Pattern Language for Game Design

Key Features:

• Background on the architectural concepts of patterns and a Pattern Language as defined in the work of Christopher Alexander, including his later work on the Fifteen Properties of Wholeness and Generative Codes.
• Analysis of other uses of Alexander’s work in computer science and game design, and the limitations of those efforts.
• A comprehensive set of example exercises to help the reader develop their own patterns that can be used in practical day-to-day game design tasks.
• Exercises that are useful to designers at all levels of experience and can be completed in any order, allowing students to select exercises that match their coursework and allowing professionals to select exercises that address their real-world challenges.
• Discussion of common pitfalls and difficulties with the pattern derivation process.
• A guide for game design teachers, studio leaders, and university departments for curating and maintaining institutional Pattern Languages.
• An Interactive Pattern Language website where you can share patterns with developers throughout the world (patternlanguageforgamedesign.com).
• Comprehensive games reference for all games discussed in this book.

Author

Chris Barney is an industry veteran with more than a decade of experience designing and engineering games such as Poptropica and teaching at Northeastern University. He has spoken at conferences, including GDC, DevCom, and PAX, on topics from core game design to social justice. Seeking degrees in game design before formal game design programs existed, Barney built his own undergraduate and graduate curricula out of offerings in sociology, computer science, and independent study. In pursuit of a broad understanding of games, he has worked on projects spanning interactive theater, live-action role-playing game (LARP) design, board games, and tabletop role-playing games (RPGs). An extensive collection of his essays of game design topics can be found on his development blog at perspectivesingamedesign.com.