What is the Difference Between Wide and Deep Game Mechanics?

Wide vs Deep Game Mechanics

While thinking about game mechanics for Stella Invicta. I explored the idea of supply chains, where different resources are needed to create new goods that in turn are needed for spaceships. Where should the limit be of how many different types of resources we have? We could add 20 different types of resources or 100, but what would be the point? I want to make the game deeper. But when do we just widen the game mechanic instead of making it deeper?

Deep Game Mechanics Interact With Other Mechanics

The more a game mechanic interacts with other game mechanics the deeper it is. The less it interacts with other game mechanics its wider it is. In other words an isolated game mechanic that has little effect on other game mechanics is a wide game mechanics.

Now lets look back at our resource example. Adding even a small supply chain that interacts with the rest of the game mechanics is enough to deepen it. Adding more resources that are effectively just a bigger supply chain add less than the supply chain itself. There are diminishing returns.