Geospatial Game Widgets

Game elements that are located in the diegetic world but are not diegetically present.

Not all game elements shown in relation to the game world of a game are actually part of that game world. They may instead be information about the game state but for various reasons placed in relation to things in the game world. Such game elements are called Geospatial Game Widgets.

Examples

Games that include racing portions or modes, e.g. the Grand Theft Auto series and Mirror's Edge, use Geospatial Game Widgets for the way points that players need to pass in order to follow the assign routes. Heavy Rain gives players game interface placed in the environment to show which parts of it can be examined for clues, while Dead Space points out the present of items that can be picked up by showing information about them as diegetic holograms in the items' immediate vicinity. While these can only be seen if the actual items can be seen, the Left 4 Dead Series puts glowing outlines around players' avatars and important items in the environment that can be seen through solid object so they can be located even if they are not directly in a player's line of sight.

Splinter Cell: Conviction in the Splinter Cell series projects information about the current mission a player has on walls in the game world, but does so without diegetically explain why.

World of Warcraft use mobile Geospatial Game Widgets to presents the name of players as free floating text above their avatars that follow the avatars as they move.

Geospatial Game Widgets can exist in Board Games as well. Examples of games that make use of these to show goal destinations include Ricochet Robots and RoboRally. The War Game Advanced Squad Leader uses many token that are place on top of units to show specific statuses they may have, including being pinned down, stunned, demoralized, or having prepared for firing or having first fire advantage.

Using the pattern

Geospatial Game Widgets are used to provide information to players at specific locations in Game Worlds and Levels, so using them consist of choosing what information is to be shown and where to show it.

Showing where Goal Points exist is one common example of what Geospatial Game Widgets are used for, this since there may not be a plausible way to include this in the game's diegesis. Also common are using them to provide Traces such as check point in Racing Games, which really can be seen as series of Goal Points. Clues may also make use of them to ensure that they are unlikely to be missed, potentially modifying games using a Detective Structure.

Geospatial Game Widgets do not have to be their own independent game elements but can be closely tied to other game elements. One such example is to show the Health of Units directly above them or, as World of Warcraft does, show players' Handles hovering above their Avatars. The Left 4 Dead series has another version of tying Geospatial Game Widgets to Avatars - in these games the outlines of Avatars become glowing so that survivor players can notice each other through walls and other solid objects. More generally, Geospatial Game Widget can show information related to the abstract attributes of Characters in direct proximity to Avatars. Besides Avatars and Units, Pick-Ups are likely candidates to be augmented with Geospatial Game Widgets (shown for example in Dead Space) to lessen the risk that players miss noticing their locations.

There are some more specific types of Geospatial Game Widgets. Ghosts are Geospatial Game Widgets that show the gameplay of players in earlier game sessions while for Board Games, Book-Keeping Tokens can easily be used simply by placing them on the board.

Diegetic Aspects

Diegetic Consistency is harder to maintain in games with Geospatial Game Widgets since these are non-diegetic in their nature. This is especially true when they are no occluded by diegetic elements, as is the case for the outlines of Avatars and specific Pick-Ups in the Left 4 Dead Series. They can in some cases be diegetically explained if this includes explaining their insubstantiality, Dead Space does this by explaining the Geospatial Game Widgets are holograms.

Interface Aspects

As information providers, Geospatial Game Widgets are interface components.

Consequences

Geospatial Game Widgets are Game State Indicators that, as mentioned above, often break Diegetic Consistency by introducing non-diegetic elements into Game Worlds or Levels. They can provide Spatial Engrossment better compared to other ways of providing information to players, e.g. HUD Interfaces and Secondary Interface Screens, since locating the information in the Game Worlds does make players shift between spatial thinking and non-spatial thinking. Since they do provide players with information that can make gameplay easier, they can be considered working against Challenging Gameplay - games can easily become more challenging by removing the Geospatial Game Widgets.

In games with Cooperation, Geospatial Game Widgets can support Coordination, especially when they bluntly ignore Diegetic Consistency to be visible through diegetic elements.

Relations

Can Instantiate

Clues, Game State Indicators, Spatial Engrossment, Traces

with Cooperation

Coordination

Can Modulate

Avatars, Characters, Detective Structure, Game Worlds, Goal Points, Handles, Health, Levels, Pick-Ups, Units

Can Be Instantiated By

Book-Keeping Tokens, Ghosts

Can Be Modulated By

-

Possible Closure Effects

-

Potentially Conflicting With

Challenging Gameplay, Diegetic Consistency

History

New pattern created in this wiki, based on the concept of Geometric elements in Fagerholt & Lorentzon.

Acknowledgements

Erik Fagerholt, Magnus Lorentzon