Design patterns - Game Mechanics: Advanced Game Design - page 170

have in development. Another of their benefits is that they give you a common
vocabulary to discuss the characteristics of your game's mechanics with other mem-
bers of your team.
In the next chapter, we will introduce an even more powerful feature of
Machinations: the scripted artificial player. We'll also conduct an in-depth analy-
sis of two games, Monopoly and SimWar, showing how Machinations can be used to
model, simulate, and balance them.
Exercises
1. What design patterns did you use in recent game projects? What design patterns
might you have used that you didn't? Could you have improved your game with
one of them? If so, how?
2. Think of a game that you know well. It can belong to any genre except pure
adventure games (which have no internal economy). What patterns can you find in
it? Try diagramming them in the Machinations Tool.
3. Choose two design patterns at random (we sometimes write the names of the
patterns on blank cards for this and then shuffle them and draw from the deck).
Can you identify a game in which they both appear? Alternatively, try to think of a
game concept that would use the two that you got. Create a Machinations diagram
for the game with appropriately labeled sources, drains, pools, and other elements.