Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Traditional board games
There are hundreds of popular card/board games. Some of them are very old, and
have been around for thousands of years. They are time proven and we might call
them classic games with full certainty. Usually, they utilize an abstract design of game
elements: pieces, boards, and rules. With time, their look has become more univer-
sal and indifferent to the vicissitudes of cultural influences (and this makes them the
common heritage of mankind). Well-known examples are
Chess
,
Go
,
Backgammon
,
Draughts
,
Dominoes
, and
Janggi
.
A screenshot from adventure game, Machinarium, which uses a tricky variation of noughts and
crosses as one of the puzzles
Some games look very much like classic games; they utilize the same minimalistic
aesthetics but are a little bit younger, having been invented a few centuries ago. I'm
talking about
Renju
,
Reversi
,
Mahjong
, and many other such wonderful games. It's
worth noting that the new age does not detract from their value.
The other groups of games are a part of modern history; they were designed in the
20th or 21st century and reflect more concrete contemporary realities. Their game
boards are more visual, featuring more illustrative ornamentation, rules are complex
and deep, game pieces and tokens may represent real-life objects: houses, cars, sol-
diers, and so on. The first thing that comes on mind is, of course,
Monopoly
. It was
created in the 1930s and is now famous all over the world. Then there is
Scrabble
,
which is equally well known. Don't forget about the very charming game
Cluedo
,
which illustrates the flexibility of a card/board game paradigm, it can tell any type of
plot, in this particular case, the game is a fascinating detective story:
