Creating Game Design Patterns

1. Creating Game Design Patterns Jussi Holopainen, Nokia Research Center Staffan Björk, Interactive Institute

2. About pattern collections • The large collection • ~300 patterns • Threshold to use • Want to check potentially new patterns against this • Reasons to identify new patterns • The large collection is not complete • Need specialized patterns for projects • Make own small in-house collection

3. About pattern collections, cont. Game World, Reconfigurable Game World, Level, Inaccessible Areas, Consistent Reality Logic, Alternative Reality, Moveable Tiles, Enemies, Boss Monsters, Deadly Traps, Obstacles, Avatars, Units, Tools, Controller, Alarms, Pick-Ups, Power-Ups, Clues, Extra-Game Information, Invisible Walls, God’s Finger, Mule, Buttons, Helpers, Traces, Resource Generators, Tiles, Dice, Cards, Card Hands, Drawing Stacks, Discard Piles, Score, Highscore Lists, Lives, Parallel Lives, Cameras, Ghosts, Book-Keeping Tokens, Strategic Locations, Outstanding Features, Chargers, Resource Locations, Goal Points, Save Points, Spawn Points, Safe Havens, Resources, Secret Resources, Limited Resources, Non-Renewable Resources, Renewable Resources, Closed Economies, Producer-Consumer, Ownership, Resource Management, Producer, Consumer, Converter, Container, Shared Resources, Symmetric Resource Distribution, Asymmetric Resource Distribution, Investments, Diminishing Returns, Arithmetic Rewards for Investments, Geometric Rewards for Investments, Perfect Information, Imperfect Information, Uncertainty of Information, Fog of War, Red Herrings, Symmetric Information, Asymmetric Information, Public Information, Communication Channels, Direct Information, Indirect Information, Near Miss Indicators, Progress Indicators, Outcome Indicators, Goal Indicators, Status Indicators, Game State Overviews, First-Person Views, Third-Person Views, God Views, Combat, Movement, Maneuvering, Aim & Shoot, Tile-Laying, No-Ops, Camping, Collecting, Movement Limitations, Game World Navigation, Construction, Spawning, Betting, Leaps of Faith, Privileged Abilities, Asymmetric Abilities, Limited Set of Actions, Downtime, Experimenting, Transfer of Control, Interruptible Actions, Focus Loci, New Abilities, Improved Abilities, Ability Losses, Decreased Abilities, Extended Actions, Irreversible Actions, Save-Load Cycles, Attention Swapping, Damage, Privileged Movement, Indirect Control, Area Control, Budgeted Action Points, Turn Taking Rewards, Penalties, Illusionary Rewards, Player-Decided Distribution of Reward & Penalties, Ultra-Powerful Events, Role Reversal, Shrinking Game World, Disruption of Focus Attention, Delayed Effects, Hovering Closures, Tiebreakers, Tied Results, Illusion of Influence, Perceived Chance to Succeed, Tiebreakers, Tied Results, Immersion, Anticipation, Spatial Immersion, Emotional Immersion, Cognitive Immersion, Sensory-Motoric Immersion, Freedom of Choice, Creative Control, Storytelling, Player Constructed Worlds, Dedicated Game Facilitators, Self-Facilitated Games, Game Masters, Skills, Narrative Structure, Tension, Characters, Character Development, Planned Character Development, Identification, Higher-Level, Closures as Gameplay Progresses, Surprises, Cut Scenes, Easter Eggs, Never Ending Stories, Competition, Conflict, Player Killing, Betrayal, Individual Rewards, Individual Penalties, Red Queen Dilemmas, Cooperation, Collaborative Actions, Shared Rewards, Shared Penalties, Delayed Reciprocity, Competence Areas, Team Play, Alliances, Roleplaying, Constructive Play, Player Decided Results, Team Development, Social Organizations, Uncommitted Alliances, Dynamic Alliances, Secret Alliances, Social Interaction, Trading, Bidding, Bluffing, Negotiation, Social Dilemmas, Social Statuses, Gain Ownership, Overcome, Stealth, Eliminate, Rescue, Capture, Evade, Conceal, Race, Collection, Alignment, Enclosure, Configuration, Connection, Delivery, Herd, Contact, Guard, Survive, Traverse, King of the Hill, Last Man Standing, Gain Information, Gain Competence, Exploration, Reconnaissance, Predefined Goals, Dynamic Goal Characteristics, Optional Goals, Interferable Goals, Player Defined Goals, Ephemeral Goals, Continuous Goals, Unknown Goals, Preventing Goals, Hierarchy of Goals, Tournament, Incompatible Goals, Selectable Set of Goals, Supporting goals, Polyathlons, Excluding Goals, Symmetric Goals, Asymmetric Goals, Committed Goals, Mutual Goals, Real-Time Games, Asynchronous Games, Synchronous Games, Single-Player Games, Multiplayer Games, Turn-Based Games, Closure Points, Tick-based games, Persistent Game Worlds, Quick Games, Handles, Game Pauses, Reversability, Player Elimination, Analysis Paralysis, The Show Must Go On, Agents, Team Elimination, Early Elimination, Time Limits, Game Mastery, Empowerment, Timing, Rhythm-Based Actions, Dexterity-Based Actions, Memorizing, Puzzle Solving, Luck, Perceivable Margins, Achilles’ Heels, Tradeoffs, Randomness, Risk/Reward, Predictable Consequences, Limited Planning Ability, Strategic Knowledge, Stimulated Planning, Limited Foresight, Combos, Balancing Effects, Symmetry, Team Balance, Right Level of Difficulty, Right Level of Complexity, Handicaps, Paper-Rock-Scissors, Player Balance, Game Design Patterns for Meta Games, Replayability, and Learning Curves, Meta Games, Games within Games, Extra-Game Consequences, Trans-Game Information, Extra-Game Actions, Spectators, Replayability, Varied Gameplay, Smooth Learning Curves, Orthogonal Unit Differentiation

