Power-Ups

Game elements that provide instant benefits or advantages when collected.

This pattern is a still a stub.

See also the Wikipedia entry for Power-Ups

Examples

The power pills in Pac-Man allows players to hunt ghosts for a limited amount of time.

The "Quad" damage Power-Ups in the Quake series quadruples the damage caused by the players' weapons for a limited amount of time. Ammunition found in these games, and also in the Half-Life series, are also forms of Power-Ups.

Left 4 Dead series

Doom

Super Mario Bros: The Super Mushrooms and 1-up Mushrooms

Legend of Zelda: The heart containers

Using the pattern

Resources Ammunition Armor

Time Limits Game Element Insertion Avatars Persistent Game Worlds

The possibilities regarding where the Producers of the Power-Ups are and when Power-Ups appear are similar to those of Pick-Ups. The main differences are that Power-Ups often give the player New Abilities or Privileged Abilities, and one has to determine how long the effect of the Power-Up lasts and if players can Trading them. However, Power-Ups can also provide Improved Abilities such as temporarily raising Skills.

Since the Power-Up typically gives the player an advantage without a matching disadvantage, the use of Power-Ups may cause problems with Player Balance more easily than using plain Pick-Ups.

Consequences

Power-Ups share many of the consequences of Pick-Ups but typically have a more transient effect. Since the effect has a Time Limit, picking up a Power-Up can actually increase Tension if the usefulness of the Power-Up depends on the success of other goals, for example, using the quad damage Power-Up properly in Quake games efficiently depends on locating and hitting enemies first. Power-Ups can be used as target objects for Gain Competence goals.

Power-Ups give players Ephemeral Goals of Collecting when they appear; knowing their location and when they are produced allows players to locate Strategic Locations and have Strategic Knowledge.

History

An updated version of the pattern Power-Ups that was part of the original collection in the book Patterns in Game Design.