aliases": [ "Universe Sandbox 2", "Universe Sandbox²" ], "core_loop": "load or build a system -> set masses, positions, and time step -> run gravity forward -> watch orbits, collisions, and climate respond -> tweak parameters or add bodies", "design_notes": "Every body attracts every other under Newtonian n-body gravity, so the player can test questions such as what happens if a star passes the Solar System and see the answer rather than read it. The current version (a rewrite released as Universe Sandbox 2 in 2014 and renamed in 2018, still in early access) adds composition from a small set of materials, collisions that leave molten craters, and a climate layer where sea ice tracks axial tilt and oceans boil near a star. The simulation is an instrument for parameter sweeps; there are no goals or agents.", "developer": "Dan Dixon; Giant Army", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "none", "fidelity": "systemic", "id": "universe-sandbox", "influence": 1, "mechanics": [ { "id": "orbital-mechanics", "note": "Newtonian n-body gravity acts between all bodies; the player edits mass, density, radius, and velocity and watches orbits, ejections, spin-apart breakup, and collisions follow.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "note": "Simulation speed runs from real time to years per second and can be paused; larger time steps trade against accuracy, so fast runs can diverge from slow ones.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "planetary-climate", "note": "Surface temperature, sea ice, and oceans respond to stellar distance and axial tilt; moving a planet can freeze or boil it.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "heat-transfer", "note": "Collisions and stellar irradiance heat bodies, shown as molten surfaces and temperature maps.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "terraforming", "note": "Planets are composed from materials such as water, rock, iron, and gases, and oceans and mountains can be shaped.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "data-overlays", "note": "Orbit trails and surface temperature maps expose state that is otherwise invisible.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "content-sharing", "note": "Player-made simulations are shared on Steam Workshop.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single", "async-shared" ], "name": "Universe Sandbox", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "free-3d", "platforms": [ "pc", "vr" ], "player_role": "observer-gardener", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gg" }, "sim_domain": [ "cosmic-space", "planetary-natural" ], "sim_scale": "interplanetary", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-universe-sandbox", "src-steam-2026-universe-sandbox" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "physics-sandbox", "subgenre_secondary": [ "space-sim" ], "summary": "A space physics sandbox where the player builds and alters star systems and watches Newtonian n-body gravity, collisions, and simplified planetary climate play out at adjustable speed.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2008 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C05", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "control-automation": 1, "economy-finance": 1, "environment-ecology": 1, "governance-policy": 2, "resources-production": 1, "space-construction": 1, "time-pacing": 1 }, "mechanic_count": 8 }, "agency_model": [ "zoning-placement", "direct-unit" ], "agent_count_order": "aggregate", "claims": [ { "confidence": "medium", "disputes": "Release year: 1982 per Wikipedia versus 1981 per Guinness World Records and the original skeleton. This entry uses 1982, the dated release.", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-utopia", "src-guinness-2026-first-city-building-game" ], "text": "Wikipedia's infobox and lead date the Intellivision release to 1982-06-03 (Aquarius port 1983), while Guinness World Records names Utopia, released on the Intellivision in 1981, as the first city-building videogame." } ], "core_loop": "spend gold on houses, farms, factories, forts, and boats -> round timer runs while boats fish and clouds rain on farms -> end-of-round income and score from population welfare -> rebels, storms, and pirates strike -> next round", "design_notes": "Utopia runs as up to 50 real-time rounds of 30 to 120 seconds, so the turn boundary is a clock rather than a player action; income from factories arrives at round end while fishing and rain income depend on what happens during the round. Two players share one screen with no AI opponent, and each can fund rebels on the other's island or sink the other's fishing boat with a PT boat, so the welfare score is contested directly. It is commonly cited as the first city-building game, though its release year is disputed between 1981 and 1982.", "developer": "Don Daglow (Mattel Electronics)", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "abstract", "id": "utopia", "influence": 2, "mechanics": [ { "id": "free-placement", "note": "Each player places houses, schools, factories, hospitals, and forts on tiles of their own island, paid for with gold bars.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "periodic-ticks", "note": "Rounds last 30 to 120 seconds for up to 50 rounds; factory output pays out and the score updates at each round's end.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "citizen-satisfaction", "note": "Points depend on population and how well it is housed, fed, and kept happy; neglect lowers the score and invites rebellion.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "stability-unrest", "note": "Rebels reduce the score and can destroy buildings; a rival can pay gold to fund rebels on the other island.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "weather", "note": "Randomly generated rain clouds earn income when they pass over a player's farms; tropical storms and hurricanes also occur.