The Cores of Game Design

The MENA meta-framework organizes all game design through four co-equal cores:

Core	Player Verb	Domain
Mechanics	"how the player interacts"	Activities, controls, challenges, level design
Economy	"how the player evaluates and decides"	Resources, mechanisms, balance, progression
Narrative	"how the player creates and perceives meaning"	Theme, message, tropes, story structure
Aesthetics	"how the player perceives and experiences"	Mood, visuals, sound, shape language, UI/UX

Core insight: Start from whichever core is strongest for your concept. There is no correct entry point.

Development cycle: (1) Plan and concept until you have a complete prototype (one mechanic + one goal), then (2) iterate and improve through playtesting, using Flow diagnosis, Forced Action Framework, and GAR cycles.

"They are meant to help you, not to hold you back. Changing and creating cores is perfectly fine, as you are the only one capable of figuring out which form best suits your methods." — Chapter 1

Quick Lookup

I need to...	Go to
Understand the four cores	core-framework.md
Get from idea to prototype	implementation-playbook.md
Find a quick heuristic	rules-of-thumb.md