rimworld game sourced
RimWorld
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.
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.
relations
26 stored edgesAdaptive threat scaling
Raid strength scales with colony wealth, number of colonists, and difficulty, so growth raises danger.
Injury body model
Bodies are hierarchies of parts with hit points, bleeding, infection, scars, and prosthetics that change capacities like moving and manipulation.
Memories and thoughts
Every mood effect is an itemized thought with a source and expiry, visible in the needs tab.
Mood and breakdowns
Mood below trait-adjusted break thresholds triggers minor, major, or extreme mental breaks; high mood can grant inspirations.
Needs decay
Colonists track food, rest, recreation, comfort, beauty, and other needs whose levels feed mood.
Storyteller director
Selectable storytellers (Cassandra, Phoebe, Randy) choose incidents using a threat budget derived from colony wealth and time since the last major event.
Work priorities
A work tab matrix sets 1-4 priorities per colonist per job type; colonists self-assign.
Autonomy levels
Drafting switches a colonist from self-assigned work to direct player control for combat or emergencies.
Modding API
XML definitions and C# assemblies, usually patched in with Harmony, distributed through Steam Workshop.