4. Genesis of a Pattern – a model • Recognize • Analyze • Describe • Test • Evaluate (go back to Analyze) • Outcome: • Clear definition of the pattern

5. Recognize • Patterns easy to recognize, difficult to define • Play games, think games, dream games, design games, read about games • Other areas for inspiration: software engineering, computer science, HCI, architecture, drama, myths and legends, psychology, philosophy of mind, choreography, music, visual arts, sociology, human relationships, economics, politics etc. etc.

6. Recognize (where to look in games)

7. Analyze • Analyze the group together but start with the main candidate • The pattern in existing games: • Think about different genres (RTS, FPS, MMORPG, strategy, arcade games etc.) • Think about different kinds of games (board and card games, children games, table-top and live action RPGs • Try to imagine the games without the pattern

8. Analyze • List games that do not have the pattern: • Try to find games in same genres as in the previous list • Compare the games from each list • What is the difference in game play? • How the other ideas are related to the pattern? Are they part of it or separate? • Relations to other patterns

9. Describe • Draft out the first kernel definition (a couple of sentences) • Draw a diagram: optional • Describe how the pattern is used in the example games • Relationships to existing patterns: • What other patterns are frequent in the example games? • How the other patterns affect the pattern? • Relations to other patterns

10. Describe • What are the consequences of using the pattern? • Are the other ideas part of this pattern? • Or are they separate patterns? • Modify and elaborate the description according to the template • Name • Description • Using the pattern • Consequences • Relations to other patterns

11. Test • Interaction design exercise: • Nothing else but the pattern (well, requires some extras) • Why it is not a game? • Add patterns or interactions to make it a proto-game • “Redesign” existing games to use the pattern • Apply the pattern in your current work, if possible

12. Evaluate • Is this a pattern? • Is it useful? • Should it be part of another pattern? • Should it be discarded altogether? • Is the description sufficient? • Start the Analyze-Describe-Test cycle again if need be

13. The Reality • The reality is messy… • Abstraction of the process • Analyze-Define-Test normally intertwined • Pattern elimination, mutation, fusion, spin-offs possible in all phases • Difficult work (at least for us) • Some phases are better done in small groups

14. An example of identifying patterns • Board game Carcassonne (Klaus-Jürgen Wrede, published by Hans im Glück 2000) • Simple • Several interacting patterns

15. Example of pattern emerging from token use Tile-laying

16. Example of pattern emerging from closure use Enclosure

17. Example of pattern emerging from interaction Hovering Closure

18. Example of pattern emerging from experience Tension