Pattern Suggestion List

For patterns that have partly or fully been inserted into the wiki, see the category of patterns.

Note: not all these patterns should necessary be made...

Note: to make a new pattern, use the Gameplay Design Pattern Template

Note: the suggested patterns are not made as links to avoid hiding patterns that are actually referenced to

Note: the totally new patterns at the bottom of the page should be left even after they are create to make it easier for us to identify them.

Suggestion from non-users for new patterns will hopefully be possible to do on the discussion page soon.

Patterns

From the cd-rom

Ability Losses

Achilles' Heels

Aim & Shoot

Alignment

Alliances

Alternative Reality

Anticipation

Area Control

Arithmetic Progression ( <- Arithmetic Rewards for Investments)

Asymmetric Abilities

Asymmetric Goals

Asymmetric Information

Asymmetric Resource Distribution

Asynchronous Games

Attention Swapping

Balancing Effects

Betrayal

Betting

Bidding

Bluffing

Book-Keeping Tokens

Boss Monsters

Budgeted Action Points

Switches (<-Buttons)

Cameras

Camping

Capture

Card Hands

Cards

Character Development

Characters

Chargers

Closed Economies

Closure Points

Clues

Cognitive Immersion

Collaborative Actions

Collecting

Collection

Combat

Committed Goals

Communication Channels

Competence Areas

Competition

Conceal

Configuration

Conflict

Connection

Diegetic Consistency ( <- Consistent Reality Logic)

Construction

Constructive Play

Consumers

Contact

Container

Continuous Goals

Controllers

Converters

Cooperation

Creative Control

Cut Scenes

Damage

Traps (<- Deadly Traps)

Decreased Abilities

Dedicated Game Facilitators

Delayed Effects

Delayed Reciprocity

Deliver (<- Delivery)

Dexterity-Based Actions

Dice

Diminishing Returns

Direct Information

Discard Piles

Disruption of Focused Attention

Downtime

Drawing Stacks

Dynamic Alliances

Dynamic Goal Characteristics

Early Elimination

Easter Eggs

Eliminate

Emotional Attachment (<- Emotional Immersion)

Empowerment - should be related to Illusion of Influence

Enclosure

Ephemeral Goals

Evade

Excluding Goals

Experimenting

Exploration

Extended Actions

Extra-Game Actions

Extra-Game Consequences

Extra-Game Information

First-Person Views

Focus Loci

Fog of War

Freedom of Choice

Gain Competence

Gain Information

Gain Ownership

Game Masters

Game Mastery

Game Pauses

Game State Overview

Game Worlds <- Game World

Game World Navigation

Games within Games

Geometric Progression ( <- Geometric Rewards for Investments)

Ghosts

Goal Indicators

Check Points <- Goal Points

God Views

God's Finger

Guard

Handicaps

Handles

Helpers

Herd

Goal Hierarchies ( <- Hierarchy of Goals )

Hovering Closures

Identification

Exaggerated Perception of Influence <- Perception of Influence - one always wants this - ( <- Illusion of Influence - since one might have the influence...) )

Illusionary Rewards

Immersion

Imperfect Information

Improved Abilities

Inaccessible Areas

Incompatible Goals

Indirect Control

Indirect Information

Individual Penalties

Individual Rewards

Interferable Goals

Interruptible Actions

Investments

Invisible Walls

King of the Hill

Last Man Standing

Leaps of Faith

Levels

Limited Foresight

Limited Planning Ability

Limited Resources

Limited Set of Actions

Lives

Luck

Maneuvering

Memorizing

Meta Games

Moveable Tiles

Movement

Movement Limitations

Mules (<- Mule and absorbed Substitutional Algorithmic Agents)

Multiplayer Games

Mutual Goals

Narrative Structures

Near Miss Indicators

Negotiation

Never Ending Stories

New Abilities

No-Ops

Non-Renewable Resources

Obstacles

Optional Goals

Orthogonal Unit Differentiation

Outcome Indicators

Diegetically Outstanding Features <- Outstanding Features (and can be for specific game elements also, and might be manipulated)

Overcome

Ownership

Paper-Rock-Scissors

Parallel Lives

Penalties

Perceivable Margins

Determinable Chance to Succeed ( <- Perceived Chance to Succeed - since one always wants the old version right?)

