GLOSSARY - Fundamentals of Game Design - page 640

first-person perspective A camera model always used with avatar-based interaction
models in which the virtual camera displays the game world from the point of view of
the avatar's own eyes.
first-person shooter (FPS) A shooter game in which the game world is displayed
from the first-person perspective . Also sometimes called a POV (point of view) shooter
and, in Europe, an egoshooter.
fog of war (1) The technique of hiding unexplored regions of a terrain from the
player using an aerial perspective by showing them as featureless, usually black.
(2) The technique of hiding regions or some aspects of terrain, even if previously
explored, from a player using an aerial perspective, if the player has no units in the
region to see what is going on there. Typically used in war games to prevent the player
from observing enemy troop movements unless he has units nearby to see them.
foldback story A variant of a branching story in which the branching plot lines
eventually return to an inevitable event that the player will experience regardless
of his choices before branching out again.
FPS See first-person shooter .
freeform creative play Creative play constrained only by the options that the
game offers and the technological limitations of the machine but not by rules.
Contrast with constrained creative play .
free-roaming camera A camera model used in 3D game worlds , normally with mul-
tipresent interaction models , in which the virtual camera may move anywhere around
the world, often under player control.
functional attributes Attributes of an avatar or other character that influence
gameplay through their effect on the core mechanics. Contrast with cosmetic
attributes .
game A type of play activity conducted in the context of a pretended reality in
which the participant(s) try to achieve at least one arbitrary, nontrivial goal by act-
ing in accordance with rules .
game concept A statement of a group of design choices sufficient to convey,
among other things, what a game will be like to play, for what audience it is
intended, and on what machine it will run.
game engine That part of the game's software that implements the core mechanics .
game theory A branch of mathematics aimed at discovering optimal solutions in
situations where the parties to the situation have a conflict of interest .
game tree A hypothetical specification of all possible future events in a game,
which can be drawn on paper in a diagram that looks like a tree, as future choices
branch out. Normally used only for two-player, turn-based games.