Patterns in game designBY: STAFFAN BJÖRK & JUSSI HOLOPAINEN

Introduction

Purpose of book is to give a tool for understanding and creating games.

- Help to make design choices when creating game.

Book focuses on the most essential part: Gameplay.

- Gameplay: Structures of player interaction with the game system and other players.

What are game design patterns?

Collection of possible design choices in games.

- Example patterns: Boss monsters, levels, weapons etc.

Simply put, they are recurring themes that occur throughout all games

- Storyline, social interaction, handicaps, etc

Applies to card games, board games, computer games, etc

And why should I care? Provides a “scientific” way to analyze gameplay flaws

- “Why isn’t this game fun?” “I dunno lol.”

Can allow one to draw fun elements from other genres

- Gambling games -> Minigames in RPGs

Possible common language for game design

−Need a vocabulary for talking about games

−Describe and compare games while focusing on the interaction provided in games

Tool for

−Inspiration

−Structured creative design

−Problem-solving

−Communication and Analysis

Game component framework

−Book presents a framework for describing games based on the activities of the player

−The framework provides the concepts about the physical and logical components of game design

−These components are used to describe the game design patterns

−Framework is based on an idea that player makes quantitative changes in the state of the game

Component categories Holistic

−Determine how the activity of playing the game is divided

Boundary

−Limit the player activities by allowing certain actions and making some activities more rewarding

Temporal

−Describe the flow of the game play and define the changes in the game state

Structural

- Define the parts of the game which are manipulated by the players and the

Pattern template in the book Book has the large collection of patterns ~300 patterns

Pattern template:

Name

- Specific, idiomatic

Description

- Definition, how it affects the structural framework (if it does), examples of games in which the pattern is found

Using the pattern

- What components from the framework are required to use the game, patterns that can be used to instantiate or modulate the pattern

Consequences

−What effects the pattern has on game play, other patterns the pattern supports, potentially conflicting patterns and why

Relations

− Instantiates/instantiated by, modulates/modulated by, potentially conflicting patterns

References

−To descriptions of the phenomena not using patterns, games exemplifying the pattern, patents

A quick rundown of the book

Chapter 2: Framework

Framework is based on an idea that player makes quantitative changes in the state of the game

Chapter 3: Game design patterns

All patterns are related to each other in some form. Instantiates, Modulates, Instantiated by, Modulate by, Conflicting with

Chapter 4: Using Design Patterns

Structural analysis, Play testing, Idea generation, Development of game concepts, Problem solving, Communication

A quick rundown of the book

Chapter 6: Resource & Resource Management Pattern

Resources are for players to evaluate their situation and to turn into actions in the game.

Chapter 7: Information, Communication, and Presentation Pattern

What information is available, the quality and reliability of the information, how to distribute and access the information

Chapter 8: Actions and Events Patterns

What are the common patterns in actions and how they’re performed?

A quick rundown of the book Chapter 9: Narrative Structures, Predictability and Immersion Patterns

How the game design can support immersion and commitment to the game by the players.

Chapter 11: Game Design Patterns for Goals

Goals give players objectives to aim for when playing games but even if all the goals in games can be described by few patterns, they take on many different specific forms and affect gameplay differently.

Chapter 12: Game Design Patterns for Goal Structures

Relations between goals. Hierarchy of goals, how goals of different players in one game can be related. What’s the difference between goals.

A quick rundown of the book

Chapter 13: Game Design Patterns for Game Sessions

How game session can be organised. How time goes. How player actions affect in-game time.

Chapter 14:Game Design Patterns for Game Mastery and Balancing

Multiplayer or player-computer balance and how it can achieved. What makes game Complex and Difficult, level of those characteristics.

Chapter 15: Game Design Patterns for Meta Games, Replayability, and Learning Curves

Way of achieving games replayability, inside-games, non-game ways of enjoying game.

Game patterns in real worldConsumers in PacMan - Resource and Resource Management Pattern

Game patterns in real worldImperfect Information in Mahjong - Information, Communication, and Presentation Pattern

Summary

Game patterns occur throughout all kinds of games

A game doesn’t necessarily need all patterns in order to be called a game