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "resource-extraction", "note": "Fishing boats earn income only while positioned over a moving school of fish.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "unit-commands", "note": "Players steer fishing boats and PT boats directly; PT boats sink the opponent's fishing boat.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "budget-treasury", "note": "Gold bars are the single currency for all construction.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single", "competitive" ], "name": "Utopia", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "top-down-2d", "platforms": [ "console", "mainframe-early" ], "player_role": "ruler-statesman", "production_tier": "aa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-ga" }, "sim_domain": [ "urban", "economic", "political-governance" ], "sim_scale": "settlement", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-utopia", "src-guinness-2026-first-city-building-game", "src-wikipedia-city-building-game" ], "status": "contested", "subgenre": "city-builder", "summary": "A two-player Intellivision strategy game in which rival island rulers spend gold on buildings and boats in timed rounds, scoring points for how well their populations are housed, fed, and kept content.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "competitive-victory", "year": 1982 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C06", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 1, "biology-health": 2, "conflict-defense": 1, "control-automation": 1, "environment-ecology": 1, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "progression-goals": 1, "resources-production": 2, "risk-failure": 2, "space-construction": 2, "world-generation": 1 }, "mechanic_count": 15 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "core_loop": "explore seeded biomes -> gather wood, stone, and ore -> build shelters that must be supported and roofed -> eat food for health and stamina -> craft better gear -> summon and defeat each biome's boss -> sail to harder biomes", "design_notes": "Food is a reward rather than a punishment: eating raises maximum health and stamina and speeds regeneration, and there is no starvation, so the survival layer pushes players toward better food rather than threatening death. This consumable-buff model does not fit survival-meters cleanly (proposal filed). Building uses a support model in which stability falls with distance from the ground, so architecture follows material limits, and uncovered wood decays to half durability in rain. Progression is gated by eight bosses, each summoned with an offering. Early access began in February 2021 and 1.0 shipped in September 2026.", "developer": "Iron Gate Studio", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "valheim", "influence": 2, "mechanics": [ { "id": "structural-integrity", "note": "Stability runs from blue (grounded) to red; it falls with horizontal and vertical distance from ground, a piece cannot exceed its support's stability, and vertical limits are 16 m for wood and stone and 24 m for core wood.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "procedural-terrain", "note": "Each world is generated from a seed and divided into biomes (Meadows, Black Forest, Swamp, Mountains, Plains, Ocean, Mistlands, Deep North, Ashlands), each with its own resources, enemies, and boss.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "hand-crafting", "note": "Workbenches, forges, and other stations craft tools, weapons, and building pieces; new materials unlock new recipes.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "survival-meters", "note": "Food raises maximum health and stamina for a time instead of causing starvation; stamina drains when running or attacking.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "agent-skills", "note": "Skills rise to level 100 through use and affect damage and stamina drain; dying reduces skill levels.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "decoration-beauty", "note": "Comfort from nearby furnishings lengthens the Rested buff.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "milestone-unlocks", "note": "Each boss leaves a trophy that grants a power at a central altar and opens the next tier of materials.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "wear-breakdown", "note": "Uncovered or submerged wood decays to 50% durability; tools lose durability.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "weather", "note": "Rain wets the player and rots exposed wood.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "raid-defense", "note": "Random events send enemies against bases.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "crop-cultivation", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "animal-husbandry", "note": "Some animals can be tamed and bred.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "direct-avatar", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "loss-on-death", "note": "On death the player's equipment and inventory stay in a tombstone at the death site, and skill levels drop, so the player must travel back to recover gear.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "note": "No official API; mods load through the de facto BepInEx loader.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "scripting", "multiplayer": [ "single", "coop" ], "name": "Valheim", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "third-person", "platforms": [ "pc", "console", "handheld" ], "player_role": "inhabitant", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gb", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-25-contributor-readiness" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "physical-mechanical", "biological-ecological" ], "sim_scale": "individual", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-valheim", "src-steam-2026-valheim", "src-valheimwiki-2026-building" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "survival-sim", "subgenre_secondary": [ "sandbox-world" ], "summary": "A co-op Viking survival game in a seeded procedural world of biomes where players gather, build structurally supported shelters, eat for stat buffs, and defeat biome bosses to progress.