Game guide: medium, form, and conventions

Videogames don’t always fall neatly into genres, and it’s important to note that ‘genre’ is not always the term used to describe different types of videogames. You might read about videogame ‘styles’ or ‘types’, as often as you will ‘genres’.

This isn’t an exhaustive list of game genres but covers many popular ones. We’ve also mentioned conventions and common features of these styles.

-platformer

Mario Brothers, Sonic the Hedgehog, Hollow Knight

Side on view, scrolling camera/worlds, stylised fantastical worlds, non-violent or cartoon-ish violence, collectible objects (coins etc)

-shooter

Doom, Call of Duty

Often first person perspective or third person, violent, weapon use, three-dimensional worlds (often realistic graphics), often linear or open world, bosses and underlings to battle, HUD (heads up display showing health, energy, power-ups etc)

-action-adventure

Uncharted, Tomb Raider, Assassin's Creed

Geared towards exploration, ancient civilizations and long-lost environments to explore, often features puzzle elements; can feature action elements, traversing environments often involves climbing, jumping, rope swinging and similar, fighting and environmental puzzles also feature heavily

-cosy game

Stardew Valley, Animal Crossings

Cute and colourful game worlds, heavy on romanticising topic of game (thinking farming, world building), politically and ethically unchallenging, low stakes aims and goals, quirky characters

-strategy game

Age of Empires, Civilization

Turn-based or real-time, human player often playing against computer AI, each controlling factions/army/civilisation pitted against each other

-simulation

FIFA, Flight Simulator

Simulating something specific like a sport (racing, soccer, cricket etc), but also real-world jobs and activities (flight simulators, farming simulators). Simulators often strive for realism, but they can be stylised and crossover into say, the cosy game genre (Art of Rally, Lego 2K Drive, Overcooked)

-role playing game

The Witcher, Fallout

There are too many sub-genres to mention, but general feature is taking control of a character you can level up through XP (which helps separate an RPG from all the other games where you are taking on the role of a character) Often set in fantasy or sci-fi worlds, or period set.

With film, we often hear about sub-genres and cross-genres. When describing a videogame, we would normally add some qualifying information to better describe it. For example, we listed ‘action-adventure’ above in genres, with the most famous sub-genre being ‘third-person action adventure game’ which is taking the perspective of the game to better qualify the type of game it is.

Take a game like Stardew Valley; a real mixed bag. Have a watch of the trailer below:

You could better describe the genre by using the layout/perspective of the game world (in this case, top down). So top-down cosy game.

There are also cosy isometric games like Unpacking, and isometric life simulators like The Sims.

It could do with a visual element of the game. Again, Stardew Valley has a distinct, retro visual style. So, it could be a pixel-graphic cosy game.

And finally, it could be a genre mash-up like, you guessed it Stardew Valley! So, a cosy farming-simulator, with rogue-like elements!

We’ll go further into game perspective a little later.

Feature films tend to sit in the 90–120-minute range, whereas the time it takes to complete a videogame can be significantly longer, with the added variable of player interactivity making the exact playtime impossible to ever pinpoint. Things like player experience have an effect, how much freedom to explore and complete non-essential tasks and side quests can also drag out the length of time it takes to complete a game.

Reviewers often give approximate estimates as to how long a game should take to complete, but of course, it all depends. Take the existence of speed runners for example, players who film and upload their exploits beating games as quickly as possible, taking minutes what it might take regular players hours to do.

Videogames however still contain structures we are used to, albeit, significantly spaced out with gameplay.

Here we will try and highlight some similarities in terms of structure, and how games might approach them differently to film.

Exposition

Videogames, like films and novels, need to establish character and setting – however, they also have the extra challenge of introducing the player to the controls and mechanics of the game. We’ll go further into game mechanics later but for now, think of them as the things a player can do in the game, and how players can engage with the game world.

Many games cleverly do all of the above, at the same time providing exposition to the game world whilst also providing exposition for controls and mechanics. They teach you how to play the game, whilst introducing players to who they are playing as, setting and contextual information.

When analysing the exposition part of a videogame, consider if and how the player is also being orientated to the game’s controls, mechanics, and game objectives.

Problem/inciting incident

Videogames often approach the introduction to the ‘problem’ or present the inciting incident differently. Players might not be in control when the events leading up to and including the inciting incident occur, often they are shown these events and then dropped into them.

In Limbo, players are thrust directly into the game world, with the playable character opening their eyes, standing up, and setting off into a strange world:

In Bioshock, players are thrust into the first-person perspective of the playable character sitting on in airplane in the mid-atlantic 1960. They have no control when the plane crashes, and can only start controlling the character once they’ve swam to the surface of the ocean in which the plane has crashed:

But many games let the player control the action for some time before the problem is presented in-game.

Rising tension

When studying film, we can often chart the rise and fall of tension through plot and story elements. The same can apply to videogames, but also peaks and troughs in tension can be present in other ways, including level design.

Moments of intense gameplay can often be followed by quieter periods, where the tension falls away, and players (just like audiences) can gather themselves.

Rising and falling tension can also be presented through, or complemented by, an increase in gameplay difficulty. Often this difficulty level is mirrored by a player’s increased ability: externally (skills picked up by the player through practice) and internally (think skill trees; where the playable character gets access to special moves, better items etc. increases within to the game).

We could consider a steady increase in difficulty and increase in player ability as a convention of the medium of videogames, but this can also crossover with narrative conventions, as these improved skills are tested by game bosses, and dramatic set pieces.

Climax and resolution

Like any good media form, videogames often build to a climactic scene that might be epic in terms of its setting, as a set piece, or in the difficulty a player might face in battling an antagonist or overcoming the game world (think puzzles, complex and or dangerous environments).

Often, there is much culminating at this point in the game. In terms of story and character, much may have been building to the climax of the game, but it’s important to realise how a videogame might have been building the player’s skills, abilities, and understanding of the game world in a way that presents the climax as challenging, but not insurmountable – a fine balance to strike.

In the Media classroom, we would discuss 'codes' of the medium, From the VCE Media Study Design:

Technical and symbolic tools are used to construct meaning in media forms and products. Media codes may include the use of camera, acting, mise en scene, editing, lighting, sound, typography, colour, visual composition, text and graphics and paper stock for print

Whereas in the English classroom we might refer to the 'techniques' used to create meaning, as well as the metalanguage of the form.

Either way, we are essentially talking about the same thing.

Next though, let’s consider further the key features of videogames, perspective, mechanics, and gameplay.