Game Element Insertion

The insertion of game elements into game instances.

Some games introduce new things into the game environment as gameplay progresses. This Game Element Insertion can be used to gradually introduce challenges, let players build constructions, or provide surprised to players.

The ancient board game Go starts with an empty board which players gradually fill with their stones until placing more stone no longer lets players claim parts of the game area. While all the stones belong to specific sets of the game and are inserted into them, in Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Magic: The Gathering players have to bring their own miniatures and cards respectively that they want to use and thereby create game instance by inserting elements (besides possibly then inserting them into the actual battle. Roleplaying games such as Dungeons & Dragons often have some initial locations with enemies and treasures placed and which can thus be said to be part of the game instances, but to these are added player characters and random encounters, and for campaigns game masters need to add new locations and monsters as well.

Computer games quite often make use of Game Element Insertion since the computer easily can handle these. Some are preplanned by designers, e.g. players of Quake 4 several times experience enemies materializes in front of them only to seconds later also have the same thing happen behind them. In other cases, the time and place of elements appearing are random (even if following certain rules) - an example of this can be found in the power-ups of the Mario Kart series.

Using the pattern

The design of Game Element Insertion consists of considering what game elements should be allowed to be inserted and what mechanism govern when they can be inserted.

A special case of the latter is when players construct the actual game instances by the game elements they insert. This is a form of Heterogeneous Game Element Ownership, where players either put together sets of game elements as strategies (as for example in Magic: The Gathering or Warhammer 40K) or encode them in AI Players (e.g. Crobots).

Creative Control

Smooth Learning Curves

Dedicated Game Facilitators Algorithmic Agents Late Arriving Players Construction

Higher-Level Closures as Gameplay Progresses