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "completion", "year": 2021, "year_full_release": 2026 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C02", "core_count": 2, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 3, "narrative-generation": 1, "social-relations": 2 }, "mechanic_count": 6 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar" ], "agent_count_order": "10", "core_loop": "choose a character and episode -> practices offer actions for the situation -> player acts or waits -> other agents simulate each option and take the best for their desires -> emotions, evaluations, and relationships update -> the episode reaches an outcome", "design_notes": "Richard Evans and Emily Short built Versu around social practices: recurring situations such as a meal or a conversation written as reactive joint plans that offer actions to participants without controlling them. Each agent tests a candidate action by applying it to the world state, scoring the result against its desires (over 300 in total), and undoing it, which the authors contrast with the estimated consequences used in The Sims. World state is a set of exclusion-logic sentences, and the Praxis language with a stress tester that runs hundreds of simulated instances supported over 1,000 parameterized actions. Linden Lab cancelled the project in early 2014; social practices have no mechanic id and are proposed as social-practices.", "developer": "Linden Lab", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "none", "fidelity": "systemic", "id": "versu", "influence": 2, "mechanics": [ { "id": "utility-action-selection", "note": "Agents score each available action by executing it on the world state, evaluating the result against their desires, and undoing it; the best-scoring action is taken.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "social-exchanges", "note": "Social practices such as a dinner party or a conversation offer role-specific actions with preconditions, and most actions change how characters regard each other.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "relationship-values", "note": "Agents hold evaluations of each other on roles such as attractiveness or breeding, which actions raise or lower.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "memories-thoughts", "note": "Fine-grained emotions on Ekman's typology record their target and cause.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "personality-traits", "note": "Character files assign each agent desires that weight its action scoring.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "storyteller-director", "note": "A drama manager agent can act to push an episode's authored plot.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Versu", "narrative_mode": "hybrid", "perspective": "text-ui", "platforms": [ "mobile" ], "player_role": "inhabitant", "production_tier": "aa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gc" }, "sim_domain": [ "social-interpersonal" ], "sim_scale": "household", "sources": [ "src-evans-2014-versu", "src-short-2013-introducing-versu", "src-ifwiki-2026-versu" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "social-sim", "summary": "A 2013 iPad interactive story platform from Linden Lab in which the player controls one character among autonomous agents who choose actions by simulating their outcomes against hundreds of desires within authored social practices.", "time_model": "turn-based", "type": "game", "win_structure": "scenario-goals", "year": 2013 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C05", "core_count": 4, "family_profile": { "conflict-defense": 2, "economy-finance": 4, "governance-policy": 4, "information-legibility": 1, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "population-lineage": 3, "progression-goals": 1, "resources-production": 2, "social-relations": 1, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "causal-why-query", "explained-delegation", "natural-language-legislation" ] }, "mechanic_count": 20 }, "agency_model": [ "policy-parameter", "order-queue", "indirect-incentive" ], "agent_count_order": "aggregate", "aliases": [ "Vic3" ], "core_loop": "queue construction of buildings -> buildings hire pops and run production methods -> goods trade at shifting market prices -> wages and needs set standard of living and interest-group support -> enact laws and pursue diplomatic plays -> expand industry", "design_notes": "Victoria 3 moves the player's main lever from units to the economy: the player queues construction and sets laws, and pops, prices, and wages respond, while armies are handled by generals assigned to fronts. Politics is an output of economics, since pops' economic status sets their interest-group affiliation and political strength. Diplomatic plays turn war declaration into a timed escalation of demands and counter-demands with a chance to back down (proposal crisis-escalation).", "developer": "Paradox Development Studio", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "systemic", "id": "victoria-3", "influence": 2, "mechanics": [ { "id": "interest-groups", "note": "Pops' political strength, from wealth and enfranchisement, flows into interest groups such as the Devout, Industrialists, and Rural Folk; clout is each group's share of the national total, approval comes from laws and government membership, and enacting a law runs phases whose advance or stall chances depend on group endorsement.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "production-chain", "note": "Buildings such as mines, farms, and factories convert input goods to outputs; switchable production methods change the input mix, output, and which professions are employed.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "supply-demand-pricing", "note": "Each good has a base price, and the market price moves with the ratio of buy orders from consumption to sell orders from production, scaled by market access from infrastructure; prices feed back into building profitability, wages, and pops' cost of living.