Game Genre

1
Game Genre CSE 788.14 Based on slides by Rolf
Lakaemper (Temple)
2
Genres

ADVENTURES
3
Genres

• Adventure Games cast the player as the
  protagonist of a story in which the player
  participates
• Solving of puzzles, finding various artifacts
• Sub-genres
• Textbased
• Graphical
• Action

4
Genres

• Textbased Adventures
• First adventures
• Typical use of verb-noun phraser
• Earliest titles Hunt the Wumpus (G. Yob, 1972,
  Basic Game) and Adventure (W. Crowther, 1972)

5
Genres

Hunt the Wumpus Essentially, you're wandering
through a network of numbered caves, looking for
the Wumpus when it's nearby, you'll smell it,
and you can try to kill it by shooting into one
of the caves that's near you. If you wander into
the same cave as the Wumpus, you die. Other
hazards include bats--which pick you up and dump
you somewhere else--and pits, which kill
you. source code !
6
Genres

or ZORK (1981)
7
Genres

Hybrid Text / Graphic The Hobbit
(1982) spectrum emulator
8
Genres

• Graphic Adventure
• Graphical (point and click) Interface
• Introduced by Sierra Onlines Kings Quest 1984
• Lucas Arts Maniac Mansion 1987

9
Genres

Kings Quest I (by Roberta Williams)
10
Genres

• Action Adventure
• The only commercially successfully remaining
  action genre
• Reflex Based as well as puzzle solving
• Most prominent The Legend of Zelda, Nintendo,
  1986 (US 1987 on NES)

11
Genres

Legend of Zelda, NES 1987
12
Genres

Legend of Zelda The Wind Waker, Game Cube 2004
13
Genres

• Educational Games
• Attempt to teach the user using the game as a
  vehicle
• Mostly target young users
• Growing market !
• can also teach programming on a very high though
  entertaining level, e.g. Robot Wars
• Best known Carmen Sandiego

14
Genres

• Example Alpha Beth 1985
• PLAY

15
Genres

• Fighting (Beatem Up)
• Emphasize on one-on-one combat between (two)
  players
• Usually focus on martial arts
• Usually as dramatic and physically impossible as
  comical
• Sophisticated interfaces !
• Early title Way of the exploding fist,
  Melbourne House 1985 PLAY!

16
Genres

Way of the exploding fist, Melbourne House
1985, Sinclair Spectrum Version
17
Genres

Mortal Combat Deadly Alliance, Midway,2002,
XBOX
18
Genres

• First Person Shooter
• Emphasize shooting and combat from a specific
  perspective, most of them place player behind
  hand/weapon
• Tend to be scaringly violent
• 3D effect is usually enhanced by 3D-sound
• Most prominent DOOM, Quake, HALO
• First title

19
Genres

• Battlezone, ATARI, 1980

20
Genres

• DOOM
• Id software,1993

21
Genres

• HALO
• Xbox,Bungie Studios,2001

22
Genres

• MMOGs
• (Massive Multiplayer Online Games)
• Subscription based virtual worlds for thousands
  of players to interact together
• Titles Ultima Online, Everquest, World of
  Warcraft, etc.

23
Genres

Everquest
24
Genres

• Platform Games
• Probably the best known genre, the computer
  game
• Running, jumping etc. on 2D or 3D platform
• Side-scrollers, usually (2d) from a side
  perspective.
• Most prominent Mario Brothers, Donkey Kong, Lode
  Runner, Sonic,

25
Genres

Jumpman 1983, ATARI 400
26
Genres

Donkey Kong Nintendo, 1981
27
Genres

Mario Bros Nintendo, 1983
28
Genres

Super Mario Bros Nintendo, 1985
29
Genres

• PUZZLE Games
• Require the gamer to solve logic puzzles or
  navigate complex locations such as mazes.
• Genre crosses frequently with adventure and
  educational games
• Titles Tetris, Sokoban, Boulderdash,

30
Genres

Tetris 1985 Alexey Pazhitnov, Vadim Gerasimov
31
Genres

Boulderdash 1987 Databyte
32
Genres

• RACING GAMES
• Place player in the driver seat of vehicle
• Emerging in early 80s
• Extremely popular
• Various input devices
• Titles OutRun, MarioKart,

33
Genres

OutRun SEGA, 1986
34
Genres

MarioKart Double Dash Nintendo, 2004
35
Genres

• Role Playing
• Player acts as adventurer who specializes in
  certain skills
• Emerged from board (pencilpaper) role playing
  games
• Usually science fiction or fantasy setting
• Titles Ultima, Diablo,

36
Genres

• ULTIMA 1
• 1980
• Written in basic
• 3000 lines of code
• Memory takes less than one texture in current
  version

37
Genres

ULTIMA 1, 1980
38
Genres

ULTIMA 9, 1999
39
Genres

• Fixed Shooters
• The classic 2D shooters
• Space Invaders, Galaga, R-Type,

40
Genres

Space Invaders Galaga
41
Genres

• Simulation
• Aim to simulate a specific activity (e.g. flying
  an airplane / running a company) as realistically
  as possible
• Usually time consuming to play, huge manuals etc.
• Titles Little Comp. People, MS Flight Sim., The
  Sims, Medieval,Warcraft,
• The SIMS is the most popular game ever !

42
Genres

Little Computer People Activision, 1985, C64
43
Genres

The SIMS Bill Wright,Maxis, 2000
44
Genres

Sports Sports simulation, of course.
45
Genres

Winter Games EPYX, 1983,C64
46
Genres

• Strategy
• Focus on careful planning and skillful resource
  management
• Thinking games
• Often turn based
• Usually war strategy
• Titles M.U.L.E., Civilization, War Craft,

47
Genres
M.U.L.E EA, 1983

48
Genres

• Civilization 1
• Sid Meier, Microprose,1991, DOS

49
Genres

• WarCraft III
• Blizzard, 2003, PC

50
Genres

• Traditional
• Board Games
• Card Games
• ETC