A brief introduction to games is given. - What is a game? (three different definitions are discussed) - Game genre by gameplay - Game genre by purpose

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TECNICAS DE DESENVOLVIMENTO DE JOGOS
Engenharia em Desenvolvimento de Jogos Digitais - 2013/2014
February 14, 2014
Daniela da Cruz
dcruz@ipca.pt

2. What is a Game?
Game Genres by Gameplay
Game Genres by Purpose
The target market
AGENDA
1. What is a Game?
2. Game Genres by Gameplay
3. Game Genres by Purpose
4. The target market
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3. WHAT IS A GAME?

4. What is a Game?
Game Genres by Gameplay
Game Genres by Purpose
The target market
WHAT IS A GAME? — DEFINITION 1
“A game is a system in which players engage in an
artificial conflict, defined by rules, that results in a
quantifiable outcome.”
Rules of Play : Game Design Fundamentals. Salen, K. and E.
Zimmerman. The MIT Press. (2003)
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5. What is a Game?
Game Genres by Gameplay
Game Genres by Purpose
The target market
WHAT IS A GAME?
“A game is a system in which players engage in an
artificial conflict, defined by rules, that results in a
quantifiable outcome.”
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6. What is a Game?
Game Genres by Gameplay
Game Genres by Purpose
The target market
WHAT IS A GAME? — DEFINITION 2
“Games are objects which consist of components and
rules and have certain criteria: rules, a goal, always
changing course; chance; competition; common
experience; equality; freedom; activity; diving into the
world of the game; and no impact on reality.”
Wolfgang Kramer (1942-), german board game designer.
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7. What is a Game?
Game Genres by Gameplay
Game Genres by Purpose
The target market
WHAT IS A GAME?
“Games are objects which consist of components and
rules and have certain criteria: rules, a goal, always
changing course; chance; competition; common
experience; equality; freedom; activity; diving into the
world of the game; and no impact on reality.”
Wolfgang Kramer (1942-), german board game designer.
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8. What is a Game?
Game Genres by Gameplay
Game Genres by Purpose
The target market
WHAT IS A GAME? — DEFINITION 3
“A game has explicit rules and goals, and is played with
the primary purpose of learning.”
Nils Pettersson
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9. What is a Game?
Game Genres by Gameplay
Game Genres by Purpose
The target market
WHAT IS A GAME?
In order to test these definitions to see if they actually work on a
real example we need to look at an existing game.
A definition must be useful in a practical context after all.
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10. What is a Game?
Game Genres by Gameplay
Game Genres by Purpose
The target market
http://www.eurogamer.pt/videos/skyrim-tempo-a-passar-um-mundo-em-movimento
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SKYRIM

11. What is a Game?
Game Genres by Gameplay
Game Genres by Purpose
The target market
SKYRIM
→ Skyrim is set in a huge world where the player is free to
wander as he wishes as long as he stays inside established
boundaries.
This explicitly states the arena of the play area.
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12. What is a Game?
Game Genres by Gameplay
Game Genres by Purpose
The target market
SKYRIM
→ Characters can be developed and improved in a variety of
ways in order to meet challenges and customise the way the
player plays the game.
This gives the player choices about how to tackle said challenges
while still staying within the confines of the rules.
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13. What is a Game?
Game Genres by Gameplay
Game Genres by Purpose
The target market
SKYRIM
→ The player has freedom within the rules to seek out and
overcome challenges via creative thinking and trial and error.
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14. What is a Game?
Game Genres by Gameplay
Game Genres by Purpose
The target market
SKYRIM
Skyrim gives the player the illusion of choice that feeds the user
creativity while still guiding him along the intended experience.
This illusion of choice is somewhat of a holy grail to game designers
and something that is incredibly hard to nail down in a game.
Everything in the game is controlled by explicit rules that cannot
be broken since it is a digital game (computers are notoriously bad
at independent thinking after all).
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15. What is a Game?
Game Genres by Gameplay
Game Genres by Purpose
The target market
GAMIFICATION
“Samsung is embracing a business trend called
gamification, which takes elements from games and
applies them to other settings.”
Natasha Singer, Feb 2012
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16. What is a Game?
Game Genres by Gameplay
Game Genres by Purpose
The target market
GAMIFICATION — SAMSUNG NATION
Users earn badges for completing activities such as writing reviews,
watching videos and participating in forums.
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17. What is a Game?
Game Genres by Gameplay
Game Genres by Purpose
The target market
GAMIFICATION — VISUAL STUDIO ACHIEVEMENTS
“With the Visual Studio Achievements Extension,
various achievements are unlocked based on your
activity. Your profile is updated with any achievements
you earn, recalculating your position on the leaderboard.”
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18. What is a Game?
Game Genres by Gameplay
Game Genres by Purpose
The target market
GAMIFICATION — VISUAL STUDIO ACHIEVEMENTS
http://channel9.msdn.com/achievements/visualstudio
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19. GAME GENRES BY GAMEPLAY

