Video games
Every video game simulates something. The genres here are sorted by what they model and what they leave out.
Every video game is a simulation: a world with rules, stepped forward many times a second, with a person inside it. Genres differ in what they model carefully and what they approximate or leave out. By a wide margin, games are the most-run simulations in existence. They're also a working answer to the Sandbox's observation dial, since almost all of them draw only what the player can perceive.
Flight simulation
Aircraft with detailed aerodynamics, instruments and procedures, often over a model of the whole planet.
The player’s question: Can the aircraft be landed in a night crosswind?
Leaves out: Failure carries no consequence, and the atmosphere is simplified far below the resolution of a research model.
Runs on: about 1013.5 FLOPS rough a gaming desktop's CPU and GPU rendering aerodynamics and instrumentsSince: 1980 subLOGIC’s Flight Simulator, a home-computer game modelling single-engine flight physics
Spaceflight simulation
Rockets and flight paths under real orbital mechanics, sometimes with user-designed vehicles.
The player’s question: Can a vehicle reach orbit and return?
Leaves out: Gravity usually comes from one body at a time rather than from every body acting on every other.
Runs on: about 1013 FLOPS rough a home desktop CPU; orbital mechanics is cheap to solveSince: 1969 by 1969, Jim Storer’s text game Lunar, written on a PDP-8 minicomputer
Racing simulation
Cars with detailed tyre, suspension and engine models on laser-scanned tracks.
The player’s question: How close to the grip limit can the car be driven through a corner?
Leaves out: Wear, weather and damage are milder than in reality, or can be disabled.
Runs on: about 1013.5 FLOPS rough a gaming console or desktop GPU rendering tyre and suspension modelsSince: 1989 by 1989, Indianapolis 500: The Simulation, a home-computer game modelling suspension and tyre grip
Arcade racing
Fast cars with forgiving physics, tuned for speed and spectacle.
The player’s question: Can a race be won while sustaining drifts through every corner?
Leaves out: Most of the vehicle dynamics, by design.
Runs on: about 1013 FLOPS rough an arcade cabinet or console GPU, physics kept deliberately cheapSince: 1974 Gran Trak 10, an arcade cabinet with a scrolling road and a car sprite to steer
Driving and transport simulation
Trucks, buses and trains over long routes, with schedules, cargo and road rules.
The player’s question: Can the cargo be delivered on schedule and undamaged?
Leaves out: Distances are compressed and durations shortened.
Runs on: about 1013 FLOPS rough a desktop CPU rendering long routes, cargo and trafficSince: 2001 Microsoft Train Simulator, a home-computer train-driving game simulating routes and signalling
Job and machinery simulation
Real trades and machines: farming equipment, construction, cleaning, repair.
The player’s question: Can the work be done correctly while the business grows?
Leaves out: Fatigue, weather and administration.
Runs on: about 1013 FLOPS rough a desktop or console GPU rendering machinery and terrainSince: 2008 by 2008, Farming Simulator, a home-computer farming-machinery game with real equipment routines
Open-city driving
Free driving through a large streamed city with traffic and pedestrians, with no fixed track.
The player’s question: What does a city feel like when it is driven rather than looked at?
Leaves out: Roads and traffic are simplified; vehicle physics is usually arcade-grade.
Runs on: about 1012 FLOPS rough a gaming PC, real timeSince: 1999 by 1999, Midtown Madness (Chicago, released May 1999) source
Flight simulation over streamed Earth
A flight simulator that draws the whole planet from streamed satellite imagery, elevation and live weather rather than hand-built scenery.
The player’s question: Can a flight over any real place be rendered from survey data on demand?
Leaves out: Buildings and vegetation are generated from imagery and are only approximately right.
Runs on: about 1013 FLOPS rough a gaming PC, real time with a data connectionSince: 2020 by 2020, Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) using streamed mapping imagery source
Soft-body vehicle crash simulation
Vehicles modelled as networks of beams and nodes that bend, tear and crumple in collisions at interactive speed.
The player’s question: How does a car deform and break in a crash, in real time?
Leaves out: The beam lattice is coarse and fracture is not resolved at material scale.
Runs on: about 1012 FLOPS rough a gaming PC, real timeSince: 2013 by 2013, the BeamNG.drive tech demo (3 August 2013) source
Mech combat simulation
A cockpit simulation of a walking war machine, with heat, armour sections, weapon groups and a limited-view controls panel.
The player’s question: What is it like to pilot a walking fighting machine whose damage and heat are tracked by part?
Leaves out: No real machine exists, so the physics is invented and tuned for play.
