Equipment
This is another non-pattern and is more related to general game design issues.
It concerns the game-related equipment that is available to the players. The players use the equipment to perform actions in the context of the game. Equipment refers to the physical device and its capabilities.
Equipment, when used in the context of a game, is referred to as a tool.
The term equipment may refer to physical equipment, usually devices such as smartphones, mobile phones, tablets, glasses etc. These devices might have some or all of the capabilities bellow:
- QR scanning device, NFC or RFID scanner
- the accompanying QR tags, NFC or RFID tags
- Proximity sensors
- Geographical positioning sensors
- Indoor positioning sensors
- Accelerometers
- Cameras, which may be able to recognize patterns
- Display screens
- Augmented reality
- Sound, may include speech synthesis and recognition
- Sound emission in conjunction with a proximity sensor
- Communication capabilities (voice, sms, chat etc.)
- Tactile feedback
The inclusion of this non-pattern is due to the different capabilities of the equipment. It has consequences in the design of a game and so it is an important factor to take into account.