Core Loop in Game Development

What exactly is it?

Core Loop is one of the most important things in game design, especially in F2P production.

Is it what many people think of when you ask them about the game. It might be one level in Candy Crush Saga, one session of Clash of Clans, one mission in Battlefield or a single deathmatch in Team Fortress 2. Core Loop is the basic thing that the player does over and over again. The proper reaction when you show it to someone is „Ok, nice, now I understand your game.”

The thing is - they don’t. They only understand the core of the game, but there is much more than this. While this may sound simple from the outside, many developers have failed because they couldn’t figure this out or just don’t want to „waste” time for this. Core Loop should explain the main goal of the game. Mostly they are presented graphically, with the description above or below. Sometime loop will be so perfect that players will keep coming back to the game a few times in a day. In F2P development this is a particularly important matter because this improves retention, which is one of the most significant things in monetization. The basic core loop should show in simple way main actions that users have to do to gain rewards and make expansion their character.

Why is this so important?

In this case, we have to ask one important question. 

Are we able to build a game without doing a core loop? Probably.

But are we able to build an excellent game, with a great economy that will transform into a great product and achieve sales success? Probably not.

As mentioned earlier, it is one of the most important parts of game production. Core Loop is a skeleton on which the whole mechanics, logic, and economy of the game are built. How easy to guess, without skeleton it would be hard to keep the body in one piece. Some game designers argue that the best core loops are based on real-world activities. There is truth in this. Core Loop helps to determine what about the game is, what mechanics are contained in and each mechanics should be explained in an understandable way.

In fact, if we can not make a core loop, it means that we can not say what our game is.

Core Loop Types

There are several types of core loops. Mostly it depends on how detailed description of the game we want to have and in what way we look at it. The truth is with one loop we can't define the whole game, there is no such possibility. For this purpose, the game loop categories have been created.

We distinguish 5 types of game loops.

• Main Loop

Main Loop is a general description of the game. It mainly shows us the direction of the game and what the player will be dealing with. Loop should be constructed that the regular player can tell what he will do in the game, without spreading mechanics down. The person after reading the main loop should know what are the basic resources of the game, on what rules game is based, what can be done to achieve the goal of the game and what will prevent it. That's it. Very often we use this type of loop for pitching our game.

Brawl Stars - Core Loop Deconstruction

In this example, we will deconstruct the Brawl Stars. The game shows us how the basic, general game goes. First, we enter the game, we fight with other players, which is why we lose our time, but we gain "Coins", "Account Experience" and we have the opportunity to gain or lose "Hero Trophies". The next step is to improve our character and items. At this stage, we can see that we are losing "Elixir" but we are increasing the maximum value of the "Health" and "Attack" resource. The next step is to open a loot box. We're losing coins, but we get new "Heroes" and "Elixir", which we previously spent on improving "Heroes". And we return to the starting point. As you can see, in a few pictures you can describe the whole game flow without going into detail.

• Dual Loop

Dual Loop let players to either stop their session after the first loop or continue playing through both of the loops and thus extend and deepen their session. This loop is used very often for games that consist of farm resources for the expansion of a given instance. Mostly they are strategic games. Dual Loop is not a subcategory of any game loop, it is considered as one of the head loops (core). Depending on the type of the game, the loop is used interchangeably with the Main Loop as the source of the game description.

Clash of Clans - Core Loop Deconstruction

In this case, we will deconstruct one of the most recognizable mobile games - Clash of Clans. At the beginning we can see the acquisition of resources: We acquire "Gold" and "Elixir" by producing it in real-time by our factories. Then either we go to the fight or we build and level up our character (in this case: the City). If we are going to fight with the NPC we gain "Gold", "Ranking Points" and we lose "Elixir". However, instead of immediately fighting, we can first train our military units and improve our city equipment. As a result, we get rid of the resources "Gold" and "Elixir". Then, starting from the beginning, we can either collect resources and spend them on improving ourselves or go to fight again. In this way, we described a game that never ends. This is also a very general example; inside this loop, there are another dozen or even several dozen loops that create game content.

• Nested Loop

Nested Loop is a programming term, it means putting a loop inside another loop. In this case, it almost looks like a well-made loop. The distinguishing thing is that loops have set finish points before they begin and the player doesn't have to finish one loop before starting the next one. For example, the player can jump on a brick and at the same time use spell or simple attack. In preparing the nested loop we should describe each of the least aspects of the game, including how the input/output works, player movement and behavior. If the programmer looks at it he should understand the whole game logic and practically without any questions be able to start working on the project. This loop should contain several loops inside. Usually, game designers implement Nested Loop with Game Loop and they create a loop that shows us the whole game step by step.

