Game Design, Puzzle and Party Game Glossary
Games come with a vocabulary nobody ever explains, because you are expected to have picked it up. Here is the whole list: 231 terms in 7 groups, from party games and puzzles to game mechanics, systems and design. Each one gets a one-sentence definition first, then a short explanation.
Jump to party games, puzzles and daily games, game mechanics, game systems, player experience, Christopher Alexander and design or Bossfeed words. No account, no sign-up. If a term you want is missing, tell us and we will add it. Writing and editing terms are in the Final Boss Editing glossary.
Party games (39)
Games you play together in one room, usually on a shared screen with everyone's phone, and the words people use to talk about them.
- Battle royale A game format where many players start together and are eliminated one by one until a single player or team is left.
- Bluffing game A game where you win by convincing others of something false, or by spotting the one true answer among believable fakes.
- Browser game A game that runs inside a web browser, so it needs no download or installation.
- Couch co-op Playing a video game together on one screen in the same room, sitting side by side.
- Draw and guess game A game where one player draws a secret word and everyone else races to guess it, like Pictionary on phones.
- Game night A regular get-together where friends or family spend an evening playing board, card or video games together.
- Host screen The shared screen, usually a TV or laptop, that shows the game to the whole room while players use their phones.
- Icebreaker game A short, low-pressure game that helps people who do not know each other well relax and start talking.
- Jackbox Games Jackbox Games makes party game packs played on a shared screen, with each player joining from their own phone using a room code.
- Jackbox-style game A party game shown on one shared screen where every player uses their own phone as the controller.
- Kahoot Kahoot is a quiz platform where a host shows questions on a shared screen and players answer on their own devices.
- Local multiplayer Several people playing the same game on one device or in one room, rather than over the internet.
- Party board game A board game, usually with dice and short minigames, built for fun and chaos more than careful strategy.
- Party game A game built for a group in one room, easy to learn in a minute and fun to watch as well as to play.
- Phone as controller A setup where players use their own phones as game controllers while the game itself shows on a shared screen.
- QR code join Joining a game by scanning a QR code with your phone camera instead of typing a room code.
- Remote party game A party game played by a group in different places, usually over a video call with one person sharing the game screen.
- Room code A short code, often four letters, that lets players join one particular game session from their own device.
- Social deduction game A game where some players hold hidden roles and everyone tries to work out who is on which side by talking.
- Trivia night A social event where teams answer rounds of quiz questions read by a host, usually in a pub, for points and bragging rights.
- Werewolf (Mafia) A group game where hidden villains secretly eliminate players each night while everyone else tries to work out who they are.
More party games terms
Bot player
A bot player is a computer-controlled player that takes a seat in a game so that it is never empty or lopsided.
In party games, bots fill empty seats so a game can start with one person or a few. A good bot plays at a believable level and never spoils the humans' fun. In public battle royale rooms they keep the arena full until real people take over their places.
On Bossfeed, Surviversus and Final Boss Fiesta use bots. In Surviversus drop-in rooms you join by taking over a bot, and in Final Boss Fiesta bots fill every empty seat.
Surviversus! - drop into a match by taking over a bot.
Related terms
Bullet heaven
Bullet heaven, also called a survivors-like, is a type of action game in which your character fights automatically while enemies swarm in from every side and you choose upgrades as you level up.
The name flips bullet hell, where the player dodges screens full of enemy fire. Here you are the one filling the screen. Your weapons fire themselves, so the only controls are where you walk and which upgrade you pick. Vampire Survivors popularized the style in the early 2020s.
Upgrades stack and combine, so a modest starting weapon can end up covering the whole screen. Runs are short and the controls are simple, which suits a phone thumb. Surviversus on Bossfeed uses this style, adding a closing storm and a 30-player public Royale.
Surviversus! - steer with one thumb, pick power-ups, outlive the storm.
Related terms
Caption game
A caption game is a party game in which players write funny answers or captions in response to a prompt and the group votes for its favorite.
The format is old, from card games like Apples to Apples to phone party games like Quiplash, and it moves well onto phones, where writing is private and the reveal is dramatic. The prompt is shown on the shared screen, everyone types an answer, and the screen shows answers anonymously for a vote. Scoring is usually by votes received.
Bossfeed does not have a pure caption game. The closest is Boss's Bluff, where you write convincing fakes instead of funny answers and vote for the one you think is true.
Boss's Bluff - write and vote, with trivia as the prompt.
Related terms
Charades
Charades is a party game in which a player acts out a word, title or phrase using only gestures, with no speaking, while the rest of the group guesses.
It needs no equipment, only a list of things to act out and a timer. Players use a set of common signals: holding up fingers for the number of words, tugging an ear for sounds-like, and making a book shape for a title. Teams usually take turns and score a point per correct guess.
Charades is the ancestor of many modern party games, including draw-and-guess games, which swap gestures for sketches. It works with any age group, which is why it is a classic icebreaker.
Related terms
Cooperative game
A cooperative game is a game in which players work together as a team against the game itself, so that they win or lose together.
Co-op games are a good fit for mixed groups. There is no one to beat, so a strong player can help a new one without spoiling anything, and nobody is eliminated while the others carry on. Pandemic is a well-known tabletop example, and Overcooked is a popular video game one.
The usual weakness is that one confident player starts telling everyone else what to do. Designers deal with this by hiding information from each player, adding a time limit, or splitting the work so each person has a role. Versus games, in which players compete, suit groups that enjoy rivalry, and many party games mix both.
Related terms
Family-friendly game
A family-friendly game is a game suitable for players of all ages, with simple rules, no graphic content and nothing that needs an adult to filter.
For party games with typed or drawn answers, the main question is what players might write or draw. Good family games add a filter on typed text and give the host a way to hide an answer or skip a prompt. A no-typing mode helps for younger children.
Bossfeed's Boss's Bluff passes typed answers through a strict family-room filter, lets the host hide any answer with one tap, and offers Kid Mode, where every phone gets the same hand of ready-made cards with the real answer among them. Surviversus is cartoon monster-fighting and asks for no typing at all.
Boss's Bluff - turn on Kid Mode in the TV's settings for a no-typing room.
Related terms
Free-for-all
A free-for-all is a game mode in which every player competes individually against all the others, with no teams or alliances.
Free-for-all is the default for most party games, because it needs no setup and everyone is a rival. Battle royales are free-for-alls on a big scale. The risk is gang-ups, where several players target whoever is winning, so good designs include catch-up mechanics, random events or a shrinking arena that keeps the leader under pressure.
The alternative is team play, which suits mixed-skill groups because stronger players can help weaker ones. Many party games offer both.
Related terms
Game lobby
A game lobby is the waiting area where players gather, choose names and get ready before a match starts.
In a party game the lobby usually appears on both the host screen and the phones. The host screen lists who has joined, often with nicknames and avatars, while each phone shows a ready button. The host starts the game when the room is full. A good lobby tells latecomers they can still join and does not let one slow phone hold everyone up.
Bossfeed's version is the party lobby, which keeps a group together across several games so nobody has to rejoin.
Bossfeed party games - the Make me a lobby button is at the top of the page.
Related terms
Latency
Latency is the delay between doing something, such as tapping a button on a phone, and seeing the result appear on screen.
In a phone-as-controller game, a tap travels from the phone, across wi-fi or mobile data, to the host device, is processed, and then shows on the big screen. Each step adds a little time. Past about a tenth of a second, controls start to feel sluggish, and in a fast game that is the difference between fun and frustrating.
To keep latency low, put phones and the host on the same wi-fi network if you can, sit within range of the router, and pause big downloads. Bossfeed treats low latency as a requirement for its party games, and most of them show a latency readout in their settings, so a laggy room can be diagnosed.
Related terms
Marble race
A marble race is a race in which marbles roll down a track under gravity, and the winner is the first marble to cross the finish line.
Marble racing became a popular thing to watch online, with elaborate tracks, commentary and league tables, because the outcome is both physical and unpredictable. Nobody controls the marbles, so the drama comes from bounces, jams and near misses.
Game versions add a thin layer of control, such as nudging a marble left or right, or picking a team to cheer for. In Marble Rush on Bossfeed, 32 marbles race down a mountain course on the big screen, and each phone steers a team of four, nudging one marble at a time and switching to whichever of yours is furthest ahead.
Marble Rush - a two-minute marble race for up to 8 phones.
Related terms
Minigame
A minigame is a short, simple game played inside a larger game, usually lasting under a minute and with its own quick rules.
In a party board game, minigames are the main event: a few seconds of racing, dodging or button-mashing that decides who earns a reward. Because they are short, a poor result costs little, and because the rules fit on one line, newcomers can join in. Designers vary the controls from one minigame to the next so that no single skill dominates.
Final Boss Fiesta has more than twenty of them, each played with a stick, one button or both, so anyone can pick one up in seconds.
Final Boss Fiesta - a board plus a long list of minigames.
Related terms
Pass and play
Pass and play is a way of playing a game together on a single device, which is handed from one person to the next as each takes a turn.
It is the simplest form of local multiplayer, and it works for turn-based games such as chess, word games and board games, where only one person acts at a time. Everyone watches the same screen, so there is no hidden information, unless the game asks you to look away while the next person plays.
The limit is waiting. Players who are not on turn have nothing to do, and the device keeps getting handed over. Games where each person has a phone of their own avoid both problems, because everyone can act at once and keep private information private.
Board Game Night - chess, poker and more, on phones, a PC or one TV.
Related terms
Pub quiz
A pub quiz is a trivia contest held in a pub or bar, in which teams of friends answer rounds of general-knowledge questions read aloud by a quizmaster and the highest-scoring team wins.
Pub quizzes are a fixture of British and Irish pub culture, and the style has spread elsewhere as trivia nights. A quiz usually has six to ten rounds, with questions that mix easy and hard so every team scores something. Many include a picture round, a music round and a final question where teams bet points on how sure they are.
The prize is often small, such as a bar tab, because the point is the evening. To run a pub-style quiz at home you need a set of questions, a pen and paper for each team and a quizmaster who is happy to be booed. Phones can replace the paper if a shared-screen game handles the scoring.
Related terms
Public and private rooms
A public room is a game session open to anyone who wants to join, while a private room is a session that only people who have its room code can enter.
Public rooms are always running, so there is a game whenever you arrive. They suit big, loose formats like a battle royale, where players come and go. The cost is that you play with strangers.