Perfect Information

Persistent Game Worlds

Pick-Ups

Player-Planned Character Development (<- Planned Character Development)

Player Balance

Player Created Game Elements ( <- Player Constructed Worlds )

Player Decided Results

Player Defined Goals

Player Elimination

Player Killing

Player-Decided Distribution of Rewards & Penalties

Polyathlons

Power-Ups

Predefined Goals

Predictable Consequences

Preventing Goals

Privileged Abilities

Privileged Movement

Producer-Consumer

Producers

Progress Indicators

Public Information

Puzzle Solving

Quick Games

Races <- Race

Reconfigurable Game World

Reconnaissance

Red Herrings

Red Queen Dilemmas

Renewable Resources

Replayability

Rescue

Resource Generators

Resource Locations

Resource Management

Resources

Reversibility ( <- Reversability)

Rewards

Rhythm-Based Actions

Complex Gameplay(<- Right Level of Complexity - same reasoning as below)

Challenging Gameplay (<- Right Level of Difficulty - Since one always wants the right level of difficulty, right? That wasn't that difficult was it?)

Casual Gameplay (from changing Right Level of Difficulty)

Risk/Reward

Role Reversal

Roleplaying

Safe Havens

Save Points

Save-Load Cycles

Score

Secret Alliances

Secret Resources

Selectable Set of Goals (<- Selectable Sets of Goals)

Self-Facilitated Games

Sensory-Motoric Immersion

Shared Penalties

Shared Resources

Shared Rewards

Shrinking Game World

Single-Player Games

Skills

Smooth Learning Curves

Social Dilemmas

Social Interaction

Social Organizations

Public Player Statistics (<- replacing Social Statuses since this is more under the control of designers)

Spatial Immersion

Spawn Points

Spawning

Spectators

Game State Indicators (<- Status Indicators)

Stealth

Stimulated Planning

Storytelling

Strategic Knowledge

Strategic Locations

Supporting Goals

Surprises

Survive

Symmetric Goals

Symmetric Information

Symmetric Resource Distribution

Symmetry

Synchronous Games

Team Balance

Team Development

Team Elimination

Teams ( <- Team Play )

The Show Must Go On

Third-Person Views

Tick-Based Games

Tiebreakers

Tied Results

Tile-Laying

Tiles

Timing

Tools

Tournaments

Traces

Tradeoffs

Trading

Trans-Game Information

Transfer of Control

Traverse

Ultra-Powerful Events

Uncertainty of Information

Uncommitted Alliances

Unknown Goals

Varied Gameplay

New from various sources

IPerG: D5.8

Communication Channels

1.2 Social Interaction

1.3 Asynchronous Games

1.4 Memorabilia

Unmediated Social Interaction

Chat Forums

1.7 Coupled Games

1.8 Social Rewards

1.9 Configurable Gameplay Area

Late Arriving Players

Interruptibility <- Interruptability (because it's spelled so...)

Mutual Experiences <- Common Experiences

[[Game Element Trading]9

1.14 Hybrid Spaces

1.15 Social Skills

1.16 Real Life Activities Affect Game State

Heterogeneous Game Element Ownership

1.18 Asynchronous Collaborative Actions

Selectable Functional Roles

1.20 Negotiable Play Sessions

1.21 Negotiable Game Sessions

1.22 Negotiable Game Instance Duration

1.23 Negotiable Game Time

Activity Blending

Selectable Social Roles

NPC design with Petri

Visual Body Damage

Dissectible Bodies

Awareness of Surroundings

Open Destiny

Own Agenda

Unpredictable Behavior

Social NPC design with Petri

Actions Have Diegetically Social Consequences (<- Actions Have Social Consequences)

Binding Promises

Brokering

Competing for Attention

Context Dependent Reaction

Eavesdropping

Either You are with Me or against Me

False Accusations

Favor

Factions (<- Fraction)

