Time Pressure
That gameplay imposes a sense of need for complete actions or goals quickly.
Whenever players need to complete an activity with limited time they may feel Time Pressure.
Contents
Examples
Each turn in the board game Ricochet Robots put players in the situation where they not only have to try and find a solution on how to solve a problem but also do so quicker than the other players.
Using the pattern
Time Limits can naturally cause Time Pressure but only if they are part of Committed Goals. These can then easily be communicated to players through Alarms, which may or may not clearly express needs to be done hastily or what the consequences of failing will be. While Time Limits give external reasons for Time Pressure, Interruptible Actions or any type of Continuous Goals (that is, continuous goals can be used even if they are not Committed Goals) can be used to created internal reasons.
Besides deciding the reasons for the Time Pressure the amount of time available needs to be decided. This needs to be balanced so that it fits the Right Level of Complexity since for example a Time Limit that may stress a novice player may not imply any pressure on an expert player. Note that Time Pressure does not need to be limited to Real-Time Games or Tick-Based Games; the turns in Turn-Based Games can provide a measure of time as well.
Games with Racing typically instantiate this pattern and a Meta Game version of this is the so-called "Speed Run" . The latter makes use of storing the Gameplay Statistics of how long time it takes to perform various goals as High Score Lists and thereby lets players try to beat previous times.
Interface Aspects
Time Pressure can be either implicitly or explicitly imposed on players. Having Goal Indicators and Game State Indicators while it is possible to succeed gives explicit Time Pressure while showing these after a failure can provide Near Miss Indicators.
Consequences
Putting players under Time Pressure limits the time they can be under Analysis Paralysis, but may also cause it.
Relations
Instantiates
Modulates
Instantiated By
Alarms, Continuous Goals, Interruptible Actions, Racing, Time Limits
Modulated By
Goal Indicators, Game State Indicators, Right Level of Complexity
Potentially Conflicting With
History
New pattern created in this wiki.
