PatternChooser Update #2 Devlog

Although this is only the second update, and day #9 of working on PatternChooser with Spruce, I have pride in what I’ve accomplished in only 9 days. It’s 9 days of working on the project after delivery gig work 7 days a week, job hunting between the two, and the daily hiccups in life among it all.

Now, it’s just a few more days to make the images and write the descriptions for the other 34 game design patterns I will be shipping with the first version of PatternChooser, v1. Now, I only have 16 patterns up, but if you want to get an early look at the beta version of PatternChooser, you can do so, here. Just keep in mind, you will see plenty of repeating patterns, but everything else is finished.

Is everything working in PatternChooser? Yes! Everything does work. Is the Webtool completed? Yes again! Is it done? No! Far from it! There are only 16 game design patterns illustrated and described so far. According to Bjork & HoloPainen, there are over 200 game design patterns, and more added on a semi-regular basis. Since this is the case, will PatternChooser ever be done? Not in the traditional sense, but I plan on completely releasing v1.0 with 50 game design patterns to the public. Then v1.1 will be released shortly after with 100 patterns. Then, lastly, v2.0 will be released as a part of the Actionary suite of Webtools with 200+ game design patterns.

What do I hope to gain from this series of releases? Well, I know there are over 200 game design patterns, and I’d love to see and learn them all. I’ve also noticed that I learn faster by teaching, and I teach best by making tools like PatternChooser. My hopes of sharing this Webtool with others, is to help jumpstart creativity and overall ideas in game designers.

Thank you for reading these Devlogs. See you in a few days.