Tiles

Game elements used to distribute resources, often with different characteristics, without necessarily revealing the distribution.

Tiles are physical game elements used to either distribute resources between players or to mark places on gameplay areas. They may be of many shapes but are typically heavy enough to not be move unless players intentionally mean to move them. They may shared the appearance of one side with other Tiles to make randomization of them possible, and let game designers choose the exact distribution of each type. Tiles do not need to be physical game elements; they can also be simulated in computer games.

Note: this pattern shared the same definition as Tiles since the difference primarily concern material and ergonomics.

Note: this pattern does not deal with the tiles that may be used to construct the Chess boards and their like, since these tiles are decorative and cannot themselves be manipulated in games.

Examples

The board game Othello consists of playing Tiles and flipping them, trying to make one's color dominant on the board.

42, Mahjong, Scrabble, and Tien Gow are all Tile-Based Games where Tiles are used as resources that form players hands, similar to how cards are used in many Card Games.

In contrast, Tiles are used in Carcassonne to build game worlds as gameplay progresses while in Hey! That's My Fish! they are used to destroy game worlds as gameplay progresses. The gameplay area of Settlers of Catan is constructed from Tiles before gameplay begins, but by randomizing these many different areas are possible. Carolus Magnus uses Tiles to represent gameplay areas also, but here the actual Tiles have no important information - what affects gameplay is how controls them, if they are joined with other Tiles to form groups, and their position in relation to other Tiles and groups. Small World has a fixed board for each number of players but use Tiles to mark mountains and various constructions that players can create as part of their moves.

NetHack and Slaves to Armok II: Dwarf Fortress uses Tiles to represent corridors, walls, dungeon, and cavern floors and so on. Minecraft does the same although here the Tiles are actually blocks. These Tiles are used to generate an almost limitless number of different dungeons but only qualify as Tiles as they can be destroyed or in some cases moved.

Using the pattern

Tiles have many similarities with Cards, so any design intending to use Tiles can also consider using Cards. While both can be used to create Hands of potential actions (e.g. Mahjong and Scrabble uses Tiles in this way), Tiles tend to be used to create Game Worlds while Cards instead tend to be used to create Abstract Player Constructs.

Tiles can be used either to define the Game World or to be put on an area defined by the Game World. They may be designed in such a manner that every tile may be put next to any other tile (regarding form and appearance), or not (implying rules that a tile may only be put where it fits). In board games the game areas that are constructed by Tiles can make use of the two sides of a tile to represent different modes of the game area defined by the tile. In computer games the Tiles may have any number of different modes. Tiles can also have a semi-permanent nature, for example, they can start to deteriorate when an Avatar or one of a player's Units has been placed on the tile, creating a Time Limit for long the tile can be used.

Tiles can either be uniform in form, as the squares in Chess, or have irregular shapes, e. g. shaped to fit an illustrative game map as in Diplomacy. Irregularly shaped tiles can be used to make tiles have different properties regarding connections to other areas of the game board, creating Strategic Locations. Regardless of the shape, Tiles can also become Strategic Locations by having different characteristics enabling, for example, Privileged Abilities. Tiles that are placed differently in different game instances can be created so that the distribution of different tiles can make certain tiles more valuable.

Tiles can be used to define how and how fast the game elements can move through the connections to the neighboring Tiles. They can also be used to define the size of the game elements, i. e. that a game element may, regardless of its actual physically size, be said to occupy one or several tiles fully if placed within them.

hexagons

dominoes

Bookkeeping Tokens

While Tile-Laying can result from Tiles combined with the Construction pattern (e.g. Dominant Species, having Tiles as Destructible Objects instead results in Shrinking Game Worlds (e.g. Hey! That's My Fish!).

Can Be Modulated By

Discard Piles, Stack Seeding, Strategic Locations, Turn Taking Trick Taking

Diegetic Aspects

As Tiles can be the building blocks of Game Worlds and Levels, they can be important in maintaining a game's Diegetic Consistency.

Interface Aspects

Tiles is an Interface Pattern.

Consequences

Tiles can construct Game Worlds and Levels, and allow these to be separated into clearly distinguishable areas, making the position and possibilities of actions easier to judge. This also allow easier changes in them, either in ownership if they represent Territories or in the actual gameplay area; the latter is in many cases used to have Reconfigurable Game Worlds (e.g. to create Shrinking Game Worlds).

Besides being used to create Game Worlds and Levels, Tiles can like Cards form Sets or Abstract Player Constructs. Being able to add Tiles to Abstract Player Constructs make Abstract Player Construct Development possible while being able to add Tiles in other gameplay is often some sort of Construction activity.

When Tiles need to be given to players during gameplay, they can support both Drawing Stacks and Drafting and through shuffling them Randomness. With fixed distributions of which types of Tiles exist, these design solutions encourage players to engage in Memorizing which Tiles have been drawn and which have been played.

Relations

Can Instantiate

Abstract Player Construct Development, Abstract Player Constructs, Bookkeeping Tokens, Construction, Drafting, Drawing Stacks, Game Worlds, Levels, Memorizing, Randomness, Reconfigurable Game Worlds, Sets, Territories

with Construction

Tile-Laying

with Destructible Objects

Shrinking Game Worlds

Can Modulate

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Can Be Instantiated By

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Can Be Modulated By

Destructible Objects, Discard Piles, Hands, Stack Seeding, Strategic Locations, Trick Taking, Turn Taking

Possible Closure Effects

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Potentially Conflicting With

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History

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

Acknowledgements

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