Lectures

Twelve Tuesdays. One claim a week, all of them about the same small game.

Each lecture makes one claim and shows a number from the specimen that backs it. Five readings run through them, one every two or three weeks. The label on each row says what the week puts on trial: you, the game, the measuring instrument, or, in week 12, your verdict. Weeks 6 to 8 are the block where the game is in the dock. Every week has its slides, and the page under them is where the numbers live.

1. 0123 February 2027

   A complaint about balance is a prediction

   the measuring instrument

   Nobody has written it down yet. This week you write down three predictions of your own, each with a number, about a game you may not play until week ten.

2. 022 March 2027

   A game that needs a screen cannot be measured

   the measuring instrument

   If a game's rules cannot run without its renderer, nothing about it can be measured. This week the specimen runs with no window open, in 6 ms.

3. 039 March 2027

   A perfect player describes nobody

   is it me

   A perfect bot wins 12 runs out of 15 and tells you nothing about a person. This week the simulated player gets a reaction time, and the wins go away.

4. 0416 March 2027

   One run tells you nothing

   the measuring instrument

   The same player on the same game ends anywhere between 29.8 s and 120 s. This week is about how many runs a claim needs before it is worth saying out loud.

5. 0523 March 2027

   Even steps, uneven difficulty

   is it me

   Turn one dial in equal steps and the game does not get harder in equal steps. The first 50 ms costs 26 wins. A later 50 ms costs 0.4 s.

6. 0630 March 2027

   A dead option looks like a live one

   is it the game

   A choice that does nothing looks exactly like a choice that matters. This week you measure what each of the specimen's seven upgrades is worth, by taking it away.

7. 0720 April 2027

   A gate everyone passes asks no question

   is it the game

   A gate is a point the player must be strong enough to pass. Its size is not a design opinion. It is a multiplication, and the first version got it wrong.

8. 0827 April 2027

   The lazy strategy must lose

   is it the game

   If one way of playing beats every other, the rest of the design is decoration. For a while the best way to play the specimen was to run away.

9. 094 May 2027

   A metric that cannot fail is noise

   the measuring instrument

   Nine different builds, 34 kills each. A metric that gives every subject the same score is not measuring them, and it will not tell you so.

10. 1011 May 2027

    Playing finds what simulation never asked

    the measuring instrument

    This is the week you finally play the game. Ten minutes with your hands finds things that nine weeks of simulated runs did not.

11. 1118 May 2027

    Every boss is easy for somebody

    is it me

    Difficulty is not one number. The same first boss lets 50 runs in 51 past, or 10 in 51, depending on who is holding the controls.

12. 1225 May 2027

    A change is finished when it can be checked

    the verdict

    The semester ends with one change to one constant, and everything you have learned to say about why it is the right one.