Glossary
8-bit Console: A home videogame system from the era when the CPUs used in these devices had
databases capable of handling 8 bits at a time, mainly the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).
AAA: See Triple-A.
Adventure Game: A game in which the player controls a single character who solves puzzles to
unlock elements of a story and open up new areas of the game (see Text Adventure, Graphic
Adventure). Examples: Zork, Myst, The Secret of Monkey Island.
Alternatively, the official name adopted by the Game Manufacturer's Association, an organization of
tabletop game publishers, for what is now more commonly known as hobby games.
Alpha: At least in theory, the point at which an application is feature complete—that is, still very
buggy, in all likelihood, but with all essential features in place.
Alternative Reality Game (ARG): A game played partially online and partially in the real world, in
which the game operators provide a story line, often set in a world much like but subtly different
from our own, releasing hints, clues, and puzzles over time, with the players working to solve the
puzzles and uncover the depths of the story. They have most often been funded as marketing
vehicles for commercial products, although at least one (World Without Oil) was an advocacy game.
Artificial Intelligence (AI): In a game context, any set of routines that govern the behavior of
computer opponents is called "AI", and the opponents themselves referred to as "AIs." In fact, these
routines are, by the standards of AI researchers, generally quite primitive.
Beta: In software industry parlance, the point at which an application is released to testers. In the
game industry, some form of testing (with a prototype) may have been ongoing since long before
alpha; "beta" is more commonly used to mean the point at which the game is really feature complete,
and by which at least crash bugs have been (largely) eliminated.
BREW (Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless): A technology that allows application
development for mobile phones that use Qualcomm's CDMA technology. More commonly used than
J2ME to support games on phones connected to CDMA carriers (such as Verizon and Sprint).
Casual Game: Casual games are sold primarily via download, through portals such as Yahoo Games!,
RealArcade, and BigFish, to a largely female, middle-aged audience. They are characterized by
simplicity and by gameplay that tends to be more relaxing and less intense than "hard core" games,
and they generally eschew violence.
Character Skill: Characteristic of a game in which the success or failure of actions is determined by
numerical scores attributed to the player's character, not to the fine motor skills of the player himself
(contrast with Player Skill).
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Glossary
Computer Game: Usually refers to a game played on a home computer such as a PC, Macintosh, or
Linux machine (as distinct from console games). In the game studies community, "computer game" is
sometimes used in a sense that encompasses console games, the idea being that what distinguishes
digital games from tabletop ones is the use of a computing device, and that this is a more important
characteristic than the use of video.
Console: A device specifically designed for the purpose of playing games, e.g., a Nintendo Wii, Sony
Playstation 3, or Microsoft Xbox 360 (see Handheld Console and Home Console).
Digital Rights Management (DRM): A form of copy protection.
Entertainment Software Association (ESA): An industry organization comprising most of the large
game publishers; some demographic and other information is available at their website
(www.theesa.com). Formerly known as the Interactive Digital Software Association.
First-Person Shooter (FPS): A game in which players control individual characters, viewing the world
as if through the character's eye (first person), and in which gameplay centers on shooting things
(e.g., Counter-Strike, Unreal Tournament).
Flight Sim: A game in which the player controls a single aircraft, and in which the flight
characteristics of the aircraft are simulated in detail.
Game Designer: A game developer primarily interested in gameplay (see Lead Designer and Level
Designer).
Game Developer: Any person involved in the creation of a game, in whatever role, is considered a
game developer. The term is also used to refer not to individuals, but to teams or studios (e.g., "Big
Huge Games is a game developer located just outside Baltimore, Maryland").
Gameplay: A somewhat nebulous term referring to the experience of playing a game, as distinct
from the visuals or other media components.
Gold Master: The point at which a game is considered complete and ready for release to the public.
(The term derives from an earlier era, when most CD-ROM drives were read-only, and writable CDs
were gold, rather than silver in color; the "gold master" was the CD containing the final code, sent to
the publisher for duplication.)
Graphic Adventure: An adventure game in which the world and characters are graphically
represented, and most gameplay is via the mouse (see Adventure Game and Text Adventure).
