Ludic Specification

A Ludic Specification is the determination of value in regulation: it sets a parameter - this bearer has this value on this dimension. The board has 8 × 8 squares, the hand limit is seven, a half lasts 45 minutes, a counter is worth one unit.

It is one of the two forms in which Ludic Regulation determines. The other is the Ludic Rule: a specification occupies a place, a rule links. The distinction between balancing and redesign depends on this - balancing means changing specifications; redesign means changing rules.

Every element of a game is at least specified: position, extent, state. The backdrop that bounds the space is specified too, and the goal in football is specified by its dimensions, even where no rule adheres to it. This is why regulation has no zero point at a single element. Specifications are game-specific - “seven cards” holds for one game - and therefore not catalogable.

What it is not. It is not a rule: no effect follows from it; it fixes a value with which rules compute. And it is only the determination of regulation - the determination of appearance is an appearance, that of fiction an ascription.

In everyday language

• “rule” (the term is narrower): a fixed value (“the hand limit is seven”). Does not distinguish specification from rule: changing a value is balancing, changing a link is redesign; nor the single rule from the sequence. The term Ludic Rule reads like the everyday word in English; the prefix keeps the two apart.

Place and design access

Place on the axis: CORPUS - the specification is a determination of the corpus, the form of determination of value in its regulation.

Design access: designable - designers set values. In balancing they readjust them, often many times.

Relations on the axis:

• CORPUS: the specification is a special form of Ludic Regulation - regulation in the form of the determination of a value - and inherits its edges. Every regulation contains at least one, for every element is specified. It determines at the bearers, each value at one: at every entity it carries at least one value, even where no rule adheres. Beside it stands the rule, which computes with its values.
• FORM: the form conditions which values are possible - any numbers in a digital game, at the table as many pieces as there are in the box.
• PROCESS: specifications hold in phases - initially the starting position, during play the hand limit, terminally the score at which the game ends. Rules can change values during play: in Tetris the falling speed increases.
• AGENT: values mark out the action space of agents - how many cards they hold, how much time they have, how far they move. What they want, feel and how they decide, values do not determine.
• AGENT–CORPUS: where players have the authority, they are most likely to change values - the starting capital in Monopoly as a house rule. That is balancing by the players (Ludic Sovereignty).

The trias at this concept

Regulation - the specification is itself regulation, namely its form of determination of value.

Appearance - a value appears at its bearer or in its mediation: the clock shows the 45 minutes, the hand limit is in the rule text, the number of squares can be seen on the board.

Ascription - a value may carry a fictional truth or not. Three lives, shown as three hearts, count as lives; the 45 minutes of a half count as nothing else.

Delimitations

Delimitation from Ludic Rule

Against the Ludic Rule: occupying and linking. The specification sets a value, the rule an effect: “the hand limit is seven” is a specification; “whoever has more cards at the end of their turn discards” is a rule that computes with this value. Whoever changes the seven into a five readjusts the game; whoever replaces discarding with a point penalty rebuilds it.

Examples

• Chess: 8 × 8 squares, sixteen pieces per side, the starting position - all specifications; the knight’s move is a rule.
• Monopoly: the starting capital and the rents are specifications. House rules change them most often.
• Tetris: the falling speed is a specification that a rule increases with every level.
• Werewolf: how many werewolves take part depends on the number of players - a table of specifications.
• Digital games: a patch that lowers a weapon’s damage from 50 to 45 changes a specification - balancing. One that gives it a new ability changes rules - redesign.

Explanation

Many determinations of a game are simply values: how big the board is, how many cards one may hold, how long a round lasts, how much a piece is worth. These are Ludic Specifications. They do not say what happens, but with which quantities the game is played.

For design the distinction is practical: when a game almost works, you turn the values - that is balancing, and it is quick. When it does not work, you have to touch the rules - that is rebuilding, and it takes time.

Usage context

• Phase: mainly evaluation - balancing in the playtest; in development the first values.
• Tools: no stack, because specifications are game-specific. In the material they appear as parameters of the cards - in the auction, for instance, the minimum bid - and in the worksheets of the bearers.