Spawn Points

Locations in game worlds where avatars, units, or enemies appear.

This pattern is a still a stub.

Examples

All game elements that appear in a gamehave a first initial location, their Spawn Point. The Spawn Points are most noticeable in multi-player games since their effect is most apparent to the players already in the game.

Example: the classic arcade game Gauntlet has Spawn Points, which will pour out monsters until the players destroy the monster generators.

Example: many roleplaying games and massively multiplayer online games use Spawn Points for the player Avatars but also have spawn points for Enemies.

Spawn Points are heavily used in multiplayer first-person shooters such as the Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, and the Battlefield, Quake, Team Fortress, and Unreal Tournament series. Some of these games offers additional variations on Spawn Points: Battlefield 2 lets players spawn on their squad leaders while Battlefield Vietnam lets players spawn in vehicles that can be steered around the game area and players can create tunnel exits that function as mobile Spawn Points.

Using the pattern

Almost all games that use Spawning in Game Worlds or Levels make use of Spawn Points. The main design choice to be made about Spawn Points is where to locate them. The suitable locations are usually restricted by a number of factors: what is being spawned, what is the intended Right Level of Difficulty, and what should be chance for Surprises be. It may be of consequences whether the game uses Lives, and how many Lives a player has left, when determining what Spawn Point will be used. Further, the effect of being able to do Camping close to Spawn Points should be considered when placing Spawn Points.

Coordinated placement of Spawn Points belonging to opposing sides in team-based games can be used as Balancing Effects by placing them in equal relations to other Strategic Locations, often by using Symmetry.

Battlefield 2 and Battlefield Vietnam show how Spawn Points can be linked to the position of Avatars and Vehicles respectively.

Safe Havens are quite often used as Spawn Points, or Spawn Points are surrounded by Safe Havens since this allows Spawning game elements some respite before being in any kind of danger.

Can Be Instantiated By

Avatars, Privileged Abilities, Vehicles

Game Items together with Converters, Resource Generators, or Spawning

Can Modulate

Death Consequences,

Diegetic Aspects

Spawn Points can challenge Thematic Consistency since there may be no real world equivalents for such locations (magic or technology that supports teleportation is the most common explanation). An exception to this is Spawn Points located near the edge of Game Worlds. This since they can represent access points to other parts of the diegetic Game Worlds even if gameplay cannot occur there, and thereby give an Illusion of Open Space.

Consequences

Spawn Points are a form of Producers that define where Spawning occurs in Game Worlds or Levels. Spawn Points are in themselves Strategic Locations as the introduction of new game elements appears there. When they produce the targets for Collecting goals, Spawn Points can encourage Encouraged Return Visits while they can provide Tension to players whose Avatars spawn there if they are under immediate threat there.

Relations

Can Instantiate

Illusion of Open Space, Producers, Strategic Locations, Tension

with Collecting

Encouraged Return Visits

Can Modulate

Death Consequences, Game Worlds, Levels, Safe Havens, Spawning

Can Be Instantiated By

Avatars, Privileged Abilities, Vehicles

Game Items together with Converters, Resource Generators, or Spawning

Can Be Modulated By

Safe Havens

Possible Closure Effects

-

Potentially Conflicting With

Thematic Consistency

History

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