Runs on: about 1010 FLOPS rough a laptop, real timeSince: 1989 by 1989, MechWarrior, the first BattleTech cockpit simulator source
Life simulation
Simulated people with needs, moods, relationships and careers, living in homes the player builds.
The player’s question: Can every household member's needs be kept satisfied?
Leaves out: Inner lives are reduced to a handful of meters, which is the Sandbox’s “functional minds” setting in practice.
Runs on: about 1013 FLOPS rough a desktop or console CPU running many simulated households' needsSince: 2000 The Sims, a home-computer game simulating households of characters with need meters
Virtual pets
A creature with hunger, happiness and health that change over real time.
The player’s question: Will the creature's needs be met at the required intervals?
Leaves out: Everything except the needs.
Runs on: about 106 FLOPS rough a handheld toy's simple microcontroller; needs are trivial to trackSince: 1996 Tamagotchi, a handheld digital pet toy with hunger and mood counters
Farming and village life
Crops, seasons, animals and a small community of neighbours.
The player’s question: Can a sustainable livelihood be built in a single small valley?
Leaves out: Soil science, crop failure and the physical labour involved.
Runs on: about 1013 FLOPS rough a console or desktop CPU tracking crops, seasons and neighboursSince: 1996 Harvest Moon, a home-console farming and village-life game with seasonal crops
Relationship simulation
Characters whose affect towards the player changes with the player's choices of speech and action.
The player’s question: Which responses maximise the character's regard?
Leaves out: The other party is a branching script.
Runs on: about 1012.5 FLOPS rough a phone or desktop CPU running branching dialogue and affection scoresSince: 1994 a home-computer dating-simulation program with branching affection scores
Dating simulation
A single point-of-view character choosing whom to court through scheduled meetings, gifts and conversation.
The player’s question: Does the sequence of choices produce acceptance?
Leaves out: Each suitor has a fixed, fully knowable preference function.
Runs on: about 1012 FLOPS rough a desktop or handheld CPU tracking scheduling and favour statsSince: 1994 Tokimeki Memorial, a dating game scheduling dates and tracking a suitor's favour
Parenting and family life
Raising simulated children or a household through school, chores and milestones over many years.
The player’s question: Does the child reach adulthood with the intended outcomes?
Leaves out: A childhood compressed into a few dozen hours.
Runs on: about 1012.5 FLOPS rough a desktop or console CPU tracking a child's growth statsSince: 2001 by 2001, a home-computer program raising a simulated child through milestones
Surgery and medical games
Operations and emergency care played as time-pressed tasks on a virtual patient, with tools, vital signs and complications.
The player’s question: How well can a patient be treated under time pressure on a simulated body?
Leaves out: Tissue is a set of scripted wounds, not a mechanical or physiological model.
Runs on: about 109 FLOPS rough a handheld console, real timeSince: 2005 by 2005, Trauma Center: Under the Knife (Japan, 16 June 2005) source
City building
Zoning, roads, utilities, budgets and a simulated population that immigrates, commutes and places demands on services.
The player’s question: Can a city grow without congestion exceeding its road capacity?
Leaves out: Most citizens exist only as aggregate quantities until the camera is directed at them.
Runs on: about 1013.5 FLOPS rough a desktop CPU simulating thousands of virtual citizensSince: 1989 SimCity, a home-computer city-building game with simulated traffic and zoning
Colony simulation
A small group of characters, or a colony of ants or other creatures, surviving through work, needs and chance events.
The player’s question: Can the colony survive the winter, and its own internal conflicts?
Leaves out: Much of real biology and psychology, with dramatic events exaggerated.
Runs on: about 1013 FLOPS rough a desktop CPU running dozens of characters' needs and pathingSince: 1991 by 1991, SimAnt, a home-computer ant-colony game with foraging and pheromone trails
Management and tycoon
A business such as a theme park, hospital, railway or zoo, with customers, staff and money.
The player’s question: Can the enterprise remain profitable without losing its customers?
Leaves out: Customers are modelled as a few needs and a budget.
Runs on: about 1013 FLOPS rough a desktop CPU tracking customers, staff and moneySince: 1990 Railroad Tycoon, a home-computer transport-management game with simulated freight economics
God games
A world and its inhabitants guided from above, through miracles, terrain and indirect influence.
The player’s question: How does a population respond to indirect, sustained intervention?
Leaves out: The inhabitants never learn of the intervening agent, which is the simulation hypothesis seen from the other side.
Runs on: about 1013 FLOPS rough a desktop CPU simulating a population responding to indirect guidanceSince: 1989 Populous, a home-computer game of guiding a tribe through terrain and miracles
Ecosystem and evolution games
Creatures, food chains and species that change over generations.
