Core Game Design

These documents contains the Spacestation 14’s Core Game Design Princples and should be used to inform the design of any new designs or large balance changes.

Questions around Core Game Design should be directed towards the Design Group on the Official Spacestation 14 Discord (Prefered) or if you do not use Discord by making a thread on the Spacestation 14 Forums.

Caveats

• These documents are living documents and will change overtime as the design of Spacestation 14 evolves.
• These documents are one interpretation of what Spacestation 14 should be and only reflects the direction of Wizden (upstream) LRP and MRP servers.
• Forks and other communities may have different ideas and directions which they want to take the game, which is fine and something we want to encourage!
• This is primarily intended to serve as a direction for upstream Spacestation 14 development, but forks can use these design documents as a base if they so choose.

What is Spacestation 14?

Spacestation 14 is a game where disasters, enemies, and incompetence conspire to make each shift aboard the station a unique and hellish experience.

Core Pillars

These pillars serve as the guiding concepts for designing features for SS14. When creating features or changing balance you should be actively thinking about how these concepts relate to your design or change. The pillars serve as guideposts for creating a cohesive design for SS14. Further detail about each can be found in: Design Principles.

Chaotic

• No two rounds should play alike. The combination of antagonists, incompetence, and disasters should create situations where players have to deal with rapidly changing and escalating situations.

Seriously Silly

• aka “The clown has put space lube all over the halls, armed the station nuke and is throwing cream-pies filled with acid at security officers”, a situation like this on its face is completely ludicrous but should be taken seriously by players.

Dynamic Environment

• The gameworld should be malleable, letting players build, deconstruct, or modify anything. It should be possible to build an entire separate station and continue the round there if players put in the effort.

Intuitive and Inter-Connected Simulation

• Simulated systems should be complex enough to create engaging gameplay/decisions while still being intuitive enough to learn without wiki-diving. Systems should interact with each other as much as feasible to create new emergent gameplay opportunities.

Player Interaction/Agency

• Players should be encouraged to interact with each other as much as possible to create opportunities for conflict or cooperation. Mechanics should reinforce the player’s ability to make impactful decisions while mitigating those decisions’ effects on the agency of other players.