Go from Ideas to Gameplay using Gameplay Loops

Using well made gameplay loops, game devs can get ideas into gamplay for their game design. The primary loop is the most important, but the secondary and tertiary gameplay loop will help give the player direction. You can think of this as second to second, minute to minute and hour to hour gameplay.
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More on constructing loops:
• What are loops in game...

[@x.khann.x]

man you just reached into this monstrous topic, ripped out its spine, and compressed it into 5 diamond-dense minutes!

[@JesusRomero-ih1os]

This must be one of THE BEST resumes for a gameplay loop explanation i ever seen. ❤❤

[@jessestewart5109]

I've only watched 2 of your videos, but your content is gold. Subbed.

[@gamedesignwithmichael]

Thanks for checking out the content Jesse Stewart. Glad to have you subbed.

[@cloudneer]

I really appreciate how well you explain complex concepts in just 5 minutes. Thank you!

[@voon7820]

Sometimes the higher level "tertiary loop" dictates the fun of the game rather than the primary.
Case example - turn based strategy game like Civ1, Colonization.
Primary loop is just primitive click the unit, click the city; the addictive 1-more-turn fun comes from the higher level loop where you have an URGE to build up resource, expand or conquer the neighbor or waiting for research or race for a World Wonder.

[@Prodon]

Great explanation - a lot of other resources talk about the primary gameplay loop and give examples of breakdowns of what they think the primary gameplay loop, but they often blur the distinction between the primary/secondary/tertiary gameplay loops in their breakdowns.
This video clearly describes the distinctions three levels of gameplay loops and helps breakdown an example in a much more coherent manner, which helps to understand what the *primary* gameplay loop actually is, and what it is that game designers need to spend their energy perfecting first before moving to the secondary or tertiary levels.

[@ccl1195]

Thanks very much for your video. I've been reading about gameplay loops for over an hour because I wanted advice for the small project I'm designing. In my opinion, every article was terrible. They either simply defined terms as though that constituted advice, were too simple, or too academic to the point that the writing was not functionally helpful. In a sea of open browser tabs, this is the only one that has given me functional assistance, combining abstract theory with concrete examples. Second, it's very appreciated that the examples you used were from successful games.
Great video!

[@nathannlatimore7863]

This is a very helpful explanation!!! These videos have actually been running in perfect parallel with my university courses. Thanks for making these 👍

[@timdoesleveldesign]

Nice breakdown of the essentials, Michael! Though would love to see you sketch out some gameplay loops based on the game examples you are talking about. This could illustrate how you set up gameplay loops for a design document, what tools & annotation methods to use etc.!

[@Sweetroll_EXE]

Thanks for this video man, It really enriched me and made some thoughts i had more clear :)

[@DutchAndGamer]

Found your channel through a comment on a brackey video you posted and so far I like your videos ^^

[@smokeback]

just game across your channel just subbed amazing content

Thanks for this content!

[@tannerlebel5167]

I wonder what the primary and secondary gameplay loops would be considered in a game like stardew valley or animal crossing. There seems to be a lot that can be done in those games so do they have multiple primary/secondary loops?

[@TheAssassin642]

Is the primary loop using tools?

[@nidohime6233]

Both games based their entire progress with the ingame economy.
To progress you need money, so you start doing stuff by selling items such as crops, bugs, fish, unwanted gifts from NPCs and so on. Then once you get said money you buy the needed upgrades so you can gather more stuff to win even more money, so you can finally get the cool stuff you always wanted it, like a mansion or a golden clock tower.
It would be like this: Get stuff> Sell stuff> Buy upgrades> Get stuff
As you see any mechanic or side stuff that does such loop would count as part of the main loop of becoming rich.

[@NinjaNuggets21]

Thanks for the advice

[@gamedesignwithmichael]

No problem!

[@d.g135]

What Is the difference between core game loops(explore->fight->lvl up->Explore?) and primary game loops(walk->attack->dodge->parry->attak?

[@bhavinmaru985]

does tertiary loop means the conclusion or the end of the game always? can you elaborate more on secondary and tertiary loops and give examples?

[@WaffleCat3367]

interesting

[@GailBlit2y]

Question about tertiary gameplay loops - is this just the end game ?

[@gamedesignwithmichael]

Not really. As i said in the video its kind of your motivation hour to hour. From a design perspective you can think about these loops as something you can tune so that each time the player goes through one you are achieving your design intent without needing to make hundreds of hand crafted pieces of content for your game. So you might be killing stuff (primary) to collect resources (secondary) because you are working towards an upgrade. The tertiary loop would be iterations of that process of collecting resources and upgrading a weapon. And how do we design each different loop of that upgrade tree to be what we want. This process could occur at any point in the game.
Completing a quest might be a tertiary loop.
Completing a level.
Earning a high score.
Surviving as long as possible.

[@GailBlit2y]

@@gamedesignwithmichael Thanks for spending the time to answer my question :) Much appreciated

[@avinashshaw743]

Which game is that on timestamp 3:42 i dont remember the name

[@gamedesignwithmichael]

Metal Slug. Can't remember which one. Maybe metal slug 3.

[@avinashshaw743]

Yeah i found it, i have played this game in my growing years haha thank you.

[@avinashshaw743]

can you recommend any book over game design?

[@NickWrightDataYT]

I wish my primary gameplay loop (walking) was developed into something more satisfying.

[@divainsyoutube4254]

This channel is underrated!
Check for yourself if you don't believe me

[@sonofwotan]

After watching a few of these videos describing video game loops, one definitely gets the impression that the terms themselves are poorly chosen. If you use the same word to describe basic button presses and movement, and the overarching gameplay process or cycle, you probably ought to use more clearly descriptive terms. Feels like an issue with “legacy definitions” or something.

[@Phox-in-a-Box]

Why is your audio constantly out of sync?

[@kubolor1234]

Dawg get some decorations, your room looks depressing

[@MAJ0R_TOM]

Holy shit, gaming is dead. It's so over.