The player’s question: Which lineage dominates under the imposed selection pressures?
Leaves out: Real evolutionary timescales, and the absence of any goal in the process.
Runs on: about 1013 FLOPS rough a desktop CPU running generations of simple creature genomesSince: 1996 Creatures, a home-computer game evolving simple creatures over simulated generations
Automation and factory building
Mines, conveyor belts, assembly machines and logistics networks, growing ever larger.
The player’s question: Can a production system be made self-expanding?
Leaves out: Pollution, labour and the cost of failures.
Runs on: about 1013.5 FLOPS rough a desktop CPU stepping thousands of factory events per secondSince: 2012 by 2012, a home-computer conveyor-and-factory building program
Idle and incremental
An economy of numbers that grows exponentially while the player is absent.
The player’s question: How large can the quantity grow?
Leaves out: Everything except compound growth.
Runs on: about 109 FLOPS rough a phone browser tab; the maths is trivial exponential growthSince: 2013 a browser page incrementing a counter exponentially while idle
Social deduction games
Players hold hidden roles and must infer who is lying through talk, voting and elimination, with an informed minority hiding among an uninformed majority.
The player’s question: Can a hidden minority survive when the majority reasons about who is lying?
Leaves out: The deception is among real players; the simulation only enforces roles, votes and information limits.
Runs on: about 108 FLOPS rough a phone, real time for a lobby of about ten playersSince: 1986 by 1986, the tabletop party game Mafia; video versions followed from 2003 source
Station systems simulation
A crewed space station modelled as coupled systems such as air, power, medical and atmospheric flow, which players maintain or break.
The player’s question: What failures cascade through a crewed habitat when systems are coupled?
Leaves out: Gas flow is a coarse grid model and the other systems are rule-based.
Runs on: about 1010 FLOPS rough a laptop, real time for a serverSince: 2003 by 2003, Space Station 13, begun as an atmospheric simulation program source
Grand strategy
Whole nations across centuries: economy, diplomacy, population, religion and war.
The player’s question: Can a state be steered through centuries of history?
Leaves out: Individuals are represented as counts within provinces.
Runs on: about 1013.5 FLOPS rough a desktop CPU tracking provinces, population and diplomacy for centuriesSince: 1991 a home-computer program simulating a nation's economy and wars across centuries
4X strategy
A civilisation that explores, expands, exploits and competes, turn by turn, from the stone age to space.
The player’s question: Does the player's civilisation outlast its competitors?
Leaves out: Millennia elapse within a single turn.
Runs on: about 1013 FLOPS rough a desktop CPU computing turn-based civilisation growthSince: 1991 Sid Meier’s Civilization, a home-computer turn-based civilisation game from stone age to space
Real-time strategy
Resource gathering, base building and many units commanded at once, in real time.
The player’s question: Can planning and resource management outpace an opponent under time pressure?
Leaves out: Logistics and morale, largely.
Runs on: about 1013.5 FLOPS rough a desktop CPU pathing hundreds of units in real timeSince: 1992 Dune II, a home-computer game with real-time unit orders and base building
Hex-and-counter war games
Digital versions of board war games: historical campaigns on hex maps, with detailed supply, terrain and orders.
The player’s question: Could the historical outcome have been improved upon?
Leaves out: Units are counters, and soldiers are the numbers printed on them.
Runs on: about 1012.5 FLOPS rough a phone or desktop CPU running turn-based hex-map calculationsSince: 1980 a home-computer adaptation of a hex-and-counter board war game
Tactics
A small squad on a grid, taking turns, with cover, chance and positioning.
The player’s question: Can the engagement be won without losses?
Leaves out: Everything outside the battle map.
Runs on: about 1012.5 FLOPS rough a desktop or console CPU resolving grid-based turnsSince: 1990 Fire Emblem, a home-console squad tactics game fought on a grid map
Tower defence
Waves of enemies following a path, and defences placed along it.
The player’s question: Where must defences be placed to withstand every wave?
Leaves out: The enemies' motivation.
Runs on: about 1012 FLOPS rough a phone or browser tab tracking pathing enemies and towersSince: 2003 by 2003, a strategy-map modification with enemies following a fixed path
Auto-battlers
Players assemble a team from a shared random pool between rounds, then the teams fight automatically by rules with no direct control.
The player’s question: Which team compositions win once all fighting is automatic?
Leaves out: Combat is deterministic rules over stat values, not a model of fighting.
