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Pattern Language for Game Design
Christopher Barney’s Pattern Language for Game Design builds on the revolutionary work of architect Christopher Alexander to show students, teachers, and game development professionals how to derive best practices in all aspects of game design. Using a series of practical, rigorous exercises, designers can observe and analyze the successes and failures of the games they know and love to uncover the deep patterns that underlie good design.
Key
• 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.
• 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.
• The properties of great patterns and common pitfalls in the pattern creation process.
• A guide for connecting your patterns into a unified design language.
• Interactive Pattern Language website where you can share patterns with developers throughout the world (patternlanguageforgamedesign.com). This website also contains a comprehensive reference to all games referenced in this book.
This new edition includes: revised Pattern Template enhanced to record additional aspects of patterns, a robust set of twenty new mechanics-focused pattern exercises with examples, QR codes and links to the Pattern Library website show the detailed work used to produce each example pattern, a framework for decomposing game mechanics for the application of design patterns, a system for diagramming related sets of patterns and the design problems they address, and the application of Playable Concepts as rhetorical proofs for Design Patterns.
Visit the Pattern Library Website at patternlanguageforgamedesign.com
Key
• 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.
• 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.
• The properties of great patterns and common pitfalls in the pattern creation process.
• A guide for connecting your patterns into a unified design language.
• Interactive Pattern Language website where you can share patterns with developers throughout the world (patternlanguageforgamedesign.com). This website also contains a comprehensive reference to all games referenced in this book.
This new edition includes: revised Pattern Template enhanced to record additional aspects of patterns, a robust set of twenty new mechanics-focused pattern exercises with examples, QR codes and links to the Pattern Library website show the detailed work used to produce each example pattern, a framework for decomposing game mechanics for the application of design patterns, a system for diagramming related sets of patterns and the design problems they address, and the application of Playable Concepts as rhetorical proofs for Design Patterns.
Visit the Pattern Library Website at patternlanguageforgamedesign.com
- GenresGame Design
478 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 24, 2026
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April 20, 2023
When designing a game, aim to design the experience the player will go through. Think about the emotional experience that will result from a particular mechanic (e.g., limited in-game abilities make the player feel vulnerable). Choose mechanics whose emotional and thematic effects will support each other and the narrative.
There, I just saved you 400 pages.
There, I just saved you 400 pages.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review