03. Goals and Genres

Video Game Development: Goals and GenresA. Babadi 1 of 38
In The Name Of God
Video Game Development
Amin Babadi
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Isfahan University of Technology
Spring 2015
Goals and Genres

Outline
 Game development goals
o Are there any goals other than entertainment?
 Game genres
o Association with different goals
o Combining genres

Goals
 Why do you want to create a game?
o Entertainment,
o Education,
o Support,
o Market,
o Build a social community, or
o Get players to work up a sweat?

1. Entertainment
 It is a common assumption that games should be developed
purely to entertain the players.
 Many people play to escape from the stresses of daily life, or
to relieve boredom.
 Some games specifically allow players to become someone
new, to role-play as characters, some of their own creation.

1. Entertainment
 Most games are created for entertainment purposes only.
A billboard advertisement for GTA V in Los Angeles,
September 2013.

2. Social Communities
 Social interaction is one of the motivating factors for playing
games.
Travian players can create and join alliances whose
members support each other economically and militarily.

3. Education
 Educational games are those created to teach while they
entertain.
 Are edutainment games designed mainly for children?
 Can we say that all games are educational “by accident?”
Oregon Trail teaches American history as
players journey into the West.
A simple math game by Quiz-Tree.com

4. Recruitment & Training
 A lot of military, government, and even for-profit corporations
use games for recruitment and training purposes.
 America’s Army was the first online simulation game used as
a military recruitment tool.
In HumanSim, textbooks and lectures are
replaced with interactivity and serious fun.

5. Health & Fitness
 Games created for health and fitness include:
o Psychological therapy,
o Physical rehabilitation, and
o Even exergames (a sub-category specifically related to fitness).
 Many exergames are commercial products such as:
o EA Sports Active,
o Wii Fit,
o Dance Dance Revolution, and
o Dance Central.
 Re-Mission is a medical game, which gives children with
cancer a sense of power and control over their disease by
battling cancer cells.

5. Health & Fitness
The Re-Mission video game was released for
teens and young adults with cancer in 2006.

6. Consciousness & Change
 These games are sometimes termed “games for change”.
o They might be created by non-profit, political, and/or religious groups
o They try to raise awareness of certain beliefs, attitudes, values,
lifestyles, and causes.
September 12: A Toy World focuses on the
civilian casualties of terror attacks.
Peacemaker is a simulation game which
simulates the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

7. Aesthetics & Creativity
 Eliciting creative expression or aesthetic appreciation from
players, or expressing or sharing artistic ideas.
In Flower, the player controls the wind, blowing a flower petal through
the air using the movement of the game controller.

8. Marketing & Advertising
 Marketing a product or service to consumers.
 Advergames are specifically designed as advertising tools.
 They are mostly online games based on Flash or Java.
Wooly Jump is a free online game for advertising
the popular Shaun The Sheep series.

Genres
 Game genres are categories based on a combination of
subject matter, setting, screen presentation/format, player
perspective, and game-playing strategies.
 Some people focus on playing one particular genre.
 Certain genres are more playable on particular platforms.

1. Action
 Almost every arcade game (e.g. Pac-Man) is an action game.
 The goal of most action games involves quickly destroying
your enemies, while avoiding being destroyed yourself.
o Simpler gameplay,
o Real-time interval.
 Action sub-genres:
1. Platformer
2. Shooter
3. Racing
4. Fighting

1.1. Platformer
 The platformer action sub-genre focuses on:
o Players moving quickly through an environment,
o Often jumping and dodging to avoid obstacles, and
o Sometimes collecting items along the way.
Super Mario Bros. is one of the best
selling video games of all time.
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

1.2. Shooter
 The shooter action sub-genre focuses on:
o Combat between a player and the other characters,
o Usually shooting with guns and other weapons.
Killzone 3Doom is a 1993 science fiction horror-
themed first-person shooter video game.

First Person Shooter (FPS)
 In FPSs, the player has a first-person perspective and cannot
see his/her character onscreen.
Killzone 3 (2011)

Third Person Shooter (TPS)
 TPSs allow players to see their characters, along with the rest
of the game world.
Gears of War Judgment (2012)

FPS vs. TPS
 What are the differences?
 Which one seems more immediate?
 Which one gives the player more degree of freedom?

