1. Genre What types of games are there?

2. Game Genres ► Action / Adventure Legend of Zelda Series, Metroid ► Platformers Super Mario 64, Megaman ► Shooters Halo, Gears of War ► Strategy Civilization, Starcraft, Fire Emblem ► Role-Playing Final Fantasy, World of Warcraft ► Sports WiiSports, EA Sports Games ► Vehicle Simulation MarioKart, Flight Simulation ► Construction Management The Sims, Spore ► Puzzle, Rhythm, Artificial Life, Etc. Bejeweled, Guitar Hero, Nintendogs

3. Action / Adventure ► Simplest type of game. ► Often split into levels, players usually have ‘lives’. ► Requires puzzle-solving and reflex-actions. ► Often, you will see combos, power-ups, score, bosses, collectibles. ► When designing, you must be careful about the difficulty level. ► Has a lot of information that the player must see at once (maps, inventory, etc.)

4. Platformers & Shooters ► Types of Action games. ► Shooters usually involve one avatar and many weapons. ► Platformers involve jumping puzzles and more coordination tasks. ► Fighting games are also action games.

5. Strategy ► Presented with a ‘theme’ in mind. (Ex: conquest of nations, exploration of unknown lands, etc.) ► Usually very complex. ► Player controls many units with different properties (infantrymen v. cavalry, etc.) ► Turn-based or Real-time.

6. Roleplaying ► Requires strong storylines. (Usually of the ‘SAVE THE WORLD’ variety. Or, saving something, at least.) ► Usually has customizable characters. ► Includes quests, useable items (inventory).

7. Sports & Vehicle Simulation ► Rules of sports games are dictated by real rules, mostly. ► Players usually control the team, as a coach or as all the athletes. ► Vehicle simulations focus on letting the player learn how to control the vehicle. ► Competition arises from how well you do this.

8. Construction Management ► Requires a sense of an economy – resources must be used and made. Usually, the resource is money. ► Requires sources – where money comes from. ► Player’s goal is usually to expand, to avoid or solve random disasters, compete with other players for resources.

9. Puzzle ► Doesn’t require a story. ► Variations on one puzzle theme. ► Simple, relies on rules. Rhythm ► Often requires other hardware – controllers, etc. ► Culture and era dependant. Artificial Life ► Player is responsible for another living being – pets, humans (MySims). ► Player meets the living being’s needs. ► No particular end-goal.