Title: Extracting game design patterns from game design workshops

Authors: Christos Sintoris

Addresses: Human-Computer Interaction Group, Department Electrical Engineering and Informatics, University of Patras, Rion Patras, Greece

Abstract: In this paper, we study the design of hybrid reality location-based mobile games. To support the design of such games, a set of design patterns is proposed, which were extracted from game design workshops. Six workshops for designing location-based games were organised and the designers were asked to generate game concepts for a hypothetical location-based mobile game for visitors of the site of ancient Pompeii, where the players should engage simultaneously with the real-world but also with its game-world counterparts. Having obtained the game designs, we applied methods from content analysis and grounded theory to identify the designers' decisions in the design documents and used that information to extract patterns that the designers applied. The resulting patterns are design elements that can support ideation and concept generation. They are part of a larger project which includes a design framework and a set of design guidelines for location based mobile games.

Keywords: design patterns; hybrid reality games; location-based mobile games; content analysis; game design; pattern extraction; Pompeii; grounded theory; design elements; ideation; concept generation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIEI.2015.069878

International Journal of Intelligent Engineering Informatics, 2015 Vol.3 No.2/3, pp.166 - 185

Received: 01 Feb 2014
Accepted: 05 Nov 2014
Published online: 15 Jun 2015 *

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