Game Boards

A surface designed to support gameplay.

Many games require that game elements are moved between places or that their spatial relation to each other are part of the game state. Yet others have many game components that need to be organized to make gameplay feasible. Designed boards, Game Boards, can help with all these issues.

Examples

Game Boards are the defining characteristic of Board Games. Besides classical examples such as Chess, Diplomacy, Go, Monopoly, and Pachisi, there are many examples including 7 Wonders, Advanced Squad Leader, Agricola, Car Wars, Concordia, Dead of Winter: A Crossroads Game Egizia, Forbidden Island, King of Tokyo, Memoir '44, and Twilight Struggle.

For a detailed discussion of Board Games and Game Boards, see Parlett.

Using the pattern

The design of Game Boards consists of the actual design of the board and what game elements, e.g. Cards, Dice, and Tokens, should be used in conjunction with them.

Designing Game Boards can mostly be treated as designing Levels although this becomes most clear when a game uses several different Game Boards during one game instance

If a Game Board isn't a Score Track in itself it can be augmented with one.

Interface Aspects

Game Boards is an Interface Pattern.

Consequences

Game Boards are often Maps and in that sense can depict Game Worlds. When they are used to keep track of how players move Tokens from one place to another to win, they also work as Score Tracks. When they are used with Dice or Tokens, the latter becomes Non-Diegetic Features in the Game Worlds.

When they are physical game components (as opposed to representations on a computer screen), Game Boards work against Ubiquitous Gameplay since players need to be near them to use them.

Relations

Alarms, Props, Big Dumb Objects, Boss Monsters, Controllers, Clues, Enemies, Environmental Effects, Game Items, Helpers, Installations, Landmarks, Obstacles, Pick-Ups, Resource Generators, Self-Service Kiosks, Switches, and Traces are all common. These, and the spatial relationships between them, can be used to subdivide the Levels into areas with distinctively different gameplay, including Arenas, Choke Points, Flanking Routes, Galleries, Safe Havens, Secret Areas, Sniper Locations, Strongholds, and Transport Routes. Of course, they may also make them into Inaccessible Areas. Designing parts of Levels to be traversed mainly by Vehicles can make them into Vehicle Sections.

Many of these are inherently Strategic Locations

Safe Havens Strategic Locations

Spawn Points in Safe Havens. Warp Zones can be created both as abstract entities or Installations, and can be used to either connect together different parts of the Level or provide the means to move to other Levels. Diegetically Outstanding Features 

Backtracking Levels, Finale Levels,

Tiles

Can Instantiate

Game Worlds, Levels, Maps, Score Tracks

with Dice or Tokens

Non-Diegetic Features

Can Modulate

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Can Be Instantiated By

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Can Be Modulated By

Score Tracks

Possible Closure Effects

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Potentially Conflicting With

Ubiquitous Gameplay

History

New pattern created in this wiki.

Acknowledgements

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