Runs on: about 109 FLOPS rough a phone, real time for eight playersSince: 2019 by 2019, the community mod Dota Auto Chess (January 2019) source
Block and voxel sandboxes
A world made of blocks that can all be mined, moved and built with, generated without end.
The player’s question: What can be constructed from the available blocks?
Leaves out: Matter is quantised into one-metre cubes, the coarsest matter floor in any shipped simulation.
Runs on: about 1013.5 FLOPS rough a desktop or console CPU simulating an endless block worldSince: 2009 Minecraft, a home-computer game generating an endless world of mineable blocks
Survival and crafting
Hunger, cold, shelter and tools in a hostile open world.
The player’s question: Can the character survive the first night?
Leaves out: The skill, time and chance that real survival requires.
Runs on: about 1013.5 FLOPS rough a desktop or console CPU tracking hunger, cold and craftingSince: 2006 by 2006, a home-computer open-world survival program with hunger and crafting
Physics sandboxes and building
Bridges, machines and vehicles built from parts and tested under simulated physics.
The player’s question: Will the structure bear its load?
Leaves out: Materials and joints are idealised.
Runs on: about 1013.5 FLOPS rough a desktop GPU running real-time rigid-body physicsSince: 2004 Garry’s Mod, a home-computer building game driven by a real-time physics engine
Falling-sand games
Every pixel a particle of sand, water, fire or gas, reacting with its neighbours.
The player’s question: What happens when one material is combined with another?
Leaves out: Chemistry is reduced to a lookup table.
Runs on: about 1012 FLOPS rough a phone or browser tab updating a grid of particle cellsSince: 2005 the Falling Sand Game, a browser game simulating falling sand, water and fire pixel by pixel
Space exploration and trading
Star systems, economies and ships to fly, trade and fight between.
The player’s question: Can a living be made trading between star systems?
Leaves out: Most of space is empty, and the game omits it.
Runs on: about 1013 FLOPS rough a desktop CPU simulating star systems and trade economiesSince: 1984 Elite, a home-computer space-trading game with simulated star systems and markets
Level and world creation tools
General-purpose building tools for terrain, logic and objects, used to make entire games inside the game.
The player’s question: What can be built from these components?
Leaves out: Nothing is simulated until a player assembles it.
Runs on: about 1013 FLOPS rough a desktop or console CPU running whatever the player has builtSince: 1983 a home-computer level-editing program letting players build and share stages
Terrarium and habitat sandboxes
A sealed environment such as an aquarium, terrarium or garden, stocked and watched rather than directed.
The player’s question: What equilibrium will the habitat reach?
Leaves out: The chemistry of water and soil, reduced to a few parameters.
Runs on: about 1012 FLOPS rough a desktop or phone CPU running a small closed ecosystemSince: 1985 a home-computer aquarium program modelling fish, feeding and water quality
Agent-based game playtesting
Learning agents play a game thousands of times to find bugs and test balance.
The player’s question: Is this level or rule balanced?
Leaves out: Agents do not play like people and miss fun.
Runs on: about 1012 FLOPS rough Many parallel game instancesSince: 2019 Winning isn't everything: enhancing game development with intelligent agents (2019) source
User-generated game platforms
A hosted engine where players build and publish their own games and worlds, with shared physics, avatars and an in-world economy.
The player’s question: What do millions of amateur designers build when the engine and audience are provided?
Leaves out: Each world is a small rule set; the platform simulates no particular real system.
Runs on: about 1012 FLOPS rough a data centre, real time for a server of a few dozen playersSince: 2006 by 2006, the public release of Roblox (developed from 2004) source
Role-playing games
A character with statistics, skills and choices in a world that reacts, descended from tabletop rules.
The player’s question: What character does the player develop?
Leaves out: Personality is reduced to a set of numbers.
Runs on: about 1013 FLOPS rough a desktop or console CPU resolving dice-based rules and dialogueSince: 1975 a mainframe dungeon-crawling program adapting tabletop role-playing rules
Massively multiplayer worlds
One persistent world shared by thousands of players at once, with its own economy and social life.
The player’s question: How do players behave in a world shared with thousands of others?
Leaves out: The world resets and repeats, so no individual's actions change it for long.
Runs on: about 1016 FLOPS rough a server farm, a slice per shard, for thousands of concurrent playersSince: 1978 MUD1, a university mainframe text world shared by many users at once (1978, on Bartle’s account) sourceIn the simulations tree: MUD1
Immersive simulation
Worlds built from consistent systems (physics, sound, light, guards, doors) that can be combined in ways the designers did not plan.
The player’s question: Is there a route through that the designers never specified?
Leaves out: Less than any other genre, by design.
