Conditional Passageways
Passageways in games that can only be moved through if certain conditions are met.
Many games have areas that players cannot access before fulfilling certain objectives or goals. Conditional Passageways are the places in the game worlds that provide the blockage and these may be literal blockages, like a pile of rocks blocking a tunnel, or be more abstract reasons why movement is not possible, e.g. a rocket that will not take off before it is repaired.
Contents
Examples
Many doors in the Doom, Far Cry, and Quake series cannot be opened before players have accessed the proper security cards. The Legend of Zelda series requires players to collect keys, defeat boss monsters or manipulate the environment in different ways to open doors. The Super Mario series requires players to collect stars to be able to enter more difficult levels and thereby guarantee that players have completed easier challenges before trying more difficult ones.
Adventure Games like Day of the Tentacle, the Leisure Suit Larry series, and the Zork series have meeting the requirements of Conditional Passageways as major part of their gameplay, although in many cases figuring out what the requirements are is the most difficult part.
Using the pattern
Designing Conditional Passageways consist of first making travel between two points in a Game World possible and then preventing this Movement. One way of doing this is by inserting Choke Points together with Enemies or Obstacles - making the removal of the Enemies or Obstacles the requirement for opening up the passages.
Another is to have Environmental Effects that block Movement but having
Not all Conditional Passageways need to be apparent as potential routes to new areas.
Can Be Instantiated By
Can Be Modulated By
Controllers, Inaccessible Areas, Switches, Teams, Tools, Vehicles
can instantiate
Can Modulate
Narrative Aspects
Many games tell stories as a consequence of how players have been able to move to different areas in Game Worlds. For games designed in this fashion, Conditional Passageways can be used to ensure that the order in which Predetermined Story Structures are unfolded is the one intended.
Consequences
Conditional Passageways are ways of controlling and directing Movement in Game Worlds - as a specific example, they can control access between Levels. Two effects of using Conditional Passageways is that they can ensure that Predetermined Story Structures are unfolded in a specific order and that players receive Smooth Learning Curves by having to complete easier challenges before trying harder ones.
Conditional Passageways that are unknown to players help define Secret Areas. Those that are known, and where the requirement to go through them are also known, typically lead to goals of Gain Competence or Gain Ownership depending on what the specific requirements are.
When Conditional Passageways limit travel to those that use Vehicles (as for example the impossibility of tanks to enter most buildings in the Battlefield series), this provides Balancing Effects by requiring that all combatants are pedestrians inside buildings. In contrast, when the condition instead is that only specific players or Teams can pass through this can create Safe Havens.
Relations
Can Instantiate
Gain Competence, Gain Ownership, Predetermined Story Structures, Privileged Movement, Safe Havens, Secret Areas, Smooth Learning Curves
with Vehicles
Can Modulate
Game Worlds, Levels, Movement, Vehicles, Warp Zones
Can Be Instantiated By
Choke Points together with Enemies or Obstacles
Environmental Effects together with Privileged Abilities or Switches
Obstacles together with Switches
Can Be Modulated By
Controllers, Inaccessible Areas, Teams, Tools, Vehicles
Possible Closure Effects
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Potentially Conflicting With
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History
New pattern created in this wiki.
References
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