Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Action Game Subgenres
Action games fall into a number of subgenres based, like all game genre distinc-
tions, on the kinds of gameplay that they offer. The most familiar and popular
action games are shooting games, but the genre also encompasses platform games,
fighting games, fast puzzle games, and a broad miscellany of others. Bear in mind
that there is no industry standard for these terms, and other authors may refer to
these subgenres by other names.
TIP
Don't assume
that shooting has
to mean violence.
You can characterize
shooting in other ways,
such as putting out a
fire with a fire hose,
painting an area with
a paint gun, filling up
a space with objects,
and so on. The game
Portal
used a “portal
gun” to create connec-
tions between different
locations.
Shooters
In
shooters
, the player takes action at a distance, using a ranged weapon. Aiming
is therefore a key skill, particularly if the game provides only limited ammunition.
In a shooting game, the player must focus attention on two places at once: the area
around the avatar, and the target or targets.
We'll look at two broad classes of shooting games: those that take place in a
two-dimensional landscape (2D shooters) and those that take place in a three-
dimensional landscape (3D shooters), of which by far the best-known are the
first-person shooters. The “Camera Models” section, later in this chapter, discusses
the differences between the first- and third-person perspectives.
2D SHOOTERS
The action in 2D shooters takes place in an environment viewed from either a
top-down or side-view perspective. Enemies shoot at the avatar, which can be a
character or a vehicle, or approach to attack at close quarters. In many of these
games the player is under attack by overwhelming numbers of enemies and must
shoot them as fast as possible; such games are often called
shoot-'em-ups
. The player
is usually armed with one or more weapons, and some weapons may be better
suited to particular enemies than others. It is rare for a 2D shooter to keep track of
ammunition (except for particularly powerful types of weapons); instead, the
player fires frenetically and indiscriminately. The weapons seldom damage any-
thing except legitimate targets.
2D shooters seldom bother with realistic physics. Projectiles move at a constant
speed and in a straight line, unaffected by gravity; vehicles and characters change
direction instantaneously, ignoring inertia. These are the conventions of the sub-
genre, and you change them at your peril.
Some of the older 2D games have endured and remained popular despite their lim-
ited graphics—even inspiring modern versions—because they have excellent
gameplay. The original
Robotron: 2084
, released into arcades in 1982, became an
instant classic of the genre (see
Figure 13.1
). The object of this game was to defend
the last human family against wave upon wave of killing machines bent on their
destruction. A second joystick gave players the ability to shoot independently of