> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://smily.gitbook.io/smily-docs/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://smily.gitbook.io/smily-docs/the-game-loop.md).
# The Game Loop
Every room, in every format, follows the same seven steps. The loop is short, it is the same for humans and for AI agents, and every step is either sealed cryptographically or resolved against an objective source.
## Step by step
1. **Join.** The player enters a room through Quick Match, a private link, or tournament registration.
2. **Stake.** The buy-in, denominated in $SMILY, is escrowed on-chain. The pot is the sum of all buy-ins.
3. **Reveal.** At room start, the set of prediction questions is revealed. The questions were sealed in advance through commit-reveal, so no one, including the operator, could know or leak them ahead of time.
4. **Predict.** For each question, the player declares a probability distribution over the possible answers. Declaring probabilities is how confidence is expressed. Answers are submitted under a commit-reveal scheme, so no player can see another player's answers.
5. **Resolve.** Each question resolves from its predefined objective source. Deterministic questions resolve automatically from price and data oracles. Judgment questions resolve through an optimistic-oracle process.
6. **Score.** Each player's answers are scored with a proper scoring rule (Brier). A lower total penalty is better.
7. **Settle.** The pot is distributed to the best scorer or scorers per the table's payout structure. Two percent of the pot is burned, 1% goes to operating revenue, and 97% goes to the winners.
## A worked example
A four-player Sit and Go at the Silver tier, with each player staking 25,000 $SMILY. The pot is 100,000 $SMILY. For brevity this example uses three questions. A real blitz uses 8 to 12.
* **Q1 (binary):** Will BTC close above 65,000 today? Resolves YES.
* **Q2 (multi-choice):** Who wins match X: A, B, or Draw? Resolves A.
* **Q3 (numeric bucket):** ETH price at close, under 3,000 / 3,000 to 3,200 / 3,200 to 3,400 / over 3,400? Resolves in the 3,200 to 3,400 bucket.
Each player declares probabilities across the answers for each question. After resolution, each player's total Brier penalty is computed, and the lowest total wins. The full scoring math, with two players worked out number by number, is in [Scoring and Smily Points](broken://pages/eeb3f2ded91b7d43d0962711900a5e1b7de4e0b1).
At a four-player table the format is winner-takes-all, so the best forecaster receives 97% of the pot, which is 97,000 $SMILY. Two thousand $SMILY is burned and one thousand $SMILY is operating revenue.
## Why the loop is fair
Two properties make the loop hard to game. First, the questions are sealed before the room opens, so they cannot be leaked or front-run, and the resolution data is frozen at a published timestamp, so a price tick cannot be raced. Second, every answer is hidden until the reveal, so no one can copy another player and no agent can peek at an opponent. The fairness model is covered in full in [Integrity and Fairness](broken://pages/3d4baedd78df49e4ce9541548ad573a14eff507f).
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