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PCAM-24: A Designer’s Guide v2.0

Deterministic Timing with Phase Authority

The Core Concept

Actions aren’t durations. They are stages of intent.

PCAM-24 v2.0 gives you a precise, semantic language to describe those stages. By replacing "frames" and "milliseconds" with 24 discrete phases, you ensure that animation, combat logic, and AI always share a single source of truth.

1. What problem PCAM-24 solves

In designer terms

If you’ve ever dealt with: - "The animation hit, but the damage didn’t" - "The parry felt right but failed online" - "This move is balanced at 60 FPS but broken at 120" - "Which frame does the hitbox turn on again?"

PCAM-24 removes these problems at the design level. You stop fighting the engine's update loop and start defining the stages of your action.

2. Phase replaces time

How to think differently

In PCAM-24, every action progresses through 24 phases, numbered 0–23.

Do NOT think in... DO think in...
Seconds Stages of the action
Frames Wind-up / Commitment
Normalized Time Impact / Recovery

3. Layered Windows (The v2.0 Upgrade)

Your main design tool

In v1.0, actions had flat, non-overlapping windows. In v2.0, we use Layered Windows. This means an action can have multiple properties at the same time.

Example: Armored Heavy Attack

  • Phases 0-5: ANTICIPATION (Cancelable)
  • Phases 6-13: ARMOR (Absorbs one hit)
  • Phases 10-13: ACTIVE (Can deal damage)
  • Phases 14-23: RECOVERY (Vulnerable)

Notice that between phases 10-13, the attack is both Active and Armored. PCAM-24 resolves these using a deterministic Precedence Matrix, so there is never any ambiguity about what happens during a trade.

4. Phase Elasticity

Bending the cycle without breaking the clock

PCAM-24 v2.0 introduces Elasticity, allowing you to handle common gameplay needs deterministically:

Stalls (Hit-Stop)

When a heavy blow lands, you might want to "pause" for impact feel. In PCAM-24, you Stall the phase. The whole game doesn't stop—just that specific action holds its phase for a set number of simulation ticks.

Skips (Cancel-Flow)

When a player cancels an attack into a dodge, the action doesn't "fade out." It Skips to the new action's start phase instantly. This is handled as a discrete phase jump, keeping the logic clean and reproducible.

5. Animation becomes a follower

Animation does not decide gameplay. Instead, Animation reads the current phase.

  • If the attack looks like it hits, it is in the ACTIVE window.
  • There is no "visual lie."
  • You stop asking: "Which animation frame is the hit?"
  • You start asking: "Which phase is dangerous?"

6. Why this is a Design Upgrade

Fairness by Construction

Because phase is authoritative, online and offline behavior is identical. A parry that works at 200ms latency works the same way it does at 0ms, because the outcome is decided by phase membership, not packet arrival time.

Tuning with Precision

You tune difficulty by adjusting Window Ranges: - Make a move safer \(\to\) Shorten the Recovery range. - Make parry harder \(\to\) Shrink the Parry success range. - Make combat faster \(\to\) Shift the Active range earlier in the cycle.

7. Mental Model Summary

The PCAM-24 Axioms

  • Phase = Where the action is
  • Windows = What the action is doing
  • Elasticity = How the action flows
  • Phase = Truth

8. What PCAM-24 is not

To avoid confusion, PCAM-24 is not: - A new animation system - A timing tweak - A combat gimmick - A fighting-game-only thing

It is a shared language for action stages. It allows designers to reason about gameplay in human terms and avoid fragile timing hacks.

You stop fighting the engine. You start shaping actions.

Autonomy, Engineered.
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