Runs on: about 1013.5 FLOPS rough a desktop CPU running interacting physics, AI and sound systemsSince: 1994 a home-computer program combining physics, guard AI and sound in one world
Open-world adventure
A large continuous world with its own traffic, weather and daily routines, free to roam.
The player’s question: What lies beyond the next hill?
Leaves out: Characters distant from the player are paused or thinned out.
Runs on: about 1013.5 FLOPS rough a desktop or console GPU rendering a continuous large worldSince: 1997 by 1997, Grand Theft Auto, a home-computer and console game with a large continuous city to roam freely
Roguelikes
A new world generated for every attempt, and death is permanent.
The player’s question: How far can a single attempt progress?
Leaves out: The world is procedurally generated and not intended to persist.
Runs on: about 1011 FLOPS rough a university terminal or phone; procedural generation is cheapSince: 1980 a university mainframe dungeon-crawl generating a new maze each run with permanent death
Interactive fiction
A world described in text, which responds to typed commands or choices.
The player’s question: What action follows from the described situation?
Leaves out: Everything is text, so nothing needs to be rendered.
Runs on: about 109 FLOPS rough a terminal or phone parsing typed text commandsSince: 1975 Crowther’s mainframe cave program (1975), released with Woods’s expansion in 1976 sourceIn the simulations tree: Colossal Cave Adventure
Visual novels and narrative games
A story told in scenes, with choices that branch it.
The player’s question: Which branch of the narrative will the choices select?
Leaves out: Only the paths written by the authors exist.
Runs on: about 109 FLOPS rough a phone or desktop CPU displaying branching text and imagesSince: 1983 The Portopia Serial Murder Case, a home-computer branching-story game told through text and static scenes
Exploration and walking
A place to move through and discover, with story told by the environment.
The player’s question: What happened in this place?
Leaves out: Nearly all interaction; the world is scenery.
Runs on: about 1013 FLOPS rough a desktop or console GPU rendering an environment to walk throughSince: 2012 by 2012, a home-console walking program telling its story through the environment
Adventure and point-and-click
Scenes, objects and characters, with puzzles solved by using the right thing in the right place.
The player’s question: Which object belongs with which?
Leaves out: Only the listed objects can be used.
Runs on: about 1012 FLOPS rough a desktop CPU tracking a small set of usable objectsSince: 1987 Maniac Mansion, a home-computer game where a mouse click combined objects to solve puzzles
Alternate reality games
A story told across real websites, phone calls and physical places that players treat as true, solving clues collaboratively.
The player’s question: How does a crowd investigate a fiction presented as if it were real?
Leaves out: Little is simulated by machine; the world is the real internet with scripted additions.
Runs on: no computer. mostly human effort, no large computationSince: 2001 by 2001, The Beast, a campaign for the film A.I. Artificial Intelligence source
Platformers
A character running and jumping through levels with carefully tuned physics.
The player’s question: Can the jump be completed?
Leaves out: Real momentum: characters can change direction in mid-air.
Runs on: about 1012 FLOPS rough an arcade cabinet or console CPU tracking simple jump physicsSince: 1981 Donkey Kong, an arcade cabinet with a character climbing platforms and jumping gaps
Action adventure
Exploration, combat and puzzles in a world opened up bit by bit.
The player’s question: Can the obstacle guarding the next area be overcome?
Leaves out: Pain, fatigue and most consequences.
Runs on: about 1013 FLOPS rough a console or desktop CPU handling combat, puzzles and explorationSince: 1986 The Legend of Zelda, a home-console game combining exploration, combat and item puzzles
Shooters
Fast movement and aiming, with projectiles, cover and team play, usually against other players.
The player’s question: Which player reacts first and holds the better position?
Leaves out: Nearly everything except line of sight and reaction time.
Runs on: about 1013.5 FLOPS rough a desktop or console GPU rendering fast first-person movementSince: 1974 by 1974, Maze War at NASA Ames, where players hunted each other through a maze
Fighting games
Two characters with precisely timed moves, frame by frame.
The player’s question: Can the opponent's next move be predicted?
Leaves out: Anatomy and injury, entirely.
Runs on: about 1012.5 FLOPS rough an arcade cabinet or console CPU resolving frame-by-frame movesSince: 1976 Heavyweight Champ, an arcade cabinet with two fighters exchanging timed blows
Tactical military simulation
Realistic squads, ballistics, radio and command structure, usually on large maps with many players.
The player’s question: Can a squad operate as a coordinated unit?
Leaves out: Fear, exhaustion and consequences.
