Unknown Goals

Goals initially, or currently, unknown to the players that have them.

Games provide goals to players to give them motivations to attempt various activities within the games. However, players may not be given all goals at once in order to facilitate suspense and interesting narratives. The goals that exist in games but are not known to players are Unknown Goals.

Examples

Most adventure games, e.g. Maniac Mansion and the King's Quest series, start by providing the players with an overarching goal which motivates the players to complete the game. However, the different subgoals that have to be completed before the main goal is completed are usually unknown, as knowing these would ruin many of the surprises in the narrative. A related example can be found in the Super Mario Bros series where players may know that they need to collect Star Coins but where they are.

Using the pattern

Unknown Goals are nearly always Predefined Goals, and most often to support Predetermined Story Structures by being subgoals to larger goals.

Can Be Instantiated By

Conceal, Dedicated Game Facilitators, Dynamic Goal Characteristics, Ephemeral Goals, Imperfect Information, Levels

Games can provide hints that Unknown Goals exist either through Clues during gameplay or through Level Summaries after a specific part of gameplay has finished.

Narration Aspects

Besides supporting Surprises in a game, the use of Unknown Goals is primarily to support Predetermined Story Structures and make the players actions relate to the narration.

Consequences

Can Instantiate

Gain Information, Parties, Surprises

with Predefined Goals

Strategic Knowledge

Can Modulate

Committed Goals, Competition, Goal Hierarchies, Player-Planned Development, Rewards, Selectable Set of Goals

Potentially Conflicting With

Replayability, Symmetric Goals, Trans-Game Information

Relations

Can Instantiate

Gain Information, Parties, Surprises

with Predefined Goals

Strategic Knowledge

Can Modulate

Committed Goals, Competition, Goal Hierarchies, Player-Planned Development, Predefined Goals, Predetermined Story Structures, Rewards, Selectable Set of Goals

Can Be Instantiated By

Conceal, Dedicated Game Facilitators, Dynamic Goal Characteristics, Ephemeral Goals, Imperfect Information, Levels

Can Be Modulated By

Clues, Level Summaries

Possible Closure Effects

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Potentially Conflicting With

Replayability, Symmetric Goals, Trans-Game Information

History

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

Acknowledgements

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