Alien Space Bats

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Implausible explanations for alternative realities.

Many games describe situations in alternate realities. When the differences between these realities and the real world are created by introducing fantastical or supernatural agents or by letting unrealistic events occur, this is referred to as Alien Space Bats from a use to describe the implausibility of alternate histories[1].

For more information, see the Wikipedia entry[2] for the concept.

Note: This pattern is mainly a means for gaining freedom in designing the diegesis and narration in a game. However, since this can provide a freedom in what gameplay is possible also it is described as a gameplay design pattern in the collection.

Examples

The background story of the Doom series is that a catastrophic malfunction during a teleport experiment of Deimos opens the gate to hell.

Command & Conquer: Red Alert uses a time-travelling Albert Einstein to sets up a game where Nazi Germany never existed and a larger Soviet Union battles a united Western Europe in the 1950s.

Using the pattern

Levels

Game Element Insertion

Varied Gameplay

Game Worlds

Narration Structures

Diegetic Aspects

Alien Space Bats is a diegetic pattern.

Consequences

Alien Space Bats is a pattern to create an Alternate Reality while creating Game Worlds by introducing supernatural or improbable events or agents. This may cause breaks in the Diegetic Consistency if not also the likely effects of what is introduced is applied on the diegesis, the Game World, and the gameplay possible within it.

Relations

Can Instantiate

Alternate Reality

Can Modulate

Game Worlds

Can Be Instantiated By

Can Be Modulated By

Possible Closure Effects

Potentially Conflicting With

Diegetic Consistency

History

New pattern created in this wiki.

References

  1. Wikipedia entry for Alternative History.
  2. Wikipedia entry for Alien Space Bats.


Acknowledgements

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