~ to get your core gameplay, remove until the game is trivial and uninteresting, then reverse the last cut

— ❐ The Art of Game Design﹕ A Book of Lenses, I think

• →~ if you can design one minute of fun gameplay you can stretch it indefinitely

CORE GAMEPLAY is what emerges from the irreducible mechanics of a game at the bottom of its dependency stack. Remove everything that can be removed without making a game emotionally worthless, and what’s left is core gameplay.

— ❐ Designing Games

method consists of listing a certain number of player actions, represented by verbs and minimal context. These sparse depictions of action are then connected in the form of a flow chart. [...] determine what sorts of challenges these actions might present to players and determine what kinds of abilities are required [...]

— ❐ The Gameplay Loop Methodology as a Tool for Educational Game Design

• ~ core game loop relates to dopamine seeking-reward loop
• ~ any core loop is challenge → actions → reward
• concept visible in ~ if you can design one minute of fun gameplay you can stretch it indefinitely
• ⁓ core game loop is an actual loop you can sketch