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "population-strata", "note": "The population is stored as pops by profession, culture, and religion in lower, middle, and upper strata, each with its own wages, needs, and political leanings.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "goods-consumption", "note": "Pops buy goods to meet needs, and the share met sets their standard of living.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "labor-market", "note": "Buildings hire pops by profession and qualification, so labor shortages throttle new industry.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "policy-toggles", "note": "Laws such as Free Trade and Laissez-Faire change economic and political rules.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "stability-unrest", "note": "Pops whose needs fall short become radicals, and radical interest groups can start a revolutionary movement with a revolution clock.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "faction-diplomacy", "note": "Diplomatic plays present a demand, allow counter-demands, run a countdown to mobilize and gather backers, and become war if unresolved.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "tech-tree", "note": "Technologies such as the Atmospheric Engine unlock buildings and production methods.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "taxation", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "budget-treasury", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "immigration-attractiveness", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "causal-tooltips", "note": "Nested tooltips break values into contributing modifiers, extended to battle and market calculations.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "political-capital", "note": "Authority, influence, and bureaucracy are capacities with monthly supply and ongoing usage: decrees draw on authority and diplomatic pacts on influence.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "culture-religion-conversion", "note": "Pops carry a culture and a religion; over time pops assimilate toward primary cultures and convert toward the state religion, and citizenship and church laws decide which identities face discrimination.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "territorial-control", "note": "States change hands through diplomatic plays and wars, and newly acquired states are incorporated over time before they count fully.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "war-score-peace", "note": "Each side's war support falls with exhaustion until one capitulates or the sides settle on the demands from the diplomatic play.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "note": "Script and data files define laws, events, and goods.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "scripting", "multiplayer": [ "single", "competitive" ], "name": "Victoria 3", "narrative_mode": "hybrid", "perspective": "top-down-2d", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "ruler-statesman", "production_tier": "aa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gi", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes", "2026-10-25-contributor-readiness" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "economic", "political-governance", "industrial-logistics" ], "sim_scale": "nation", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-victoria-3", "src-paradox-2021-vic3-interest-groups", "src-paradox-2021-vic3-national-markets", "src-paradox-2023-vic3-law-enactment", "src-pcgamesn-2022-victoria-3-nested-tooltips", "src-paradox-2023-victoria-3-dev-diary-74" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "grand-strategy", "subgenre_secondary": [ "political-sim" ], "summary": "An economic grand strategy game set from 1836 to 1936 in which the player industrializes a nation by building production chains, passing laws through interest-group politics, and pursuing diplomatic plays while population strata respond through wages, needs, and radicalism.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2022 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C18", "core_count": 4, "family_profile": { "biology-health": 1, "environment-ecology": 2, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "progression-goals": 2, "resources-production": 1, "space-construction": 2 }, "mechanic_count": 9 }, "agency_model": [ "indirect-incentive", "zoning-placement", "caretaking-interaction" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "core_loop": "dig, plant, and water the garden -> species outlines appear when appear requirements are met -> resident requirements turn visitors into residents -> residents meet romance requirements and lay eggs -> predators and sours disrupt -> sell or trade piñatas -> attract new species", "design_notes": "Viva Piñata turns habitat suitability into a readable checklist: each species has staged appear, visit, resident, and romance requirements, shown as a black-and-white outline that fills in when residency is met. Because piñatavores must eat other piñatas to become residents or breed, attracting one species can consume another, so the garden is a hand-built food web the player tunes by fencing, spacing, and timing. Sours and Professor Pester's ruffians supply authored pressure, and romance requirements can be bypassed with candy once a species has bred, trading early difficulty for collection speed.", "developer": "Rare", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "viva-pinata", "influence": 2, "mechanics": [ { "id": "habitat-suitability", "note": "Each of the 60 species has staged requirements (garden contents, plants, water, terrain, or having eaten a specific item) that turn an outline into a visitor and then a resident.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "food-web", "note": "Piñatavores must eat other piñatas to become residents or breed, and visiting predators eat residents to meet their own requirements.