Sketchnote

Sketchnote link (Stanford email): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_R0of9ay2eLLti8Z8oPu_OdFE5lKPouj/view?usp=sharing

Writeup

This week, I played Patchwork by Uwe Rosenberg. It’s a 2-player analog board game for ages 8 and up, but I think it’s a game with simple enough rules for even a younger audience. I’d definitely say the game is targeted towards a general audience, so long as they don’t have an irrational fear of cardboard representation of quilts or an extreme distaste for geometry. I played with Alex from the class, and we played for approximately an hour.

Loops and Arcs

I want to begin by discussing the structure of the game through viewing its loops and arcs. In my mind, a game that is simple to pick up but difficult to master features a core gameplay loop that is fast and simple. This is definitely exemplified by Patchwork. Each turn, players can only take one of two actions: catch up to your opponent’s time token by jumping one space ahead of them (to gain buttons), or purchase one of three patchwork quilts clockwise of the wooden neutral token. Each iteration of this loop only takes a few seconds (excluding thinking time). The fast frequency of the core gameplay loop keeps the interactions with game pieces simple, so that players can focus on the tile-arrangement and overarching game plan of the game. I believe that this lightning-fast loop is what allows players to play the game for the aesthetic of abnegation, since casual players can choose to not engage with the strategy, and have fun simply arranging the tiles they purchase on their quilt board.

The arc of one game of Patchwork consists of moving your time token clockwise into the spiral until it reaches its last square in the center. Along the way, players have two resources: collectible buttons gained from quilts and the jumping action, and the unrenewable resource of time. The quilt patches on the board are also non-renewable — the ring getting smaller makes it so players can traverse clockwise faster. During the gameplay arc, the objects in the game keep diminishing, which creates the dynamic where players have to gradually start thinking more about how to allocate their limited resources. Furthermore, as time goes on, the attributes of objects change in their relative values. The button value attached to a quilt is worth less and less as time progresses, since there will be fewer and fewer income squares for you to collect buttons on; later on in the game, focus is also more on filling up as much of the board as possible to avoid the end-of-game penalty. The system changes itself over time and players must learn the choices that best balances the conflicting outcomes. All of these ideas culminate a system that players can engage with for the aesthetic of challenge.

The reason that I call each game of Patchwork an arc rather than a loop is that the scoring (the feedback) of the game happens at the end. During the game, players can develop their own view and track what they think is best, but they don’t necessarily know for sure whether the actions that they’re doing are good or not until it gets evaluated at the end of the game. This fits neatly into Daniel Cook’s diagram, where feedback appears at the end of the arc. The information gained from the feedback can’t be used to change the outcome of the game that just ended, but it can be used in future games (arcs). This sequence of arcs of playing the game repeatedly for mastery, is another huge part of why this game is fascinating to me.

Genre

This game doesn’t fall too neatly into categories. Boardgamegeek calls it “abstract strategy”, which sounds like a bucket where we put games that can’t easily be categorized. It’s definitely a “polyomino” game because we  arrange pieces that are formed by joining squares. It’s reminiscent of fixed-board tile-laying games like Azul, which has been described with terms like “pattern building” or “spatial puzzle”.

I think “abstract strategy” games often help frame their central system dynamics through providing constraints to the player. In Patchwork, this is given by the fixed 9×9 grid that the player has to fill out. This often encourages the player to sort out a mental hierarchy of what is important to them. For instance, in the early stages we may value button income higher because our board is open and can accept any type of patch; but in the late game we may purely consider the shape of the piece and how much time it costs, so we can fill out as much of the board as possible before the end.

Gimmicks

I think one core mechanic that I’ve only seen in Patchwork is the fact that players don’t necessarily alternate turns. I really love how the single rule of making the player most behind move allows the designers to make other rules simpler. Most notably, they never need to consider the what-if of the opponent being behind you when doing the action “jump to your opponent”, as it simply would not be your turn if that’s the case. I think incorporating subversions to typical genre-typical rules would be an interesting thing to consider.

Also, time being used as a resource is fascinating because of the shifting importance of considering time as you progress throughout the game. Earlier on in the game, the end is far away and you need to gain buttons, and so you may choose to leap large gaps. Later on, players have to calculate every single tile they move so that they can get an optimal set of tiles to cover the rest of the quilt. I could consider using a resource that strengthens in value over time (whether it be time itself, or a resource with a dwindling supply).

Final Thoughts

The values present in this game are resourcefulness and efficiency. This game is certainly a formal system: there were clearly defined objects, attributes, internal relationships, and environment. However, it doesn’t represent (and it doesn’t really claim to represent) any real life system. It takes a quilt theme so that players can build off their own emergent narratives, but the mechanisms are quite different to actually making a quilt. Perhaps it’s similar to some other real-life system that requires the same resourcefulness and efficiency (scrapbooking?).

In conclusion, Patchwork is a game that uses lightning-fast loops with simple rules to create an incredibly low skill floor for beginning players. Repeatedly going through rounds of the game in arcs makes the player slowly build mastery over the game. The fast-loop and slow-arc/mastery dynamic helps the game appeal to both casual abnegation-based gamers and competitive challenge-based gamers alike.