Private rooms are for friends and family: the host creates the room and shares the code. They suit games with drawn or typed answers, where you want to know who is in the room. Bossfeed's Surviversus offers both, with a 30-player public Royale as the default and private rooms for your own group.
Surviversus! - public Royale or a private room.
Related terms
Roll and move game
A roll and move game is a board game in which each turn you roll dice and move your piece that many spaces along a path.
It is the oldest board game pattern, found in games like Snakes and Ladders and Monopoly. Its reputation is mixed, because pure dice rolling leaves little to decide. Modern party versions keep the roll but add choices: branching paths, spaces with different effects, items, and minigames that decide the real winner.
Final Boss Fiesta on Bossfeed is a roll-and-move party game: tap your phone to roll and hop around the board, land on spaces that hand out Gems or set off surprises, then play a minigame with the whole table.
Final Boss Fiesta - roll, hop, play a minigame, collect Trophies.
Related terms
Screen casting
Screen casting means sending what is on one device's screen, such as a phone or a browser tab, to another screen like a TV, wirelessly.
Common routes are Chromecast, AirPlay and Miracast, depending on your devices. For party games, the usual trick is to open the game on a laptop or phone, then cast that browser tab to the TV, so the TV becomes the host screen.
Casting adds a small delay, and a wired HDMI connection from a laptop to the TV is more reliable and has less lag. If the game runs on the device you are casting from, keep that device plugged in and awake, because if it sleeps the TV goes blank for everybody.
Related terms
Smart TV browser
A smart TV browser is the web browser built into many smart TVs and game consoles, which can open a web page, and therefore a browser game, directly on the TV.
Quality varies a lot. Newer TVs handle modern pages well, while older ones can be slow or struggle with heavy graphics. If a game stutters, try closing other apps on the TV or move to a laptop with an HDMI cable, which is almost always smoother.
Typing a web address with a remote is slow, so bookmark the page or use the phone to send it to the TV. Once the game is on screen, everyone else joins from their phones, and the TV does nothing but display.
Related terms
Spectator mode
Spectator mode lets a person watch a game in progress without playing in it.
Watching is part of the fun at a party. In shared-screen games the host screen is itself a spectator view, so anyone in the room can follow the action without a phone. Games also use spectating to keep eliminated players involved, or to let a latecomer watch until the next round.
In private Surviversus rooms, a person who joins mid-match is seated as a spectator.
Surviversus! - private rooms seat late joiners as spectators.
Related terms
Puzzles and daily games (104)
Riddles, quizzes, word puzzles and logic puzzles, plus the habits that grow around playing one a day.
- Across and down The two directions a crossword answer runs: across a row, or down a column.
- Acrostic A piece of writing whose first letters, read down the lines, spell out a word or message.
- Anagram A word or phrase made by rearranging all the letters of another, using every letter exactly once.
- Anagram indicator The word in a cryptic clue that signals the letters beside it should be rearranged.
- Brain teaser A short puzzle or question that looks simple but needs a change of viewpoint to solve.
- Charade (cryptic crossword) A cryptic device that builds the answer by writing two or more shorter clued pieces one after another.
- Chess puzzle A chess position set up with a task, such as finding the checkmate in one move, taken from a real or composed game.
- Criss-cross puzzle A crossword-shaped grid with no clues: you are given the words and must work out where each fits.
- Crossword puzzle A word puzzle where answers to numbered clues are written across and down in a grid and cross each other.
- Cryptic crossword clue A clue with two routes to the same answer: a straight definition and a piece of wordplay.
- Cryptogram A short text encrypted by swapping every letter for another letter, solved by working out the swap.
- Daily puzzle A puzzle that gets a new version every day, usually the same one for every player, designed to take a few minutes.
- Daily riddle One riddle a day, a short puzzle in words whose answer hides behind a double meaning or a clever trick.
- Double acrostic A puzzle whose clued answers spell one message down their first letters and a second down their last.
- Fill-in puzzle A crossword grid that comes with the answers instead of the clues, leaving you to place them.
- Hidden word clue A cryptic clue whose answer is spelled out in plain sight inside the clue's own text.
- History quiz A set of questions about people, events and discoveries from the past, used for learning, fun or competition.
- Homophone clue A cryptic clue where the answer sounds like another word, flagged by a listening indicator.
- Kakuro A crossword shape filled with digits, where each run must add up to its clue and never repeat a digit.
- Killer sudoku Sudoku with no starting digits, where dotted cages each carry a total their cells must add up to.
- Large print puzzle A puzzle typeset at a bigger size and heavier weight throughout, so it reads comfortably with reduced vision.
- Logic grid puzzle Match items across several sets using clues, with a grid to track what each clue rules out.
- Logic puzzle A puzzle with one right answer that you reach by reasoning from the clues, with no guessing.
- Mini crossword A small crossword, usually 5 by 5 squares, that can be solved in a few minutes.
- Nonogram A grid where run-length numbers on each row and column tell you which squares to fill, revealing a picture.
- Palindrome A word, phrase or sequence that reads the same forwards and backwards.
- Pangram A sentence that uses every letter of the alphabet at least once.
- Rebus A puzzle that spells a phrase using pictures, letters and their arrangement on the page.
- Seed word The word a puzzle is built around, placed first, with everything else fitted to it.
- Streak The number of days in a row you have completed a daily game, which resets if you miss a day.
- Sudoku Fill a 9×9 grid so every row, column and 3×3 box holds each digit from 1 to 9 exactly once.
- Theme entry One of a crossword's long answers that share a hidden idea the whole grid is built around.
- Trivia Small facts and knowledge questions on any subject, played as a quiz game for fun.
- Word ladder Turn one word into another by changing a single letter at a time, every step a real word.
- Word search A letter grid hiding a list of words, each running in an unbroken straight line.
- Wordle-style game A daily word-guessing game where you find a hidden word in a few tries, using colored feedback after each guess.
More puzzles and daily games terms
Armor
Armor is gear a character wears in a role playing or dungeon game that makes enemy attacks hit less often.
Better armor found on the floor is worth picking up. A stronger armor can turn a risky fight into a safe one.
Armor does not heal you, it only lowers how often you are hit.
In Daily Dungeon you can find better armor on the floor and swap to it, so it pays to look around before you head for the stair.
Used in: Daily Dungeon
Related terms
Art quiz
An art quiz is a quiz about artworks and the people who made them, usually asking you to match a painting with its artist, period or subject.
Art quizzes train the eye. Famous works are easier to recognize than to name, so a matching format helps: you see a painting and pick the artist, or see an artist and pick the work. Over time you start to notice brushwork, color and composition that tell periods apart.
Bossfeed's Daily Art Quiz matches famous artists to their public-domain masterpieces against the clock. It runs on a few days each week, is free and family-friendly, and plays in a browser.
Daily Art Quiz - match the artist to the masterpiece.
Used in: Daily Art Quiz
Related terms
Back rank mate
A back rank mate is a checkmate delivered along the first or eighth row of the board, where a rook or queen checks a king that is trapped by its own pawns.
It is the most common checkmate pattern. The pawns in front of the king make a wall, so the king has no square to step to once a rook lands on the back row.
Spotting it is a habit: when the enemy king sits behind unmoved pawns, look for a way to get a rook or queen onto the back row.
Used in: Daily Chess Puzzle, Chess Puzzle Blitz
Related terms
Black square
A black square is a square in a crossword grid that holds no letter and marks where a word ends.
Black squares break the grid into separate words. A word runs from a black square or an edge to the next black square or edge.
Counting the white squares in a row tells you how long the answer is.
Black squares are also called blocks. The pattern they make is part of a crossword's design, and small grids like the five by five mini use only a few.
Used in: Daily Crossword
Related terms
Black to move
Black to move means the black pieces are the ones you control in a chess puzzle, and it is your turn to play.
Black moves second in a real game, but a puzzle can start from any position, so either side can be the one to move. The board turns so your pieces are at the bottom.
Check whose turn it is before anything else. A move that would be checkmate for one side is not available to the other.
Used in: Daily Chess Puzzle
Related terms
Blanks
Blanks are dashes shown in place of the letters of a hidden answer, one for each letter, so the solver knows how long the word is.
The length is a clue in itself. It rules out many guesses before you type.
Some puzzles fill in blanks as you find letters, as in hangman.
As you type guesses the answer lines up against the blanks, so a guess of the wrong length is easy to spot and drop.
Used in: Daily Boss Draw
Related terms
Blitz
Blitz is a style of chess played against a short clock, so each decision has to be quick.
In a puzzle game, blitz means you solve against the clock instead of at your own pace. Speed matters, but only after the position is read correctly.
Fast solving is mostly pattern recognition. The more mating patterns you know, the less you have to calculate.
Used in: Chess Puzzle Blitz
Related terms
Block puzzle
A block puzzle is a puzzle game in which you place shaped pieces onto a board and clear full lines, and the run ends when no piece fits.
The skill is space management. Placing an awkward shape first keeps flat ground free for the big pieces that come later.
Most block puzzles give you a few pieces at a time to choose from, so there is a small planning step before every placement.
Used in: Hexa Puzzle Saga
Related terms
Caesar cipher
A Caesar cipher is a substitution cipher in which every letter of a message is shifted a fixed number of places along the alphabet.
Julius Caesar is said to have used a shift of three, so A became D and B became E, to protect military messages. With only 25 possible shifts it is easy to break by trying them all, and by spotting that the most common letter is probably E. ROT13, a shift of 13, is a modern relative that is its own reverse.
It is the usual first cipher, since you can encode a message with a paper strip or a wheel.
Related terms
Check
Check is a chess move that attacks the enemy king, and the player in check must respond at once by moving the king, blocking the attack or capturing the attacker.
Every checkmate begins as a check, so listing the checks available is the first step in most mate puzzles. A check that the other side can answer is not mate, but it can force a reply that helps your next move.
A king may never move into check, and you may never make a move that leaves your own king in check.
Used in: Daily Chess Puzzle, Chess Puzzle Blitz
Related terms
Checkmate
Checkmate is a position in chess where a king is in check and cannot escape by moving, blocking the attack or capturing the attacker, which ends the game.
The side that delivers checkmate wins. A mate puzzle gives you a position where one side can force it, and your job is to find the move or moves that do.
Count the squares around the enemy king. Squares blocked by its own pieces count as walls, which is why a king hemmed in by its own pawns is the classic target.
