Game Design Patterns

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Game Design Patterns

• Jussi Holopainen, Nokia Research Center
• Staffan Björk, Interactive Institute

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Our perspective Interaction Design

• The design area which focuses on interaction
• Computational technology a powerful enabler
• Describing the interaction in games
• Game Design Patterns
• Describing the facilitators or media of that
  interaction
• Component framework
• Invariant elements of games

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What are game design patterns?

• A way to describe design choices (or emergent
  features) that reoccur in many games
• Offers possible explanations to why these design
  choices have been made
• A guide of how to make similar design choices in
  game projects
• What is required to make the pattern emerge
• What consequences can the pattern have on game
  play?
• Work upon the component framework

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Component Framework

• An activity-based model of game interaction
• The medium patterns occur in
• Includes many of traditional concepts used to
  describe games
• Player, element, rule, goal, etc.
• Lays out the details of how games are constructed
• Describe, analyze and compare games

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Component Framework
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Again, what are game design patterns?

• Examples
• Power-Ups
• Boss Monster
• Paper-Rock-Scissor
• Cut Scenes
• Role Reversal
• Parallel Lives
• Orthogonal Unit Differentiation
• Social Interaction

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Why is this interesting?

• Need a vocabulary for talking about games
• Describe and compare games while focusing on the
  interaction provided in games
• Need to discuss and do game designs in a
  structured fashion
• Provide a tool for, especially experimental, game
  design

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Yet again, what are game design patterns?

• Important characteristics
• Recurring game mechanics or elements of
  interaction in games
• Semi-formal inter-dependent descriptions
• Can be intentional or emergent in game designs
• No canonical definition
• Our definition (others are possible)
• Not only a collection of patterns
• The methods in which they can be used

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Our pattern template

• Name
• Description
• Core Definition
• General Description
• Examples
• Using the pattern
• Consequences
• Relations
• References
• Works upon a component framework (game sessions,
  rules, players, actions, goals, closures, modes
  of play etc.)

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Our pattern template, cont.

• Name
• Preferable short, specific, and idiomatic
• Description
• Concise description of the pattern
• Description of how it affects the component
  framework (if it does)
• Examples of games in which the pattern is found

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Our pattern template, cont.

• 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 game pattern has on game play
• What other patterns the pattern supports
• Potentially conflicting patterns and why

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Our pattern template, cont.

• Relations
• Instantiates/Instantiated by
• Modulates/Modulated by
• Potentially conflicting patterns
• References
• To descriptions of the phenomena not using
  patterns
• Games exemplifying the pattern
• Patents

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Example pattern - Producer-Consumer

• Name
• Producer-Consumer
• Description
• The production of resource by one game element
  that is consumed by another game element or game
  event.
• Producer-Consumer determines the lifetime of game
  elements, usually resources, and thus governs the
  flow of the game play.
• Games usually have several overlapping and
  interconnected Producer-Consumers governing the
  flow of available game elements, especially
  resources. As resources are used to determine the
  possible player actions these Producer-Consumer
  networks also determine the actual flow of the
  game play. Producer-Consumers can operate
  recursively, i.e. one Producer-Consumer might
  determine the life time of another
  Producer-Consumer. Producer-Consumers are often
  chained together to form more complex networks of
  resource flows.

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Producer-Consumer

• Example in Civilization the units are produced
  in cities and consumed in battles against enemy
  units and cities. This kind of a
  Producer-Consumer is also used in almost all
  real-time strategy games.
• Example in Asteroids the rocks are produced at
  the start of each level and are consumed by the
  player shooting at them. The same principle
  applies to many other games where the level
  progression is based on eliminating, i.e.
  consuming, other game elements the pills in
  Pac-Man, free space in Qix, and the aliens in
  Space Invaders.

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Producer-Consumer

• Using the pattern
• As the name implies, Producer-Consumer is a
  compound pattern of Producer and Consumer and as
  such this pattern governs how both of these are
  instantiated. The effect of producing and
  consuming Resources or Units often turns out to
  be several different pairs of Producer-Consumers
  as the produced game element can be consumed in
  many different ways. For example, the Units in
  real-time strategy game such as the Age of
  Empires series can be eliminated in direct combat
  with enemy Units, when bombarded by indirect
  fire, and finally when their supply points are
  exhausted. The Producer-Consumer in this case
  consists of the Producer of the Units with three
  different Consumers.
• Producer-Consumers are often, especially in
  Resource Management games, chained together with
  Converters and sometimes Containers. These chains
  can in turn be used to create more complex
  networks. The Converter is used as the Consumer
  in the first Producer-Consumer and as the
  Producer in the second. In other words, the
  Converter takes the resources produced by the
  first Producer and converts them to the resources
  produced by the second Producer.
• This kind of Producer-Consumer chains sometimes
  have a Container attached to the Converter to
  stockpile produced Resources. For example, in
  real-time strategy game StarCraft something is
  produced and taken to the converter and then
  converted to something else and stockpiled
  somewhere. Investments can be seen as Converters
  that are used to convert Resources into other
  forms of Resources, possibly abstract ones.