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "animal-husbandry", "note": "Two residents of a species that meet romance requirements perform a romance dance and a maze minigame that yields an egg; piñatas are ungendered, and candy skips romance requirements after a species' first romance.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "collection-goals", "note": "The journal of 60 species, each with requirements to discover, is the long-term goal structure.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "crop-cultivation", "note": "Seeds sown with tools grow into flowers, vegetables, and trees that species eat or require; weeds spread and destroy vegetable rows if not removed.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "terraforming", "note": "The shovel and other tools plough soil, dig ponds, and sculpt terrain.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "free-placement", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "milestone-unlocks", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "async-shared-region", "note": "Eggs and piñatas could be sent to other players over Xbox Live.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single", "async-shared" ], "name": "Viva Piñata", "narrative_mode": "hybrid", "perspective": "free-3d", "platforms": [ "console", "pc" ], "player_role": "caretaker", "production_tier": "aaa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gd" }, "sim_domain": [ "biological-ecological" ], "sim_scale": "facility", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-viva-pinata" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "ecosystem-evolution", "subgenre_secondary": [ "farming-sim" ], "summary": "A garden sim in which the player shapes terrain, plants, and water to attract 60 piñata species, then meets each species' requirements to make them residents, breed them, and manage the predators among them.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2006 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C08", "core_count": 2, "family_profile": { "control-automation": 1, "environment-ecology": 1, "social-relations": 3 }, "incoming": { "deploys": [ "realtime-voice-models" ] }, "mechanic_count": 5 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar", "conversational" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "boundary_case": true, "claims": [ { "confidence": "high", "sources": [ "src-steam-2025-where-winds-meet" ], "text": "The Steam page discloses AI-driven NPC text and voice chat that responds to player input in real time; global PC release was 2025-11-14." } ], "core_loop": "explore the open world -> talk to NPCs in free text or voice -> take quests and fights -> build reputation and skills -> explore further", "design_notes": "Included as a boundary case for natural-language interaction at scale. The Steam AI disclosure describes NPC text and voice chat generated in real time from player input. The main questline and combat remain authored and rule-based, so the language model sits beside the simulation rather than inside its state.", "developer": "Everstone Studio (NetEase Games)", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "where-winds-meet", "influence": 2, "mechanics": [ { "id": "natural-language-interaction", "note": "Players type or speak to NPCs and receive live generated replies, per the game's Steam AI disclosure.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "direct-avatar", "note": "Third-person martial-arts traversal and combat.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "reputation", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "relationship-values", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "day-night-cycle", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single", "coop" ], "name": "Where Winds Meet", "narrative_mode": "hybrid", "perspective": "third-person", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "inhabitant", "production_tier": "aaa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-additions" }, "sim_domain": [ "social-interpersonal", "military-conflict" ], "sim_scale": "individual", "sources": [ "src-steam-2025-where-winds-meet" ], "status": "asserted", "subgenre": "rpg-sim", "subgenre_secondary": [ "ai-native" ], "summary": "An open-world martial-arts RPG whose NPCs answer free-text and voice chat through a live language model, included as an early large-audience deployment of runtime LLM characters.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "campaign", "year": 2024 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C08", "core_count": 2, "family_profile": { "narrative-generation": 2, "social-relations": 1 }, "incoming": { "deploys": [ "realtime-voice-models" ], "precedent_for": [ "local-first-ai-sims" ] }, "mechanic_count": 3 }, "agency_model": [ "conversational", "indirect-incentive" ], "agent_count_order": "1", "boundary_case": true, "claims": [ { "confidence": "medium", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-cai-haoyu" ], "text": "Anuttacon, the developer, was formed in late 2023 by Cai Haoyu, and Whispers from the Star is its first game." } ], "core_loop": "Stella calls, texts, or sends voice messages about her situation -> player answers by voice or text -> model generates her spoken reply and choice -> her choices change whether she survives the situation -> story advances", "design_notes": "At runtime a model generates Stella's side of every exchange: the player's microphone or text input is answered with dialogue and a fully voiced performance that Anuttacon says was created in collaboration with an actor, with safety filters screening output. The store page says there is no script and that the player's words shape her choices and her survival, so advice acts as an indirect control on an agent the player cannot command. The surrounding structure is linear and story-driven per its store tags, which makes it a hybrid of authored situations and generated conversation. Anuttacon was formed in late 2023 by miHoYo co-founder Cai Haoyu, and this is its first game. It is a boundary case: the only simulated state is the conversation and Stella's choices.", "developer": "Anuttacon", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "hard-restart", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "whispers-from-the-star", "influence": 1, "mechanics": [ { "id": "natural-language-interaction", "note": "Open-ended conversation by voice (a microphone is required for the full experience) or text over Stella's communicator, through video calls, voice messages, and texts.