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Content:

Game Genres
Find 5 Educational Games (Task)
Game Mechanics
Homework
Feedback

Game Genres

We will start off by comparing last week’s works by you. What definitions did everybody find?

Game genres are different from film genres. While film genres are related to a style of a film or an era a plot is set in, game genres relate more to the way a game is played. This is the actions a gamer needs to perform to succeed in a game. These actions are also called Game Mechanics. Game genres can also be classified by a viewpoint (eg First Person Shooter = FPS and Third Person Shooter = TPS or 3PS) or the style.

Examples are:

Action

Fast paced, player needs to be accurate and quick (eg shooting)

Racing

Competitive games that revolve around vehicles of all sorts racing against each other. Can be single player or multiplayer.

Example: Need for Speed

Sport

Anything about sports, either action of playing the sport with a character or simulation of making a team succeed. Most current sport games are hybrids of Action/RPG or Action/Simulation.

Examples: Fifa, Pro Evolution Soccer, Tiger Woods Golf, Football Manager.

Strategy

A genre that requires planning and thinking to succeed. There is real-time and turn-based strategy. Real-time that the game runs to a clock and that every players actions take place straight away. Turn-based strategy is more of a stop and go experience, players decide on their turns and then the game advances per turn.

Examples: League of Legends, Total War Series, Risk

Adventure

This genre is about solving problems, there may be puzzles, exploring, memorisation and twists along the way. Levels play a part, often there are areas that need to be explored. Most adventure games are hybrids with other games.

Examples: Tombraider, Myth

Simulation

Arcade

Puzzle

FPS – First Person Shooter

3PS/TPS – Third Person Shooter

RPG

Party, Dance , Rhythm

Children

Fitness

Edugames or Educational Games

Find 5 Educational Games

Research Educational Games!

Use the internet to find 5 games (including Ubisoft’s Rocksmith) that are current.

Describe the platform,
the technology,
game mechanics and
target audience as well as
learning material/topic.

Upload in form of a comment to this post with a link to game images and and info online!

Game Mechanics

Game mechanics are a topic that has created a fair bit of controversy over the years. People vary in their definition of what should be a game mecahnic. Below is a definition that we will use for this class:

A simple division between mechanics and rules breaks down into two things:

Mechanics are the actions you can perform

Rules determine the outcome and

gameplay is derived by balancing these two things.

So, to take a Tetris example:

The mechanics of Tetris are:

Turn a block

Drop a block fast

Destroy blocks by creating a line

The rules of Tetris are

Gravity, which accelerates in a stepped fashion according to score
Score, which increases in a stepped fashion according to created lines
Pile reformation, which determines the effects of a destroyed line on the blocks above.
The lose condition of whether the pieces reach the top
The next piece determinant, which selects what new piece will show after the previous one has landed.

Source: http://www.lostgarden.com/2006/10/what-are-game-mechanics.html Feb 2012