Runs on: about 1014 FLOPS rough a desktop CPU modelling ballistics and radio for many playersSince: 1999 by 1999, a home-computer tactical shooter modelling real ballistics and squad radio
Stealth
Guards with models of sight, hearing and suspicion, and light and sound that reveal the player.
The player’s question: Can the objective be reached without detection?
Leaves out: Guards forget far faster than people do.
Runs on: about 1013 FLOPS rough a console or desktop CPU tracking guards' sight and hearingSince: 1998 Metal Gear Solid, a home-console game giving guards simulated sight and hearing cones
Team arena games
Two teams of heroes with distinct abilities competing over a symmetric map.
The player’s question: Which team coordinates more effectively?
Leaves out: The world outside a single map.
Runs on: about 1013.5 FLOPS rough a desktop or console GPU running two teams on a shared mapSince: 1999 a home-computer team-based arena shooter with distinct character roles
Rhythm games
Actions timed to music, often with a real or simulated instrument.
The player’s question: Can the actions be kept in time with the music?
Leaves out: Everything but timing.
Runs on: about 1011 FLOPS rough an arcade cabinet or console tracking simple beat timingSince: 1997 Beatmania, an arcade cabinet with buttons timed to a musical beat
Battle royale
Many players dropped into one shrinking map, scavenging equipment until one player or team remains.
The player’s question: Which player or team remains when the play area has closed?
Leaves out: Most of the map, most of the time; each player observes only a small part of it.
Runs on: about 1014 FLOPS rough a desktop or console plus a game server coordinating up to about a hundred playersSince: 2013 by 2013, a large-map multiplayer mode where the play area shrank until one survivor remained
Extraction shooters
A persistent raid in which players and computer-controlled enemies compete for loot and must reach an exit alive, losing carried gear on death.
The player’s question: How does risking carried loot change how players trade off greed and survival?
Leaves out: Ballistics and injury are simplified and the economy is a designed loop, not a market.
Runs on: about 1012 FLOPS rough a gaming PC, real time per raidSince: 2016 by 2016, the closed alpha of Escape from Tarkov (4 August 2016) source
Sports simulation
Team and individual sports with animated players, tactics and ball physics.
The player’s question: Can a championship be won?
Leaves out: Fatigue and injury are reduced or abstracted.
Runs on: about 1013.5 FLOPS rough a console or desktop GPU animating players and ball physicsSince: 1983 a home-computer program simulating a team sport with player statistics and tactics
Sports management
A club’s squad, tactics, transfers and finances across many seasons, with matches simulated from player statistics.
The player’s question: Can a winning team be assembled within the budget?
Leaves out: Players are represented by hundreds of numbers each, more detail than most games give any entity.
Runs on: about 1012.5 FLOPS rough a desktop CPU simulating seasons of matches from statisticsSince: 1982 Football Manager, a home-computer game simulating a league season from team statistics
Fitness and motion games
The player's own body as the controller, tracked by camera, motion sensors or a balance board.
The player’s question: Can the required movement be sustained?
Leaves out: The world; the setting is a gym with scenery.
Runs on: about 1012.5 FLOPS rough a console with a camera or balance-board sensor, light processingSince: 1987 Stadium Events, a home-console game controlled by a pressure-sensitive floor mat
Extreme and action sports
Skating, snowboarding, surfing or similar disciplines with trick systems and momentum-based physics.
The player’s question: Can a trick sequence be completed without a fall?
Leaves out: Injury.
Runs on: about 1013 FLOPS rough a console or desktop GPU running trick physics and momentumSince: 1987 Skate or Die!, a home-computer skateboarding game with trick combos and momentum
Golf simulation
A golf swing modelled from club, ball spin and wind, on a course built hole by hole.
The player’s question: How do green slope and wind affect the putt?
Leaves out: Nerves, and the interval between shots.
Runs on: about 1012.5 FLOPS rough a desktop or console CPU modelling ball flight and green slopeSince: 1984 an arcade cabinet modelling swing timing, spin and wind on a golf shot
Combat sports simulation
Boxing, wrestling or martial arts matches with stamina, striking and grappling systems.
The player’s question: Can the player outlast the opponent's stamina?
Leaves out: Real damage accumulation, softened for playability.
Runs on: about 1012.5 FLOPS rough an arcade cabinet or console CPU resolving stamina and strikesSince: 1980 an arcade cabinet simulating a boxing match with a stamina meter
Racket and ball sports
Tennis, table tennis or similar disciplines with timing-based swings and ball physics.
The player’s question: Can the swing be timed to the ball's arrival?
Leaves out: Wind and spin are simplified to a couple of variables.
