[MUSIC] Hi, I'm Enric Martí, professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and coordinator of the Master on Video games. Today we will speak about the second module, Video games genres, inside the "Video games, art and technology creation" course. We will basically give note on the video games genres and we hope you're interested on them. Basic contents are an introduction about video games genres, and we will see how to use each of those genres, what are they and we will give some examples on each video game genre illustrated with videos. We hope you are interested on them. Genres are used to classify video games, it is an artificial classification based on concrete game patterns or guidelines. Depending on the experience a player has on the game, the actions he has to do, etc. video games evolution allows a video game to be in more than one of those genres at the same time. The classification given in this course might be debatable as it is based on different concepts, but there are some cases which can't be debated. Those are the video game genres which we think might be interesting as well as giving a nomenclature and a bit of vocabulary on the topic. They are in order from the most simple, such as mazes, platforms, puzzles, etc. but we can find them both for children and adults. Then we have the ones which have certain complexity, such as management, sports, strategy, social simulation or driving simulation, which target mostly a teen and adult public. And after that we find the most complex ones such as role-playing (RPG), action/adventure, fighting games or shooters, which are meant for adult public with a certain level of skill. We will talk on the first case, the Maze genre. Basically the examples we could illustrate are PacMan and The Last Guy. PacMan is the example illustrated in this video. They consist on video games with different setting, with children as their main players, they are casual and they have an easy control like the Arcade machines. Their history isn't relevant for the game, they are usually for single players but they can also be multi-player, for two or three people. The fundamental actions in this kind of games are moving, exploring, using objects, etc. Here we can see an example of the basic PacMan game at the beginning of the video games industry which were played a lot on video game consoles and afterwards were adapted for PC. It is based on picking up objects that raise the score, eating dots, and running away from ghosts. [PACMAN SOUNDS] [SOUND] In the case of Platform genres, the examples we know are the ever-popular Mario, Super Mario Bros,Sonic, Little Big Planet; in our video you can see the game Donkey Kong for Nintendo. They are video games with different settings, non-realistic, for a young and teen public, with very simple controls like the ones in Arcade machines. The history is important, they were usually single-player, but some had the multi-player mode built-in. The player's main actions inside the game are usually jumping, rolling, shooting, solving puzzles, using objects, etcetera. In this case we can see the Donkey Kong game which consists of different platforms in which we must jump over different obstacles. [DONKEY KONG'S MUSIC] The third group in those genres is the Puzzle; there are a lot of them such as Tetris, which is the most popular one, or Lumines. In the video we will show the one that maybe impacted us the most lately. It is called Monument Valley, and it's a very interesting game. As a characteristic in this Puzzle genre, the setting is usually fantastic, it has different public, from young to adult, and the control is simple, like the one used in Arcade machines. Often their history isn't important, and they can be both single or multi player. Their main actions can be moving a character through a maze or moving and placing pieces. In this Monument Valley example, we find a video game which is based on Escher's impossible figures and it's a very enjoyable game with a lot of players. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] The next genre group we will see is the Management genre. This is a genre a bit more thorough. One of the examples we will show is PC Fútbol. It is a genre with realistic setting, for adult public, with a game half controlled, half simulated. The story is usually secondary, they are mostly single-player and they can sometimes be multi-player. Their actions are manipulating statistics, parameters, planning, observing changes. In the example on PC Fútbol you have to manage football teams, manage their stats, set up their trainings, etc. This is their main characteristic. Keeping up with sports, we have the namesake Sports genre. We have a lot of games inside this genre, such as the famous football game FIFA with its different versions, and other sports such as basketball and tennis. We chose FIFA as our video example because it's maybe the most famous one. Those video games have a sports setting, a different public, with quite complex controls, so you need a certain skill to move the player characters. The story here isn't really relevant, and those games can be single player but they are mostly multi-player as there can be more than one person playing at the same time and as the players' actions depend on the sport played, they can be shooting, kicking, striking, etcetera. The example we can see on the screen is FIFA 2015, a very realistic video game, with different leagues, different footballers, etcetera. The main thing here is the sport. After the match we can get timeplay statistics, goals and plays, etc. Those video games have high realism moves as they have been captured through motion sensors, and it is a really hard job to capture all those motions. [FIFA MUSIC] [FIFA MUSIC] The next genre we will see is the Strategy genre. There are many games in this field, such as Age of Empires, Civilization, Starcraft, Clash of Clans, etc. We have chosen the Age of Empires series. They are games with different setting, for a public that goes from young children to adult, as long as they know the genre. the controls are kinda easy, and the story is very important. They can be both single and multi-player, and the player's actions are planning, defining, improving characters and objects, etc. It basically consists on strategic battles, so in Age of Empires we have different soldiers, different elements and we plan a strategy for fights with the objective of conquering fixed places and towns. [MUSIC] [SOUND] [SOUND] [MUSIC] The next group is the Social Simulation, whose most popular game is The Sims. Those games have a very variated setting for a wide public and a very easy controllers. The story is secondary, with a fake reality, which means they are in a realistic environment inside a virtual world. They can be both single and multi player, and the actions performed here can be managing statistics, interacting with characters, planning, designing, etc. Here we can see The Sims 4, the most recent version, and two of the game creators which are explaining the characteristics and changes in this new version of the game. This game has had different versions and a really great success. Now let's meet the Driving Simulation. In this case we've chosen Need for Speed as one of the clearest examples, but there are other games such as Flight Simulator or Gran Turismo. Those games have a variate and realistic setting, and they have a teen and adult public. The control is quite complex, because driving or managing a vehicle is really complex. The story isn't quite important, and they can be both single or multi-player. As important actions we have the driving controls, whether it is a car or a plane, the statistics managing and the vehicle upgrades. They are games with a lot of engines implemented, with the Physics Engine being the most important one, which gives them a highly realistic content, and they are very spectacular both in graphics and motion aspects. Here we can see a race in which there is a car chase. We can see a realistic content, and then we have the possibility of changing the car's different characteristics and properties. [MUSIC]