Examples: Myst, The Secret of Monkey Island.
Handheld Console: A portable device specifically designed for the purpose of playing games, such as
a Nintendo DS or Sony PSP (see Console and Home Console).
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Glossary
Heads-Up Display (HUD): A term for the control features typically surrounding the central play area
in a digital game; the term was originally used by pilots, to refer to information projected on the
windshield of an aircraft.
Hobby Game: A term used to describe tabletop games that are sold primarily to game enthusiasts
and through special game shops, comic stores, and book stores.
Home Console: A non-portable device specifically designed for the purpose of playing games, such
as the Nintendo Wii, Sony Playstation 3, or Microsoft Xbox 360 (see Console and Handheld
Console).
Indie Game: A game developed by an individual or small team, without any publisher financing, and
distributed through means other than the conventional retail channel; the analogy is to indie film and
music.
Java 2 Mobile Edition (J2ME): A version of the Java programming language designed for use on
mobile devices (by contrast to J2SE [standard edition], which runs on desktop machines, and J2EE
[enterprise edition], which runs on servers). Almost all modern mobile phones support J2ME.
Java-enabled: Characteristic of a device that supports the Java programming language (see Java 2
Mobile Edition).
Lead Designer: The game designer primarily responsible for envisioning a game's user interface, and
specifying gameplay algorithms, feel, and gameplay (see Level Designer).
Lead Producer: The person responsible for overall management of a game project (used when the
project is large enough to require more than one person in a producer role).
Level-Based: Refers to a game which is broken up into discrete "levels," each of which is completed
individually before going on to another.
Level Designer: A game designer with responsibility for specifying the characteristics and goals of
individual levels within a game (see Level-Based and Lead Designer).
Live-Action Roleplaying Game (LARP): A game played in a real-world physical environment in
which each player takes the role of an imaginary character, speaking in character, sometimes
dressing in character, and often with real-world actions corresponding to character actions.
Market Development Funds (MDFs): Money paid by publishers to retailers in exchange for shelf
space and/or premium placement within the store; the practice is similar to the shelf-stocking fees
charged by supermarkets.
Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) Game: A game, played exclusively online, in which hundreds
or thousands of players exist simultaneously in the same game world. Example: World of Warcraft.
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Glossary
Match-3 Game: One of the most popular genres of casual games. A match-3 game requires players
to recognize groups of three or more identical objects. Example: Bejewelled.
N-Series: A series of mobile smartphones produced by Nokia that run the Symbian operating system
and also contain technology (originally designed for the unsuccessful N-Gage mobile phone/game
console) specifically designed to support game development.
Operator: In the mobile phone industry, a company that provides users with access to a cellphone
network is called an operator. In North America, the term "carrier" is also used. Examples: Verizon,
Vodaphone, and T-Mobile.
Platform: A target device on which a game is expected to run. Modern platforms include the PC, Wii,
Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo DS, PSP, and a variety of mobile phones.
Platformer: A game in which gameplay involves climbing (or jumping) from one platform or level to
another. Example: Donkey Kong.
Player Skill: Characteristic of a game the challenges of which depend primarily on reflexes and
mastery of the interface (contrast with Character Skill).
Playstation Network: Sony's channel for selling downloadable games for the Playstation 3, available
and browsable only from the device itself (see WiiWare and Xbox Live Arcade).
Playtesting: Testing a game for the purposes of uncovering problems with balance or gameplay (as
opposed to testing for bugs).
Producer: A person responsible for the management and coordination of a game project (see Lead
Producer).
Quality Assurance (Q/A): The process by which testers ensure that a piece of software is stable, free
of critical bugs, and conforming to end users' needs.
RPG: Roleplaying game; any game in which the player(s) take the roles of specific characters, typically
with rules for character advancement and increasing power (see Tabletop RPG). Examples: Final
Fantasy, Oblivion.
Real-Time Strategy (RTS): A game, usually centered on combat between opposing armies, in which
units in the game move and act continuously (that's why it's "real time" as opposed to "turn-based").