Runs on: about 1012 FLOPS rough a console or phone CPU modelling ball trajectory and swing timingSince: 1958 an analogue computer displaying a two-player tennis match on an oscilloscope
Fishing simulation
Casting, hooking and reeling in virtual fish, with water depth, bait, line tension and fish behaviour.
The player’s question: What does it take to land a fish given depth, bait and line tension?
Leaves out: Fish behaviour is a few scripted states rather than ecology.
Runs on: about 108 FLOPS rough a phone, real timeSince: 1980 by 1980, Fishing Derby for the Atari 2600 source
Hunting simulation
Stalking animals across a landscape, with wind, noise, scent and shot placement deciding the outcome.
The player’s question: How do an animal's senses and a hunter's approach decide an encounter?
Leaves out: Animals use simple alert-and-flee rules, not behavioural models.
Runs on: about 1010 FLOPS rough a laptop, real timeSince: 1997 by 1997, Deer Hunter (November 1997) source
Physics puzzles
Objects to launch, stack, roll or connect under simulated physics.
The player’s question: Which single arrangement satisfies the constraints?
Leaves out: Friction, mass and materials are simplified.
Runs on: about 1013 FLOPS rough a desktop or phone CPU running a simple real-time physics engineSince: 2009 Angry Birds, a phone game launching objects under a simple physics engine
Logic and falling-block puzzles
Grids, blocks and rules to reason within, often against a clock.
The player’s question: Can the pattern be identified in time?
Leaves out: There is no world at all, only rules.
Runs on: about 1010 FLOPS rough a simple CPU; falling-block logic is a trivial calculationSince: 1984 Tetris, a home-computer game dropping shaped blocks into a grid to clear lines
Board and card game adaptations
Traditional and modern tabletop games with the rules enforced by the computer and an opponent built in.
The player’s question: Can the built-in opponent be defeated?
Leaves out: The table and the other players.
Runs on: about 1011 FLOPS rough a phone or desktop CPU enforcing rules and running a built-in opponentSince: 1977 Microchess, a home-computer adaptation of chess with a built-in opponent
Word and letter puzzles
Letters to arrange or guess against a dictionary, with a limited number of tries.
The player’s question: Which word satisfies the feedback received so far?
Leaves out: Meaning; only spelling is evaluated.
Runs on: about 109 FLOPS rough a phone CPU checking guesses against a dictionarySince: 1972 a mainframe program guessing a hidden word one letter at a time
Match-three and tile-swap puzzles
A grid of tiles swapped to line up three or more of a kind, clearing them for points and chain reactions.
The player’s question: Which swap produces the next chain?
Leaves out: Everything beyond the grid; the theme is surface decoration.
Runs on: about 109 FLOPS rough a phone or browser tab evaluating a small gridSince: 1994 Shariki, a home-computer game where swapping adjacent tiles clears rows of three
Number and grid logic puzzles
Digits or symbols placed under strict constraints, such as one of each in every row, column and block.
The player’s question: Which value is forced in each cell, and by what deduction?
Leaves out: Chance; a solved grid is provable, not guessed.
Runs on: about 109 FLOPS rough a phone app checking a filled grid against constraint rulesSince: 1979 Number Place (later Sudoku), a printed number-grid puzzle, later adapted onto computers
Escape-room puzzles
A locked space with a chain of puzzles that unlock the next, usually against a countdown.
The player’s question: Can the puzzle chain be completed before the countdown ends?
Leaves out: The stress of a real locked room.
Runs on: about 109 FLOPS rough a phone or desktop CPU tracking a small state machine of cluesSince: 2004 Crimson Room, a browser game locking progress behind a chain of solved puzzles
Programming battle games
Players write programs that control a robot or process, then watch them fight each other without further input.
The player’s question: Which program wins when no one can intervene during the fight?
Leaves out: The arena is a toy world, so strategies rarely carry over to real robots.
Runs on: about 107 FLOPS rough a laptop, seconds per battleSince: 1981 by 1981, RobotWar for the Apple II (Muse Software); see also Core War in minds-computation source
Hacking simulation
A stylised model of intruding into networked computers through commands, passwords and files, played under time or trace limits.
The player’s question: How does an intruder move through a network before being traced?
Leaves out: Real exploits are replaced by puzzles, and network behaviour is invented.
Runs on: about 107 FLOPS rough a laptop, real timeSince: 1985 by 1985, Hacker for home computers (Activision) source
Virtual reality
Worlds rendered stereoscopically to both eyes and tracked to head and hands, so that the user's body is the camera.
The player’s question: Does the perceptual illusion of presence hold?