Gain Allies

Gossip

Guide and Protect

Hierarchical Fraction

Information Passing

Internal Conflicts

Internal Rivalry

Linked Destinies

Loyalty

Maintaining Lies

Match-Making

Memory of Important Events

My Enemy’s Enemy is my Friend

Others fortune affects own Mood

Outcast

Outspoken Support

Requesting Support

Social Gatekeeper

Social Maintenance

Acting According to Social Norms <- Social Norm

Traitor

Initiative

Dialogue design with Jenny

Incremental Dialogue Processing

Chunk-based Dialogue Processing

Single-Initiative Dialogues

Mixed Initiative Dialogues

Basic Input Feedback

Barge-In

Canned Text Responses

Diegetically Consistent Dialogues (<- Diegetically Consistent Dialogue)

Context Dependent Dialogue

Contextualized Conversational Responses

Gameplay Integrated Conversation

Illocutionary Interface

Location-Specific Dialogues ( <- Location-Specific Dialogues)

Character-Specific Dialogue

Colloquial Mastery

Delicate Phrasing

Ambiguous Responses

MMOG design by Jenny's master students (Torbjörn Söderqvist & Christian Larsson)

Inventory Management

Loot

Loot Rights

Carryables

Tradeables

Equipables

Useables

Deteriorables

Noticeables

Creatables

Stackables

Disposables

Enterables/Mountables

Stationary Property

Mobile Property

Suggested

Stealables

Set Items

Dropables/Placables

Social Status Symbols

Pervasive games with Johan Peitz

Actor Detachment

Artifact-Artifact Proximity

Artifact-Location Proximity

Configurable Gameplay Area

Coupled Games

Critical Gameplay Design

Crossmedia Gameplay

Decontextability

Extra-Game Input

Gameplay Changes Perception of Real World Phenomena

(Interruptible Gameplay - removed since it is the same as interruptibility)

Minimalized Social Weight

Possibility of Anonymity

Physical Navigation

Player Physical Prowess

Player-Artifact Proximity

Player-Avatar Proximity

Player-Location Proximity

Player-Player Proximity

Real Life Activities Affect Game State

Real World Knowledge Advantages

Seamful Gameplay

Self-Reported Positioning

Social Adaptability

The Rabbit Hole Invitation

Unmediated Social Interaction

Unknown

Persistant State World Fixed Real-World Exchange Rate Death game mönstret Point of No Return

New proposals from working with the wiki

Private Game Spaces [Like Puerto Rico, Race to the Galaxy etc.] --Staffan Björk 16:10, 5 November 2009 (UTC)

Time Pressure [Surprised that this doesn't exist already, or have a missed one?] --Staffan Björk 08:36, 6 November 2009 (UTC)

Attention Demanding [grew out of rewriting real-time games] --Staffan Björk 16:08, 6 November 2009 (UTC)

Togetherness [grew out of rewriting real-time games, and makes Karl happy maybe] --Staffan Björk 16:18, 6 November 2009 (UTC)

Option Interfaces [grew out of real-time games, pop-up choices outside the main game interface, does this exists already partly?] --Staffan Björk 17:58, 7 November 2009 (UTC)

Friend Lists [from many online games] --Staffan Björk 11:25, 8 November 2009 (UTC)

Gameplay Statistics [from rewriting high score lists] --Staffan Björk 12:28, 8 November 2009 (UTC)

Cooldown [From WoW and other games, e.g. Borderlands] --Staffan Björk 14:31, 8 November 2009 (UTC)

Steadily Decreasing Resources [From writing Unwinnable Games] --Staffan Björk 11:43, 14 November 2009 (UTC)

Turnover [From playing Bloodbowl] --Staffan Björk 20:43, 14 November 2009 (UTC)

Game Time Manipulation [From writing on irreversible events, example are Braid, save-load cycles, prince of persia] --Staffan Björk 15:27, 19 November 2009 (UTC)

