Ways of Play - An Overview of Video Game Genres

Throughout its development, the video games industry has developed a large repertoire of titles. As new ideas continuously sprung out throughout the decades, designers and developers created a large range of mechanics and gameplay elements, giving birth to new game genres along the way.

Today, there’s a gigantic pool of genres and subgenres to choose from, with new ones being created at a near-constant rate.

Action Games

Actions games are defined by their active gameplay. From movement to attacks, every action a player makes is immediately translated on screen. They’re often games that involve a lot of combat and verticality.

Examples titles:

●?????Devil May Cry

●?????Contra

●?????Syphon Filter

Subgenres

●?????Action RPG - Either action games with RPG elements, or RPGs with action elements

●?????Action-Adventure - Action games that mix in puzzle, RPG, and open-world elements

●?????Action Horror - Horror games with more emphasis on combat

Adventure Games

The Adventure genre has taken many forms over the years, to the point where it’s hard to pinpoint a definitive, central quality that defines them. Today, titles labeled as adventures have one common theme and that is experiencing a new or unknown world. Titles in this genre are often timeless and it shows given that they’re the second most popular category among gamers according to Consumer Insights.

Example titles:

●?????The Legend of Zelda

●?????The Pathless

●?????Monkey Island

Subgenres

●?????Point-and-Click Adventures - Games where the player gathers clues to solve puzzles by using a mouse cursor

●?????Adventure Puzzlers - Adventure games that place a heavy emphasis on puzzle solving

●?????Text Adventure - A retro type of game where players rely on text descriptions and commands to visualize and navigate the game world

Role Playing Games (RPGs)

Starting from humble tabletop beginnings, the RPG genre is a firm staple within the video game industry today. Their core design allows players to take on the role of a character within a world and progressively make them stronger. As a formula, its popularity is unquestionable given that the genre as a whole is the fifth most popular among gamers. Today, these mechanics are injected into various other genres to give players a sense of growth.

Example titles:

●?????Final Fantasy

●?????Baldur’s Gate

●?????Skyrim

Subgenres

●?????Massively Multiplayer Online RPGs (MMORPGs) - RPGs that are played in a persistent online world populated by other player characters

●?????Turn-based RPGs - RPGs that have static combat where players take turns executing their actions

●?????Tactics RPGs - Turn-based RPGs that have larger-scale battles with an emphasis on strategic positioning and character synergy

Fighting Games

The king of the arcade era, the fighting game genre gave birth to some of the earliest forms of competitive gaming. Their core gameplay involves minute-level action combat between two opponents, using a mix of attacks, combos, and defensive maneuvers. Despite seeming like a relic of the past, fighting games are seventh in popularity among gamers.

Example titles:

●?????Street Fighter

●?????Tekken

●?????Mortal Kombat

Subgenres

●?????Platform fighting game - Fighting games that mix minute, strategic combat with mechanics from platform games

●?????Team-based fighting game - Fighting games where players play as more than one character, either within the same round or by swapping after a character is eliminated

●?????Arena fighting game - Fighting games characterized by more mobility and heavy emphasis on special attacks

●?????Side-scrolling Beat-em-Up games - Fighting games where players walk from one end of a level to another, fighting enemies along the way using hand-to-hand combat and weapon pickups

Platform Games

One of the genres that catapulted gaming into new heights in the 80s and 90s, platform games are a marvel of design and ingenuity. The central mechanic involves players using jumping skills to avoid obstacles and go from one end of a level to the other. Platformers may not be the end-all-be-all of gaming anymore but they’re still within the top 10 most popular genres among gamers.

Example titles:

●?????Super Mario Bros.

●?????Crash Bandicoot

●?????Cuphead

Subgenres

●?????Action Platformers - Platform games that include action combat

●?????Metroidvanias - Platform games with RPG elements that take place in big sprawling interconnected maps

Strategy Games

A key hallmark accomplishment of the video gaming industry was replicating the strategic and tactical feel of wargames and chess into the digital realm. Today, strategy games exist in a variety of subgenres and have even at some point dominated the esports scene.

Example titles:

●?????Starcraft

●?????Civilization

●?????Crusader Kings

Subgenres

●?????Real-Time Strategy games (RTS) - Strategy games where actions and battles happen in real time

●?????Grand Strategy/4X - Strategy games that focus on the big picture of developing a country or species across several generations

●?????Turn-based Strategy games - Strategy games that focus mostly on combat and utilize a turn-based system, with base-building taking place largely outside of missions

Sports Games

The sports games genre started off as a way for developers to experiment with game design. Today, sports titles exist in many variations, from accurate emulations of real athletics to exaggerated arcade versions of proper sports. Popularity-wise, they stand in fourth place according to Consumer Insights.