20. What is a Game?
Game Genres by Gameplay
Game Genres by Purpose
The target market
GAME GENRES BY GAMEPLAY
Shooter/Action
Puzzle Games
Role-Playing Game (RPG)
Sport Games
Graphical Adventure
Trivia Games
Simulation
Card Games
Vehicle Simulation
Board Games
Strategy
Music Games
Party Games
Massive Multiplayer Online Game (MMO and MMORPG)
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21. What is a Game?
Game Genres by Gameplay
Game Genres by Purpose
The target market
EXERCISE
1. Choose a game genre from the previous list.
2. Research about its main characteristics.
3. Choose 2 or 3 games that fits on the chosen game genre and
explain why.
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22. GAME GENRES BY PURPOSE

23. What is a Game?
Game Genres by Gameplay
Game Genres by Purpose
The target market
GAME GENRES BY PURPOSE
→ Adult Video Games
→ Advergames
→ Art Games
→ Casual Games
→ Educational Games
→ Exergames
→ Serious Games
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24. What is a Game?
Game Genres by Gameplay
Game Genres by Purpose
The target market
GAME GENRES BY PURPOSE — ADVERGAMES
Advergames
Promotional software specifically made to advertise a product,
organization or viewpoint.
The majority of advergames are found online and mostly include
simple and cheaply made Flash games.
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25. What is a Game?
Game Genres by Gameplay
Game Genres by Purpose
The target market
GAME GENRES BY PURPOSE — ADVERGAMES
Chex Quest is a non-violent first-person shooter video game
created in 1996 by Digital Cafe as a Chex cereal promotion aimed
at children aged 6-9 and up.
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26. What is a Game?
Game Genres by Gameplay
Game Genres by Purpose
The target market
GAME GENRES BY PURPOSE — EXERGAMES
Exergames — Video games that provides exercise.
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27. What is a Game?
Game Genres by Gameplay
Game Genres by Purpose
The target market
GAME GENRES BY PURPOSE — SERIOUS GAMES
Serious games — intended to educate or train the player. These
games tend to promote ”education, science, social change, health
care or even the military.”
America’s Army
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28. THE TARGET MARKET

29. What is a Game?
Game Genres by Gameplay
Game Genres by Purpose
The target market
THE TARGET MARKET
In the United States, the average video game player is 30 and has
been playing video games for over 12 years.
by “The Entertainment Software Association - Industry Facts”.
http://www.theesa.com/facts/index.asp
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30. What is a Game?
Game Genres by Gameplay
Game Genres by Purpose
The target market
THE TARGET MARKET
In the UK as of 2007, the average video game player was over 23
years old, had played video games for over 10 years, and spent
around 11 hours a week playing video games.
by “Ask about Games”.
http://web.archive.org/web/20070613033013/http:
//www.askaboutgames.com/?c=/pages/factsFigures.jsp
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31. What is a Game?
Game Genres by Gameplay
Game Genres by Purpose
The target market
THE TARGET MARKET — TYPES OF PLAYERS
→ Heavy gamers — who constantly play games and are
responsible for most of the market sales.
→ Avid console gamers — who buy mainly console games and
might play console games many hours a day.
→ Mass-market gamers — who usually buy only blockbuster
games.
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32. What is a Game?
Game Genres by Gameplay
Game Genres by Purpose
The target market
THE TARGET MARKET — TYPES OF PLAYERS
→ Prefer-portable gamers — who prefer playing games using
portable devices.
→ Secondary gamers — who usually don’t buy games and play
games bought by other people.
→ Infrequent gamers — who play games occasionally (casual
gamers).
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33. What is a Game?
Game Genres by Gameplay
Game Genres by Purpose
The target market
THE TARGET MARKET — TYPES OF PLAYERS
Heavy gamers
→ Difficult challenges
→ Elaborated storyline
→ Great level of immersion into the game world
→ Extremely detailed 3D environments
→ Background music and enhanced sound effects
→ Long game-play experience with many challenges
→ Scripts are usually big but not that much complex, usually
following pre-established game genres
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34. What is a Game?
Game Genres by Gameplay
Game Genres by Purpose
The target market
THE TARGET MARKET — TYPES OF PLAYERS
Casual gamers
→ Easy to understand and easy to play
→ Simple storyline or even no storyline at all
→ Challenging but brief levels, giving a feeling of
accomplishment in short periods
→ No enhanced 3D Graphics or sound effects (keep it simple)
→ A good casual game is typically easy to develop but very hard
to specify
→ Scripts are short but complex in terms of game-play concept
E.g.: Card games, puzzles, board games.
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35. What is a Game?
Game Genres by Gameplay
Game Genres by Purpose
The target market
RESOURCES
→ Rules of Play : Game Design Fundamentals. Salen, K. and E.
Zimmerman. The MIT Press. (2003)
→ http://www.gamasutra.com
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