Used in: Daily Chess Puzzle, Chess Puzzle Blitz
Related terms
Cipher
A cipher is a method of hiding a message by systematically changing its letters or symbols according to a rule, so that only someone who knows the rule can read it.
Ciphers work letter by letter, while a code swaps whole words or phrases for other words. The two simplest ciphers are substitution, where each letter becomes a different letter or symbol, and transposition, where the letters are kept but shuffled. Puzzle cryptograms use substitution, and solvers break them by spotting letter patterns.
Real encryption today uses far more complex mathematics, but the idea is the same. A puzzle cipher is a gentle introduction to that idea.
Daily Cryptogram - break a substitution cipher every day.
Used in: Daily Cryptogram
Related terms
Clue
A clue is a short piece of information in a puzzle that points to an answer or rules something out.
In a crossword, a clue describes one word in the grid. In a logic puzzle, a clue is a statement about who did what, and every one is there to be used.
Read clues for what they exclude as well as what they confirm. A fact that is ruled out helps as much as a fact that is certain.
Used in: Daily Crossword, Mini Lineup, Morning Mysteries, Dual Category Logic Puzzle, Directional Map Puzzle, Lineup Grid Puzzle
See also on Final Boss Editing: Clue
Related terms
Contradiction
A contradiction is a pair of facts that cannot both be true, and in a puzzle it shows that an assumption you made was wrong.
Solvers use contradictions on purpose. Assume something, follow it, and if it collides with a clue, the opposite must hold.
This turns one wrong guess into a firm deduction, as long as you were careful to follow every consequence.
Used in: Paired Statements Puzzle
Related terms
Deduction
Deduction is the act of working out a fact that must be true from clues you already have, without guessing.
A logic puzzle is a chain of deductions. Each one fixes a fact, and that fact makes the next deduction possible.
If you are about to guess, look for a clue you have not used yet. Every well made logic puzzle can be solved by deduction alone.
Used in: Mini Lineup, Morning Mysteries, Dual Category Logic Puzzle, Directional Map Puzzle, Paired Statements Puzzle
Related terms
Directional clue
A directional clue is a clue about position, such as north of a landmark or two places to the left of someone, used in map style logic puzzles.
On a map puzzle, the layout itself is the answer. Treat every directional clue as a rule and rule out each spot that breaks it.
Clues that name a fixed landmark pin a Seeker down fastest, so start with those.
Used in: Directional Map Puzzle
Related terms
Dual category puzzle
A dual category puzzle is a logic puzzle in which each Seeker is matched to two kinds of thing at once, such as the goods they sell and where they stood.
It uses two linked grids that share the same Seekers, so a fact in one grid often unlocks the other.
The tip is to finish nothing in isolation. After every match you confirm, scan the clues that mention the other category.
Used in: Dual Category Logic Puzzle
Related terms
Dungeon floor
A dungeon floor is one level of a dungeon, and in Daily Dungeon you finish a floor by reaching the stair that leads down.
Each day has one floor, and it is the same for every player. If you fall, the floor resets and you try again.
Scouting before you commit saves turns.
A floor holds rooms, corridors, monsters and treasure. The stair is placed so that reaching it takes thought, not luck.
Used in: Daily Dungeon
Related terms
Eight queens puzzle
The eight queens puzzle asks you to place eight chess queens on an eight by eight board so that no two queens share a row, column or diagonal.
Chess composer Max Bezzel posed it in 1848. There are 92 solutions in all, and 12 distinct ones once rotations and reflections are treated as the same. It became a standard teaching example in computer science for a technique called backtracking, where a program places a queen, tests it, and backs up when it hits a dead end.
Modern puzzle sites use the same idea with colored regions, where you place one queen in each region as well as each row and column. The reasoning is pure deduction: find the region with the fewest options and see what it forces.
Related terms
Elimination
Elimination is a solving method in which you rule out every option that cannot be true until only one option remains.
In a logic grid, a cross marks an option that is ruled out. When a row has crosses everywhere but one cell, that cell must be the answer.
Elimination is the main tool in a logic puzzle because it never needs a guess.
Used in: Morning Mysteries, Dual Category Logic Puzzle, Directional Map Puzzle, Lineup Grid Puzzle
Related terms
FEN
FEN, short for Forsyth-Edwards Notation, is a line of text that describes a chess position, listing the pieces on each row of the board and then whose turn it is.
Rows run from the eighth row down to the first and are separated by slashes. Capital letters are White pieces, lower case letters are Black pieces, and a number is that many empty squares in a row.
After the board, a w or b says who moves. Chess programs and puzzle pages use FEN to load any position exactly.
Used in: Daily Chess Puzzle
Related terms
Freewriting
Freewriting is the practice of writing continuously for a set time without stopping to edit, correct or judge what comes out.
A timer of five or ten minutes works well. The goal is to get words onto the page, not to make them good.
If you are stuck, write about the smallest detail in the prompt and follow it.
Many writers use it as a daily warm up. Because nothing is kept to a standard, there is no way to do it wrong.
Used in: Daily Writing Prompt
See also on Final Boss Editing: Freewriting
Related terms
Grid
A grid is the pattern of squares a puzzle is played on, such as the letters in a word search or the cells in a crossword.
Grids differ by puzzle. A word search grid is full of letters, a crossword grid has white squares to fill and black squares that mark word ends, and a logic grid has rows and columns to tick off.
Learning a puzzle's grid is usually the first step to solving it.
Used in: Daily Word Game, Large Print Word Search, Daily Crossword, Mini Lineup
Related terms
Grouping puzzle
A grouping puzzle is a puzzle in which you sort a set of words or items into groups, each linked by a connection that the puzzle does not tell you.
The usual layout shows sixteen items to sort into four groups of four. The challenge is that items often fit more than one group, so the first obvious grouping is usually wrong and the puzzle comes down to finding which overlap is the decoy. Strategy is to find the group you are most sure about, remove it, and let the leftovers get easier.
Bossfeed does not have a grouping puzzle at the moment. The Daily Mini Lineup is the nearest in feel, since it is a short sorting-by-logic puzzle.
Daily Mini Lineup - a one-minute sorting puzzle by logic.
Related terms
Haiku
A haiku is a very short poem of three lines, in English often written as five, seven and five syllables, that captures a single moment, traditionally from nature.
The form comes from Japan, where the count is of sound units rather than English syllables, and traditional haiku also include a season word and a pause called a cutting word. In English the 5-7-5 pattern is a common guide rather than a strict rule, and many poets write shorter. The craft is in the contrast between two images that the reader joins together.
Bossfeed posts a daily haiku to read, with a writing challenge for anyone who wants to try their own.
Daily Haiku - one short poem a day.
Used in: Daily Haiku
See also on Final Boss Editing: Haiku
Read public domain poems: daily poem archive, Poem of the Day. Deeper reading: Tanka
Related terms
Helped and pilfered
Helped and pilfered are the two possible roles in Mini Lineup, a deduction puzzle in which each person in a crowd either helped or pilfered.
Every clue on the board is true, even the ones held by the pilferers. A person's clue opens when you mark them correctly.
There is always one person the clues settle, so you never have to guess.
Used in: Mini Lineup
Related terms
Hex board
A hex board is a game board made of hexagonal cells, so each cell has six neighbours and lines run in three directions instead of two.
On a square board a line is a row or a column. On a hex board there are three directions to fill, so a single piece can help complete a line in more than one way.
That makes planning two pieces ahead more useful, because a gap that looks harmless in one direction can block a clear in another.
Used in: Hexa Puzzle Saga
Related terms
Hint
A hint is a nudge in a puzzle that points to the next step without giving the whole answer.
In the daily games, a hint usually adds a time penalty to your result but never stops you from finishing.
Use a hint when you have checked every clue and cannot see a move. It is faster than guessing and keeps the puzzle honest.
Used in: Morning Mysteries
Related terms
Imagery
Imagery is the use of words that paint a picture, letting the reader see, hear, smell, taste or feel what is described.
A haiku is built on a single image or two images that sit side by side. A longer poem uses imagery to carry feeling without stating it.
When a line stays with you, it is usually because of an image.
Used in: Daily Poem, Daily Haiku
See also on Final Boss Editing: Imagery
Read public domain poems: daily poem archive, Poem of the Day
Related terms
KenKen
KenKen is a number puzzle played on a square grid in which each row and column must hold every number once, and each boxed group of cells must combine to a target using the marked operation.
Japanese teacher Tetsuya Miyamoto invented it in 2004 to help his students practice arithmetic and logic together. Each boxed group, called a cage, shows a target and an operation such as add, subtract, multiply or divide. You fill the numbers so that every cage works out and no row or column repeats a number.
Solvers start with the cages that have few possible combinations, such as a single cell or a large product. KenKen is a name belonging to its owner, and Bossfeed does not have a version of it.
Related terms
Lateral thinking puzzle
A lateral thinking puzzle is a puzzle that presents a strange situation and is solved by questioning assumptions and asking yes or no questions to uncover the story behind it.
Edward de Bono coined the term lateral thinking in 1967 for solving problems by approaching them from unexpected angles. In puzzle form, a host gives a short, odd scenario. A classic: a man asks a barman for a glass of water, the barman points a gun at him, and the man says thank you and leaves. The group asks yes or no questions until they reconstruct the full story (he had hiccups). The puzzle is the questioning itself.
They work well in groups and around a table, because everyone contributes questions. The host needs to know the answer and answer only yes, no or irrelevant. Good players ask broad questions first, then narrow in.
Related terms
Liar day
A liar day is a Morning Mystery in which one guest lies in every statement, and the solver finds the culprit by spotting whose words cannot be squared with the facts.
Every other guest tells the truth, so the true statements give you a firm base. The liar is the one whose statements break against it.
It differs from a Truth and Lie day, where each guest tells one truth and one lie.
Used in: Morning Mysteries
Related terms
Line clear
A line clear happens in a block puzzle when you fill every cell in a full line, which makes the line disappear and scores points.
Clearing lines is how you keep the board open. Clearing more than one line with a single piece usually scores much more.
A run ends when none of the pieces you hold can fit, so each clear buys time.
Used in: Hexa Puzzle Saga
Related terms
Lineup puzzle
A lineup puzzle is a logic puzzle in which a row of people stands in order, and you work out who stands in which place from clues about position.
