Crafting / Recipe System

Ludic Organisational Structure · VI – Social Order (semantically: composition/development; context-dependent) production · Tipping potential: medium

Crafting/Recipe orders through composition: combination possibilities and their results define a design space that agents open up through knowledge, experimentation and resource gathering. Context-dependent.

Design question – How do agents in your game combine materials by recipe to create new items?

Reference example – Minecraft: how the ingredients are arranged on the crafting table decides what is made. Zelda: Breath of the Wild: combining ingredients discovers dishes that warm, speed up or heal. Potion Explosion: every potion requires a specific mix of ingredient marbles.

Ordering domain

Orders the composition of materials into new items through a recipe design space.

Emergent behaviour

The tool chain (better tools enable better tools), bottlenecks in rare materials, wear that sets the chain back, and recipe knowledge as a lead.

Core Mechanisms

• Conversion (MEC-03) – Input materials → output item.
• Matching (MEC-31) – Recipe: which combination yields what?
• Selection (MEC-07) – which recipe to pursue?

Dynamic Mechanisms

• Experimentation (MEC-29) – discover new recipes by trial.
• Revelation (MEC-18) – recipes are unlocked / found.
• Accumulation (MEC-02) – Material gathering.
• Progression (MEC-15) – higher crafting tiers → more complex recipes.
• Production (MEC-01) – crafting as specialized Production.

Feedback architecture

• positive – Tool chain: tools → more efficient gathering → more material → better tools. (Progression)
• negative – Wear: resource scarcity and decay (tools break) dampen it. (Decay)

Design parameters

• Recipe visibility – all known (checklist) ↔ hidden (through experiment)
• Combination freedom – fixed recipes ↔ freely combinable (emergent)
• Material variety – few types ↔ dozens of materials
• Crafting determinism – deterministic ↔ stochastic (quality varies)
• Tool durability – permanent ↔ limited wear

Risk profile

• Runaway leader – medium
• Kingmaking – low
• Stagnation – high
• Complexity ceiling – medium

Compatible with

• Exploration System (ST-10) – Compatible: discovered materials are crafted.
• Survival System (ST-16) – Compatible: crafting survival equipment.
• Production Chain (ST-03) – Compatible: crafting as specialized production.

Tension with

• Market (ST-01) – Tension: buying vs. making yourself.
• Technology / Research System (ST-14) – Tension: systematic research vs. experimental crafting.