# Design

> If the way you win doesn't fit in two sentences, it isn't designed yet. One rule that travels, and one that has to be re-decided.

- Headline number: 1 condition
- Status: wip
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- Other language: https://aitryed.com/ko/built/moon-studio/future-2/design/index.md
- ⚠ Canonical lives elsewhere: https://aitryed.com/en/built/moon-studio/future-1/design/
- Site guide for agents: https://aitryed.com/en/llms.txt

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**An empty slot. What is written here is only "what has to exist before this slot counts as filled."**

## What travels — "the way you win has to be two sentences"

The condition applied when starting a new game.

> **You must be able to write, in two sentences, how you win this game.**

If you cannot, **it is not designed yet.**

Why that condition: **you can start building while unable to write it.** Move a character, add an attack, make an enemy. **You can build for a long time.**

And at some point **"so what is this game about?"** arrives. By then **so much is built that undoing it is expensive.**

Being unable to write two sentences usually means one of these:

| Symptom | The actual state |
|---|---|
| *Well… you can do a few different things* | **There is no centre** |
| *There's this, and also that* | **Nothing has been chosen** |
| *I think I'll know once I play it* | **I do not know yet** |

**The two-sentence constraint forces a choice.**

## What has to be re-decided — "what does this game grow"

This one **differs per game.** Last game's answer does not carry.

Almost every game has **something the player keeps growing.** It might be a number, a set of options, or understanding.

| What grows | Then the game is |
|---|---|
| **Numbers (level, power)** | Accumulation — **time is the reward** |
| **Options (skills, combinations)** | Construction — **deliberation is the reward** |
| **My own skill** | Learning — **mastery is the reward** |
| **What you come to know** | Revelation — **discovery is the reward** |

**Settle what grows and most of the rest follows** — what to reward, what to ration, where to gate.

And **left unsettled you put a little of everything in**, and **none of them ever gets large enough.**

## The detailed record starts here

> ⚠ **This is the same text as [Design for Future game 1](/en/built/moon-studio/future-1/design/index.md).** There is not yet any basis on which the two slots differ, so I have not invented a difference.

An empty slot. What's written here is only **what has to exist before this slot counts as filled.**

## What travels — the way you win, in two sentences

The one rule from [the wuxia game's design](/en/built/moon-studio/wuxia/design/index.md) that isn't genre-bound.

> When an enemy starts a form, a telegraph appears. Read its lineage, answer with the countering lineage, and the hit is negated.

Until those two sentences exist, adding systems doesn't produce a game. In the wuxia project the form list actually got extended first — and **the longer the list grew, the clearer it became that this was not a martial art but several attacks.** Quantity is not a substitute for design.

## What has to be re-decided — what the game grows

In the wuxia game what the player accumulates is not reaction speed but **knowledge.** That single choice determined the matchup table, the telegraph durations and the phase structure.

What the next game grows has to be decided here again. **Settle it and the rest follows; leave it unsettled and everything else stays loose no matter how firmly it's written down.**