Platform Video Game
A Platform Video Game is a video game that involves guiding the player character over a series of obstacles.
- Context:
- It can (typically) be a subgenre of action game.
- Example(s):
- Counter-Example(s):
- See: Action Game, Player Character.
References
2017
- (Wikipedia, 2017) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platform_game Retrieved:2017-5-27.
- A platform game (or platformer) is a type of video game, and a subgenre of action game. It involves guiding a player character or avatar to jump between suspended platforms and/or over obstacles to traverse their environment. The player controls the jumps to avoid letting their character fall to their death or miss necessary jumps. The most common unifying element of games of this genre is the jump button, but now there are other alternative like swiping a touchscreen. Other acrobatic maneuvers may factor into the gameplay as well, such as climbing, swinging from vines or extendable arms, as in Ristar or Bionic Commando, or bouncing from springboards or trampolines, as in Alpha Waves. These mechanics, even in the context of other genres, are commonly called platforming, a verbification of platform. Games where jumping is automated completely, such as 3D games in The Legend of Zelda series, fall outside of the genre.
Platform games originated in the early 1980s, with 3D successors popularized in the mid-1990s. The term itself describes games where jumping on platforms is an integral part of the gameplay and came into use after the genre had been established, no later than 1983. It is not a pure genre; it is frequently coupled with elements of other genres, such as the shooter elements in Contra, Beat 'em up elements of Viewtiful Joe and Guacamelee!, adventure elements of Flashback, or role-playing game elements of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. While commonly associated with console gaming, there have been many important platform games released to video arcades, as well as for handheld game consoles and home computers. North America, Europe and Japan have played major parts in the genre's evolution. Platform themes range from cartoon-like games to science fiction and fantasy epics. At one point, platform games were the most popular genre of video game. At the peak of their popularity, it is estimated that between one-quarter and one-third of console games were platformers. [1] No genre either before or since has been able to achieve a similar market share. As of 2006, the genre had become far less dominant, representing a two percentage market share as compared to fifteen percent in 1998, but is still commercially viable, with a number of games selling in the millions of units. Since 2010, a variety of endless running platformers for mobile devices have brought renewed popularity to the genre.
- A platform game (or platformer) is a type of video game, and a subgenre of action game. It involves guiding a player character or avatar to jump between suspended platforms and/or over obstacles to traverse their environment. The player controls the jumps to avoid letting their character fall to their death or miss necessary jumps. The most common unifying element of games of this genre is the jump button, but now there are other alternative like swiping a touchscreen. Other acrobatic maneuvers may factor into the gameplay as well, such as climbing, swinging from vines or extendable arms, as in Ristar or Bionic Commando, or bouncing from springboards or trampolines, as in Alpha Waves. These mechanics, even in the context of other genres, are commonly called platforming, a verbification of platform. Games where jumping is automated completely, such as 3D games in The Legend of Zelda series, fall outside of the genre.
- ↑ This estimate is based on the number of platform games released on specific systems. For example, on the Master System, 113 of the 347 games (32.5 percent) listed on vgmuseum.com are platform games, and 264 of the 1044 Genesis games (25.2 percent) are platformers.
2010
- (Shaker et al., 2010) ⇒ Noor Shaker, Georgios Yannakakis, and Julian Togelius. (2010). “Towards Automatic Personalized Content Generation for Platform Games.” In: Proceedings of the Sixth AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment.
- QUOTE: In this paper, we show that personalized levels can be automatically generated for platform games.