⚡Considerations and constraints

Every exercise operates within constraints. Recognising and defining these early keeps your design achievable and aligned to objectives.

Purpose

The purpose of defining considerations and constraints before jumping into exercise design is to protect flow, focus, and feasibility.

It is fundamental that you establish your training objectives at the outset. These will be your guiding light in deciding what to include and not include in your exercise.

The relationship between considerations and constraints can be visualised as an interdependent system that keeps exercise design focused, achievable, and aligned with training objectives:

Once you’ve defined your objectives and recognised your constraints, you can begin shaping the scenario, exercise structure, and environment in greater detail. The following sections explore each of these components in turn.

Considerations

Your training objectives will affect how you consider different elements of the exercise design process.

Ultimately, there are three core considerations that need to work in harmony:

Scenario

Players must believe the scenario to be relevant. Without relevance, there will be no engagement.

Exercise

Environment

Constraints

The following are constraints to be aware of. These are the variables that can impact the planning and implementing of exercises.

Constraint	Description
Time	Total design, testing, and run time available
Resources	Available staff for design, testing, and facilitation
Realism	Level of fidelity achievable (visual, procedural, emotional)
Audience	Training audience, player capability
Assessment	How success will be measured

Core exercise components to consider

Adjudication:

Dynamic or rule-based outcomes

Red Teaming:

Simulate adversarial behaviour

Assessment:

Performance measurement

Spoofing & Impersonation:

Realistic identity deception

Information Asymmetry:

Different players get different information

Communication Channels:

Build realistic media & social platforms

Facilitation & Control:

Direct flow (keep pacing aligned to objectives)

⚡Look out for...

You are creating a participatory experience. You'll find the best results are achieved if you design a little... play test... design a little more... play test

• Over-designing: too many events, personas, or decisions for the time available

• Under-testing: skipping dry runs or timing checks

• Passive play: players reading too much, doing too little

• Misaligned difficulty: challenge level too high or too low for player ability