Power Bombcast: The Skin Doesn't Quite Fit
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Game Mess Mornings 05/03/24
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Game » consists of 8 releases. Released Dec 21, 1984
Sure, these days have almost every game sporting the newfangled 3D, but way back when, everyone had to live with plain old 2D. 2D, or two dimensions, limit the game to scrolling backgrounds, but some games even now make use of this basic concept.
Backtracking is the act of navigating through previously explored areas, usually for the purpose of progressing in an objective-based adventure game. Players who are lost may also backtrack to reorient themselves.
Games that let you choose the path you take through the story-line.
Chiptunes are musical compositions that are synthesized by a computer or console sound chip.
A person serving time in prison or an escaped criminal on the run from the law.
A non-interactive sequence within a game most often used for plot advancement.
One or more events from someone's past that negatively affected them. Plenty of video game characters have such pasts.
In a franchise, it entails the second game that takes on a gritty and dark tone to distinguish it from the first.
The main line of distinction between victory or failure in video games, death is the process of a biological being ceasing to be alive.
Someone who investigates unsolved crimes and other mysterious happenings, either for a living, as a hobby, or simply by chance.
Dialogue trees are a feature through which the player selects responses from a list of choices, eliciting reactions from NPCs and determining the path of the conversation and story.
When a song is played over the end-credits, often by a famous artist.
Items that prove innocence or guilt.
Everything you need isn't always spelled out for you on the map. Sometimes even the map is not there till you go explore it.
See? The exploiting, soulless people who run the video game industry DO care about their fans!
An industry game design convention that's appeared in many games over the years. The fetch quest involves sending the player out to collect a certain number of items, and return them to complete the quest. A staple of the RPG and Adventure game genre.
Literally meaning "black film," film noir is a term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas. This unique style of storytelling and cinematography is often incorporated into video games.
First-Person is a vantage point that attempts to simulate looking through a game character's eyes. It is most commonly found in first-person shooters, racing games, and visual novels, and to a lesser extent in other genres, such as RPGs, 3D platformers, and adventure games.
A frameup, or framing, is when someone tries to convince people someone else committed a crime. It could be in the form of leaving false clues or giving out false information.
A gang isn't just two crude dudes, it's a whole mess of them. There's all kinds of different gangs represented in games: street gangs, organized criminals, and even high school cliques.
Humans are bipedal, sapient primates capable of abstract reasoning, language, and emotions.
A school of game design often associated with Looking Glass Studios, in which the player is free to act as they choose in a richly simulated world. The term was coined by Warren Spector in his Deus Ex post-mortem.
A plot device where innocent characters are killed. Sometimes players forced to watch it happen and can do nothing to prevent it.
The ability of a player to interact with items or geometry in the game world, whether for story or gameplay reasons or simply for immersion.
A gameplay mechanic allowing players to store their items and freely carry them around.
This concept is for games in which at least one of the main characters is male.
Marriage is when characters, typically a pair of them, are joined in loving (or not so loving) matrimony!
A mascot is an iconic character heavily used in the advertising and marketing of a product, franchise, business, or company. Notable mascots include Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog, Ulala, Mickey Mouse, and the Big Daddies.
Moral dilemmas presented to the player that often have a significant effect on the story or other characters.
Multiple endings is a term used to describe different outcomes or conclusions to a game based on the previous actions of the player.
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