Making Patterns

Nevertheless, with a little trial an effort, it is possible to start building things – as my first bridge between platforms shows, even if it did start sounding like the rock was about to collapse as it neared completion. Remember you can jump, so it’s not always necessary to completely bridge chasms.

Collecting shapes allows you to construct more complex objects, not all of which need be static – wheels can be pushed and rolled, for example. Existing objects, such as trees can, if “busted” correctly, can be made to fall and form stepping-stones. You can also create shapes of your own using a kind of “workbench” (for want of a better word), one (or more, I presume) of which can be found in-world for those who look.

Create your own shapes using this workbench-like tool

Not everything is in plain sight, either, so be prepared to look up and down, and to break through walls.

There is probably far more to Patterns than this, with things I’ve likely missed in this first look; but for now, this will hopefully give a general look and feel for the product.

Initial Thoughts

Patterns is hard to quantify – again, something it shares in common with Second Life. It’s clearly not a game in the traditional sense.  It is also a curious mix of the frustrating, the repetitive and the strangely addictive. My first 25 minutes didn’t go well at all; the camera positioning came close to driving me bonkers, and adjusting mouse sensitivity didn’t seem to help, either the camera would whip around in response to mouse movements, or it would crawl painfully slowly; even with very incremental adjustments to a slider, mouse/camera movement seemed to leap from one to the other. When trying to build, this became especially annoying, as even with the TAB option to swap between camera positions, I seemed to be spending a lot more time just trying to get to a position where I could actually do what I wanted, rather than actually build. This became especially tiresome when trying to bridge chasms or build complex stairways to reach between platforms, rather then building free-form.

That said, I admit to actually getting drawn-in to Patterns; whether this was 50% fascination / curiosity and 50% bloody mindedness (“I’ve started, so I’ll finish”), I’ve no real idea, All I do know is that when I saw a “starene” shape in the distance, I wanted to find out what it would give me shape-wise, and once I’d discovered the secret inside one structure, I was anxious to find out if others had anything hidden within. I also found that exploration aside, I did start experimenting with putting triangles together to make a wheel and then trying to combine triangles and cubes to make “organic” shapes and mimic the trees around me.

I also had a bit of fun simply being destructive, building and wrecking things, partly because I was curious as to when / how the physics engine would sit up and notice I was doing something Newton would demand it took action against, partly because it was actually fun. Three-o’clock-in-the morning-God-why-aren’t-I-in-bed fun, I’ll grant you, but fun.

But all that said, right now, Patterns is a lonely affair. You play on your own and there is no  interaction. From the promotional blurb, it appears users will be able to “share” their creativity via Twitter, You Tube and Facebook, and Genesis Release users will be able to contribute directly to the development of Patterns in some way. Even so, it feels as if Patterns is already lacking something.

Part of the joy in “shared creativity” is showing-off what you’ve done to friends, and having them respond with, “Wow! But what if you / we did this…”, and then trying things together, sharing in the immediate feedback of the creative process. Patterns doesn’t have any of this. Whether such an  ability is on the cards for future iterations, I’ve no idea; maybe there will be some form of server-based version in the future; although I think I’ll be surprised were that to prove to be the case. For now however, and allowing for the fact my familiarity with the share creative capabilities of SL may well be biasing my opinion, the Patterns universe already feels a slightly empty place, and in need of something more.

Looks-wise, it again falls into the curate’s egg category. It has very smooth graphics, and in-world views look reasonably good, with sunshine, shadows, and the like; even the Lego-ish clouds don’t really seem out-of-place. However, the main menu, options screen and help screen are unlikely to win fans. I’m not really a player of games, but even to me they look like something pulled out of the late 1990s and dropped into Patterns, fostering a complete “Bleah!” reaction.

Patterns options. Not entirely pleasing to the eye.

Of course, the $64,000 question is – will Patterns be any kind of commercial success? Right now, that is impossible to answer; not so much because it has only just been launched, but because a lot depends on how well it develops between now and the formal launch in 2013. Part of me does feel that the Genesis Release has perhaps suffered the Humble effect and has been pushed out a little prematurely (rather like some recent SL releases of late); it’s as easy to become bored with it as it is to get drawn in – and boredom isn’t a good thing to instill among users. Hopefully the promised rapid iteration cycle will discourage the former and encourage the latter.

Even so, I’m not ready to pass judgement just yet, one way or the other. Patterns is going to need a little time, and I feel it is only fair that judgement is withheld until we’ve had the chance to see a few iterations and found out how we, as Genesis users, get to have input to enhancing it. I will say that after playing with it for a good couple of hours last night and again using it this morning (so much for the housework!), have left me feeling somewhat ambivalent towards it at this point in time.

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