Each person takes exactly one place and no two share one, so every place you fix removes it from everyone else.
Begin with clues that rule someone out of the ends of the line, then place anyone with a fixed spot.
Used in: Lineup Grid Puzzle
Related terms
Masterpiece
A masterpiece is a work of art, such as a painting, that is considered one of the finest made by its artist.
In the art quiz you match each masterpiece to the artist who painted it. Knowing an artist's style helps as much as knowing the title.
The paintings used are from the public domain, so anyone can look at them freely.
Used in: Daily Art Quiz
Related terms
Match-three puzzle
A match-three puzzle is a puzzle game in which you swap neighboring tiles to line up three or more of the same kind, which then disappear and let new tiles fall into place.
Bejeweled popularized the format in the early 2000s, and Candy Crush Saga made it a mobile staple a decade later. The depth is in cascades: a match that drops tiles into new matches, scoring a chain without extra moves. Good players look a few moves ahead for the swap that sets up the biggest chain.
Crystal Chaos on Bossfeed is a match, cascade and survive game, playable in the browser.
Crystal Chaos - match, cascade, survive the chaos.
Related terms
Mate in one
A mate in one is a chess position in which the player to move can deliver checkmate with a single move.
It is the simplest chess puzzle, and the first one beginners learn. The method is to list the checks available, then test each one: does the king have a square to flee to, can the checking piece be captured, and can another piece block? The check that passes all three is checkmate.
Bossfeed's Zip Mate is a mate in one on about half the days, and on those days any move that gives checkmate counts as a solve.
Zip Mate - a daily chess puzzle, a mate in one about half the time.
Used in: Daily Chess Puzzle, Chess Puzzle Blitz
Related terms
Mate in two
A mate in two is a chess puzzle in which one side can force checkmate on its second move, however the opponent replies to the first.
The first move is often a sacrifice or a quiet move that leaves the opponent with no good answer. After any reply, a second move delivers mate.
Because the opponent gets a reply, you have to check every defence, not just the most natural one. A line that fails against one reply is not a solution.
Used in: Daily Chess Puzzle
Related terms
Merge puzzle
A merge puzzle is a puzzle game in which you slide or combine two matching tiles into a single tile of higher value, trying to build the biggest tile before the board fills.
Gabriele Cirulli's 2048, released in 2014, made the genre famous. Every move slides all tiles in one direction, and matching neighbors fuse. The strategy is to keep your biggest tile in a corner and keep a clear row to build from.
Bossfeed has 3072, a 2048-style number-merge game.
3072 - a 2048-style number-merge game.
Related terms
Misdirection
Misdirection is the use of a clue or phrase that points the solver toward the wrong answer on purpose.
A riddle often describes something so that it sounds like one object when it is really another. The first guess is usually the trap.
Reading the riddle again with the opposite assumption often breaks it open.
Magicians use the same trick. They draw your eye to one hand while the real move happens with the other.
Used in: Daily Riddle
See also on Final Boss Editing: Red herring
Read classic riddles: daily riddle archive, Daily Riddle
Related terms
Mystery puzzle
A mystery puzzle is a logic puzzle framed as a whodunit, in which a set of clues about suspects, places and items lets you deduce who committed the crime.
Most are logic grid puzzles in costume. The clues rule combinations in and out, and you keep track on a grid until only one suspect fits. The story is decoration, but good decoration, since a theft in a bakery makes each deduction more fun to chase than a bare table of letters.
Bossfeed's Morning Mysteries is a cozy logic grid mystery: read the clues, work the grid, solve the case. Most take a few minutes, the hardest days closer to ten, and every one can be solved by elimination alone.
Morning Mysteries - a daily logic grid mystery.
Related terms
Paired statements puzzle
A paired statements puzzle is a logic puzzle in which each Seeker makes two statements, and exactly one of the two is true.
It is the same idea as a knights and knaves puzzle. You can never throw out a whole speaker, only one half of what they say.
Pick a Seeker, assume the first statement is true, and follow both consequences through the other clues.
Used in: Paired Statements Puzzle
Related terms
Path puzzle
A path puzzle is a puzzle in which you draw a continuous line through a grid, often connecting numbered or paired points and covering the required cells, without the line crossing itself.
Known by names such as Numberlink, Arukone and one-stroke puzzles, the form asks for planning more than clue reading. A good opening is to start from cells with only one way out, since forced moves restrict everything around them.
Bossfeed does not have a path puzzle. Zip Mate, despite the shared word, is a chess puzzle. For a short logic puzzle, try the Daily Mini Lineup.
Daily Mini Lineup - the nearest quick logic puzzle on Bossfeed.
Related terms
Poem
A poem is a piece of writing that uses rhythm, imagery and line breaks to say more in fewer words than ordinary prose.
Poems can rhyme or not, and be long or short. What they share is attention to how the words sound and look.
Reading a poem slowly, and twice, is the best way to notice what it is doing.
Used in: Daily Poem
See also on Final Boss Editing: Poem
Read public domain poems: daily poem archive, Poem of the Day. Deeper reading: Sonnet, Ode
Related terms
Poetic form
Poetic form is the shape a poem takes, such as a sonnet, a ballad or a haiku, set by its length, rhythm and rhyme.
A form is a set of rules that the poet works within. Knowing the form tells you what to expect and makes the poet's choices easier to see.
The daily poem's introduction names the form and says what to look for.
Used in: Daily Poem
See also on Final Boss Editing: Poem
Read public domain poems: daily poem archive, Poem of the Day. Deeper reading: Sonnet, Ballad, Villanelle
Related terms
Position clue
A position clue is a clue about order in a lineup puzzle, such as who stood before whom or who was never at the end.
These clues rarely name a place outright. Each one removes a few possibilities, and together they leave one order.
Mark what a clue rules out as well as what it confirms.
Because these clues work together, a position you cannot fix yet may still be narrowed by a later clue.
Used in: Lineup Grid Puzzle
Related terms
Printable puzzle
A printable puzzle is a puzzle laid out to be printed and solved on paper with a pencil, usually supplied with an answer key.
Paper still matters. Many people find it easier on the eyes, it works away from a screen, and printed puzzles make good gifts and classroom handouts. A good printable has a clean layout, large enough type and a separate answer page.
Bossfeed's printable pack collects the day's puzzles and an answer key into one printout, and the large print section sets puzzles in bigger type.
Printable daily pack - the day's puzzles on paper, with answers.
Related terms
Public domain
Public domain describes a work, such as an old poem or painting, that no one holds the copyright to, so anyone can read, share or show it freely.
Copyright lasts for a fixed time. After it runs out, the work belongs to everyone.
The daily poems, art quiz paintings and quotes come from the public domain.
Works from the public domain are free to reprint, which is why a daily site can show a whole poem or painting rather than a few lines or a thumbnail.
Used in: Daily Art Quiz, Daily Poem
Related terms
Quote
A quote is a famous saying or line taken from a person, book or poem, and in the word games the words you solve complete it.
Knowing the quote helps. If you guess the saying, you know which words to look for.
Each daily word game uses a quote from the public domain, with the speaker named.
Quotes make good puzzle material because they are short, familiar in rhythm and full of common words.
Used in: Daily Word Game, Daily Cryptogram, Daily Anagram
Related terms
Roguelike
A roguelike is a dungeon-exploring game in which each run is randomly generated, movement and combat are turn-based, and dying sends you back to the start.
The name comes from Rogue, a 1980 text-based dungeon game. The genre is built on replay: no two runs are the same, so you learn the rules and not the map. Every step uses a turn, which turns exploration into a planning puzzle about what is worth fighting.
Bossfeed's Daily Dungeon is a small roguelike with one floor a day, the same floor for every player. Every turn costs points, and the way down is a staircase somewhere beyond the monsters.
Daily Dungeon - one dungeon floor a day, the same for everyone.
Used in: Daily Dungeon
Related terms
Seeker
A Seeker is one of the characters in a Morning Mystery logic puzzle, and the puzzle asks you to work out what each Seeker did, sold or said.
Seekers make up the rows of the grid. The clues describe them one by one or compare them to each other.
Each Seeker matches exactly one answer in each category, so every match you confirm removes that answer from everyone else.
Used in: Morning Mysteries, Dual Category Logic Puzzle, Directional Map Puzzle, Paired Statements Puzzle, Lineup Grid Puzzle
Related terms
Sliding block puzzle
A sliding block puzzle is a puzzle in which pieces on a board can only slide, not lift or rotate, and the goal is to move them into a target position or out through an exit.
Classics include the fifteen puzzle, Klotski and Rush Hour. The challenge is that moving one piece blocks another, so the solution needs planning several moves ahead, often starting with a move that seems to make things worse. Good solvers work backward from the exit.
Color Gates on Bossfeed is a sliding block puzzle: slide every block out through the gate of its own color using as few drags as possible. Each color also has its own shape, so you never need to tell shades apart. A new board arrives every day, with unlimited practice boards.
Color Gates - a daily sliding block puzzle.
Related terms
Smothered mate
A smothered mate is a checkmate in which a knight checks a king that cannot move because its own pieces fill every square around it.
A knight is the only piece that can give check without a line the other pieces can block, which is why it is the one that finishes the job. The pattern often starts with a sacrifice that forces the defender's pieces into the corner.
Once you have seen it a few times, it is easy to recognise: a king in a corner, surrounded by friends.
Used in: Chess Puzzle Blitz
Related terms
Solve time
Solve time is the length of time a player takes to finish a puzzle, and in the daily games it sets the player's place on the leaderboard.
The clock starts when the puzzle opens and stops when you finish. Penalties and hints add seconds.
Only the live puzzle for today counts for the daily leaderboard. Older puzzles from the archive are practice.
Used in: Daily History Quiz, Daily Anagram
Related terms
Stroke
A stroke is one continuous line drawn without lifting the pen, and a drawing is built from many strokes.
In Daily Boss Draw the drawing is replayed stroke by stroke, exactly as its artist made it.
Early strokes often give away the shape, so guess before the drawing is finished if you can.
A fast artist uses few strokes and a careful artist uses many, so the number of strokes on screen is a rough clue to how finished the picture is.
Used in: Daily Boss Draw
Related terms
Substitution cipher
A substitution cipher is a code in which each letter of a message is replaced by a different letter or symbol, always the same one, and the solver works out the swap.
In Daily Decode the symbols are emoji. Because the swap is consistent, every letter you confirm fills in every place it appears.
