Ludic Temporal Structure

The Ludic Temporal Structure orders what happens in a game in time - when: before, after, simultaneously. It determines how a match begins, into which units it is divided - turns, rounds, phases -, how game time and action time relate, when it ends and what happens to its state across interruptions.

It is a coordinate structure: every game has one, at the zero point if need be - a match without division and without a set end. The concept is the range of values, the temporal structure of a game the choice set within it; the values are set by Ludic Regulation. Regulation, appearance and ascription adhere to its places: a round has no appearance, the change of round has one - the gong.

It divides the Ludic Process from within without constituting it. That a match begins and ends at all comes from the framing; the temporal structure determines how it begins and when it is regularly over.

Place and design access

Place on the axis: CORPUS - a coordinate structure of the corpus. Its values are determinations; the match it divides is the process.

Design access: designable - division, time regime, end, handling of the game state and start are determined, as are how they appear and what they count as.

Relations on the axis:

• CORPUS: Ludic Regulation sets its values; Ludic Appearance and Ludic Fiction determine at its places how they appear and what they count as. Rounds as days, phases as chapters are ascriptions at its places. It orders Ludic Activities and Ludic Actions; actions take place within its segments. Which division there is, no Ludic Mechanism determines - mechanisms are realised within its segments. The places of the Ludic Sujet lie on it, as do the steps of a Ludic Procedure. Its end often coincides with the Ludic Objective without being the same; it corresponds with the Ludic Spatial Structure where place and time are set together - a zone that closes after three rounds.
• AGENT–CORPUS: it spans the space of possibilities of Ludic Sovereignty over the ending: if it is fixed - a value, an event -, the agents have no authority over it; Endless leaves it to them. Saving and loading, Free Save included, are acting within the rules, not sovereignty.
• AGENT–PROCESS: the Ludic Ductus lays its shapes onto its units. The Ludic Agent Situation imposes conditions on it - ten minutes’ ride to the next stop.
• PROCESS: it divides the Ludic Process from within.

The trias at this concept

In a coordinate structure the three terms take hold at the places - at this turn, this round, this change of phase. The question of appearance becomes: how is it recognisable?

Regulation - the choice set: half time = 45 minutes; the chess clock; white begins; after the twelfth round it is over. Appearance - how the place is recognisable: the gong at the change of phase, the turned hourglass, the save icon, the countdown “3, 2, 1”. Ascription - what the place counts as: in Werewolf the phases count as night and day; in Civilization a round counts as a decade, later as a year; the bonfire in Dark Souls counts as a place of return.

Where the three diverge, coherence costs arise - or meaning: a death without a point of return feels tragic, rewinding can itself become the theme (Braid).

Process formula. The determinations adhere to the places and hold for a process:

A Ludic Temporal Structure has a Ludic Regulation for a Ludic Process. A Ludic Temporal Structure has a Ludic Appearance for a Ludic Process. A Ludic Temporal Structure has a Ludic Fiction for a Ludic Process.

The prepositional construction is binding; the possessive genitive is to be avoided.

Delimitations

Delimitation from Ludic Process

Against the Ludic Process: division and delimitation. That a process begins and ends comes from the framing. The temporal structure divides it from within - rounds, turns, phases, a game clock - and determines when a match is regularly over. A process without a corpus has no set temporal structure: free play ends when the children go home.

Delimitation from Ludic Objective

Against the Ludic Objective: end and fulfilment. The temporal structure determines when a process ends - after 90 minutes, after the last round, when no cards are left. The objective determines when a task is fulfilled. The two often coincide but are not the same: a 0-0 ends without a win, a stalemate without checkmate, and Tetris ends without any victory condition at all.

Delimitation from Ludic Narrational Structure

Against the Ludic Narrational Structure: when, and in which order it is told. The temporal structure orders what happens in time; the narrational structure is a transferable narrative scaffold - beginning, turn, resolution. In a game it is realised by the Ludic Sujet, whose places lie on the temporal structure. Rounds as days, phases as chapters are ascriptions at its places: the division stays the same whether it is narrated or not. An abstract game has a temporal structure and no narrative.

Delimitation from Ludic Mechanism

Against the Ludic Mechanism: reversibility of the game state and of the element. Persistence and reversibility of the temporal structure concern the whole state of the match: loading resets the whole game. Whether a single move can be taken back or an effect undone is a property of mechanisms - their cross dimension reversibility: reversible, irreversible, conditional. Which segments there are, no mechanism determines; it is realised within them. Rewind is the borderline case: it reverses the whole state, but step by step.

