Finding your core game loop

The core loop is the repeating cycle of actions a player performs over and over during a game. In a deck-builder it is buy cards, improve your deck, buy better cards. In a worker-placement game it is place workers, collect resources, convert them into points and new options. If someone asks "what do you do in your game?", the core loop is the answer.

A strong loop is satisfying on its own, even before scoring and endgame rules exist. Drawing a hand of cards and playing combinations should feel good the tenth time and the hundredth time. If the basic cycle is a chore, no amount of clever scoring will save the game, because players spend almost all of their time inside the loop.

To find your loop, strip the design down to a single turn and play just that, repeatedly, with nothing at stake. Notice which decisions feel interesting and which feel like bookkeeping. Cut or automate the bookkeeping. What remains, the part you would happily do again, is the core of your game. Build everything else around protecting and amplifying it.