Start with the symbols that appear most often, which are usually common letters such as E or T.
Used in: Daily Cryptogram
See also on Final Boss Editing: Cryptogram
Related terms
Sudoku variant
A sudoku variant is a sudoku puzzle with at least one additional rule or a different grid, such as sum cages, extra diagonals, irregular regions or a smaller size.
Variants keep the base rule that each row, column and region holds every digit once, then add a twist. Killer sudoku adds cages with sum targets. Diagonal sudoku makes both main diagonals hold every digit. Jigsaw sudoku replaces square boxes with irregular shapes. Smaller 4 by 4 and 6 by 6 grids are a gentle way in.
Extra rules mean extra clues, so variants can have far fewer starting digits than a classic. If you are new to them, start with the small grids.
Related terms
Syllable
A syllable is one beat of a spoken word, such as the two beats in the word haiku.
Counting syllables is how haiku are measured in English. The traditional pattern is five, seven and five.
Say the word aloud and tap once for each beat.
Syllables are not the same as letters. A short word can have two beats, and a long word can have one, so counting aloud works better than counting letters.
Used in: Daily Haiku
See also on Final Boss Editing: Haiku
Read public domain poems: daily poem archive, Poem of the Day. Deeper reading: Meter
Related terms
Time penalty
A time penalty is a number of seconds added to a player's finishing time for a wrong guess or a hint.
In Daily Boss Draw a wrong guess adds five seconds. Penalties make careless guessing costly on the leaderboard.
Think before you type, because a slow right answer can beat a fast wrong one.
Penalties are applied to your finishing time, so a clean run with no hints and no wrong guesses ranks highest on the board.
Used in: Daily Boss Draw
Related terms
Truth and Lie day
A Truth and Lie day is a Morning Mystery in which each Seeker makes two statements and exactly one of the two is false.
There is no single liar to find. You work out which half of each pair holds, and the true halves fit together into the one solution.
A good method is to assume the first statement is true, follow what that forces, and flip the assumption if it leads to a contradiction.
Used in: Morning Mysteries, Paired Statements Puzzle
Related terms
Turn
A turn is one action in a turn based game, such as a step or an attack, after which the other characters get to act.
In Daily Dungeon, monsters only move when you do. That makes the game a puzzle of choosing each step carefully rather than reacting fast.
Your supply of turns is limited, so wandering has a cost.
Used in: Daily Dungeon
Related terms
Turn in a poem
A turn in a poem is the point where the poem shifts from one image or idea to another.
In a haiku the turn usually comes between the lines, and the two images then comment on each other. The reader feels a spark in the gap.
Looking for the turn is a good way to read any short poem.
Some forms name it. In a sonnet it is called the volta, and it often arrives about two thirds of the way through.
Used in: Daily Haiku
See also on Final Boss Editing: Volta
Read public domain poems: daily poem archive, Poem of the Day
Related terms
White to move
White to move means the white pieces are the ones you control in a chess puzzle, and it is your turn to play.
The board is drawn with White at the bottom when it is White's turn, so you can tell at a glance which side you are playing. Everything you do in the puzzle, from a check to a capture, is done with the white pieces.
Chess diagrams and puzzle books print the same label under the board. When the label says black to move instead, you play the black pieces and the board flips.
Used in: Daily Chess Puzzle
Related terms
Word game
A word game is a game that is played with letters and words, testing spelling, vocabulary or the ability to see patterns in language.
The genre ranges from crosswords and word searches to anagrams, cryptograms, Scrabble-style tile games and daily word-guessing games. Some reward vocabulary, some reward pattern spotting, and some, like hangman, reward both. Word games are popular because they are short, need no equipment and suit all ages.
Bossfeed has several, all free and all daily: Wise Word Finder (a word search whose hidden words are the blanks in a quote), the Daily Cryptogram, Anagram Quotes and the Daily Mini Crossword.
Wise Word Finder - a daily word search built from a quote.
Related terms
Wordplay
Wordplay is the use of words in a clever way, such as a word with two meanings or a sound that fits two different words, to mislead or amuse.
Most riddles run on wordplay. The answer is usually plain once you notice which word is doing double duty.
If the obvious reading does not work, ask which word could mean something else.
Used in: Daily Riddle
See also on Final Boss Editing: Pun
Read classic riddles: daily riddle archive, Daily Riddle
Related terms
Writers block
Writers block is the feeling of being unable to think of what to write, even when you have time and want to.
A writing prompt is a simple fix. It gives you a place to start so you do not face a blank page.
Lowering the stakes helps too. Nobody has to read a five minute warm up.
Most blocks pass once the first sentence exists, even a poor one, and a poor first sentence can always be rewritten later.
Used in: Daily Writing Prompt
See also on Final Boss Editing: Freewriting
Related terms
Writing prompt
A writing prompt is a short idea, question, image or opening line given to a writer as a starting point for a piece of writing.
Prompts remove the hardest part of writing, which is starting. Good ones are specific enough to get you moving but open enough to go anywhere. Writing for ten minutes without stopping to edit, then reading what you wrote, builds the habit faster than waiting for inspiration.
Bossfeed posts a new writing prompt each day.
Daily Writing Prompt - a new prompt every day.
Used in: Daily Writing Prompt
See also on Final Boss Editing: Freewriting
Related terms
Game mechanics (25)
The rules, actions and chance systems a game is built from, and the words designers and players use for them.
Action economy
Action economy is the number of actions a player or side can take in a turn or a span of time, treated as a resource in its own right.
In many games the side that gets to do more things wins, even if each thing is weaker. Two small actions can beat one big one.
Designers use the idea to check balance. A powerful card that costs a whole turn may be worse than a modest one that costs nothing.
Related terms
Aggro
Aggro, short for aggression, is the game's record of which character an enemy has chosen to attack, and the actions that make that choice change.
In group games, aggro decides who takes the damage. One player may deliberately draw it to protect weaker teammates, which gives a team roles without a rule that says so.
Players also use the word loosely for any enemy that has noticed them: to pull aggro is to get an enemy's attention, and to lose it is to slip away.
Related terms
Asymmetric game
An asymmetric game is one in which players or sides have different goals, abilities or information, instead of starting from identical positions.
Chess is symmetric, since both sides start with the same pieces. Hide and seek is asymmetric: one person hides and the others search. Social deduction games are too, because some players secretly work against the rest.
The difficulty is balance. If each side feels fun but one wins far more often, the design needs work. Asymmetry is also a rich source of variety, since each role teaches the game from a different angle.
Related terms
Buff
A buff is any effect that strengthens a character, such as extra speed, damage or defense, and it can be temporary or permanent.
The word also has a second meaning in balance talk: when designers buff a character or item, they change its numbers so it becomes stronger. See nerf for the opposite.
Temporary buffs create short bursts of power the player feels and plans around. A power-up that lasts ten seconds invites a decision about when to spend it, which is more interesting than a boost that is always on.
Related terms
Cooldown
A cooldown is the waiting period after a player uses an ability, during which that ability cannot be used again.
Cooldowns stop a strong move from being repeated forever. A dash that recharges in five seconds is a tool, while one with no wait would be the only thing anyone used.
They also teach rhythm. Players learn to count the wait and plan around it, which turns raw button pressing into timing. Games draw the wait as a shrinking ring or a grayed icon so it never has to be remembered.
Related terms
Core loop
The core loop is the short cycle of actions a player repeats over and over in a game, usually an action, a result and a reward that makes the next action worth taking.
In a daily word puzzle the loop is guess, read the clues, guess again. In a dungeon crawler it is explore, fight, collect, grow stronger. Everything else in a game is built around this loop, so it has to feel good even with no extras attached.
A loop that is fun for thirty seconds can carry a game for hours. A loop that is tedious cannot be saved by menus, levels or story. Designers test the loop first for that reason.
Related terms
Debuff
A debuff is an effect that weakens a character, for example by slowing it down, lowering its damage or dealing poison damage over time.
Debuffs are the mirror of buffs. A slowed enemy is easier to hit, and a poisoned one is on a clock. Most games make debuffs wear off, so the weakened side feels pressure without being locked out of play.
A good debuff is readable. The player should be able to see that it is on, what it does and roughly how long it will last.
Related terms
Drop rate
A drop rate is the chance that a given item appears as a reward when the game rolls its loot, usually written as a percentage.
A drop rate of one in a hundred means the item turns up about once per hundred tries on average, though a given player may see it on the first try or never within two hundred. That spread is exactly what makes rare drops exciting.
Publishing the drop rate is a matter of trust. Players feel better about a rare item when they know the real odds.
Related terms
Gacha
Gacha is a reward system in which players spend currency for a random prize, named after capsule toy machines.
The pull may give a common item most of the time and a rare one now and then. The mechanic is compelling because it mixes a small chance of a big win with the lure of just one more try.
It is also controversial when real money is involved, since it can encourage overspending, and some regions require the odds to be shown.
Related terms
Game loop
A game loop is the piece of code that runs many times every second, reading player input, updating the state of the game and drawing the result to the screen.
The name causes confusion because designers also talk about a core loop, which is a cycle of player actions. The game loop is a technical idea, not a design one. It is the engine heartbeat that keeps the picture moving.
Turn-based games can pause the loop until the player acts. Real-time games keep it running no matter what, which is why they need to handle slow phones and fast ones fairly.
Related terms
Hit points
Hit points, often shortened to HP, are a number that tracks how much damage a character can take before it is defeated or removed from play.
Hit points turn a vague idea, being hurt, into something a player can count and manage. Full health means freedom to take risks, and a sliver of health makes every choice tense.
Daily Dungeon shows your hit points as a bar and a number. Heart icons, health bars and plain numbers all serve the same goal: tell the player how close failure is.
Used in: Daily Dungeon
Related terms
Imperfect information
Imperfect information is a property of games in which some facts, such as the cards in an opponent's hand, are hidden from some players.
Poker is the classic case. You decide with only part of the picture, so bluffing, guessing and reading people become part of the skill.
Hidden information is what makes bluffing games work. It also brings tension: players act, watch what others do, and slowly work out what the missing pieces must be.
Related terms
Loot table
A loot table is a list of the items a game can give as a reward, with a set chance attached to each one.
When an enemy is defeated or a chest is opened, the game rolls on its loot table. Common items sit near the top with high chances and rare ones sit far down with low chances.
