Game Design Patterns

1
Game Design Patterns

• Jussi Holopainen
• Research Scientist
• Nokia Research Center
• jussi.holopainen_at_nokia.com

2
Game Mechanics/Interaction

• Game Design Patterns almost exclusively about
  game mechanics and interactions
• Character, script, audio/visual style, theme
  pretty much out of scope
• Why?

3
Game Mechanics/Interaction

• Mechanics/Interaction easier to analyze and to
  describe
• Artistic style way more time and culture
  dependent
• Interactions more invariant
• Personal bias (authors view)
• Cannot draw, below average writer
• Diagrams and analysis

4
Genesis of a Pattern

• 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.

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What kind of patterns exist

• Patterns emerging from tokens used
• Patterns emerging from closures used
• Patterns emerging from goals used
• Patterns emerging from interaction
• Patterns emerging from experience

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Recognize

• Hey, there is a pattern!
• Initial name
• Short (one or two sentences) description of the
  particular example
• Sketchy example in games
• Normally patterns come in groups, networks
• Candidate collection
• More is better!

8
Recognize (example)

• Java thread programming -gt producer-consumer
  model
• One thread is producing objects that the consumer
  thread is gobbling up
• Hey, this could be a game design pattern also!
  (Civilization)
• Initial name producer-consumer
• One element is producing resources which another
  element consumes
• Strategy games

9
Recognize (example)

• Other brief ideas
• Accumulator to store produced objects
• Limit to accumulator
• Consumer as factory -gt transforms objects to
  other objects
• Producer-gtconsumer chains
• Producer-gtconsumer networks

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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

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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

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Analyze (example)

• Sid Meiers Civilization
• Settlements produce units based on turns,
  technology level and surrounding land
• Player can select which units are produced
• Units are consumed in
• Combat
• New settlements

13
Analyze (example)

• Quake III
• Ammo, health, armor, weapons appear in power-up
  spawn points, players have to gather them
• They are consumed by player actions -gt combat
• Player avatars appear in spawn points and are
  consumed in combat

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Analyze (example)

• Tetris
• Random blocks are produced when the current block
  is stopped
• Blocks are consumed when they stop
• Other level of producer-consumer blocks as an
  asset to the player (remove them from play)
• Hmmm this seems to be a border case

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Analyze (example)

• Civilization without the producer-consumer
  pattern?
• Would destroy the whole game
• Quake III without the pattern?
• No power-ups
• No avatar respawns
• Boring game?
• Tetris
• Impossible to imagine!

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Analyze (example)

• Games without the pattern
• Board and strategy games (Chess) with fixed
  resources, no producer part during the game
• Some racing and simulation games (without
  power-ups)
• Puzzles (ah, but they are not games)
• What about Poker? Dealing the hand producer,
  change the hand, fold, win consumer? Bet
  produced by the players, consumed by the winner?

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Analyze (example)

• Comparison
• Squad Leader with and without player controlled
  reinforcements
• Reinforcements increase complexity and feeling of
  control (another level of player actions)
• Regulates the game flow (timed reinforcements)
• More comparisons between different games
  necessary

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Analyze (example)

• The other ideas
• Accumulator turns out to be a pattern of its
  own. Limit is included in accumulator
• Consumer as factory -gt the Factory pattern
• Chains and networks are features of the pattern
  and should be mentioned in the definition

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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?
• Sub/superior patterns

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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
• Consequences
• Using the pattern
• Relations to other patterns

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Describe (example)

• Producer-Consumer
• One game element is producing resources, which
  another element consumes.

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Describe (diagram)
Producer-Consumer
P
C
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Describe (example)

• Game examples (Civ, Quake III, Tetris etc.)
• Use of the pattern
• Production regulation (time, turn, action, event
  etc.), consumer regulation (automatic, player
  controlled, mechanics of consumption)

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Describe (example)

• Consequences
• Concrete, but very common pattern
• Can regulate the flow of the game
• Can increase the complexity of the game,
  especially if the players can control the
  producer-consumer elements
• Can increase the feeling of player control

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Describe (example)

• Related patterns
• Subpatterns Factory, Accumulator,
  Symmetric/asymmetric distribution and abilities
• Superior Limited Resources, Trade, Investments,
  Resource Management and Control

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Describe (diagram)
Producer-Consumer with Accumulator
C
P
A
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Describe (diagram)
Producer-Consumer chain with Factory
P
C
P
C
F
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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

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Test (example)

• Producer
• One resource token for the player
• Consumer
• Player places the token on a game area
• Production regulation
• Consumer triggers the producer
• Consumption
• The token stays on the placed game area (player
  loses control)

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Test (example)

• Certainly not a game yet
• No goal
• Goal
• Use Alignment four tokens in a straight row
• Still not a game
• No opposition
• Add another player
• Multiplayer Transfer of Control between players
  linked to placing the token

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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

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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 me)
• Some phases are better done in small groups

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An illustrative example

• Board game Carcassonne (Klaus-Jürgen Wrede,
  published by Hans im Glück 2000)
• Simple
• Several interacting patterns

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Example of Pattern emerging from token use

• Tile-laying

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Example of Pattern emerging from closure use

• Area Enclosure

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Example of Pattern emerging from interaction

• Hovering Closure

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Example of Pattern emerging from experience

• Tension

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Area Enclosure other examples

• Go
• Qix

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Hovering Closure other examples

• Tetris
• Americas Army (taking a photo etc.)
• Qix

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Thank you!

• More information at
• http//www.gamedesignpatterns.org