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Pattern Recognition as a part of a mechanic

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Fri, 12/19/2003 - 11:12
Torrent
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I have a mechanic that I am working on for one of my multiple projects. It involves building a (longish)string of colored symbols randomly from a board. The players have cards that are have the same symbols. Game play goes along with players trying to play sets of cards to match the generated string of symbols, but anywhere along the string, in varying numbers of cards.

I was surfing boardgamegeek looking for other games that use such pattern-recognition ideas. The only one I came across was an old one by Uwe Rosenberg called Komme Gleich, about waiters trying to serve orders.

First off, has anyone played or seen this game? Second, I'm curious about opinions for such a pattern recognition thing. I worry as the string gets longer the potential for Analysis Paralysis goes up quickly, like someone looking for words in a letter jumble puzzle. My second worry is the possiblity of the impossible. If there are a fixed number of cards, then there could be a string of symbols that has patterns that are statistically improbable to be able to complete. I guess reducing the number of symbols would help that.

So any ideas or other games to check out with pattern recognition-type idea would be appreciated. And yes I know there is a pattern recognition check in BGG, but none of the games under there appeared to be what I wanted.

Andy

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Fri, 12/19/2003 - 11:22
#1
IngredientX
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Pattern Recognition as a part of a mechanic

The biggest one that comes to mind is Set.

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Fri, 12/19/2003 - 12:23
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doho123
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Pattern Recognition as a part of a mechanic

As mentioned above, Set probably applies, as does it's older, meaner brother, Triology.

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Fri, 12/19/2003 - 16:52
#3
Torrent
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Pattern Recognition as a part of a mechanic

As I re-read my post, I think it may come off as more of "i have an idea, help me" sort of thing than it was meant to. Basically I am curious to see if anyone else is working or has seen projects that deal with pattern matching as such. This is a new sort of mechanic for me, and I'm wondering what ground has already been tread and what sort of problems I might run into as I develop it, if anyone has run this ground before me.

I actually played Set for the first time this weekend, but thanks for the idea of Triology. That I think is closer to my mark. I also found something called Constellation that is players looking to create 2d patterns in a grid.

Actually, the game is a variation of set-collection, where you are trying to get specific patterns of cards. I'm mulling the idea of using an ever-changing 'master' pattern, instead of set patterns. The long string is used to limit the types of patterns that can be used.

The other thing is that sometimes having to write a post helps to congeal ideas somewhat.

Andy

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Fri, 12/19/2003 - 16:56
#4
Deviant
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Pattern Recognition as a part of a mechanic

If Set applies, then so do word games like Ghost and Scrabble. The only difference is, the patterns are not predetermined but are instead limited by previous choices. For example, in Ghost if the word goes TOAS you really have no choice but to add a T, for TOAST. Or in Set, if you choose two solid-shaded shapes then the third shape must also be solid-shaded to maintain the pattern.

Torrent, it sounds like your game is meant to get increasingly difficult as the pattern sequence increases. The only game I can think of that has this dynamic is Ghost. Scrabble might qualify since options become limited as the tiles are used up and the board fills. That's a stretch, though. Really, any word game with a limited set of letters might qualify. Ad-Lib is one example.

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Sun, 12/21/2003 - 17:02
#5
Scurra
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Pattern Recognition as a part of a mechanic

Torrent wrote:
Basically I am curious to see if anyone else is working or has seen projects that deal with pattern matching as such. This is a new sort of mechanic for me, and I'm wondering what ground has already been tread and what sort of problems I might run into as I develop it, if anyone has run this ground before me.
(snip)
Actually, the game is a variation of set-collection, where you are trying to get specific patterns of cards. I'm mulling the idea of using an ever-changing 'master' pattern, instead of set patterns. The long string is used to limit the types of patterns that can be used.

I'm experimenting with a somewhat more "themed" version of a pattern-matching mechanic; in my case the players are partly building the chain themselves (since they have different types of sets that they want to make) from a strictly limited pool of tiles.
What I basically found was that the longer the set the more difficult it was to spot. The way I got around this was to allow players to "claim" shorter strings, but score far less points for them (on a scale that goes 1,2,4,7,11,15 etc) When a set is claimed, the tiles are removed from the pattern and the remaining tiles refitted.
Following the first play-test, I added a "sabotage" mechanic that allowed other players to stop a player from claiming a set, but the game hasn't been looked at since, so I don't know if it is a good idea or not :)

While I think about it, I would suggest that "Mamma Mia" is worth looking at as a pattern-matching game. Although it doesn't look like it on the surface, it is all about keeping track of sequences, and uses a very neat player-colour mechanic to ensure that the different players want different sequences at different times.

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Tue, 12/23/2003 - 03:48
#6
Anonymous
Pattern Recognition as a part of a mechanic

I had a similar project in mind at one point, where players would generate patterns from cards to perform different game functions, but abandoned the idea because pattern generation can get to be a tedious process. I am not clear, however, how you plan to implement your pattern recognition. A previous post theorized that it may be similar to a word search, but with coloured objects instead of cards, which i think to be a good guess.
Problems i foresee include the initial generation of the patterns, the length of time players have to recognize patterns, and establishing the complexity of your patterns to maximize the playability of your game.
Is there anything in particular you are wondering about besides that?

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Tue, 12/23/2003 - 14:37
#7
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Another noteworthy item

With pattern recognition games, there are some people who are just way better at it then other people because their brain is wired that way. The point I am trying to bring up is these people usually always win at these types of games, which makes it no fun for anyone else. Sure, it's possible to improve over time, but I'd venture to say that it's more likely that the game will rarely find it's way to the table after a few plays. Just something to think about.

-Darke

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Fri, 12/26/2003 - 15:50
#8
Torrent
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Pattern Recognition as a part of a mechanic

I´ve thought some more on this project. I think I´m going to go a slightly different way. The game is based on building Totem poles. They are storytelling devices, so there was a marker on a board building a ´story´ of colors from the little adventure map. Then the players would try to build a pole to tell a portion of the story that the marker generated in their poles using cards that had color coded sculptures.

After some thinking, and playing Set some, I agree with Darke in that pattern recognition is a specific skill. Some are just better at it than others. I may come back to this in the design, as I really like the idea of trying to replicate from your hand something generated from the board.

Thanks all for the ideas.

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Sat, 12/27/2003 - 17:15
#9
Deviant
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Pattern Recognition as a part of a mechanic

I made a card game about building Totem poles (imaginatively entitled "Totem"), but it was about making combinations of "aspects" or traits, rather than pattern-forming. Originally that was how my game was going to be (as a Totem artisan, you and others are commissioned to tell epic stories using totemic symbols) but it thoroughly reworked itself in mid-design. I'd be interested to know where you are going with this, Torrent. It sounds like such a game would lend itself very easily to a "story-telling" game, like a party game, but maybe that's not the direction you'd like to go.

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