In addition to combat, there is generally a resource-extraction component, as well as the ability to
unlock new unit types and capabilities. Examples: StarCraft, Age of Empires.
Rogue-Like: A game similar to the old academic game Rogue; a combat-oriented, turn-based
roleplaying game in which everything in the game world is represented in ASCII characters, and input
is primarily (or entirely) through the keyboard. Example: NetHack.
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Glossary
Sidescroller: A game in which motion is primarily left and right, with the world scrolling behind the
main character. Example: Super Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog.
Sim: Sometimes used as a synonym for simulation game, sometimes used to refer specifically to
flight or other vehicle simulators.
Simulation Game: Any game that purports to simulate some aspect of the real world, at whatever
level of complexity and accuracy. Examples: Gary Grigsby's World at War, Roller Coaster Tycoon,
SimCity.
Skill and Action Game: A game that depends on player skill.
Smartphone: Any phone that supports an operating system and for which compiled applications may
be developed. Examples: The iPhone, Blackberry, Treo, Nokia N-series, and other Symbian and
Microsoft Mobile devices.
Streetfighter: A game, usually two-player, in which each player controls a character engaging in fast
melee combat with the other. Examples: Soul Calibur, Mortal Kombat.
Symbian: An operating system for smartphones and other mobile devices, owned by Nokia but freely
available for use by any mobile phone manufacturer; globally, far more smartphones run Symbian
than any other smartphone OS (including iPhone OS or Blackberry RIM).
Tabletop Game: Generally refers to any game that does not require a computing device for play, e.g.,
board, card, and tabletop roleplaying games.
Tabletop RPG: A nondigital roleplaying game such as Dungeons & Dragons; a back formation to
distinguish such games from computer and console RPGs.
Technical Lead: The programmer responsible for defining a game's overall technical architecture and
managing the programming team responsible for its implementation.
Text Adventure: An adventure game with little or no graphics, in which gameplay is carried in text,
and the player interacts with the game by typing (see Adventure Game and Graphic Adventure).
Example: Zork.
Trading Card Game (TCG): A type of tabletop game in which players buy packs of cards, assemble
their own decks, and play games pitting their decks against each other. Unlike earlier card games,
there is no single game package, but instead players can buy any number of cards, and the
manufacturer typically releases new cards over time—a model similar to that for baseball and other
trading cards. Example: Magic: The Gathering. Note: You may also occasionally see an older and now
less-used term, "collectible card game" (CCG).
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Glossary
Triple-A: Characteristic of a game development project with a budget close to or in excess of $10
million, and which is expected to produce a game that will ultimately sell in excess of one million
units.
Turn-Based: Refers to a game in which actions are resolved in discrete "turns," rather than
continuously. Turn-based games can either be "IgoUgo" (players take turns sequentially) or
"simultaneous movement," meaning players' actions are resolved simultaneously at the end of the
turn. The opposite of turn-based is real-time (see Real-Time Strategy).
Videogame: Generally used to mean any digital game (though ASCII games such as NetHack are not
"video" in any meaningful sense). Historically, "videogame" meant a game played on consoles or on
arcade machines, while "computer game" referred to a game played on home computers, but that
distinction is now largely moot. Within the game industry, the term is rarely used, the terms "game"
or (when a contrast to tabletop games is required) "digital game" being more common.
Web Game: Any game playable within a web browser.
White Label: Characteristic of any good or service that the provider rebrands for the distributor of
the product (metaphorically, the "label" is white, or blank, until "printed" with the distributor's own
branding). Example: Oberon/I-Play provides the games it has under contract to many portals and
websites on a white label basis.
WiiWare: Games that owners of the Nintendo Wii may purchase for download from Nintendo's online
store, which is available and browsable only from the Wii itself (see Xbox Live Arcade and
Playstation Network).
Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA): Microsoft's channel for selling downloadable games for the Xbox 360,
available and browsable only from the device itself (see WiiWare and Playstation Network).
XNA: A set of tools provided by Microsoft for development of games either for PCs or the Xbox 360.
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