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Producer-Consumer

• Consequences
• As is the case with the main subpatterns Producer
  and Consumer of Producer-Consumer, the pattern is
  quite abstract but the effects on the flow of the
  game are very concrete. The Producer-Consumers
  simply govern the whole flow of the game from
  games with a single Producer-Consumer to games
  with complex and many layered networks of
  Producer-Consumers.
• The feeling of player control is increased if
  players are able to manipulate either the
  Producer or the Consumer part or both. However,
  in more complex Producer-Consumer chains this can
  lead to situations where players lose Illusions
  of Influence as the effects of individual actions
  can become almost impossible to track down and
  the process no longer has Predictable
  Consequences. Also, adding new Producer-Consumers
  that the players have control over gives them
  opportunities for more Varied Gameplay.
  Producer-Consumer networks with Converters and
  Containers are used in Resource Management games
  to accomplish the Right Level of Complexity. The
  game usually starts with simple
  Producer-Consumers and as the game progresses new
  Producer-Consumers are added to the network to
  increase the complexity.

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Producer-Consumer

• Relations
• Instantiates Varied Gameplay, Resource
  Management
• Modulates Resources, Right Level of Complexity,
  Investments, Units
• Instantiated by Producers, Consumers, Converters
• Modulated by Container
• Potentially Conflicting with Illusions of
  Influence, Predictable Consequences

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Uses of game design patterns

• Inspiration
• Creative design tool
• Design verification
• Problem-Solving for Game Interaction Design
• Communication and analysis

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Inspiration

• Avoid getting stuck in the same thoughts
• Avoid missing possible ideas
• Each pattern is an example of possible
  interaction in a game
• No need to distill ideas from existing games
• Can be used tarot-like for brainstorming

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Inspiration example

• Brainstorming session
• Game for future mobile phones
• 9 participants
• Design requirements
• number of required players 3-12
• technical details has to use Instant Messaging
  etc.
• use of certain patterns from Bluffing, Social
  Interaction, Cooperation, Competition, Hovering
  Closure, Uncommitted Alliances, Tension,
  Producer-Consumer etc.

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Creative Design Tool

• A collection of patterns as the starting point
  for a game concept
• Refinement can be done by examining and choosing
  additional patterns, gradually building a more
  concrete game design

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Creative Design Tool example

• Stimulated Social Interaction
• Trading -gt Resources - gt Producer-Consumer -gt
  Asymmetric Distribution -gt Collection
• Mutual Goals
• Shared Rewards
• Tension
• Bluffing -gt Asymmetric Information
• Betrayal -gt Uncommitted Alliances -gt
  Collaborative Actions -gt Delayed Outcome

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Design Verification

• Use of the patterns and the component framework
  to check design against intentions
• Spot gaps in design
• Spot overemphasizes
• Spot redundancies
• Spot opportunities

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Problem-Solving in Interaction Design

• Understanding why a design has certain wanted and
  unwanted characteristics
• NOT why the game isnt fun or good!
• Give examples of what can be added to, or removed
  from, a design to achieve a certain effect

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Communication and Analysis

• Offer a neutral definition instead of relying on
  that subjective understandings match
• Patterns can be used as concise definitions that
  make descriptions shorter and more specific
• Makes the design process more visible
• Explain design decisions
• Identify new patterns

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Communication and Analysis

• Avoid jargon specific to profession
• Allows comparisons with other games
• How same pattern used in different ways
• The selection of patterns used
• How the patterns relate to each other

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Communication and Analysis example

• Patterns as design requirements
• Common understanding of the features of the game
  with all stakeholders (publisher, producer,
  development team, marketing)
• Easier to check if the features present in design
• Design decisions easier to explain
• To achieve Social Interaction I used Trading in
  such and such way

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Conclusion

• A possible common language for game design
• A collection of game design knowledge
• Tool for
• Inspiration
• Structured creative design tool
• Design verification
• Problem-solving
• Communication and Analysis

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Further Information

• Staffan Björk and Jussi Holopainen Patterns in
  Game Design, Charles River Media, 2004.
• http//www.gamedesignpatterns.org
• jussi.holopainen_at_nokia.com