Week 7 Session: Context

Making the same press mean two different things, depending on what's already true

5 April 2027

Nothing new is measured this week — instead, a piece of state decides which of the earlier meanings currently applies. This is the first week that reinterprets rather than adds: the same press can trigger week 3’s release-timing in one mode and read as part of week 5’s sequence in another, switched by something like week 6’s momentum crossing a threshold.

Before the session#

Bring two earlier prototypes whose mechanics you want to combine (release and momentum work well together, but any pairing is fair game).

In the session#

Demo of one button behaving two different ways depending on a mode flag, then build time combining your own two prototypes behind it.

Studio exercise#

Pick two earlier mechanics and put them behind a single button, switched by one piece of state you control (a threshold, a phase, a toggled flag). A player who has never seen either prototype before should be able to tell which mode is active from what’s on screen — not by trial and error.

This week’s exercise stops at two mechanics on purpose — that’s enough to prove the switch is legible. The Context Switch assessment later asks for the same technique at three mechanics or more, on your own, without a studio session to build it in first. Treat today’s prototype as the technique you’ll need to extend independently, not as the ceiling of what it can do.

By the end#

You’ve confirmed that “one button” was never really a limit on how many things a press can mean — only on how many things can be pressed at once.