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simgrammar the grammar of simulation

definition

A harvestable stock (trees on tiles, fish in a zone, animals in a region, soil fertility) regenerates each tick at a rate that depends on its current level: often logistic growth, sometimes a fixed respawn timer or seed spread to neighboring cells. Harvesting removes stock at the rate set by extraction; if harvest exceeds regrowth the stock falls and, below a threshold, can collapse or stop regenerating. Banished foresters replant cut trees around their lodge; Eco tracks plant and animal populations that players can overharvest; Minecraft saplings regrow trees only where players plant them. Inputs: harvest rate, current stock, environmental modifiers. Outputs: stock level and yield available per tick.

player experience

Stewardship under temptation. Players can take more now and pay later, so they learn to harvest at a pace the land can sustain, replant deliberately, or move on. Watching a forest or fishery recover after a pause makes the system's memory visible.

design levers

  • regrowth curve shape (logistic, linear, or timer) and its maximum rate
  • collapse threshold below which a stock stops recovering
  • whether regrowth is automatic or needs planting or breeding
  • spatial spread from neighboring cells versus regrowth in place
  • visibility of stock levels and sustainable yield

failure modes

  • Fast regrowth makes stocks effectively infinite and removes the tradeoff.
  • Collapse thresholds that are hidden make extinction feel like a sudden bug.
  • Replanting that is free and instant reduces stewardship to placing one building.

dynamics

  • Overharvesting produces boom-bust cycles in yield, the classic tragedy of the commons in shared or multiplayer worlds such as Eco.
  • The maximum sustainable yield of a logistic stock is at half capacity, so optimal play keeps stocks at partial depletion.
  • Coupled with predator-prey or habitat systems, harvest pressure ripples through an ecosystem.
  • Rotating among harvest sites becomes a spatial schedule.

open questions

  • Can learned ecological models give regrowth realistic spatial patterns while keeping sustainable yield readable?
  • Does shared regrowth in multiplayer reliably produce cooperative norms, or only collapse?

appears in

the paper, 2 sections
paper

4. A grammar of simulation games

linked in this section of the paper

paper
paper

5. The structure of the design space

linked in this section of the paper

paper
glossary

Glossary of mechanics

listed under resources & production, with its summary

book

sources

1
Wikipedia contributors (2026). Eco (2018 video game). Wikipedia

provenance

runs in log/runs
2026-10-24
created2026-10-24-taxonomy-m1taxonomy