Designers tune the table to control how rewards feel. A table that is too generous cheapens the prize, and one that is too stingy makes players quit.
Related terms
Mechanic
A mechanic is a single rule or action that a game gives the player, such as jumping, drawing a card, rolling dice or swapping two tiles.
Mechanics are the smallest parts of a design. A chess piece moving like a knight is a mechanic. So is the timer on a daily puzzle or the way a line clears in Hexa Puzzle Saga when it fills.
One mechanic rarely carries a game alone. The interest comes from how several mechanics combine, which designers call dynamics. Good designers try to keep each mechanic simple enough to explain in a sentence.
Related terms
Open world
An open world is a game design in which the player can roam a large map freely and take on goals in almost any order, with few barriers.
Freedom is the selling point, but it creates a design problem: without a path, players need other ways to know where to go. Landmarks and signposts do that job.
An open world is not the same as a sandbox. An open world may still have a strict story and fixed goals, while a sandbox may be a small room.
Related terms
Perfect information
Perfect information is a property of games in which every player can see the full state of play at all times, with nothing hidden.
Chess, checkers and Go are the standard examples. Both sides see every piece, so a loss is always down to skill, never to something unseen.
That clarity is why these games reward deep study. The cost is that strong players can calculate far ahead, which is why games that want surprise add hidden cards or dice.
Related terms
Permadeath
Permadeath is a rule in which a character that is defeated is lost permanently, so the player cannot reload or retry and must start again.
The rule makes every decision count. A risky move that would be a shrug with a checkpoint becomes a real gamble when the whole run depends on it.
Permadeath is the signature rule of the roguelike, and the reason its stories feel personal. Softer versions keep some progress between runs, as the roguelite does.
Related terms
Procedural generation
Procedural generation is the use of rules and random numbers to create game content, such as levels, maps or items, instead of designing each piece by hand.
It lets a small team ship a game that never plays the same way twice. Dungeon floors, planets and puzzle boards are common examples.
The risk is sameness. Rules can produce a thousand floors that all feel alike, so designers add handmade pieces and quality checks. A daily seed, where every player gets the same generated board on the same day, keeps the variety and makes scores comparable.
Used in: Daily Dungeon
Related terms
Real-time game
A real-time game is one that keeps running continuously while the player decides, so timing and reaction speed count alongside strategy.
Action games, racing games and most online shooters are real-time. Bossfeed's Surviversus is one: the storm closes and monsters attack whether or not you have made up your mind.
Real-time play adds pressure that turn-based play lacks, and it makes delay in the network matter much more. A hundred milliseconds of lag is a nuisance in a card game and a loss in a fast action one.
Related terms
Resource
A resource is anything in a game that the player collects, spends and manages, such as gold, health, energy, ammunition or turns.
Resources force decisions. If you cannot afford everything, you have to pick, and picking is where strategy lives.
Designers watch where resources come from and where they go. If players earn more than they can ever spend, the choice disappears, and if they can never afford anything, the game feels cruel.
Related terms
RNG
RNG, short for random number generator, is the part of a game that produces chance outcomes, and players also use the word to mean luck itself.
A dice roll, a card shuffle and a critical hit are all RNG. Too little makes a game predictable and too much makes it feel unfair, because skill stops mattering.
Designers manage the balance with tools like bounded ranges and safety nets that guarantee a result after enough bad luck. Players complain about bad RNG when the dice feel like they decided the game for them.
Related terms
Roguelite
A roguelite is a game that borrows the run-based, randomized structure of the roguelike but lets some progress, such as unlocks or upgrades, carry over after each defeat.
Where a strict roguelike resets almost everything, a roguelite sends you back with something earned. Each failed run still moves the player forward, which softens the sting of losing.
The line between the two is blurry and fans argue about it. A useful test is whether you come back stronger, in tools or in knowledge, or only wiser.
Related terms
Sandbox
A sandbox is a game that gives the player tools and an open space to build or experiment in freely, with few or no fixed goals.
Minecraft is the best known example. The game offers blocks and a world, and what you make of them is up to you.
The strength of a sandbox is player-made goals. The weakness is that some players want direction and feel lost, so many sandboxes add optional goals on top.
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Turn-based game
A turn-based game is one in which players or sides act one at a time in a set order, and the game waits for each choice before moving on.
Chess, checkers and most card games are turn-based. Waiting means there is time to think, so these games reward planning over reflexes. Daily Dungeon on Bossfeed is turn-based too: the monsters move only when you do.
The pace is set by the players, not the clock. That makes turn-based games friendly to short sessions and to people who prefer to take a moment before every move.
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Zero-sum game
A zero-sum game is one in which every gain by one player is matched by an equal loss for another, so the total stays at zero and no shared win exists.
Chess is the classic example. One side wins, the other loses, and nothing can be created for both. Most sports and many card games work the same way.
Non-zero-sum games let players both gain, which makes room for trading, teaming and trust. Cooperative games sit at the other end, where everyone wins or loses together.
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Game systems and economy (20)
How mechanics combine into larger systems: feedback, balance, resources and the strategies that grow around them.
Aesthetics (game design)
Aesthetics, in the MDA framework, are the emotional responses a game is meant to produce in the player, such as challenge, discovery, fellowship or tension.
The word does not mean looks here. It means the feeling of playing. The framework lists several kinds, including sensation, fantasy, narrative, challenge, fellowship, discovery, expression and submission, the last meaning a relaxed pastime.
Naming the target feeling early helps a design stay focused. A cozy game and a tense one need very different rules even when they share a theme.
Related terms
Dominant strategy
A dominant strategy is a choice that does at least as well as every alternative regardless of what the other players choose.
When one exists, the decision stops being a decision. Players who see it use it every time, and the game collapses toward that one move.
Designers hunt for dominant strategies in playtests and break them with costs, counters or randomness. A well-balanced game has none, or hides them behind hard choices.
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Dynamics
Dynamics are the behaviors that appear when a game's mechanics run together and players act on them, such as bluffing, hoarding or racing for a lead.
A designer writes mechanics but cannot write dynamics directly. Nobody put bluffing in the rules of poker as a verb, yet it grows from hidden cards and betting.
Playtesting is how designers find out what dynamics their rules actually make. The surprises, good and bad, show up only when real people play.
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Emergent gameplay
Emergent gameplay is play that arises when a game's rules interact in ways the designers did not plan or script directly.
A fire spreads across grass, a player lights an arrow and burns an enemy camp. No designer wrote that exact scene, only the rules for fire, grass and arrows.
Emergence is the reason players tell stories about their games. Designers encourage it with consistent rules that apply everywhere, since a rule with exceptions leaves less room for surprise.
Related terms
Feedback loop
A feedback loop is a cycle in which the result of an action changes the conditions for the next one, either strengthening or dampening the trend.
The two kinds are named by what they do to a lead. Positive loops grow it and negative loops shrink it. Most games use both, because one alone produces runaway wins or a game with no reward for skill.
The word also covers plain information given to the player, as in feedback on what just happened. Both meanings matter: a loop needs the player to see the result.
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Game balance
Game balance is the tuning of a game's numbers and rules so that no option, side or character is so strong or so weak that real choice disappears.
Balance does not mean every option is equal. It means every option has a use and a cost, so players have to think. A game is out of balance when one choice is always the right one.
Balance is found through play. Numbers on paper rarely survive contact with thousands of players, which is why live games keep adjusting after launch.
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Game economy
A game economy is the system of resources that a game creates, lets players trade or spend, and removes again, treated like a small money supply.
Every resource has faucets, which add it, and sinks, which take it away. Too many faucets and the resource is worthless, and too many sinks and players feel starved.
Economies also shape behavior. Make something cheap and everyone does it, make it costly and few will try.
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Grinding
Grinding is the repetition of the same task, such as defeating the same enemies, to earn a reward, when the task itself is not the point.
Some players enjoy the calm rhythm of it. Many do not, and a design that needs grinding to reach the good parts risks losing them.
A common fix is to make each repeat slightly different, or to let the reward come from skill rather than time.
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MDA framework
The MDA framework is a model for analyzing games in three layers, mechanics, dynamics and aesthetics, proposed by Robin Hunicke, Marc LeBlanc and Robert Zubek in 2004.
The designer builds mechanics, the mechanics produce dynamics when people play, and the dynamics create the player's feelings, the aesthetics. The player experiences the layers in the opposite order, feeling first and noticing rules last.
That reversal is the useful part. It reminds a designer that the aim is a feeling, such as tension or discovery, and that rules are only a way to get there.
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Meta (gaming)
Meta, in gaming, is the set of strategies, characters or items that the most successful players currently favor, and it is short for metagame.
When players say the meta has shifted, they mean the best approach changed, often after a patch. Following the meta means copying what wins.
A healthy meta keeps changing and offers several routes to victory. An unhealthy one settles on a single approach that everyone must copy.
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Metagame
The metagame is everything that affects play from outside the rules, such as choosing a strategy by guessing what opponents will choose.
In a card game it is choosing a deck by predicting what the other players will bring. In a puzzle game it can be a streak, a rank or a collection that gives each play a reason beyond the board.
Bossfeed's EXP, Crowns and daily streak are metagame in the second sense. They give each short puzzle a longer story.
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Negative feedback loop
A negative feedback loop is a loop in which being ahead makes further progress harder, or being behind makes it easier, so the field tends to close up.
Racing games that give trailing cars a boost are the textbook case. Matches stay close and everyone stays hopeful.
Too much of it feels fake, because skill stops paying off and a leader may be punished for playing well. Designers aim for a light touch.
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Nerf
A nerf is a change that makes a character, item or strategy weaker, usually because it has become too strong compared with the alternatives.
The word comes from the soft foam toys of that name, as in softening something. Developers nerf what players over-use and buff what they ignore.
Players tend to dislike nerfs, since they feel like having a favorite tool taken away. Clear patch notes that explain the reason help.
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Positive feedback loop
A positive feedback loop is a loop in which success makes further success easier, so an early lead tends to grow.
Monopoly is the usual example: rent from properties buys more properties, which earn more rent. The effect rewards smart early play and gives matches momentum.
Left alone it makes games end early, because the loser is out of reach long before the final move. Designers add a counterweight, or make the loop slow.
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Power creep
Power creep is the gradual increase in the strength of new characters, cards or items over time, until older ones feel weak by comparison.