Delimitation from Ludic Procedure

Against the Ludic Procedure: places and steps. Both order by sequence, but over different spans. The temporal structure divides the time of the whole game - turns, rounds, phases. A procedure is a sequence of rules with a precondition and a postcondition, and its steps lie on these places: the bidding sequence of an auction, the course of a combat round. The round is the place; what happens in it in order is the procedure.

Examples

Game	Combination
Chess	Turn Based + Event Based (+ Time Based in tournaments) + No Save + Start: fixed
Football	Phase Based (two halves) + Real Time + Time Based + No Save + Start: randomised
Catan	Turn Based + Round Based + Value Based + Start: variable (set-up)
Pandemic	Turn Based + Round Based + Action Based + Event Based + Start: fixed
7 Wonders	Phase Based + Simultaneous + Value Based + Start: randomised (wonders)
Hades	Real Time + Event Based + No Save + Suspend & Resume + Start: fixed, continued across runs
Dark Souls	Real Time + Event Based + Checkpoint + Start: persisted
The Sims	Real Time + Endless + Free Save + Start: variable (creating characters)
Braid	Real Time + Event Based + Rewind + Start: fixed

Explanation

Every game has a temporal order. The Ludic Temporal Structure describes it with five questions that you can answer independently of each other:

How does it begin? Fixed, chosen from options, as a continuation, drawn by lot or negotiated? How is it divided? Into turns, rounds or phases? How does time behave? Does it run in real time, does everyone decide simultaneously and hidden, or does a timer tick? When does it end? At a score, with an event - or not at all? What happens to the game state? Is a mistake final, are there points of return, can you save at any time, interrupt safely or turn back time?

Choose one card per question. Most games combine several: a roguelike, for instance, is “Real Time + Event Based + No Save + Suspend & Resume” - real time, event-driven, death final, but the run can be paused.

Usage context

Dimension	Classification
Phase	Development (primary: determining the temporal order); ideation (secondary: rough direction)
Tool type	structuring - securing results: which temporal structure does your game have? 16 cards PS-01 to PS-16, plus the guide card PS-META-01 (stacks/corpus/temporal-structure/)

Theoretical foundation

• Jesper Juul, “Introduction to Game Time” (2004): play time and event time - the time in which one plays and the time of the game world; their relation is the time regime.
• José P. Zagal, Michael Mateas, “Time in Video Games: A Survey and Analysis” (2010): four temporal frames - real-world time, gameworld time, coordination time, fictive time. Coordination time corresponds to the division into turns, rounds and phases.

Aspects

Five aspects, combinable independently of each other, plus a special case.

Start (PS-16): Fixed (set in advance - chess: starting position, white begins) · Variable (chosen from options - Catan: set-up in order of choice) · Persisted (continuation of an earlier state) · Randomized (drawn by lot - coin toss, dice) · Negotiated (agreed - handicaps, house rules). In addition start symmetry and set-up phase. What holds at the beginning is regulation with initial scope; the aspect describes the temporal form of the beginning, as termination does that of the end.

Division (PS-01 to PS-03): Turn Based - a unit in which one agent acts · Round Based - a unit that comprises all agents and that regulation closes · Phase Based - qualitatively different sections with a changed action space. A turn is not a round (one against all), a round not a phase (built alike against different).

Time regime (PS-04 to PS-06): Real Time - continuous, parallel action · Simultaneous - simultaneous hidden decision, then resolution · Time Based - an external time limit, combinable with everything. Real time and simultaneity differ fundamentally in game-theoretic terms: continuous against discrete.

Termination (PS-07 to PS-09): Value Based - a value is reached · Event Based - an event, a state occurs · Endless - no set end; the agents stop by virtue of their Ludic Sovereignty.

Persistence and reversibility (PS-11 to PS-15), two axes: reversibility as a spectrum - No Save (final) → Checkpoint (set points of return) → Free Save (set by the agent) → Rewind (continuously back); persistence - Suspend & Resume (return to the same point, not an earlier one). Both combine freely. Variants such as autosave, quicksave or single save are regulation, not cards of their own.

Special case action capacity (PS-10, Action Based): a budget of actions per section - not a division of its own but a limit within one, usually with turns or rounds.