Game Genres, Platforms and Environments E-book – Adam Hopley

Game Genres

There are many different kinds of games that can be created, these are called game genres. There are many different genres, these are explained below:

Action Games

Action games are generally bout beating opponents through different levels of the game, so generally you have to complete certain objectives and then defeat a boss of some kind or defeat a final objective. Action games mainly use hand eye coordination and to win you generally have to be faster that the opposition, an example of an action game is a shooting game where you have to be quicker to make sure you kill the opposition before they kill your avatar.

Role-playing games

A role-playing game is a game in which the user indulges themselves in make believe, they involve taking control of an avatar through their lifecycle. For example the user will create an avatar of themselves and then make decisions for the avatar in the game that will affect the life of the avatar. The oldest and most famous role-playing game is “The Sims” series which involves a player creating themselves and then creating a whole life for them in a virtual world. The game allows the player to build and buy houses for their avatar and also create friendships and relationships with other avatars in the game, so basically allows players to create their perfect life but in a virtual world.

Adventure Games

Adventure games are games which allow the player themselves to take a role in a fantasy storyline. They make it so that the player can pick whether they want to play as a hero and sometimes the villain, they then take the player on a journey through a fantasy story and allows the player to explore different worlds and also has an ongoing storyline which you have to complete by defeating enemies or saving other figures in the game.

Strategy Games

Strategy Games are games where the final objective is really difficult to do, so it requires a lot of thinking and requires a strategy to complete it. An example of a strategy game is a war game where the player will be given an objective such as invade a different civilization, then to complete this objective the player has to build an army or their own civilisation and then take them to war and think their way to victory.

Simulations

These games allow the player to take part in everyday things but in a virtual world where there are no consequences. Simulations can also be used to train people for jobs in the real world, simulations such as flight simulators allow new air pilots to get used to being in a cockpit of an aeroplane. Players on games such as flight simulators are allowed to control aeroplanes or other vehicles and get used to the controls for the real thing, the beauty of simulators is that if the player gets something wrong and crashes the virtual aeroplane or car or whatever then there are no consequences. This makes them ideal for training purposes.

Sports Games

A sports game is a game in which the player will take a very important role in a variety of many different traditional sports such as football, rugby or racing. For example in a football game such as “Fifa” the player takes the role of a team and then they can play in all sorts of competitions that the team will also compete in, in real life. With the development of online gaming the player can now also compete against their friends in online tournaments or just one off games.

Combat games

Combat games were the one of the first forms of games that really took off. They generally involve the players taking control of a character and then fighting against another character. They were generally 2D and not very in depth as they didn’t really have a big storyline.

Educational Games

These games are specifically designed to aid in the teaching of certain subjects such as maths, English, science and many more. The most common types are games which the player gets given questions and depending on whether they answer the questions correctly or not they will move further into the game. They are really useful in schools because children love to play games and if they are shown an objective which they are able to reach they will do anything to get to it, so answering question and learning about subjects are like levels in a way because if they prove they have learned more of a subject then they get further into the game.

The different areas of Game Development

Graphics

A major stage in game development is the graphics; the graphics are how the game does or is going to look. Graphics are an important selling point of games because if the graphics on the game were poor then the player may not want to carry on playing but if the graphics are high quality then the player could become engrossed in your game. There are two different types of graphics used in computer graphics they are raster or vector graphics, raster graphics defines every pixel in much the same way as a digital camera works, the vector graphics use mathematical formulas to create lines and shapes. Below are some different computer graphics that have been developed and used in games over the years:

ASCII Art

Simple Blocks (Pong)

Simple Graphics

3D Wireframe (Elite)

Solid 3D Wireframe (Elite II)

Movie Quality Cut Scenes

Artificial intelligence (AI)

Game artificial intelligence is how the creator has managed to create the illusion of intelligence in no player characters. One use of artificial intelligence is giving the no player characters the ability to hunt and to seek out the player, for example in games such as “splinter cell” you as the player will have to find places to hide whilst the no player characters look around an artificial scene to find you, if they don’t it is also possible to sneak up and attack them. If they do see you artificial intelligence gives them the illusion that when they see you they adapt to the situation.

Audio

Audio obviously refers to the sound and music that will be heard inside the game itself, this can be composed music to build suspense in a game or just wildlife sounds when the player is in say a forest scene. Audio is really important in the effect that the game delivers when the user plays it because players don’t always notice it but when the music changes to something that builds suspense the player knows something is going to happen so get put on edge and wants to play on.

Gameplay

Gameplay refers to the interaction between the players themselves and the game. There are many different factors that contribute to a game having a good overall gameplay; one of these is the presence of an environment that is relevant to the story such as a forest or desert, another is how the objects within the environment can be changed in some way. Another one is how the environment and objects within it can change upon the decisions of the player in the game, the next one is relevant rewards and punishments that result from the changes in the state of the game and the last factor is the ability of the player to interact with and change different objects in environment the game is set in. When a developers bring all these different factors together it makes the gameplay so much better and also makes the enjoyment of the player so much better.

Interaction Design

Interaction design is the area of development which deals with defining the behaviour of products and systems that the user can interact with in the game. It deals with massively complex systems in the game such as the software, mobile devices and any other electronic devices.

Integration

The final stage of a games development is the integration of the whole game, this means making sure that everything involved in the game knits together perfectly to make a consistent story. For example a game such as “metal gear solid” has a lot of extensive cut scenes which have to be put into the game, it is important that this is done well because if it isn’t then the story would just simply not flow at all and that would be the making of a poor game. So integration is basically getting all the parts in the game and putting them all together to make a good game.

Gaming Platforms and Environments

There are many different types of gaming platforms and environments; I am going to explain the following:

Platforms – handheld console, games console or PC gaming

Environments – Sporting, Fitness, Educational and Extra terrestrial

Platforms

Handheld

Games have to be made especially for handheld games consoles; this is because handheld consoles can’t hold as much data as a proper games console. The games will have to be changed in a small way because the graphics might have to be reduced or the length of the story will be reduced. Handheld has its benefits though as obviously it’s handheld so the games can be played anywhere such as on the commute to work.

Games Console

The next one I am going to explain is the games console; the games console is the most common choice in the homes of the public. This is because people buy them and they can sit in the living room or bedroom until the user wants to play them. Games consoles such as Xbox or play station also have much better graphics and allow the games themselves to have a much bigger storyline. They also allow the user to connect with other players online and then have competitive games.

PC Gaming

The last Gaming platform I am going to explain is PC gaming, this is the most popular choice with the serious gamers of the world. They allow for a much bigger online network and therefore allow more players to play each other across the world. There are also more competitions and gaming tournaments involved when playing on a PC.

Gaming Environments

Gaming environments are a massive part of the games because it adds to the whole gaming experience. If the game has a good relevant environment then that makes the game story a lot more believable.

Sporting Environments

A sporting environment is an environment in a sporting game that is relevant to what the user is playing. For example, in a Football game such as “Fifa” the user will be playing the game and then in the background environment there will be a stadium and a crowd to make the game more realistic.

Fitness

A fitness game will have some form of gym or exercising area in the background to make it more realistic. The more realistic it is the more a player will want to keep playing it and buying other games in a series

Educational

The next game environment I am going to explain is the educational game environment, in an educational game the environment could be a classroom with boards and teachers in the background to make it more realistic.

Extra terrestrial

The last one I’m going to explain is the extra terrestrial game environment; these are games such as “Halo” which take place on other worlds with aliens from that planet. So the environment in this sort of game is very important as it has to be very believable to make the game flow.