game-design-leaderboard-audit

Name: game-design-leaderboard-audit
Author: Stanestane

34stars3forks

How to install game-design-leaderboard-audit?

stanestane/game-design-skills-bundle/game-design-leaderboard-audit

$npx -y skills add Stanestane/game-design-skills-bundle --skill game-design-leaderboard-audit

Installs into the current project.

Summary

Audit an existing leaderboard or competitive ranking system in a game for stagnation risk, scale problems, goal density, motivation quality, reward bracket design, group composition fairness, and top-of-ladder sustainability. Use when evaluating a leaderboard that feels flat, unf

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SKILL.md

1	# Game Design Leaderboard Audit
2
3	Audit a leaderboard or competitive ranking system as a metagame feature — not just as a list, but as a system that generates goals, competition, and emotional investment for the majority of players.
4
5	Use this skill to evaluate whether a leaderboard is actually doing its job. A leaderboard that only matters to the top 10 players has failed. The audit focuses on seven dimensions: stagnation, scale, goal density, motivation, reward brackets, group composition, and the top-of-ladder problem.
6
7	## Core principle
8
9	A leaderboard is the start of a metagame. Its quality is not measured by whether it ranks players — it is measured by whether it generates meaningful, emotionally resonant competition for the majority of the player base, from the player at the very top to the player sitting in the middle of a group of 100.
10
11	## What to produce
12
13	Generate:
14	1. Audit target — what is being reviewed and what context it sits in
15	2. Stagnation audit — whether the leaderboard feels alive or frozen
16	3. Scale audit — whether the numbers are human-meaningful
17	4. Goal density audit — how many distinct goals the structure generates
18	5. Motivation audit — the quality and balance of intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation
19	6. Reward bracket audit — coverage, fairness, and value calibration
20	7. Group composition audit — fairness and competitive integrity
21	8. Top-of-ladder audit — what happens when a player reaches the ceiling
22	9. Failure patterns — named anti-patterns present in the design
23	10. Recommendations — prioritized, specific, actionable
24
25	## Process
26
27	### 1. Define the audit target
28
29	Clarify:
30	- What game, feature, or competitive system is being audited
31	- What the score or ranking metric is
32	- Whether this is a global list, a group-based system, or a league ladder
33	- What the competition round length is (if any)
34	- What rewards or consequences are attached to standings
35	- What stage the design is at: concept, in production, live
36
37	If details are incomplete, note what is assumed and flag it.
38
39	### 2. Stagnation audit
40
41	The most damaging leaderboard failure is invisibility — a board nobody checks because nothing ever moves.
42
43	Ask:
44	- What is the score, and how frequently does it change?
45	- Can the score change meaningfully during a single play session?
46	- Does the score reset at any point, or is it purely cumulative?
47	- Could a player who starts today ever catch a veteran at the same skill level?
48	- How long would it take to move one position at the median rank?
49
50	Look for:
51	- Lifetime-accumulated scores with no reset (permanent head-start advantage)
52	- Scores that change only once per day or slower
53	- Score granularity too coarse to show movement (e.g., everyone stuck at round numbers)
54	- No mechanism for new players to enter competitive positions
55
56	Label the finding:
57	- Healthy — score changes multiple times per session; leaderboard visibly shifts
58	- Borderline — score changes daily; some movement is visible over a week
59	- Stagnant — score changes slowly or reflects lifetime play; board rarely shifts
60	- Dead — lifetime score, no reset, veterans permanently untouchable
61
62	### 3. Scale audit
63
64	Ask:
65	- How many players are ranked in a single visible leaderboard?
66	- What position would a median-skill new player typically occupy?
67	- Are the position numbers emotionally meaningful? (Position 156,342 is not.)
68	- Does the leaderboard show the player's own position relative to others nearby?
69	- Is the competition scope global, regional, or grouped?
70
71	Look for:
72	- Global leaderboards with tens of thousands of entries
73	- Position numbers too large to parse emotionally
74	- No visible neighborhood (the players just above and below the viewer)
75	- Leaderboard that only highlights top 10 while ignoring everyone else
76
77	Evaluate: does the player feel like they are in a real, contestable race — or watching a scoreboard from a distance?
78
79	### 4. Goal density audit
80
81	A well-designed leaderboard generates multiple simultaneous goals at different time scales. Evaluate whether this structure provides all three tiers:
82
83	Immediate goal — overtake the player directly above me (next session)
84	Short-term goal — climb several places or reach the next reward bracket (this week)
85	Medium-term goal — earn promotion to the next league (this round)
86	Long-term aspirational goal — reach the top of the ladder (months)
87
88	Ask:
89	- Does the structure create all four goal tiers naturally?
90	- Is the immediate goal always visible and achievable for

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Type

game-design-leaderboard-audit

34stars3forks

View on GitHub

How to install game-design-leaderboard-audit?

stanestane/game-design-skills-bundle/game-design-leaderboard-audit

$npx -y skills add Stanestane/game-design-skills-bundle --skill game-design-leaderboard-audit

Installs into the current project.

