Decay

Frame · Gloom & heaviness atmospheric · visual / auditory / haptic

Transience as a process – rust, cracks, withering leaves, the slow dissolution of what exists.

Design question – Something is falling apart in your game. What dissolves – buildings, relationships, memories? And can the decay be halted?

Reference example – BioShock: Rapture, the decaying city under water where everything drips and creaks. Darkest Dungeon: a family estate falling apart, and heroes who grow more fragile with every expedition.

Atmosphere

Decay

Sensory field

Sight: rust, cracks, moss on stone, peeling paint, withering plants. Sound: creaking, dripping, crumbling plaster, silence between the sounds. Touch: brittle material, rough surfaces, damp, coolness.

Coherence

Decay implies decline as a mechanism – things deteriorate over time, maintenance is needed, entropy as opponent. Mechanisms: Decay (counters fall), Maintenance (investing resources against decline), Legacy (irreversible losses). Activities: Maintaining, Repairing, Salvaging. Ludic Organisational Structures: survival order (against the decline).