Activities

Term

Belongs to the term

Ludic Activity: A Ludic Activity is a field of action in a game - what one does: hunting, building, trading, exploring, negotiating, surviving.

Stack

What it is about

The Activities stack collects fields of action: what one does in a game – exploring, building, trading, hunting, negotiating, surviving. An activity is not a single move but a whole field of activity. “Hunting” comprises sneaking, reading tracks, aiming and shooting, without prescribing an order; the individual moves are in the Actions stack.

Each of the 33 cards describes an activity with a design question and examples from different games. Two guide cards belong to the stack: instructions and a card on the social form. The same activity changes fundamentally depending on whether it is carried out alone, together, against each other or in unequal roles.

A game usually offers few activities, and it is their combination that characterises it: in Stardew Valley the players farm, collect and trade; in Werewolf they investigate, bluff and negotiate. Activities address what players are looking for – whoever likes collecting, building or bluffing finds in them a reason to play.

How to use it

Method: Lay out all cards or draw five to eight at random. The team chooses three to five activities the game should offer and checks whether they match the motivations of the players it wants to address. For each chosen activity, use the social-form card to decide whether it takes place alone, cooperatively, competitively or asymmetrically. Transfer the selection to the Ideation Worksheet (Activities field).

Note: A game does not need many activities. Focus beats breadth.

Time: 20 to 30 minutes, including discussion.

Sequence: after the Motivation stack, before the Actions stack – first clarify what the agents do, then which moves they need for it.

Relations

Activities stand between the agents’ motivations and the individual moves. The Motivation stack shows what players are looking for; the activities offer fields of action for it, and they are composed of the moves in the Actions stack. An activity opens the space in which goals are pursued (Objectives), and the Argumentum gives it meaning and urgency. To be distinguished are the Mechanisms: they describe how the game works – an auction, a dice roll – not what the agents do.

cards

The cards

ACT-01 Exploring Discovering and exploring unknown areas, content or possibilities – moving through unknown terrain, uncovering the hidden, expanding the picture of the game world.

ACT-02 Building Positioning structures, facilities or installations in the play space and letting them grow – visible, lasting, space-changing.

ACT-03 Trading Exchanging resources, goods or information with other agents or the game.

ACT-04 Managing Organizing, prioritizing and steering resources, units or systems over the long term.

ACT-05 Crafting Making new objects from existing materials – by recipe or freely experimenting. The result lands in the inventory, not in the play space.

ACT-06 Creating Freely and openly bringing content, worlds or forms of expression into the game – without a fixed recipe.

ACT-07 Collecting Deliberately gathering objects, units or achievements – often with the goal of completeness.

ACT-08 Gathering Extracting raw materials, materials or information from the environment – as a basis for other activities.

ACT-09 Farming Producing resources repeatedly and systematically – through cultivation, breeding or repetition cycles.

ACT-10 Hunting Deliberately pursuing a particular target and felling or capturing it.

ACT-11 Attacking Acting offensively on a target – overcoming resistance, conquering positions, pushing back opponents.

ACT-12 Defending Protecting one's own positions, resources or allies from impact.

ACT-13 Escaping Freeing oneself from a threat, restriction or unfavourable position – reactively or strategically.

ACT-14 Sneaking Moving undetected, acting covertly or exploiting information asymmetry.

ACT-15 Infiltrating Covertly penetrating a protected or controlled area and acting within it.

ACT-16 Investigating Deliberately searching for clues, recognizing connections and solving mysteries.

ACT-17 Solving Solving clearly defined problems, puzzles or challenges with logic, skill or creativity.

ACT-18 Coordinating Coordinating actions with other agents in time and space – interlocking timing, sequence and positioning so that the joint execution succeeds. A standalone activity when synchronization itself forms the core of the experience.

ACT-19 Supporting Helping other agents, strengthening them or clearing their path – from a designed support role.

ACT-20 Leading Coordinating other agents, setting direction or steering the group through decisions.

ACT-21 Negotiating Negotiating with other agents – weighing interests, finding compromises or forging alliances.

ACT-22 Surprising Preparing and using moments of surprise – through ambushes, unexpected actions or hidden plans.

ACT-23 Destroying Deliberately dismantling, removing or dissolving existing structures, objects or states.

ACT-24 Rescuing Freeing allies, captives or valuable objects from a threat or restriction.

ACT-25 Bluffing Sending false signals, disguising intentions or deliberately misleading other agents.

ACT-26 Customizing Adapting figures, equipment, environments or rules to one's own preferences.

ACT-27 Surviving Holding out under adverse conditions – rationing resources, fending off threats, not giving up.

ACT-28 Sacrificing Deliberately giving up something valuable to gain a greater advantage elsewhere.

ACT-29 Travelling Covering distances while experiencing the journey itself as an experience in its own right – with route choice, encounters and risks along the way.

ACT-30 Performing Producing an output that is perceived and evaluated by other agents or an audience – through skill, creativity or persuasiveness.

ACT-31 Communicating Transmitting and encoding information under rules set by the corpus – giving hints, interpreting and establishing shared meaning, often under constraints such as limited words or covert channels.

ACT-32 Predicting Committing to a future outcome under uncertainty – making a prediction, betting on a result and bearing the consequences.

ACT-33 Racing Moving in direct competition to reach a goal ahead of others (or the clock) – controlling pace, overtaking and managing the risk of top speed.

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