Schedule

Mechanism · IV – Time & Sequence immediate · irreversible · open · cooperative / competitive / asymmetric

Schedule structures time: action potential becomes an ordered sequence through a temporal structure (rounds, phases, real time) that generates its own decisions.

Design question – In what order and at what rhythm do things happen in your game?

Reference example – Agricola: fourteen rounds; after set rounds comes the harvest, and then the family must be fed. Animal Crossing: the game runs in real time, shops open and close by the clock. Football: two halves, with the break between them as a phase change. Colt Express (Programmed Movement) · Space Alert (Real-Time) · Puerto Rico (Variable Phase Order)

Structural pattern

Input -> transformation -> output: action potential (actions) becomes an ordered sequence via a temporal structure (rounds, phases, real time).

Regulated in permitting mode (actions per time unit), constraining mode (time limits; at most so many actions per turn or round) and conditioning mode (when a round ends, when the phase changes). The sequence in rounds, phases or real time is a procedure on the positions of the temporal structure; in a game, time limits and numbers of actions become specifications.

Design parameters

• Time model – turn-based ↔ real-time/hybrid
• Simultaneity – strictly sequential ↔ simultaneous/asynchronous
• Turn length – single action ↔ free phase
• Round count – fixed ↔ condition-based
• Time pressure – none ↔ real-time limit
• Rhythm – regular ↔ accelerating/episodic

Related Mechanisms

• Selection (MEC-07) – Frequently combined: which action when?
• Priority (MEC-08) – Frequently combined: turn order.
• Production (MEC-01) – Frequently combined: periodic yields.
• Decay (MEC-04) – Frequently combined: time-based decay.

Ludic Organisational Structures

Banking / Credit · Survival System (core)