Game designer
Action, First Person Shooter, Action Adventure, Adventure, Construction, Management, RPG, MMO, Strategy, Simulation, Music, Party, Puzzle, Sports, Board, Card, Adult, Singleplayer, Multiplayer, Fighting, Platform, Racing, RTS, Turn Based Strategy, Third Person Shooter, Arcade, Adver, Text Based, Casual, Art, Chrisian, Educational, Health, Side-scrolling, Audio, Console, Mobile, Online, Handheld, Violent, Web based, Flash and Serious games. I believe that’s all?
You come out of a brainstorm session with this really cool and awesome idea. Everyone is excited about it and people start drawing on the whiteboard about how things will and should go. ‘Wow, this has never done before!’ Then, some guy comes up to you and says: ‘So basicly, this is a side-scrolling turn-based adventure?’ ‘Ehhh… Yeah.’ Sounds familiar?
When you think of it, placing you game into a genre says so much about your game that it’s almost like a game is a combination of elements, being already done in other games. As shown in the previous example, this demotivates a lot. There have been so many games in the past that defined these genres, genres that could all be recognized by certain elements or specifications… When you are trying to make something new and innovative, people tend to place your game in a corner – too fast.
As for the industry, categorizing games is essential to sell: games don’t sell when you promote them as ‘the new and innovative best game!’ but sell a lot, and I mean A LOT better when you promote them as ‘the next-gen first person shooter.’ For game designers, categorising games can too easily lead to not-innovative games because most elements and mechanics have been predefined.
I would like to ask any self-respecting Game Designer to not think in terms of genres and NOT confronting fellow designers with it. Just, stop!