Ghosts

The use of actions from earlier game sessions in a game session to let players have challenges against other people's earlier attempts, including their own.

One of the more exciting types of challenges one can have in games is that which human opponents can provide. Ghosts is a game mechanic that allows players to get such challenges without requiring that other players are taking part in the game instances. Instead, the recordings of players' actions - including the current player - in earlier game instances can be used as the basis for the actions of an entity in the current game instances. These Ghosts are naturally only feasible in some types of games, more specifically those where players' actions cannot directly interfere with each other.

Examples

Racing Games such as the Gran Turismo series make use of Ghosts to let players compare their current play session with earlier ones, or to practice against the optimal path.

In the ESP Game, players cooperate with unknown other players in describing images under pressure of time. However, the restricted communication abilities available and the task at hand makes it possible for the game to use Ghosts of other players without them realizing this.

Cursor*10 is a Puzzle Game where players have ten time-limited lives, and later lives need to play "together" with the actions of the previous ones.

Using the pattern

Ghosts are mainly used in Races or other games where the player has a limited overview of the whole game world and where there is little outside influence on players' performance.

The main design choice affecting player influence on the game's use of Ghosts is whether players should be allowed to select which game sessions are saved and used as Ghosts or if this is determined by the game mechanically, i. e. by Score. Further, the use of Ghosts can be chosen to only be possible within the same save file, i. e. defining a closed game world, or be shared to other save files as Trans-Game Information.

Consequences

Ghosts can be seen as a form of Highscore List that contains the whole game sessions instead of only the Score. As such, Ghosts can be used to make a Single-Player Game into a form of mixture between an Asynchronous Game and Multiplayer Games where the whole play sessions are played before comparing results. Ghosts naturally create Competition even though the players are not playing at the same time.

Can Instantiate

AI Players, Avatars, Geospatial Game Widgets, High Score Lists, Massively Single-Player Online Games, Multiplayer Games, Races, Replays, Speed Runs

Can Modulate

Game Worlds

Relations

Can Instantiate

AI Players, Avatars, Geospatial Game Widgets, High Score Lists, Massively Single-Player Online Games, Multiplayer Games, Races, Replays, Speed Runs

Can Modulate

Game Worlds

Can Be Instantiated By

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Can Be Modulated By

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Possible Closure Effects

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Potentially Conflicting With

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History

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

Acknowledgements

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