Game loops
Video games have a unique concept called a game loop. As you might be able to guess, it’s a loop of mechanics that are performed throughout the experience. The game loop itself could be very short, such as Call of Duty’s multiplayer team deathmatch. The loop looks something like this, where the goal is to kill more enemies than the number of times you die:
- Kill enemies
- Die and respawn
There’s more to it than that, and if you are a professional Call of Duty player, you may think this is an over-generalization of the gameplay. Ultimately, however, it really is the case 90% of the time. Now let’s look at Minecraft’s game loop:
- Gather resources in the day
- Build in the day
- Survive at night
We are going to simplify this: there are specific circumstances that fall outside this loop, such as creepers in the day and rainfall, which reduces light levels such that it essentially becomes night...