1.3. Racing
 Games in the racing sub-genre involve:
o The player’s vehicle racing one or more opponents,
o Attempting to make the vehicle move as quickly as possible.
Need for Speed: Rivals was released for
Microsoft Windows, PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2013
The Need for Speed (2004)

1.4. Fighting
 Many fighting games are two-person games in which:
o Each player controls a character to fight the opponent,
o They are often viewed from a side perspective, and
o Each session often lasts only an average of 90 seconds.
Mortal Kombat (1992) Mortal Kombat (2011)

2. Adventure
 Characteristics of adventure games include interactive story,
exploration, collecting, puzzle-solving, navigating mazes and
Decoding messages.
o Adventure games are usually turn-based.
Beyond: Two Souls is an interactive drama action-
adventure game for the PS3 console, released in 2013.
Syberia (2002)

3. Action-Adventure
 It’s the only hybrid genre that has distinguished itself as an
accepted genre.
o Quick, reflexive movements as the character hunts down enemies
o Conceptual puzzles and story elements
Watch Dogs is an upcoming 2014 open world action-
adventure game developed by Ubisoft (2014).
Resident Evil (1996)

4. Casino
 Addiction can be a motivation to play games.
 Electronic versions of popular games found in casinos!
 The addiction motivation is closely tied to gambling.
o Many online versions of this genre are run by online gambling sites.
Solitaire (2001) Solitaire (2009)

5. Puzzle
 A pure puzzle game focuses on:
o Solving a series of puzzles without controlling a character,
o There is little or no story surrounding puzzle games, and
o Either real-time or turn-based.
Minesweeper(2009)IBM PC version of the Tetris (1986)

6. Role-Playing
 Role-playing games (RPGs) are characterized by:
o Containing strong storylines,
o Containing player-characters that improve through the game, and
o Emotional connection between players and their characters.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011)Fallout (1997)

7. Simulation
 Simulations (also called sims) attempt to replicate systems,
machines, and experiences using real-world rules.
 They can be used for:
o Training and recruiting by military and government institutions, or
o Sheer entertainment purposes.
 Simulation sub-genres:
1. Vehicle Simulation
2. Sports & Participatory Simulation
3. Process Simulation (Construction & Management)

7.1. Vehicle Simulation
 The player usually operates complicated vehicles such as jet
fighters, ships, or tanks.
o Highly accurate,
o Right down to the equipment controls and user manual
Flight Simulator X: Acceleration (2007)Flight Simulator 3.0 (1998)

7.2. Sports & Participatory Simulation
 Participatory simulations engage the player to experience the
simulation as a participant within it.
 The sports genre is a type of participatory sim.
FIFA 14 (2014)FIFA 97 (1997)

7.3. Process Simulation
 Process simulations involve real-world systems or processes.
o These games are also known as construction and management sims
(CMS), god, or toy games.
o This type of sim focuses on the ongoing maintenance of a system.
Sim City(2013)Sim City Classic (1989)

8. Strategy
 Strategy games have their origin in classic board games such
as chess.
 Players are required to manage a limited set of resources to
achieve a particular goal.
o Most strategy games take place in a military setting.
o The player’s character is relatively unimportant.
o The player’s resources become central to the game experience.
 Strategy sub-genres:
1. Turn-Based Strategy (TBS)
2. Real-Time Strategy (RTS)

8.1. Turn-Based Strategy (TBS)
 In TBS games, player deals with discrete decisions such as:
o What types of resources to create,
o When to deploy them, and
o How to use them to the best advantage.
Battle for Wesnoth (2003) Total War: Rome II (2013)

8.2. Real-Time Strategy (RTS)
 It’s surprising how popular RTS games have become!
 One set of resources might flourish while others fail because
the player can’t feasibly focus on all sets at once.
Rise of Nations (2003) Command & Conquer: Generals 2 (2013)

9. Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO)
 MMOs are sometimes called persistent-state worlds (PSWs).
 The most important MMO development issues:
o Maintenance,
o Continuous production of game content,
o Balancing social interaction with immersion, and
o Players’ misbehavior.

9. Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO)
 There are several variations under the MMO umbrella:
o MMORPGs,
o MMOFPSs, and
o MMORTSs.
World of Warcraft (2006) Battlefield Play4Free (2010)

The Significance of Goals & Genres
 Determine the goal of the game.
 Identify a subset of genres that might best address that goal.
 For example, if you want your game to teach players how to
fix a car, an obvious genre match would be process simulation
game.
o Is this the only possibility?
 Think about it!

References
 Novak’s textbook,
 Wikipedia, and
 Some other sources on the Internet.

03. Goals and Genres

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