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "generative-content", "note": "An AI model generates Stella's dialogue and voiced performance in real time, constrained by safety filters, and her in-story decisions follow from what the player says.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "triggered-event-chains", "note": "The store tags the game as linear and story-rich, so generated conversation plays out inside a sequence of survival situations.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "none", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Whispers from the Star", "narrative_mode": "generative", "perspective": "third-person", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "overseer", "production_tier": "aa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gd" }, "sim_domain": [ "social-interpersonal" ], "sim_scale": "individual", "sources": [ "src-steam-2026-whispers-from-the-star", "src-wikipedia-cai-haoyu" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "ai-native", "subgenre_secondary": [ "social-sim" ], "summary": "A voice-driven sci-fi narrative game in which the player helps stranded astronaut Stella survive on the planet Gaia through open-ended spoken or typed conversation answered by an AI-generated, voiced performance.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "campaign", "year": 2025 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C03", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "economy-finance": 2, "environment-ecology": 1, "governance-policy": 1, "logistics-networks": 5, "population-lineage": 1, "resources-production": 3, "space-construction": 1, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "living-workforce-factories" ] }, "mechanic_count": 15 }, "agency_model": [ "zoning-placement", "policy-parameter" ], "agent_count_order": "1k", "aliases": [ "Workers and Resources" ], "core_loop": "set up construction offices and deliver materials to sites -> extract and process over 30 commodities by truck, rail, conveyor, and pipe -> house citizens near jobs and transit -> supply food, clothing, heat, and services to keep health, happiness, and loyalty -> export at customs for rubles or dollars -> import what the republic lacks", "design_notes": "Workers & Resources treats construction itself as logistics: buildings and roads need delivered concrete, steel, and prefab panels plus workers from the player's construction offices, or imported foreign labor at a cost, a system the taxonomy lacks (see run proposal). Over 30 commodities move by mode suited to their form (pipes and tanks for liquids, conveyors and trucks for ores, covered vehicles for goods), so freight network design is the main puzzle. Trade runs through East and West customs houses, flooding one bloc's market lowers returns, and heating demand rising in winter ties utilities to the calendar.", "developer": "3Division", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "systemic", "id": "workers-and-resources", "influence": 1, "mechanics": [ { "id": "production-chain", "note": "Over 30 commodities are extracted, processed, and stored in staffed plants.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "vehicle-route-scheduling", "note": "Trucks, trains, ships, and aircraft are assigned to depots and routes that move goods and workers between buildings.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "trade-routes", "note": "Exports and imports pass through customs houses at Eastern (rubles) and Western (dollars) borders.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "conveyor-transport", "note": "Conveyors move ores and bulk goods between facilities.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "fluid-pipe-network", "note": "Liquids, water, and heating travel through pipes and tanks.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "public-transit", "note": "Buses, trams, trains, subways, ships, and planes carry citizens.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "rail-signaling", "note": "Rail signals and interchanges govern shared track.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "supply-demand-pricing", "note": "Flooding one market lowers returns there.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "goods-consumption", "note": "Citizens need food, clothing, and alcohol from shops.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "citizen-satisfaction", "note": "Health and happiness decide whether citizens stay; low loyalty raises crime and lowers work efficiency.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "education-workforce", "note": "Optional complex education gates skilled jobs.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "seasons", "note": "Optional seasons raise heating demand in winter.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "storage-capacity", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "free-placement", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "content", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Workers & Resources: Soviet Republic", "narrative_mode": "emergent", "perspective": "free-3d", "platforms": [ "pc" ], "player_role": "planner-mayor", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-ga", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "urban", "industrial-logistics", "economic" ], "sim_scale": "region", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-workers-and-resources", "src-steam-2026-workers-and-resources" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "city-builder", "subgenre_secondary": [ "transport-logistics" ], "summary": "A planned-economy city builder in which every building, commodity, and citizen moves through explicit logistics, from construction materials delivered by truck to exports at border customs for rubles or dollars.