Scores

The one-sentence "definition" that should be in italics.

This pattern is a still a stub.

Examples

Many Board Games use Scores to determine a winner. Some, e.g. Hare and Tortoise and Settlers of Catan, end when a player has a high enough Score while others, e.g. Carcarsonne, Egizia, Race for the Galaxy, and Ticket to Ride, end due to specific requirements and Scores are then counted.

Left 4 Dead series

Chess

Go

Scenarios in Memoir '44 are typically not balanced between the two sides but through using scores for each game players can switch sides after a first game instance and compare their results of two game instances to get a balanced combined score.

deathmatch Quake series

ticks Battlefield series

The levels reached in some games can

Staries

Candy Crush Saga

Using the pattern

Designing a system for Scores in a game consists of deciding when players Scores are adjusted, how much they are adjusted by, and if there are certain Score values which activate events, including ending the game. The last case is shows how Scores often can become Races (but see King of the Hill for an alternative).

Scores are typically a numeric value attached to individual players or Teams. In games where Collections of Resources are used to calculate victory, this combination of patterns create a type of Score system. However, some other attributes can be viewed as Scores so games without explicit Scores can have them implicitly. Character Levels is one such example since they can represent how much effort and skill players have put into the gameplay. Handicap Systems used in Go and Golf is another example since these can be seen as Scores in the Meta Game of being a good player in these games. In games where players progress in unlimited by lives over time and try to complete Levels, e.g. Candy Crush Saga or Peggle, the scoring of which Levels one has completed in Abstract Player Constructs serve a similar function to Scores in other Single-Player Games.

Generalizing, Scores are typically increased as Rewards for succeeding with goals and decreased as Penalties for failing to succeed with goals. Pick-Ups and Combos are two patterns which quite often are directly linked to providing increased Scores. The actual update or finalization of Scores may be a Death Consequences but dying may in itself result in Scores decreasing so the patterns can modify each other. Handicap Systems can be used to both offer different starting Scores for players or to modify how they are given and removed, in both cases to create Player Balance.

While increasing one's Score can be a goal in itself, games sometimes provides Rewards for reaching certain Scores. A common examples is increasing the number of Lives one has when reaching certain Scores; Pinball Dreams does this through providing a jackpot value common for all players that can provide Lives.

Scores can be seen as Investments in games where players have choices between trying to improve their possibilities to affect future gameplay, i.e. create Gameplay Engines, and getting points for their Scores. Players of both Dominion and Race for the Galaxy need to make decisions of this nature as part of considering to do a Construction/Scoring Phase Shift. When Scores can intentionally be decreased by players as a way of performing others actions (Murano is an example of this), Scores become Resources (so they can be both Resources and Investments at the same time).

Scores can affect all types of Winning Patterns, by being Tiebreakers for games with Winning by Ending Gameplay and by being general Progress Indicators in Unwinnable Games. They are typically the prime way of determining winners in games using Winner determined after Gameplay Ends but may be complemented by Tiebreakers. While Scores in Multiplayer Games rather obviously give players ways of having Competition against each other, they can work the same way in Single-Player Games through the use of High Score Lists to let players compete against themselves or others through comparing Scores between game instances (an example of using Scores as Trans-Game Information).

End State Scoring and Secret Scoring Mechanisms are two general ways of modifying how Scores work in a game, both promoting Tension and Uncertainty of Outcome. Scores can easily be tied to Extra-Game Consequences through Gambling, i.e. through requiring payment in money to play and offering payment back as Rewards.

When tying events and Extra-Game Consequences to Scores it may be necessary to consider if Tied Results are possible and should be allowed. Tiebreakers is the solution to avoid having Tied Results.

Diegetic Aspects

Scores are often difficult to explain within a game's theme, so using it easily breaks Thematic Consistency and often thereby also Diegetic Consistency.

Interface Aspects

Scores are typically important information in games where they are used, and for this reason often part of Gameplay Statistics and Game State Indicators. Score Tracks is a specific interface (or visualization) component dedicated for this.

Consequences

Scores are probably the most basic and most used elements in Abstract Player Constructs. They make games have the Continuous Goal of Collecting points which can also be seen as a Race to either first reach a certain Score or have the highest Score when gameplay ends. They make easy value to use as Trans-Game Information in Tournaments which can result in Player Elimination for those with low Scores, and can easily act as Tiebreakers in games built to use Back-to-Back Game Sessions (Memoir '44 being an example of this).

When publicly accessible, they simultaneously are a type of Progress Indicators and Game State Overview which create Stimulated Planning and Tension. This can give rise to Dynamic Alliances working against a Predictable Winner in Multiplayer Games. While wanting to win over other players can be sufficient reason for Multiplayer games to have Replayability, Scores in Single-Player Games can promote Replayability in trying to beat one's own Score from previous game instances and this can be seen as a weak use of Trans-Game Information (a stronger such use of Scores is through the use of High Score Lists).

Save Points and Save-Load Cycles tend to not work well with Scores since players can go back repeatedly in attempts to maximize their scores.

Relations

Time Limited Game Instances - modulates Risk/Reward Higher-Level Closures as Gameplay Progresses Geometric Progression Arithmetic Progression, Discontinuous Progression

used --- Rewards Penalties Teams

Can Instantiate

Abstract Player Constructs, Collecting, Continuous Goals, Game State Overview, High Score Lists, Investments, Player Elimination, Progress Indicators, Races, Replayability, Resources, Stimulated Planning, Tension, Tied Results, Trans-Game Information

with Extra-Game Consequences

Gambling

with Gameplay Engines

Construction/Scoring Phase Shift

with Multiplayer Games

Dynamic Alliances, Predictable Winner

with Winning by Ending Gameplay

Tiebreakers

Can Modulate

Back-to-Back Game Sessions, Death Consequences, King of the Hill, Lives, Multiplayer Games, Single-Player Games, Tournaments, Unwinnable Games, Winner determined after Gameplay Ends, Winning by Ending Gameplay

Can Be Instantiated By

Character Levels

Collections together with Resources

Handicap Systems together with Meta Games

Abstract Player Constructs together with Levels

Can Be Modulated By

Combos, Death Consequences, End State Scoring, Extra-Game Consequences, Gameplay Statistics, Game State Indicators, Handicap Systems, Pick-Ups, Score Tracks, Secret Scoring Mechanisms, Tiebreakers

Possible Closure Effects

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Potentially Conflicting With

Diegetic Consistency, Save Points, Save-Load Cycles, Thematic Consistency

History

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

Acknowledgements

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