Mario - Core Loop Deconstruction

In this case, the Mario loop shows us the player's goal, his journey and also the system's response to the player's behavior. However, there is a lack of greater accuracy, a breakdown into even smaller points, and a description of the game's economy.

• Compulsion Loop

"A habitual, designed chain of activities that will be repeated to gain a neurochemical reward: a feeling of pleasure and/or a relief from pain." - Joseph Kim, Gamasutra.com

In this loop, we focus on the psychological aspect. Mechanics are described in terms of the player's mind. The purpose of the loop is to create a constantly repeated habit. This can be for example loot from enemies. This loop should consist of a set of specifically designed activities within each step in the chain. In this case, the loop shows us how we can "addict" the player by previously planned mechanics; through the psychological aspect of the desire to acquire and improve your equipment, we lead the player into a loop. Our only goal now is to make sure that the player leaves this loop as late as possible, which forces us to think about the next mechanics and psychological moves.

How to achieve a good core loop?

Often game designers ask themselves how to make a good loop. I have an exercise to do: Try to pretend as an investor, programmer, and grandmother. Yes, this will show us the perspective. Each of these characters has an important role, for real. The investor should understand the game but in the main measure, it should notice sales potential. The programmer should know what the game is but mainly understand the logic of the game and how to build it. Grandmother? Grandma has to show us that mechanics are based on real-world activities and will try to find out what exactly is going on there and will tell her grandson (You!) to explain it more. 

However, a more serious answer to this question will be to plan your game, then break it down into prime factors to the extent that we will have the answer to every possible aspect of the game. It always starts similarly: At the beginning, we do not know much what to write, we have this game idea in mind, but we can not summarize it well. So we start to write/draw or visualize in another way our vision of the game. We get to the point where we think we have written the game. And this is a very false and misleading impression! At this stage, we must know that practically no game can be described in several pages.

Then we start from the beginning. This is called iteration. We come to the point where we have already written the mechanics, e.g. we wrote what the player's movement should look like. Although very rarely we can describe it in detail without iterating. We usually get to the point where we have already done it and we start from the beginning, but now we have more details about our game in mind, we have more thoughtful options and game mechanics in mind, and above all the skeleton of our mechanics. And so we encapsulate the skeleton until the whole body is created.

In my opinion, a well-made loop will be when you read it and ask yourself questions ... right there. There should be no questions.

Perfectly done economy core loop contains:

• main goal
• minor goal
• basic mechanics
• basic game economy

Psychological aspect

Core Loop is not only thinking about numbers, mechanics and logic. It is also thinking how to keep player for long, how to cause the player from every minute of the game to think how in 2 hours he will tell his friends what great game he played. How to do it that the player can feel the satisfaction of the game all the time? The psychological aspect comes to us with help.

Scientists say that the player's expectations and wills are programmable.

Showing from the beginning to the player what is most important and what is less important, is "programming" the player's mind. From now on, when the player sees diamonds instead of the usual silver coin, dopamine in the brain will start rampaging him. He feels excitement and smile appears on his face. The right amount can even produce sounds.

Influencing the player's psychology is an incredibly important aspect of building the flow of the game. These are the so-called instant reward mechanics.

The player will not be aware of what is happening in his brain, but the whole game is programming his mind every moment. The reward can be even a rest. If in the game we have energy resources, through which the player can run, we can renew his whole energy bar by slower walking for some time. There are hundreds of such "hidden" mechanisms.

In a psychological aspect, remember to not limit yourself in creating mechanics. Sky is the limit.

Not only for games

Last but not least! Core loops can be used not only in games but in apps too. Such loops can even describe our lives. Such a loop is only a tool for writing the logic of everything. For example, the human life loop would look like this: We are born, grow up, learn and study, then we go to work, then we learn and study again, then we change jobs all the time until we finally leave this loop which we call death. Our whole world is one big loop.

A perfect example will be also Starbucks. We can see here what our path looks like in this popular cafe. 

In the beginning, we are going to buy coffee, but we get points and discounts for the next coffee, which contributes to our purchase of another coffee and this is how our coffee adventure revolves.

Of course, let's not go from extreme to extreme. Coffee can defend itself and we do not owe everything to these psychological aspects. And so do we in games. Sometimes a very good game can defend itself, but sooner or later the developers will have to improve it anyway and without logical deconstruction - there is no such a possibility.

Summary

Core Loop is one of the most important things in game development.

If you've never done it's time to start doing core loops and make life easier for yourself and your team.

Thanks for your time.

Michal Korek.