Switches

Game elements that players can use to activate events or actions in game worlds.

Examples

Buttons and levers on the walls are Switches used to open doors, walls, and sections of the floor in the early first-person Computer Roleplaying game Dungeon Master. The early installments in the Doom series had Switches that temporarily opened secret doors that could only be reached by quickly moving some distances within the games. Both the Elder Scrolls and makes use of Switches in the form of pressure plates to activate physics-based "swing object" traps. Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas uses pressure plates in the same fashion, although some of them are linked to "grenade bouquets".

The puzzles in the Portal series often consist of accessible boxes than can then be put on Switches to activate various elements on levels. In the co-op mode of Portal 2 one player can sometimes fill this role while the other player performs some necessary action.

Using the pattern

Buttons can be sticky, i. e. they stay pressed allowing the players to know if the Button is activated or not. If the Button can be pressed again to inactivate it, this can be used to create Reversability, while those that cannot be changed back enforce Irreversible Actions. Buttons, which are not sticky, can cycle through a series of states, for example, pressing a button repeatedly can let a player decide which of the three doors are open.

Consequences

Buttons are simple Controllers that allow for a limited range of actions. Their use is trivial to understand, although the effect of activating a Button may be complex and have long-term consequences.

Relations

Can Instantiate

Irreversible Events Left 4 Dead series Quick Returns Levels Varying Rule Sets [[Obstacles] Traces

History

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

Acknowledgements

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