Asymmetrical Roles (already covered by asymmetrical abilities? e.g. Allegiance, where one player steers the ship/bombs and one sits in a turret to keep interceptors at bay--Karl Bergström 14:33, 20 November 2009 (UTC))

Value of Effort (that players have real or perceived valuable outcomes of the effort they put into the gameplay) --Staffan Björk 13:41, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

Non-Diegetic Elements (representing elements in the game world which are not part of the diegetic) --Staffan Björk 10:01, 25 November 2009 (UTC)

Grinding (WoW) --Staffan Björk 13:10, 28 November 2009 (UTC)

Massively Multiplayer Online Games (why not?) --Staffan Björk 17:29, 4 December 2009 (UTC)

Massively Single-Player Online Games (from 4'33", Spore and even Nethack) --Staffan Björk 17:29, 4 December 2009 (UTC)

Positive Feedback Loops (from updating the names of the Arithmetic and Geometric patterns, and Rules of Play) --Staffan Björk 12:10, 7 December 2009 (UTC)

Negative Feedback Loops (from updating the names of the Arithmetic and Geometric patterns, and Rules of Play) --Staffan Björk 12:10, 7 December 2009 (UTC)

Stack Seeding (from Pandemic and Ghost Story from writing about Randomness) --Staffan Björk 15:53, 7 December 2009 (UTC)

Game Lobbies (for finding games and friends, e.g. in L4D) --Staffan Björk 10:28, 15 December 2009 (UTC)

Location-Fixed Abilities (machine guns in L4D) --Staffan Björk 16:34, 15 December 2009 (UTC)

Inventory --Staffan Björk 16:40, 15 December 2009 (UTC)

Limited Inventory (L4D) --Staffan Björk 16:40, 15 December 2009 (UTC)

Variable Accuracy (L4D, player skill, character skill, equipment) --Staffan Björk 16:45, 15 December 2009 (UTC)

Group Belonging (L4D, aesthetics work) --Staffan Björk 11:06, 16 December 2009 (UTC)

Player/Character Skill Composites (both player and character skill affects likelihood of success) --Staffan Björk 12:15, 16 December 2009 (UTC)

Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment (video games but also BSG & Shadows over Camelot) --Staffan Björk 12:15, 16 December 2009 (UTC)

Split-Screen View (from writing about local multiplayer console games) --Staffan Björk 13:40, 16 December 2009 (UTC)

Backtracking Levels (Left 4 Dead 2 campaign Hard Rain) --Staffan Björk 14:17, 16 December 2009 (UTC)

Campaigns (duh) --Staffan Björk 14:30, 16 December 2009 (UTC)

Community Functionality --Staffan Björk 15:07, 16 December 2009 (UTC)

Voting --Staffan Björk 12:10, 17 December 2009 (UTC)

Player Decided Rule Setup --Staffan Björk 12:10, 17 December 2009 (UTC)

Game-Defined Vocabulary (quick responses in Battlefield and L4D series) --Staffan Björk 12:29, 17 December 2009 (UTC)

Further Player Improvement Potential (that one can get better at the game, from writing Challenging Gameplay) --Staffan Björk 15:22, 21 December 2009 (UTC)

Difficulty Settings (duh) --Staffan Björk 10:09, 22 December 2009 (UTC)

Agents (game elements that show intentionality, from working with NPCs) --Staffan Björk 10:16, 13 January 2010 (UTC)

Algorithmic Agents (AI agents) --Staffan Björk 12:26, 13 January 2010 (UTC)

Role Fulfillment (the joy of fulfilling your role (e.g. tank, sniper, healer) in a group.) --Karl Bergström 09:39, 14 January 2010 (UTC)

PvE (Player versus Environment; WoW) --Staffan Björk 11:13, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

PvP (Player versus Player; WoW) --Staffan Björk 11:13, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

Team Combos --Staffan Björk 11:33, 30 January 2010 (UTC)

Kiting (drawing monsters out and attacking them) --Staffan Björk 11:15, 31 January 2010 (UTC)