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 2019, "year_full_release": 2024 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C10", "core_count": 1, "family_profile": { "control-automation": 1, "environment-ecology": 2, "multiplayer-persistence": 1, "operation-procedure": 1, "physics-materials": 1, "space-construction": 1, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "precedent_for": [ "sim-instructor-coach" ] }, "mechanic_count": 8 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar", "design-then-test" ], "agent_count_order": "10", "core_loop": "pick or design an aircraft -> set location and weather -> fly by hand or autopilot -> blade-element forces respond to geometry and air -> land -> revise the aircraft in Plane Maker", "design_notes": "X-Plane uses blade element theory: wings, control surfaces, and propellers are split into elements and aerodynamic forces are computed on each from geometry, rather than looked up from performance tables, so an aircraft drawn in the bundled Plane Maker flies according to its shape. That approach underpins its use in FAA-approved training systems when paired with suitable hardware. A plugin SDK exposes simulator data for instruments, cockpits, and external hardware.", "developer": "Laminar Research", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "hard-restart", "fidelity": "professional", "id": "x-plane", "influence": 3, "mechanics": [ { "id": "flight-aerodynamics", "note": "Blade element theory splits wings, control surfaces, and propellers into small elements and computes aerodynamic forces on each from geometry and physical parameters.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "modular-assembly", "note": "Plane Maker lets users define aircraft geometry and components and then fly the result in the simulator.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "weather", "note": "X-Plane 12 reworked clouds, turbulence, and atmospheric effects, and version 12.3 added a weather-radar system.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "procedural-checklists", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "embodied-skill-control", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "modding-api", "note": "The plugin SDK lets developers read simulator data and add instruments, cockpit interfaces, and hardware support.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "day-night-cycle", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "scripting", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "X-Plane", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "first-person", "platforms": [ "pc", "mobile" ], "player_role": "operator-pilot", "production_tier": "indie", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gf", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "physical-mechanical", "planetary-natural" ], "sim_scale": "individual", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-x-plane" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "flight-sim", "summary": "A flight sim whose flight model computes forces on small elements of each wing, control surface, and propeller from aircraft geometry, used for entertainment and in FAA-approved training devices.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "open-sandbox", "year": 1995 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C06", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "biology-health": 1, "control-automation": 1, "environment-ecology": 3, "physics-materials": 3, "resources-production": 1, "risk-failure": 1 }, "mechanic_count": 10 }, "agency_model": [ "direct-avatar" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "aliases": [ "Breath of the Wild", "BotW" ], "boundary_case": true, "core_loop": "spot a landmark -> climb, glide, or ride toward it under stamina limits -> solve shrines and fights with physics and elemental interactions -> gather and cook ingredients -> replace broken weapons -> push farther into the world", "design_notes": "The game is mostly authored content (map, shrines, story) and is included for its systemic layer. A modified Havok physics engine and a separate chemistry engine give objects material properties, so fire burns grass and creates updrafts, metal draws lightning and conducts electricity, wind carries flames and gliders, and cold or heat drains health unless countered by clothing or cooked food. Weapon durability and stamina force continual scavenging and route choice, and shrine puzzles accept any solution that satisfies the physical end condition.", "developer": "Nintendo EPD", "emergence": 3, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "zelda-breath-of-the-wild", "influence": 3, "mechanics": [ { "id": "material-interactions", "note": "The chemistry engine gives objects properties such as flammable, metallic, or conductive; fire ignites wood and grass, metal attracts lightning in storms and conducts electricity, and ice melts near fire.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "rigid-body-physics", "note": "A modified Havok engine moves crates, boulders, and weapons; Magnesis lifts metal objects, Stasis freezes an object so stored hits launch it, and Cryonis raises ice pillars from water, giving shrines and fights unscripted solutions.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "survival-meters", "note": "A stamina wheel limits sprinting, climbing, swimming, and gliding; hearts are health, and ambient cold and heat damage the player without matching clothing or elixirs.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "fire-spread", "note": "Fire spreads across grass in the wind direction and produces updrafts that the paraglider can ride.