Exploring Atomic Object System: A New Game Design Pattern

The atomic object system is an innovative design pattern that enables the creation of novel and composable objects while maintaining the overall balance of the game world. In this system, each object is composed of a small group of basic particles, and its characteristics or statistics are derived from these constituent atoms. This design allows the inhabitants of the game world to create objects with entirely new attributes, rather than being limited to items predefined by the designer.

Design Motivation

Traditional game worlds typically have a set of predefined items, as designers need to prioritize the entertainment experience of players over autonomy. To provide players with a reliable and engaging experience, various systems need to be balanced to ensure that players can obtain the right items at the right time. Powerful or valuable items often require a significant amount of resources to acquire or are restricted by skill trees and upgrade paths to prevent game imbalance. Game designers carefully adjust these systems to optimize player experience while maintaining challenge and a sense of reward.

In multiplayer games, this balance is even more difficult. Single-player games can adjust according to the player's personal progress and skills, quietly changing the rules of the game world. However, in multiplayer games, changing one player's reality may cause dissatisfaction among other players. A shared space that allows players of different skill levels to interact requires an economic system that operates closer to reality, which has historically been a challenge. If players are allowed to create new items without appropriate restrictions, it could lead to a large number of items affecting other players' gaming experiences, or even undermining their own gaming experiences.

The appeal of an autonomous world partly lies in the fact that residents can freely design, build, and create entirely new things together. To achieve this, we cannot rely on game designers to meticulously refine the mechanisms when new objects are added to the world. Manual balancing of systems is costly, and as new objects are introduced, the costs of testing interactions between objects can increase exponentially. Instead, an autonomous world relies on clear narrative rules or digital physics laws that delineate what can physically happen in the world and define the conditions under which it can expand. Good digital physics laws should be able to provide a variety of possible objects without requiring game designers to manually balance each one.

Atomic Object System Mechanism

The atomic object system is a digital physical form that provides an easy-to-understand and self-balancing combinability mechanism. Players are free to invent new objects at any power level they desire, but they must first acquire the necessary atoms by destroying existing objects. By viewing basic atoms as building blocks, players can invent objects that go beyond the limitations of the hard-coded crafting tree. At the same time, the effort required to obtain these atoms in the game world maintains balance by imposing costs proportional to the complexity of the created objects.

The basic production process of this system includes:

1. Collect the basic materials from the extractor.
2. Use buildings to craft items.
3. Add items to the player's inventory.

The most common use of items is to enhance the attributes of a unit, and the number of atoms in the item determines the type and amount of attribute enhancement. Players can also use the "Building Machine" to construct new buildings, thereby producing new items.

Applications and Alternatives

Currently, the most widespread application of virtual world composability systems is in the crafting mechanics of games. Many game genres incorporate similar features, including survival sandbox games, life simulation games, factory or colony management simulation games, and massively multiplayer online role-playing games.

There are various alternatives to this design pattern, with the main difference being how they handle digital physics rules. Designers of the world must consider what level of complexity they need for digital physics rules. Deeper, lower-level, or "fine-grained" digital physics rules are more akin to the real world, while shallower, higher-level, or "coarse-grained" digital physics are more like traditional games.

Future Development Directions

One way to expand the system is to increase the atomic types. Another possibility is to allow atoms to not only affect combat data but also to be associated with more game mechanics. As game design continues to evolve, we look forward to seeing more innovative applications of atomic object systems that provide players with a richer and more自由的gaming experience.