Dynamic Goal Characteristics

Goals that have characteristics which change during gameplay.

Players need to know the requirements of goals in games to be able to strive towards fulfilling them. However, this does not mean that the requirements can change. Goals with changing requirements are called Dynamic Goal Characteristics.

Examples

Example: In the roleplaying game Neverwinter Nights, part of the overall goal at the start is to perform a complicated ritual with several non-player characters. When the ritual is finally performed, it turns out that one of the characters doing the ritual is a traitor, and then another goal is revealed to the player: defeat the traitor.

Example: Many children's games, such as Tag and King of the Hill, can either be described as using Dynamic Goal Characteristics or having a static high-level goal with subgoals that switch from avoiding one person to avoiding another person (or being the hunter) in Tag and from defense to offense in King of the Hill.

Example: The card game Fluxx has the current winning goal represented by a played card. Although the game can be said to have the static goal of fulfilling the goal card criteria, the specific winning goal changes as soon as a player plays a new goal card.

Anti-Examples

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Using the pattern

Dynamic Goal Characteristics can modify any type of goal. The main design choice Dynamic Goal Characteristics is, of course, what characteristics of the goal are going to be dynamic. The number of game elements in a goal is a common solution, e.g. Game Items, Resources, or Units.

A secondary main design choice is how the characteristics should be changed.

This might be as explicit effects of Facilitating Rewards or Penalties (Setback Penalties by their definition instantiates Dynamic Goal Characteristics but other Penalties can modify the pattern), but some pattern combinations make Dynamic Goal Characteristics occur dynamically in games. For example, providing Resource Generators of game elements related to Eliminate or Collection goals will change depending on how often the generators manage to produce the Resources. As another example, Role Reversal allows two (or more) goals that are related to appear as versions of a more abstract goal with Dynamic Goal Characteristics.

As mentioned previously, changing the information related to a goal is often used in adventure games and that Role Reversal is perhaps one of the most common ways to instantiate Dynamic Goal Characteristics. Another common way is to have an Eliminate goal related to a certain kind of a game element but having a Resource Generator that generates the actual element.

The goal definition can be conditionally dynamic as is the case in, for example, Squash. The first goal is to get nine points, but if the player does not have a two-point lead, the goal becomes dynamic in regard to the amount of points required for winning the game. This automatically guarantees that there is a Perceivable margin for the winner. The obvious way of describing the goal is to change the definition from absolute (e. g., nine points are needed) to relative (e. g., at least nine points are needed and two points more than the other player).

Can Modulate

Excluding Goals, Goal Hierarchies, Player-Planned Development

Can Be Instantiated By

Ephemeral Goals, Player-Defined Goals,

The changes of goal characteristics can however not be to great, since this may make players feel that their actions are meaningless (and that the game is actually switching between several different goals).

Consequences

Dynamic Goal Characteristics in a game makes it have Imperfect Information unless there is a deterministic algorithm modifying the characteristics and this is known by players and the players can deduce more future game states than is needed to complete the goal. Goals with Dynamic Goal Characteristics are Unknown Goals to players that do not know the current characteristics (and thereby gives them Gain Information goals). In contrast, if the characteristics are known, the pattern typically provides Perceivable Margins since players can know how close they are to meeting the goal.

Relations

Can Instantiate

Imperfect Information, Perceivable Margins, Resource Generators, Unknown Goals

Can Modulate

Excluding Goals, Goal Hierarchies, Player-Planned Development

Can Be Instantiated By

Ephemeral Goals, Player-Defined Goals, Role Reversal, Setback Penalties

Resource Generators together with Collection or Eliminate

Can Be Modulated By

Penalties, Facilitating Rewards

Possible Closure Effects

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Potentially Conflicting With

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History

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

Acknowledgements

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