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "weather", "note": "Rain makes surfaces too slippery to climb, and thunderstorms strike metal equipment with lightning.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "heat-transfer", "note": "Region temperature and fire sources set a temperature gauge that damages the player beyond tolerance.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "hand-crafting", "note": "Cooking combines up to five ingredients in a pot into meals or elixirs whose effects and duration depend on the ingredients.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "wear-breakdown", "note": "Weapons, bows, and shields lose durability with use and shatter; the Master Sword recharges instead.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "day-night-cycle", "note": "Time of day changes enemy and creature activity, and the Blood Moon respawns defeated enemies.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "direct-avatar", "note": "Link can climb almost any surface, glide, ride horses, and use runes.", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "content", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild", "narrative_mode": "authored", "perspective": "third-person", "platforms": [ "console", "handheld" ], "player_role": "inhabitant", "production_tier": "aaa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-gg", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-25-contributor-readiness" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "physical-mechanical", "planetary-natural" ], "sim_scale": "region", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-zelda-breath-of-the-wild" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "sandbox-world", "subgenre_secondary": [ "physics-sandbox", "survival-sim" ], "summary": "An open-world action adventure whose physics and chemistry engines let fire, wind, electricity, temperature, and material properties combine, so puzzles and fights accept solutions the designers did not script.", "time_model": "real-time", "type": "game", "win_structure": "completion", "year": 2017 }, { "_derived": { "cluster": "C01", "core_count": 3, "family_profile": { "agents-behavior": 2, "economy-finance": 1, "environment-ecology": 1, "population-lineage": 1, "progression-goals": 2, "risk-failure": 1, "space-construction": 2, "time-pacing": 1 }, "incoming": { "influenced": [ "planet-zoo" ] }, "mechanic_count": 11 }, "agency_model": [ "zoning-placement", "policy-parameter" ], "agent_count_order": "100", "core_loop": "fence an exhibit -> match terrain, foliage, rocks, shelter, and toys to the species -> animals grow happy and breed -> guests visit, spend, and react -> awards and income -> research and adopt more animals", "design_notes": "Zoo Tycoon's core rule is exhibit suitability: each species reports how well its exhibit's terrain mix, foliage, rocks, shelters, toys, and keeper care match its needs, and that suitability drives animal happiness. Guest happiness depends on animal happiness, the species on show, buildings, and scenery, so the two satisfaction meters are chained. Failures are physical: incompatible species in one exhibit kill each other, fences decay, and escaped animals attack guests and staff. Too many complaints about unhappy animals block new adoptions until habitats are fixed.", "developer": "Blue Fang Games", "emergence": 2, "failure_model": "soft-recoverable", "fidelity": "stylized", "id": "zoo-tycoon", "influence": 3, "mechanics": [ { "id": "habitat-suitability", "note": "Each species has preferred terrain types, foliage, rocks, shelters, toys, and companions; suitability drives happiness, and incompatible species in one exhibit kill each other.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "crowd-preferences", "note": "Guest happiness depends on the animals on show, their happiness, buildings such as restrooms and shops, and scenery.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "needs-decay", "note": "Animals need food, water, cleaning, and keeper attention that keepers supply on rounds.", "role": "core" }, { "id": "free-placement", "note": "Fences, paths, buildings, foliage, and scenery are placed on a tile map.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "wear-breakdown", "note": "Fences decay and must be repaired by maintenance workers to prevent escapes.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "staff-hiring", "note": "Zookeepers, maintenance workers, and tour guides are hired.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "tech-tree", "note": "In freeform mode, money spent on research unlocks animals, buildings, and scenery.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "scenario-objectives", "note": "Scenarios set targets such as a guest happiness level, exhibit suitability, animal count, or breeding a species.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "lifecycle-aging", "note": "Animals breed when content; babies grow into adults.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "decoration-beauty", "note": "Scenery such as topiary, lamp posts, and benches gives a small guest happiness boost.", "role": "supporting" }, { "id": "variable-speed", "role": "supporting" } ], "modding": "content", "multiplayer": [ "single" ], "name": "Zoo Tycoon", "narrative_mode": "none", "perspective": "isometric", "platforms": [ "pc", "handheld" ], "player_role": "manager-owner", "production_tier": "aa", "provenance": { "created": "2026-10-24-catalog-ge", "reviewed": [ "2026-10-24-review-fixes" ] }, "sim_domain": [ "biological-ecological", "economic" ], "sim_scale": "facility", "sources": [ "src-wikipedia-zoo-tycoon" ], "status": "sourced", "subgenre": "management-tycoon", "summary": "A zoo management game in which the player builds exhibits whose terrain, foliage, shelters, and toys must suit each species, balancing animal happiness against guest happiness and income.", "time_model": "real-time-pausable", "type": "game", "win_structure": "scenario-goals", "year": 2001 } ]