Casual Game Design

79

CHAPTER

Matching

We like to pattern match — our brains crave it. Games are essentially complex

systems of patterns. Think about it. Games are comprised of pieces that can behave in

unique, but prescribed manners. All of the events and moves within a game happen

because the rules allow it. They are following set behaviors which form patterns. The

patterns are easy to detect in a game like checkers, where the grid makes all of the

moves discernible and quantifiable. The patterns in a social party game like Mafia

are harder to discern, but they exist in everything from the rounds that delineate the

game to the patterns of speech adopted by the players. Much of the fun of playing

a game comes from figuring out the ...