Difference between revisions of "Hotseating"

Revision as of 08:49, 26 September 2011

Gameplay where players take turns using an interface to interact with the game system.

A limitation with computer-based games is that unless they are networked there only exists one screen and perhaps only one set of input devices. In cases where players cannot share the screen - for example due to a need of secrecy - an alternative is to use Hotseating. This is simply that players have to take turns using the interface

This pattern is a still a stub.

Wikipedia has an entry for the concept of Hotseating in games^[1].

Examples

Pinball Games such as Star Trek: The Next Generation need to make use of Hotseating, and this has continued in computer-based versions such as Pinball Dreams.

Asteroids

Space Invaders

Pac-Man

Eight-ball

, Peggle, Bowling

Darts

WarioWare series

Heroes of Might and Magic series

Worms series

Many other computer games, e.g. Bloodbowl,

the Advance Wars series,

the Civilization series

support network gameplay as well as Hotseating.

The site GiantBomb has a long list of games supporting Hotseating^[2].

Using the pattern

In fact, one could argue that all most non-digital Turn-Based Games (e.g. Chess and Go) use Hotseating as only one player can interact with the game system at a time. This does however rarely mean that game designers of those games need to consider the design options described in this pattern. This since no effort from designers need to be exerted for it to exist and also since players can for efficiency reasons ignore this and simultaneously interact with the games if everybody agrees that this is okay.

That Hotseating requires a form of Turn-Based Games does not automatically make Real-Time Games impossible to combine with Hotseating. Pinball Games are for example games where players take turns playing but each player's turn contain real-time gameplay.

Split-Screen Views is an alternative to using Hotseating which allows for multiplayer Real-Time Games while only using one screen.

Diegetic Aspects

Interface Aspects

Narrative Aspects

Consequences

Relations

Turn-Based Games Multiplayer Games

Can Instantiate

with ...

Can Modulate

Can Be Instantiated By

Can Be Modulated By

Possible Closure Effects

Potentially Conflicting With

History

New pattern created in this wiki.

References

1. ↑ Wikipedia entry for the Hotseating concept in gaming.
2. ↑ Page on the GiantBomb site listing games supporting Hotseating.

Acknowledgements

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