Unknown Goals

The one-sentence "definition" that should be in italics.

This pattern is a still a stub.

Goals initially, or currently, unknown to players. Unknown Goals are goals that players are currently not aware of. The Unknown Goals can either be goals that players themselves will have to fulfill later to win or complete the game, or can be goals that the other players are trying to complete but have no knowledge about. Some Unknown Goals may be revealed during gameplay while others at the end of the game. In some cases these goals are never revealed and it may be the case that other alternatives may have to be chosen when replaying the game to reveal the Unknown Goals.

Examples

Example: The collectable card game Illuminati New World Order has known goals which all players have, but also allows individual players to have goal cards which gives individual players goals that unknown to the other players.

Example: Most adventure games start by providing the players with an overarching goal which motivates the players to complete the game. However, the different subgoals that have to be completed before the main goal is completed are usually unknown, as knowing these would ruin many of the surprises in the narrative.

Anti-Examples

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Relations

Can Instantiate

Gain Information, Parties, Surprises

with Predefined Goals

Strategic Knowledge

Can Modulate

Committed Goals, Competition, Goal Hierarchies, Player-Planned Development, Predefined Goals, Rewards, Selectable Set of Goals

Can Be Instantiated By

Conceal, Dedicated Game Facilitators, Dynamic Goal Characteristics, Ephemeral Goals, Imperfect Information, Levels

Can Be Modulated By

Clues, Level Summaries

Possible Closure Effects

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Potentially Conflicting With

Replayability, Symmetric Goals, Trans-Game Information

History

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

Acknowledgements

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