Example titles:

●?????FIFA

●?????Wii Sports

●?????Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater

Subgenres

●?????Sports management games - These games focus less on matches and more on the development of a club, team, or group of athletes through the emulation of training and money management

●?????Action sports games - Sports games that completely escape the realm of reality by using fantasy and action mechanics

●?????Turn-based sports games - Sports games that forgo any real-time mechanics and replace them with turn-based strategy systems

Shooting Games

Another arcade-era staple, shooting games have always been about firing projectiles at enemy players and NPCs. Although the dominant titles in the space are first-person shooters, there’s a huge variety of shooting games to satisfy a large number of tastes.

Example titles:

●?????Doom

●?????Space Invaders

●?????Fortnite

Subgenres

●?????First-Person Shooting games (FPS) - Shooting games where players see the action through the eyes of the character they’re controlling. This subgenre is currently the most popular among gamers according to Consumer Insights.

●?????Third-Person Shooting games - Shooting games with an over-the-shoulder camera angle

●?????Battle Royale games - Primarily shooting games in both first and third-person perspectives where multiple players fight on a large map. Slightly after FPS games, BRs are the third most popular subgenre.

●?????Top-Down Shooting games - Shooting games where the camera views the action from directly above

●?????Bullet Hells - A subgenre of top-down shooters characterized by the large number of enemy projectiles that flood the screen

●?????Side-Scrolling Shooting games - A variation of top-down shooting games where the action is viewed from the side

●?????Looter Shooters - First or third-person shooters where players are primarily focused on gaining increasingly better weapons and equipment

●?????Team-based Tactical FPS - FPS esports that emphasize teamwork and position-based tactics

●?????Hero Shooter - First or third-person shooters where characters have both weapons and a set of unique skills

Puzzle Games

Solving puzzles has always been a big part of human entertainment. Naturally, the video game industry has emulated this pastime as well. From pure logical challenges to fast-paced decision-making titles, the puzzle genre is uniquely varied.

Example titles:

●?????Myst

●?????Portal

●?????Tetris

Subgenres

●?????Physics-based games - Puzzle games that use physics to move and manipulate objects to complete challenges

●?????Tile-matching games - Puzzle games where players need to match an object with others of the same color, shape, or both to make them disappear

Driving & Flight Games

Getting behind the wheel of a virtual vehicle has always been an intriguing design prospect for developers. For players, the opportunity to handle vehicles they wouldn’t normally have access to has also been a tantalizing prospect. Naturally, because of this, the driving genre continues to have staying power and it shows as racing and simulation games sit at eighth and ninth place respectively in terms of popularity.

Example titles:

●?????F1 Racing

●?????Need for Speed

●?????Microsoft Flight Simulator

Subgenres

●?????Simulators - Driving games that emulate actual driving mechanics and physics to create a realistic experience

●?????Arcade Racing games - Racing games where driving is looser and less accurate than real-life driving

●?????Kart Racing games - Racing games where characters race in elaborate tracks with hazards and can use weapon pickups to disrupt opponents

●?????Space Combat simulators - Flight games that take place in space and attempt to emulate what fighting with spaceships would look like

Sandbox Games

Who needs quests, objectives, and a world to save when you can make your own fun? That’s the promise of sandbox games, a massive genre that allows you to unleash your own creativity and imagination. The genre being a massive hit with younger gamers has allowed it to enjoy a nice spot at number 6 in terms of popularity. From crafting a world of your own choosing to surviving an increasingly greater horde of enemies, the sandbox genre is perfect for players who prefer to make their own rules.

Example titles:

●?????Minecraft

●?????Ark: Survival Evolved

●?????Dragon Quest Builders 2

Subgenres

●?????Survival games - Sandbox games where you need to use whatever you find around you to survive and craft amenities

●?????Creative mod games - Games that include an open-ended creative mode that allows you to use their tools to build anything you want

●?????Town building games - Sandbox games where you become a part of a town or community and can use a variety of tools and systems to build and manage it any way you want

●?????City building games - Sandbox games where you build and manage every aspect of a city, from economics and logistics to infrastructure and societal prosperity