It happens because new content has to excite players, and the easiest way to do that is to make it stronger. Over many releases the numbers drift upward.
The cost is that old purchases or progress lose value, which is why live games sometimes reset or rebalance everything.
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Progression
Progression is the way a game moves the player forward, through levels, unlocks, skills or growing power, so that later play differs from earlier play.
It answers the question of why to keep playing. A player who sees steady growth has a reason to come back.
There are two main kinds. Character progression grows what you can do, while skill progression grows what you know. The second is the one that lasts, since it cannot be lost or bought.
Related terms
Risk and reward
Risk and reward is the trade at the center of many game choices, in which a larger prize is available only by accepting a larger chance of losing something.
A shortcut through a dangerous room or a bet in a card game are examples. The decision is interesting only when the odds are close.
If the reward is always worth it, the choice is no choice. If it never is, nobody takes the risk and the game loses its tension.
Related terms
Rubber banding
Rubber banding is a design technique in which the game gives trailing players an advantage, or slows leaders, so that the field stays close together.
The name comes from the image of a stretched band snapping back. Racing games are the best known users.
Players notice when it goes too far. If a perfect run still cannot shake the pack, the lead feels pointless.
Related terms
Skill ceiling
A skill ceiling is the highest level of ability that a game allows a player to reach, or how much room there is to improve.
A game with a low ceiling, like tic-tac-toe, is mastered quickly. Chess has a very high one, so strong players are still improving after decades.
A high ceiling keeps experts interested, while a low floor lets beginners start. The best designs offer both.
Related terms
Snowballing
Snowballing is the effect in which an early advantage grows larger and larger until the leading side is unstoppable.
It is the visible result of a positive feedback loop. Defeating one enemy gives gold, gold buys gear, gear helps defeat the next.
A little snowballing makes a match feel decisive. A lot makes the second half a formality, so designers add comeback routes.
Related terms
Player experience (16)
How a game feels to the person playing it: difficulty, teaching, feedback, guidance and the moments that make people stay.
Affordance
An affordance is a feature of an object that suggests how it can be used, such as a handle that invites pulling or a button that looks pressable.
The term comes from the psychologist James Gibson and reached design through Don Norman. In games it covers anything that tells the player what is possible.
A glowing ledge says climb me, a crack in a wall says break me. When affordances are clear, a game needs fewer words.
Related terms
Difficulty curve
A difficulty curve is the way a game's challenge changes over time, often imagined as a line from the first minute to the last.
A good curve rises in steps with rest points between them, so players meet a new challenge, practice it and then feel capable. Flat curves bore, and steep ones frustrate.
Daily puzzles work on a different curve, one that resets each day: every puzzle starts fresh, so the challenge has to be right at the first look.
Related terms
Difficulty spike
A difficulty spike is a sudden and steep jump in challenge that stops players who were progressing comfortably.
It usually comes from a new mechanic with no practice, or a boss that tests skills the player never learned. Players quit at spikes.
Analytics help find them: a level where many players leave or retry is a spike. The fix is usually a gentler lead-in rather than an easier end.
Related terms
Fail state
A fail state is the condition under which a player loses or has to retry an attempt, such as running out of health, time or moves.
Without one, nothing is at stake. With a harsh one, players fear trying. The art is a failure that stings a little and teaches a lot.
Fast restarts make failure gentle. A player who can retry in two seconds will try again, and one who must sit through a long reload may not.
Related terms
Flow (game design)
Flow is a state of deep, enjoyable focus that occurs when the difficulty of a task matches the skill of the person doing it, described by the psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.
If a game is too easy the player gets bored, and if it is too hard the player gets anxious. In between is flow, where time seems to pass without notice.
Designers aim for it by raising difficulty as the player improves. See difficulty curve for how that is done.
Related terms
Game feel
Game feel is the sensation of controlling a game, shaped by how quickly it responds, how movements carry weight and how results are shown and heard.
Two games with the same rules can feel entirely different. A character that starts instantly and stops with a slight slide feels lively, while one that lags feels like wading through mud.
Smoothness comes first. A phone game that holds a steady frame rate feels better than one with fancier effects and stutter.
Related terms
Juice
Juice is the collection of small animations, sounds and effects that make a player's actions feel satisfying, such as a spark, a bounce or a chime.
A button that gives a little squash and a soft click feels better than one that just changes color, even though both do the same job.
Juice supports the game and cannot replace it. A weak loop with lots of sparkle is still a weak loop, and heavy effects can slow down a phone.
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Level design
Level design is the craft of planning the spaces, obstacles, rewards and pacing that a player meets while moving through a game.
A good level teaches, tests and rewards in that order. It also guides the eye, so players know where to look without being told.
Designers often draw a rough map first, using simple shapes, to check the flow before any art exists. Landmarks that everything orients around work like the strong centers in Alexander's list.
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Onboarding
Onboarding is the process by which a game welcomes a new player and brings them to a first experience of enjoyment as quickly and clearly as possible.
The first minute decides whether many players stay. Good onboarding shows the core loop immediately and explains only what is needed for the next step.
Long text, locked menus and forced videos lose people. Letting a player act first and read second usually works better.
Related terms
Player agency
Player agency is the sense that a player's own choices matter and genuinely change what happens in a game.
A branching story gives agency through choices, a sandbox gives it through tools. The test is whether the player could have done something else and seen a different result.
False choices, where every option leads to the same place, are noticed and resented. Even small real differences feel better.
Related terms
Replayability
Replayability is the degree to which a game encourages the player to play it again after finishing it once.
Variety from random generation, depth from a high skill ceiling and goals set by the player all help. A game with one fixed story and no variation has little.
Daily puzzles get replays another way: a fresh puzzle each day and a streak to protect give people a reason to return.
Related terms
Signposting
Signposting is the use of landmarks, lighting, color and layout to show a player where to go or what to do, without text or arrows.
A tall tower seen from far away pulls the player toward it. A lit doorway in a dark room says go this way.
Good signposting respects the player. It guides without taking away the feeling that they found the way themselves.
Related terms
Softlock
A softlock is a state in which a game continues to run but the player can no longer make progress, and a restart is the only way out.
It differs from a crash, which stops the game. In a softlock the screen still works and the player is stuck, such as a locked door whose key fell down a hole.
Designers guard against them by checking that every state has a way forward. Puzzle games need this most, since a stuck player cannot tell a hard puzzle from a broken one.
Related terms
Speedrun
A speedrun is an attempt to finish a game, or a defined part of it, in the shortest possible time, often by using precise routes and tricks.
Runners practice a route until every second is planned. Communities keep records and agree rules on what counts.
Speedrunning shows how much depth a game has beyond what the designers saw. A daily puzzle's solve time is a quiet cousin of it: the same puzzle, a race against your own best.
Related terms
Telegraphing
Telegraphing is the practice of giving the player a clear warning, through a sound, an animation or a marker, before a threat or event takes effect.
A boss that raises its arm before a swing is telegraphing. So is a red circle on the floor where an attack will land.
Fair games telegraph and unfair games do not. The warning turns a surprise loss into a lesson the player can use next time.
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Tutorialization
Tutorialization is the practice of teaching a game's rules through play, in small safe steps, rather than through a long block of instructions.
A classic approach is to introduce one mechanic in a safe room, then test it in a mild one, then combine it with others. The player learns without ever feeling taught.
The best tutorials are invisible. A gap too wide to walk across teaches jumping better than a pop-up that says to jump.
Related terms
Christopher Alexander and design (19)
Ideas from the architect Christopher Alexander about what makes a place feel alive, and how each one shows up in game design.
Christopher Alexander (1936 to 2022) was an architect and design theorist, born in Vienna and long a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. With colleagues he wrote A Pattern Language in 1977, a book of 253 named solutions to recurring problems in buildings and towns, meant to be combined by ordinary people. He went on to The Timeless Way of Building and then the four volumes of The Nature of Order, where he described fifteen properties that he found again and again in places and objects that feel alive.
Game designers borrowed the idea early. Patterns in Game Design, a 2005 book by Staffan Björk and Jussi Holopainen, applied it directly, and Will Wright, who made SimCity and The Sims, has spoken of Alexander's influence. His work also inspired software design patterns in the 1990s. The entries below paraphrase Alexander's ideas in plain words and show where each one turns up in games. They are a way of looking at design, and nobody has to agree with every claim.
Alternating repetition
Alternating repetition, in Alexander's list, is the rhythm created when two different kinds of element take turns, as in a row of columns and gaps or stripes of light and dark.
The pattern pleases because each element gives the other meaning. A column is more of a column beside a gap.
Games use it as pacing: a burst of action, then a rest, then another burst. A checkerboard is the visual form, light and dark squares trading places across a grid. Levels that alternate tension with calm keep players from tiring.
Related terms
Boundaries (Alexander)
Boundaries, in Alexander's list, are the edges around a center that both strengthen it and connect it to its surroundings, instead of merely cutting it off.
A garden wall, a porch and a frame around a painting are boundaries. A good one has its own thickness and character, and it is a place in its own right where things happen.
A game board needs edges that read clearly, and an arena needs a boundary players can see and plan around. A storm wall, a rope, a river or a row of crates can do the job. The best ones also invite play, such as a ledge to jump from or a doorway to ambush at.
Related terms
Contrast (Alexander)
Contrast, in Alexander's list, is the clear difference between neighboring elements, such as light against dark or open against closed, which lets each element be seen distinctly.
Without contrast things blur into one another. With too little, a design looks flat, and with the right amount, each part stands out and also gives meaning to the part beside it.
Games lean on contrast for readability: a bright enemy against a dim background, a danger color against a safe one, a quiet moment after a loud one. Telegraphing a threat depends on it, since a warning that does not stand out fails.
Related terms
Deep interlock and ambiguity
Deep interlock and ambiguity is the property, in Alexander's list, of two structures hooking into one another so tightly that a shared region seems to belong to both.
Think of a doorway that is both part of a room and part of the hall, or a bay window that is both inside and out. The overlap is where the strongest connections form.
A crossword is the cleanest example in puzzles: every across word shares letters with down words, and each shared square belongs to both. In level design, a chokepoint that is a wall to one route and a path to another does a similar job, and the ambiguity gives players choices.
Related terms
Echoes (Alexander)
Echoes, in Alexander's list, are similar shapes, angles and proportions that recur throughout a design, giving it a family resemblance.