Helplessness (from Aesthetical Gameplay Patterns paper) --Staffan Björk 15:09, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Mutual Enemies (from Aesthetical Gameplay Patterns paper) --Staffan Björk 15:09, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Transferable Tools (from Aesthetical Gameplay Patterns paper) --Staffan Björk 15:09, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Excluding Groups (from Aesthetical Gameplay Patterns paper) --Staffan Björk 15:09, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Inherent Mistrust (from Aesthetical Gameplay Patterns paper) --Staffan Björk 15:09, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Coordination (from Aesthetical Gameplay Patterns paper) --Staffan Björk 12:28, 27 April 2010 (UTC)

Sabotage (from Aesthetical Gameplay Patterns paper) --Staffan Björk 15:09, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Simultaneous Challenges (from Aesthetical Gameplay Patterns paper) --Staffan Björk 15:09, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Team Combos (from Aesthetical Gameplay Patterns paper) --Staffan Björk 15:09, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Virtual Co-Presence (from Aesthetical Gameplay Patterns paper) --Staffan Björk 15:09, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Guilting (from Aesthetical Gameplay Patterns paper) --Staffan Björk 15:09, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Mutual Experiences (from Aesthetical Gameplay Patterns paper) --Staffan Björk 15:09, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

FUBAR Enjoyment (from Aesthetical Gameplay Patterns paper) --Staffan Björk 15:09, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Mutual FUBAR Enjoyment (from Aesthetical Gameplay Patterns paper) --Staffan Björk 15:09, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Spectacular Failure Enjoyment (from Aesthetical Gameplay Patterns paper) --Staffan Björk 15:09, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Team Accomplishments (from Aesthetical Gameplay Patterns paper) --Staffan Björk 15:09, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Team Strategy Identification (from Aesthetical Gameplay Patterns paper) --Staffan Björk 15:09, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Excise (from mentions by Karl Bergström) --Staffan Björk 16:46, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Destructible Objects (typically barrels in FPSes) --Staffan Björk 17:06, 22 February 2010 (UTC)

Limited Gameplay Time (that either game sessions or play sessions are designed to be limited in time or moves) --Staffan Björk 10:11, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

Action Programming (as in Roborally and Diplomacy, but also secret bidding) --Staffan Björk 11:02, 24 February 2010 (UTC)

Renewable Resource --Staffan Björk 11:50, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

Quick Returns (from level design which allow quick return to main area after completing a specific goal, e.g. in Fallout 3 or Assassin's Creed 2) --Staffan Björk 12:53, 28 February 2010 (UTC)

Always Vulnerable (games where a player's character, country, etc. is possible to attack even when the player is not playing, e.g. Eve Online) --Staffan Björk 12:15, 2 March 2010 (UTC)

Initial Personalization (that one can customized avatars before ones gameplay begins) --Staffan Björk 07:46, 30 March 2010 (UTC)

Non-Player Characters (duh...) --Staffan Björk 13:57, 30 March 2010 (UTC)

Avatar Reflexes (avatars reacting to objects and events without being initiated by players) --Staffan Björk 06:16, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

Attributes (duh...) --Staffan Björk 06:38, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

Feats (duh...) --Staffan Björk 06:38, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

Advantages (duh...) --Staffan Björk 06:38, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

Disadvantages (duh...) --Staffan Björk 06:38, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

Vehicles --Staffan Björk 16:44, 2 May 2010 (UTC)

Tactical Planning (planning based on the current game state) --Staffan Björk 07:07, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

Strategic Planning (planning based upon general assumption of the game system) --Staffan Björk 07:07, 6 April 2010 (UTC)

Customizable Development (choices when having character development) --Staffan Björk 06:48, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

Player Time Investments (basically, that players have spent time in the game to either master skills or create/shape something in the game) --Staffan Björk 06:53, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

Avatar Personalization (cosmetic personalization of avatars) --Staffan Björk 07:06, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

Quick Time Events --Staffan Björk 08:56, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

Quick Travel --Staffan Björk 08:56, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

Deck Building (as in Dominion and Magic) --Staffan Björk 17:18, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

AI Players (AI Agents that are supposed to be able to function on a level comparable to players) --Staffan Björk 06:38, 13 April 2010 (UTC)