Summary

Files · 1

View on GitHub

SKILL.md

1	# Game Design Leaderboard Audit
2
3	Audit a leaderboard or competitive ranking system as a metagame feature — not just as a list, but as a system that generates goals, competition, and emotional investment for the majority of players.
4
5	Use this skill to evaluate whether a leaderboard is actually doing its job. A leaderboard that only matters to the top 10 players has failed. The audit focuses on seven dimensions: stagnation, scale, goal density, motivation, reward brackets, group composition, and the top-of-ladder problem.
6
7	## Core principle
8
9	A leaderboard is the start of a metagame. Its quality is not measured by whether it ranks players — it is measured by whether it generates meaningful, emotionally resonant competition for the majority of the player base, from the player at the very top to the player sitting in the middle of a group of 100.
10
11	## What to produce
12
13	Generate:
14	1. Audit target — what is being reviewed and what context it sits in
15	2. Stagnation audit — whether the leaderboard feels alive or frozen
16	3. Scale audit — whether the numbers are human-meaningful
17	4. Goal density audit — how many distinct goals the structure generates
18	5. Motivation audit — the quality and balance of intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation
19	6. Reward bracket audit — coverage, fairness, and value calibration
20	7. Group composition audit — fairness and competitive integrity
21	8. Top-of-ladder audit — what happens when a player reaches the ceiling
22	9. Failure patterns — named anti-patterns present in the design
23	10. Recommendations — prioritized, specific, actionable
24
25	## Process
26
27	### 1. Define the audit target
28
29	Clarify:
30	- What game, feature, or competitive system is being audited
31	- What the score or ranking metric is
32	- Whether this is a global list, a group-based system, or a league ladder
33	- What the competition round length is (if any)
34	- What rewards or consequences are attached to standings
35	- What stage the design is at: concept, in production, live
36
37	If details are incomplete, note what is assumed and flag it.
38
39	### 2. Stagnation audit
40
41	The most damaging leaderboard failure is invisibility — a board nobody checks because nothing ever moves.
42
43	Ask:
44	- What is the score, and how frequently does it change?
45	- Can the score change meaningfully during a single play session?
46	- Does the score reset at any point, or is it purely cumulative?
47	- Could a player who starts today ever catch a veteran at the same skill level?
48	- How long would it take to move one position at the median rank?
49
50	Look for:
51	- Lifetime-accumulated scores with no reset (permanent head-start advantage)
52	- Scores that change only once per day or slower
53	- Score granularity too coarse to show movement (e.g., everyone stuck at round numbers)
54	- No mechanism for new players to enter competitive positions
55
56	Label the finding:
57	- Healthy — score changes multiple times per session; leaderboard visibly shifts
58	- Borderline — score changes daily; some movement is visible over a week
59	- Stagnant — score changes slowly or reflects lifetime play; board rarely shifts
60	- Dead — lifetime score, no reset, veterans permanently untouchable
61
62	### 3. Scale audit
63
64	Ask:
65	- How many players are ranked in a single visible leaderboard?
66	- What position would a median-skill new player typically occupy?
67	- Are the position numbers emotionally meaningful? (Position 156,342 is not.)
68	- Does the leaderboard show the player's own position relative to others nearby?
69	- Is the competition scope global, regional, or grouped?
70
71	Look for:
72	- Global leaderboards with tens of thousands of entries
73	- Position numbers too large to parse emotionally
74	- No visible neighborhood (the players just above and below the viewer)
75	- Leaderboard that only highlights top 10 while ignoring everyone else
76
77	Evaluate: does the player feel like they are in a real, contestable race — or watching a scoreboard from a distance?
78
79	### 4. Goal density audit
80
81	A well-designed leaderboard generates multiple simultaneous goals at different time scales. Evaluate whether this structure provides all three tiers:
82
83	Immediate goal — overtake the player directly above me (next session)
84	Short-term goal — climb several places or reach the next reward bracket (this week)
85	Medium-term goal — earn promotion to the next league (this round)
86	Long-term aspirational goal — reach the top of the ladder (months)
87
88	Ask:
89	- Does the structure create all four goal tiers naturally?
90	- Is the immediate goal always visible and achievable for

People who liked this also viewed

6 picks

Type