Tutorial: Basic Running Game

About this model

This diagram models a basic running game where a player progresses by accumulating distance and facing obstacles, which increase in difficulty. As players run, they encounter various challenges, represented by the accumulation of distance and difficulty factors. Successfully navigating these challenges, players can earn coins, with the quantity based on the distance covered. The game introduces a mechanic for collecting coins that are activated based on the distance achieved, with specified intervals determining the rate of coin accumulation. Additionally, the game incorporates a probability of player crashes, introducing an element of risk. These crashes are influenced by the distance covered and the difficulty encountered, simulating the potential consequences of fatigue or errors as the run progresses. This system not only simulates the core mechanics of a running game, focusing on progression, reward collection, and risk management but also provides a dynamic environment where player actions directly influence outcomes. The dynamics of accumulating distance, facing increasing difficulties, earning rewards, and managing risks are interwoven to create an engaging and challenging game experience.

This public Machinations diagram, “Tutorial: Basic Running Game”, was shared in the Machinations Community by Mihai Gheza.

You can open the original diagram in the Machinations app, press Play to watch how resources move through it, and change its values to see how the system responds. Machinations is a visual tool for designing, simulating and balancing game economies and other systems, where resources flow through sources, pools, drains, converters and gates. In a diagram, a source creates resources, a pool stores them, a drain removes them, a converter changes one resource into another and a gate decides where they go next.