No Direct Player Influence (where players have no or only indirect influence of the actual gameplay) --Staffan Björk 06:07, 14 April 2010 (UTC)

Technology Trees (as in civ) --Staffan Björk 11:45, 17 April 2010 (UTC)

King Maker (wasn't this in the first collection?) --Staffan Björk 14:35, 18 April 2010 (UTC)

Fudged Results (ignoring or having hidden exceptions to the algorithms determining effects of actions) --Staffan Björk 19:44, 21 April 2010 (UTC)

Rerolls (e.g. Bloodbowl) --Staffan Björk 19:44, 21 April 2010 (UTC)

Vulnerabilities (as Achielle's heels but not as strong) --Staffan Björk 08:02, 22 April 2010 (UTC)

Emergent Gameplay (1+1=3) --Staffan Björk 07:18, 25 April 2010 (UTC)

Predetermined Story Structures (narrative structures that exist before game sessions begin) --Staffan Björk 07:56, 27 April 2010 (UTC)

Optional Rules --Staffan Björk 11:56, 27 April 2010 (UTC)

Replays --Staffan Björk 07:49, 30 April 2010 (UTC)

Action Programming (determining in advance game actions) --Staffan Björk 08:03, 30 April 2010 (UTC)

Gameplay Recording (e.g. Battlefield 2, Sims, the Movies) --Staffan Björk 10:48, 30 April 2010 (UTC)

Bragging --Staffan Björk 10:58, 30 April 2010 (UTC)

Free Game Element Manipulation --Staffan Björk 11:36, 30 April 2010 (UTC)

Game Element Insertion --Staffan Björk 08:03, 2 May 2010 (UTC)

Mini-maps --Staffan Björk 11:34, 2 May 2010 (UTC)

Cartel Formation (based on non-game reasons) --Staffan Björk 16:03, 3 May 2010 (UTC)

Wave (from the GOP paper) --Staffan Björk 07:22, 7 May 2010 (UTC)

Speed Runs (completing a game/level as quickly as possible) --Staffan Björk 18:41, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

Grind Achievements (the ones you'll finally get without that much skill required) --Staffan Björk 18:41, 14 May 2010 (UTC)

Equipment Slots (from Torchlight but many RPGs) --Staffan Björk 13:56, 16 May 2010 (UTC)

Companions (NPCs that help players) --Staffan Björk 13:56, 16 May 2010 (UTC)

Testing Achievements (simply for testing to do something) --Staffan Björk 14:39, 16 May 2010 (UTC)

Handicap Achievements (completing goals with extra limitations) --Staffan Björk 14:39, 16 May 2010 (UTC)

Zero-Player Games (from No Direct Player Influence pattern and wikipedia) --Staffan Björk 09:25, 25 May 2010 (UTC)

Character Defining Actions (from Petri's PhD thesis) --Staffan Björk 13:58, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Character Levels (duh) --Staffan Björk 15:02, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Detective Structure (from Petri's PhD thesis) --Staffan Björk 07:04, 28 May 2010 (UTC)

Unobserved Game Events (from inserting patterns from Petri's PhD thesis) --Staffan Björk 07:39, 28 May 2010 (UTC)

Character Memories (from inserting patterns from Petri's PhD thesis) --Staffan Björk 07:56, 28 May 2010 (UTC)

Game Prophecies (information from the game what will happen in the future of the game) --Staffan Björk 07:58, 28 May 2010 (UTC)

Character Dialogues (to provide link between Petri's and Jenny's work) --Staffan Björk 07:56, 30 May 2010 (UTC)

Mandatory Goals (duh) --Staffan Björk 14:09, 30 May 2010 (UTC)

Quests (duh) --Staffan Björk 07:54, 1 June 2010 (UTC)

MacGuffins (duh) --Staffan Björk 07:54, 1 June 2010 (UTC)

Self-Facilitated Games (as Self-Faciliated Games but only for rules and can be just a part of the rules) --Staffan Björk 22:03, 4 June 2010 (UTC)