Game Design Terms

Hello there fellow gamers,

In the gaming industry it’s always a good idea to learn some game design terms, so here’s a few game design terminologies that might help increase your knowledge and make you look like a boss in front of your future/ current boss.

Design Terms

Genre: The genre is the format of the game it is classified under according to the player’s style of gameplay and obstacles they come across.

Ex: Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2’s genre would be a “first person shooter” game. The reason being so is because you play from a first person’s point of view (playing through the eyes of the character) and having to shoot any enemy or target.

(Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 2)

Rules: A set of directions/ statements as to what is allowed and what is not allowed, to get the main point/ principle across.

Ex: Super Stardust HD has a simple set of rules of:

• Do not get hit/ shot by any enemy/ asteroids.

• Gather lots of points for powers up/ health.

• Defeat each planet boss to progress to the next planet

These rules are set to help the player have the understanding as to what needs to be done in the game and the purpose of the main goal.

(Super Stardust HD)

Resources: An item/ supply that can be used to help you complete an objective or journey whether good or bad.

Ex: Far Cry 3’s resources that uses are transportations (cars, boats, planes, motorcycles, gliders) to transport them to their destination/ missions, weapons (pistols, flamethrowers, rocket launchers, machine guns, explosives) to help you defeat the enemies/ environments, and health (plants, first aid kits, selfheal) to help keep you alive throughout the journey.

(Far Cry 3)

Thematic Terms

Story: A fiction or nonfiction of events/people that is told to an audience (whether to a single person or a crowd) to help create a specific concept/ idea to the human mind for enjoyment.

Ex: Super Mario Sunshine takes place in Isle Delfino (a tropical island) where Mario, Toad, and Princess Peach are on a vacation when suddenly while landing their plane on Delfino Airstrip they discover graffiti and goop on the on the airstrip runway. Mario then discovers a water cleaning device named F.L.U.D.D who helps him clean up the goop on the airstrip. Delfino police later arrest Mario for looking like the culprit who made the graffiti/ goop and found him guilty. After being prosecuted, Mario is now not allowed to leave the island until all of the graffiti/ goop are cleaned up all around the whole island and during this whole process Princess Peach gets kidnapped (surprise surprise) by the real culprit Koopa Kid who is disguised as Mario. It is now up to you to clean up the island and rescue Princess Peach. Later on (spoiler alert) you rescue Princess Peach, restore the island’s cleanliness, capture the real culprit, and restore peace once again to Isle Delfino. The story being here, to help out a tropical island that needs your help to clean it up to have their sunshine back in simpler terms.

(Super Mario Sunshine)

Setting: The time, place, background, props, to help create a scenery that fits the location of the theme/ story.

Ex: Red Dead Redemption is a good example of an old cowboy western adventure. It takes place in the dessert with tumbleweeds, small wooden towns, saloons, cowboys, bandits, old guns, horses and coach wagons as transportation. The setting gives the player the feeling of an old western themed scenery.

(Red Dead Redemption)

Character: The character of the game is the main individual(s) that the player controls and plays as in the game, often playing a certain role of character in the game.

Ex: Heavy Rain is a perfect example of four different characters you get to play as. You get to role play as Ethan Mars a devoted father who lost his second son in a car accident. Then there’s Madison Paige an undercover journalist, following Norman Jayden an FBI agent. Last but not least Scott Shelby a retired cop who is now a private investigator. There are four characters in this game that have four different roles from a father, a journalist, an FBI agent, and a private investigator that you play as, giving you four different perspectives.

(Heavy Rain)

Analysis Terms

Flow: The mental state of your focus on a game, depending on your performance/ progress shows how immersed and invested you are (in the zone). Often showing different kinds of feelings (energized, bored, excitement) through the involvement of the activity that makes you want more or less.

Ex: Gears of War 3 shows an example of flow in multiplayer. In the multiplayer you play against other people and when you defeat a team or an enemy you will get higher a reward (than the loser) and rank up faster giving you the upper hand of better/ stronger weapons. This causes the player to want more and continue to play the game because of their winning streak. The player is now fully focused and involved in the game causing them to be in the zone.

(Gears of War 3)

Complexity: How intricate a game can be by how much information has been given to the player, the main factor being of how complicated/ intricate for the player to learn the game.

Ex: Skyrim shows its complexity by the player’s menu. There’s the player’s leveling up menu that shows all of the possible skills and attributes, many times people end up on the internet asking the question what skill should be leveled up? There are many different skills to level up and depending on your preferences is what you should level up from health, stamina, magic, alchemy, and even down to different dragon power abilities. Skyrim has a lot of complexities that need attention and for the player to learn to able to progress in the game.

(Skyrim)

Difficulty: How complicated or easy is it to accomplish a game. A game with the difficulty level being at hard can need a lot of skill to complete as to playing a game on easy needs little to no skill to accomplish an objective.

Ex: Halo has different difficulties to choose from easy (easy), normal (normal), hard (heroic), very hard (legendary). Halo lets you choose the difficulty you would like to play the game, would you rather skim through the whole level on easy or would you prefer a major challenge that requires a lot skill and sacrifice many hours of your time on legendary?

(Halo)

Balance: It’s what makes the game equal and well proportioned. A well balanced game makes sure that the different aspects of the game are fair and not giving anything/ anyone the upper hand.

Ex: Pong is a very well balanced game in the sense that everything is fair. In the game you get a paddle (moving bar) and so does your opponent. There is also a ball that bounces back and forth to both your side and your opponent’s side. The moment someone misses the ball is game over for them, all and all well balanced.

(Pong)

Depth: The further and deeper you progress in a game, the difficulty raises and you are still able to find the pleasure in your game.

Ex: Grand Theft Auto 4 shows how the more depth you get into the missions (besides goofing off and using cheat codes) the harder the main missions become but your reward is unlocking more cities, weapons, transportations, and perks (body armor, taxi rides, parachutes) making the game more enjoyable the deeper you progress.

(Grand Theft Auto 4)

Pace: The progress or rate of the gameplay, how fast/slow the activity is going depending on the player’s actions.

Ex: The Simpsons Tapped Out is basically another Farmville/ Age of Empires game except it’s the Simpsons version. The progress of the game can progress faster if you decide to pay (with real money) certain items in the game to save you time and make the pace of your game faster instead of progressing at a slow pace.

(The Simpsons: Tapped Out)