NodeCore is a systems-driven puzzle and crafting game focused on experimentation and discovery in a surreal world of cubes, patterns, and abstractions. Gameplay centers on the interaction of a small number of simple elements that combine into more complex processes. Rather than emphasizing conventional survival or sandbox-building play, NodeCore focuses on in-world problem solving and gradual understanding of its mechanics. Progress comes from observing how materials and structures behave, testing ideas, and learning how different systems connect. The game avoids many familiar genre pressures: there are no mobs, no nightfall, and no rush, allowing players to explore its mechanics at their own pace. Built-in challenges help introduce its ideas without defining a single fixed path through the experience. Although it uses a voxel-based presentation within the Luanti engine, NodeCore is structured more around systemic interaction and emergent processes than around the expectations often associated with block-building games. Its defining features are experimentation, abstraction, and discovery through play.