Leaves out: Touch, weight, smell and temperature, where the illusion breaks down.
Runs on: about 1013.5 FLOPS rough a headset's onboard GPU or a tethered desktop GPUSince: 1991 Virtuality, a coin-operated cabinet with a stereoscopic head-mounted display
Augmented and location-based
Game objects laid over the real world through a phone or headset, often tied to real places.
The player’s question: Which virtual objects are anchored to which real places?
Leaves out: The real world supplies the rendering.
Runs on: about 1012 FLOPS rough a phone's CPU and GPU overlaying graphics on its camera feedSince: 2000 by 2000, a GPS-enabled handheld program placing virtual objects at real locations
Motion-controller games
Full-body or hand gestures tracked by a camera or wand and mapped directly onto in-game actions.
The player’s question: Does the player's gesture match the on-screen action?
Leaves out: Fine technique; broad gestures score the same as precise ones.
Runs on: about 1013 FLOPS rough a console CPU processing a camera or wand's tracked motionSince: 2006 the Wii Remote, a home-console wand tracked by motion sensors to control on-screen actions
Haptic and force-feedback games
Vibration, resistance or force fed back through a controller, wheel or vest to stand in for touch.
The player’s question: Can an impact be conveyed through touch alone?
Leaves out: Every texture is one of a handful of vibration patterns.
Runs on: about 1013 FLOPS rough a desktop or console CPU driving a force-feedback wheel or vestSince: 1997 a home-console controller with a motor that vibrated in step with on-screen impacts
Location-based and arcade VR
Virtual reality experienced by walking through a tracked physical room or riding a motion platform, shared with other people nearby.
The player’s question: Does proprioception remain consistent with vision?
Leaves out: The real walls, which remain present.
Runs on: about 1014 FLOPS rough a venue's networked computers tracking a whole room of headsetsSince: 2016 by 2016, The VOID, a warehouse attraction tracking several players walking through a room in headsets
Cockpit and rig simulation
A physical seat, wheel, pedals or flight stick that moves or resists in step with the simulated vehicle.
The player’s question: Is the vestibular cue convincing enough to sustain the illusion?
Leaves out: Real g-forces; the rig can tilt the user but cannot sustain acceleration.
Runs on: about 1013.5 FLOPS rough a desktop CPU driving a motorised seat or force-feedback wheelSince: 1988 an arcade cabinet with a hydraulic motion seat synced to a racing or flight program
Biometric-adaptive games
Heart rate, skin conductance or breath measured live and fed back into the game's difficulty or story.
The player’s question: Can the game infer arousal before the player is aware of it?
Leaves out: It reads arousal, not its cause.
Runs on: about 1013 FLOPS rough a desktop CPU reading a heart-rate or skin sensor in real timeSince: 2010 a home-computer horror program that sped up threats when a heart-rate sensor sensed fear
Virtual reality social worlds
Persistent shared rooms entered in a headset, where users appear as tracked avatars with body language, voice and user-made spaces.
The player’s question: How do people behave and bond when meeting as avatars in embodied space?
Leaves out: Avatars carry only head and hand tracking; faces and bodies are largely animated by rule.
Runs on: about 1012 FLOPS rough a gaming PC with a headset, real time for a room of tens of usersSince: 2014 by 2014, VRChat first released on the Oculus Rift DK1 (16 January 2014) source
Augmented reality pets
A virtual animal is drawn over the live camera view of the player's room, and reacts to hands, sounds and objects.
The player’s question: Does a virtual creature feel present when it shares the player's real room?
Leaves out: The pet follows scripted behaviour and responds to a few detected gestures.
Runs on: about 1011 FLOPS rough a console with a camera, real timeSince: 2009 by 2009, EyePet for PlayStation 3 using a camera feed source
Cloud-streamed games
A game's simulation and rendering run on a remote server, and only the video is sent to the player, whose controls are sent back.
The player’s question: Can a game with demanding graphics be played on a weak device through the network?
Leaves out: Network delay between pressing a button and seeing the result limits fast action games.
Runs on: about 1014 FLOPS rough a server-class graphics processor per player, running continuously.Since: 2013 Shea and colleagues' 'Cloud gaming: architecture and performance'. source
Social hangout worlds
Avatar-based spaces whose main activity is conversation, dress and social display, with no set goal.
The player’s question: How do users choose to present themselves to others?
Leaves out: There is no game to play, only interaction between people.
Runs on: about 1013 FLOPS rough a desktop or phone GPU rendering avatars and chatSince: 1995 by 1995, a graphical online world for chatting through customisable avatars