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Polaris Game Design @polarisgamedesign.com · 28/01/2026

In need of a bit of design inspiration today? How about playing some Game Poems? www.gamepoems.com Including work by @pippinbarr.bsky.social @gregoryaveryweir.bsky.social, curation by @agatawaszkiewicz.bsky.social @jordanmagnuson.bsky.social and more!

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Polaris Game Design @polarisgamedesign.com · 21/01/2026

It's the Polaris 2025 reports! They've come! They're here! It's a bumper crop of five, count'em FIVE papers! We got comedy, we got death, we got cringe, we got trust... something for the whole team. Piping hot game design knowledge and insight await: polarisgamedesign.com/reports/

Screenshot of the five 2025 Polaris reports, too small to comfortably read, with image previews of 2 flow charts, a sticky note collection, a game screenshot with text interface, and a geological pattern.

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Polaris Game Design @polarisgamedesign.com · 09/01/2026

Tool 6: Procedural Generation. Like Lacunae, successful procgen under-defines the player experience, making it more unique and unexpected, which lead to tellability. Caves of Qud has 1 character with authored traits & backstory, but generated species. Players love telling stories about her.

A cropped screenshot from Caves of Qud showing Sheba Hagadias, generated as a laser turret librarian of the Stilt.

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Polaris Game Design @polarisgamedesign.com · 09/01/2026

Tool 4: Player Framing: Ask the player open-ended questions, which don't affect the game outcomes, but invites interpreting the experience. Fallen London uses mantlepiece & scrapbook"spaces, where players can display ANY object. The game also asks "why are you doing this?" in certain story moments.

Fallen London key art, of a large British-style clock sinking into green water.

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Polaris Game Design @polarisgamedesign.com · 09/01/2026

Tool 3: Acknowledgements: if the game itself can recognize and call out unique play experiences, to make the player feel seen, it helps confirm that the player did something noteworthy, worth telling stories about. For example, in Facade, virtually any player statement will be reacted to.

A screenshot of Facade, with the two main characters looking at each other.

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Polaris Game Design @polarisgamedesign.com · 09/01/2026

Tool 2: Lacunae: intentionally omit details! Rather than strive for full authorial control, sometimes let players feel clever and follow the clues to create their own coherent explanation. For example, Boyfriend Dungeon deliberately didn't answer lore questions that would limit fan creativity.

A screenshot of Boyfriend Dungeon showing two men standing with a lightsaber between them. One, dressed as Security, is a Bouncer saying "I'm going to need you both to step outside."

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Polaris Game Design @polarisgamedesign.com · 09/01/2026

1: Defining an expressive range: When making your game, set player expectations for what stories look like in your world! A consistent 'voice', a clear vocabulary, clear story-genre, and conflict drivers all help inspire players. Sea of Thieves does all of these to encourage "pirate" stories.

A key art illustration of a sea monster threatening a boat, with a pirate on top of it, and other pirates escaping in a rowboat, in Sea of Thieves.

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Polaris Game Design @polarisgamedesign.com · 09/01/2026

This diagram describes the "player story pipeline", in which the devs make a thing, the players play the thing, and then (hopefully) the community talks about their experience. Designers typically intervene in the green and purple phases, while seeding the story-prompts/framing in the yellow.

A diagram describing devs inputting into a green box ('devtime') containing Symbolic Vocabulary and Generative Systems. This overlaps slightly with a yellow box inputted from players ('playtime'), containing Player Framing and Play Sequence. Player Framing has an arrow leading to the slightly overlapping purple phase ('sharetime'), inputted from Community, containing Player Stories, Community Discussion, and Community Legends.

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Polaris Game Design @polarisgamedesign.com · 07/11/2025

If you mean follow folks in the starter pack, you can use the Follow All button in the upper right: If you mean join the starter pack, we're currently limiting it to designers the Polaris organizers or attendees know quite well, so we can vouch for them personally in some way.

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Polaris Game Design @polarisgamedesign.com · 03/10/2025

Tool 6: Procedural Generation Good proc-gen creates moments that = singular, non-repeatable, & unexpected, which humans love telling stories about. It also lends itself to collaborative storytelling, with more room for interpretation & expression than passive experiences. (See: Caves of Qud)

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Polaris Game Design @polarisgamedesign.com · 03/10/2025

First, these designers found 3 major phases of a player story lifecycle: - devtime (while making the game) - playtime (while the player plays) - sharetime (after playing, players tell their story) These tools come into play or show their results at different points in the "pipeline". Let's dive in!

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Polaris Game Design @polarisgamedesign.com · 27/09/2025

Here's a few other examples visualizations for different PAUSEs... can you guess which are for what? Afterwards, check the paper and learn more! Spreadsheets are great, but it's just one tool in the toolbox. polarisgamedesign.com/2022/when-sp...

Many boxes arranged in a grid according to color and content

Armor sets drop rate distribution explainer with pie charts

Graphic design pasted on a screenshot with simple mockup of interface

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Polaris Game Design @polarisgamedesign.com · 27/09/2025

Purpose: relating to the rest of the game Audience: dev team Use: consulted periodically, kept up to date Scope: complete mechanically, not content Emphasis: emphasize effort of connections between systems Maybe we'd make this!

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Polaris Game Design @polarisgamedesign.com · 21/09/2025

Tool 2 Consonance & Dissonance Consonance (on-theme) Dissonance (off-theme) Strengthen your themes with BOTH consonant AND dissonant mechanics. Resident Evil alternates between consonant tones of pressure & uncertainty into dissonant thematic safety, then subverts that back into consonace.

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Polaris Game Design @polarisgamedesign.com · 15/09/2025

The paper explores four different structures of meaning-making between mechanics and narrative: Divergent (different paths), Parallel (separate paths), Congruent (sometimes intersect), Coalescent (totally combined) in order to understand when and how playful narrative moments can occur

Diagram showing a gear for mechanics and a dialogue for narrative, indicating that the two are going in divergent paths from each other

A diagram showing that mechanics and narrative are going in the same path as each other, but don't intersect

A diagram showing that sometimes mechanics and narrative intersect, but only at key points

A diagram showing that narrative and mechanics are going in the same direction as each other at all times

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Polaris Game Design @polarisgamedesign.com · 10/09/2025

Kind Games: Designing for Prosocial Multiplayer is a game design report exploring "multiplayer games designed from the start with systems that deliberately promote prosocial behaviour". Come for the charts, stay for the design patterns to use in your own games: polarisgamedesign.com/2022/kind-ga...

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