A building where window shapes, door arches and roof pitch all share the same angle feels of one piece, though no two elements are identical.
A game with a strong visual language does this. If the board is hex-shaped, the buttons, icons and tiles can echo the hexagon, and the whole product feels designed by one hand. Sound, motion and wording can echo too.
Related terms
Good shape
Good shape is the property, in Alexander's list, of forms that are bold, simple and well defined, so that each can be seen as a clear whole.
Alexander noted that strong shapes tend to be built from simple ones, such as rectangles, circles and squares, joined carefully. The eye reads them quickly and holds on to them.
Character silhouettes are the everyday case. A player should be able to tell a hero from an enemy at small size from outline alone. The same goes for a button: a clear shape tells the player it is meant to be pressed.
Related terms
Gradients (Alexander)
Gradients, in Alexander's list, are gradual changes in size, spacing, color or intensity across a design, so that one region moves smoothly into the next.
A path that widens as it nears a gate, or windows that shrink toward the top of a tower, uses a gradient. The change gives a sense of direction and growth.
The difficulty curve is a gradient in time: challenge rises a little at a time, so the player keeps pace. In space, fog that thickens with distance and enemies that grow tougher toward a boss room guide players the same way.
Related terms
Levels of scale
Levels of scale, in Alexander's list, is the property of having clear, distinct features at a range of sizes, with each size supporting the sizes next to it.
A living structure has big forms, medium forms and small ones, and the steps between them are not too large. A building has a tower, windows and trim, and the trim is not a miniature copy of the tower.
A game does the same. Chess works at the scale of the square, the piece, a pawn chain and the whole game, with something to think about at each. A level has a landmark in the distance, rooms along the way and small props to look at.
Related terms
Local symmetries
Local symmetries, in Alexander's list, are small areas of balance and mirroring that appear throughout a design, even when the whole is not symmetrical.
Living things work this way. A leaf is nearly symmetrical, and a tree made of leaves is not. The small symmetries bring order and the larger irregularity brings life.
A level can be a lopsided whole made of balanced rooms. A match can begin symmetrical, as chess does, and grow lopsided as play goes on. Game balance often aims for local fairness, such as two matched duelists, inside a larger uneven map.
Related terms
Not-separateness
Not-separateness is the property, in Alexander's list, of a design feeling connected to its surroundings, rather than set apart from them as a stand-alone object.
A building that grows out of its site, or a garden that merges with the landscape, has it. The opposite is a monument dropped onto a flat lawn with no relation to anything near.
In a game, it means a world whose parts belong together and a menu that feels part of that world, not a spreadsheet laid over it. At a larger scale, a daily game that slots into someone's morning routine is joined to the player's life instead of demanding a separate occasion.
Related terms
Pattern (Alexander)
A pattern, in Alexander's sense, is a named solution to a design problem that recurs in a particular setting, written so that it can be applied again in many different ways.
Each of his patterns states a problem, the forces pulling on it and a solution that resolves them. The solution is a form to adapt, not a blueprint to copy.
A party game shows how it works. The problem is getting friends into a game fast, and the solution is a short code or a scannable square on the shared screen. See room code and QR code join. The same idea in software became the design patterns movement.
Related terms
Pattern language
A pattern language is a connected set of named design solutions, each one small enough to reuse, that can be combined to make a whole design, in the way words combine into sentences.
Christopher Alexander and his colleagues published the idea in A Pattern Language in 1977, with 253 patterns running from the layout of a region down to the shape of a window seat. The patterns link to one another, so using one points you to the next.
Game designers use the same idea when they name recurring solutions, such as the checkpoint, the tutorial level or the shared lobby. A common vocabulary lets a team discuss a design without re-explaining it each time.
Related terms
Positive space
Positive space is the property, in Alexander's list, of designing the empty areas between things so that each one has a good, definite shape of its own.
In a poor design the leftover space is shapeless, the gap that happens to remain. In a good one the gap is a courtyard, a lane or a clearing, and you could point to it as a made thing.
In a level, corridors and rooms should feel intended rather than carved from what was left over. On a puzzle board such as Hexa Puzzle Saga, the shapes of the open cells decide what moves are possible, so those gaps are part of the design.
Related terms
Roughness (Alexander)
Roughness, in Alexander's list, is the slight irregularity of things shaped by hand or by the particular conditions of a site, as opposed to the flawless regularity of a machine.
Alexander argued that exact perfection can look dead, and that a little imperfection, where it fits the use, makes a place feel made by people. The roughness should come from responding to real conditions, not from fake wear.
Procedural generation often shows the problem: levels that are mathematically even can feel sterile. Hand-placed details, uneven art strokes and small oddities give a game character. Pixel art drawn by hand carries this quality in a way a clean render may not.
Related terms
Simplicity and inner calm
Simplicity and inner calm is the property, in Alexander's list, of a design having only what it needs, so that the whole is quiet, clear and free of clutter.
Alexander did not mean bare or minimal for its own sake. He meant that every part is doing real work and nothing is competing for attention, which lets a person relax in the space.
A daily puzzle with one clear task is an example. So is chess, which has six kinds of piece and a handful of rules. A calm interface, with one obvious next step, serves new players better than a screen of options.
Related terms
Strong centers
Strong centers is the property, in Christopher Alexander's list, of having clear focal points that draw attention and give the surrounding parts something to organize around.
Alexander treated a center as a field of attention, not a single spot. A well-made design contains many centers of different sizes, and each is strengthened by the ones nearby. A courtyard with a fountain is a center, and so is the doorway that opens onto it.
In games, the center squares of a chess board are the plainest example: pieces that hold them reach more of the board. A level with a tall landmark that every route bends toward works the same way. In a battle royale the shrinking circle makes the safe zone a center everyone converges on.
Related terms
The quality without a name
The quality without a name is Christopher Alexander's phrase for the sense of life, ease and rightness that certain buildings, places and objects have, which he believed people recognize but struggle to describe.
He argued that this quality is not a matter of taste. Many people agree about which rooms and streets feel alive, and he thought design could be aimed at it on purpose.
Players meet it in games as the feeling that everything fits. Controls, sound, pacing and look pull the same way, and the game feels alive in the hand. Designers often talk about game feel and flow in the same spirit.
Related terms
The void
The void is the property, in Alexander's list, of an area of stillness or emptiness at or near the center of a design, which lets the surrounding forms feel settled.
A quiet courtyard, a clear lawn or a bare room sits at the middle of many great places. The surrounding activity gains focus because the middle is open.
In games it is the rest area: the campfire room between fights, the calm lobby before a match, the blank moment after a puzzle is solved. Constant action tires players, and a pause makes the next burst feel larger.
Related terms
Wholeness
Wholeness is Christopher Alexander's word for the way the parts of a design reinforce one another, forming a connected whole in which each part gives strength to the others.
He described it as a field of overlapping centers, each helped by the ones around it. Changing one part changes how every other part is felt, so good design works on the whole at once.
In a game this means every system serves the core loop. A reward that fits the loop strengthens it, while one bolted on from outside weakens it, even if it is nice in itself.
Related terms
Bossfeed words (8)
The few terms you will see on Bossfeed itself, explained in one place.
- Crowns Crowns are Bossfeed's win tokens, earned by coming first on a daily board or winning certain games, and counted toward a monthly reward track.
- Practice mode Practice mode on Bossfeed gives you unlimited fresh puzzles to drill, with no leaderboard and no EXP.
- Sparks Sparks are short, fun questions Bossfeed asks everyone each day, with the answers of other players shown after you reply.
More bossfeed words terms
Daily leaderboard
A daily leaderboard is a ranking of players' results on one day's puzzle, which starts fresh every day, so anyone can reach the top.
Because the puzzle is the same for everyone, results are comparable: fastest time or highest score wins. Resetting daily keeps it open to newcomers, since yesterday's champion starts at zero like everyone else.
On Bossfeed, your result goes on the board even without an account, under a made-up name, and signing in puts your own name there. Finishing first earns a Crown, and old puzzles in the archive do not count on the live board.
Used in: Daily Word Game, Daily History Quiz
Related terms
Daily strip
The daily strip is the row of buttons near the top of the Bossfeed homepage that lists today's puzzles and shows which ones you have finished.
Each button opens one daily puzzle, and a finished puzzle is marked as done. Finishing the first two puzzles in your strip earns a bonus, and the strip highlights the ones that count. When every puzzle is done, it points you to practice mode for more.
You can drag the buttons into the order you like, and hide the ones you do not play from your account page.
Bossfeed homepage - the strip sits above the games shelf.
Related terms
EXP
EXP, short for experience points, is the score that builds up as you play and read on Bossfeed, shown in a bar at the top of every page and growing into levels.
One bar covers the whole site, so solving a puzzle, answering a Spark or playing a game all add to the same total. There is a bonus for finishing the first two puzzles on your daily strip, and a small extra for coming back on consecutive days.
EXP rewards playing, while Crowns reward winning. Practice mode does not earn EXP, so you can drill puzzles without affecting anything.
Related terms
Gems and Trophies
Gems and Trophies are the two prizes in Final Boss Fiesta: you win Gems in minigames, spend them to buy Trophies on the board, and the player with the most Trophies at the end wins.
Gems are the everyday currency. You collect them by landing on good spaces and by placing well in the minigames that follow each turn. Trophies are the score, and you buy them with Gems when you reach the right spot on the board. Because a trophy costs Gems, you decide whether to spend or keep saving.
The last few turns form a Final Stretch where anyone can still catch up. The winner takes home the Boss Crown.
Final Boss Fiesta - a party board game for 1 to 8 players.
Related terms
Party lobby
The party lobby is a Bossfeed page where players join once by scanning a QR code, after which the TV can start any supported party game and every phone follows without a new code.
Normally each party game has its own room and room code, so switching games means everyone rejoins. The lobby avoids that. The TV opens the lobby page and shows a code, phones join from the join page, and when the host picks a game, the phones move into it together. When the game ends, everyone lands back in the lobby.
It is the quickest way to run a whole game night from one screen.
Bossfeed party games - the Make me a lobby button is at the top.
How to host a game night - includes using the lobby.
Related terms
Where to use them
Every one of these words describes something you can go and do. The party games page has the games you play with a TV and everyone's phone, the games index lists the daily puzzles, the tools build printable puzzles from your own words, large print puzzles covers the big-type end, and the printable pack collects the day's sheets with their answers.