The word genre is French for "type", "sort" or "kind". Therefore, a game genre is simply a specific type of game. For example, a game in which the player solves puzzles would fall into the "Puzzle Game" genre.
This page will give you a short overview over the most common game genres. Most games will fall into one of these categories, although there have certainly been some hybrid games developed.
- Adventure Games (Escape from Monkey Island)
- Board Games (Chess)
- Card Games (Solitare)
- Fighter Games - also known as "Beat-em Ups" (The Tekken Series)
- First Person Shooters (Half-Life, Doom)
- Third Person Shooter (Early GTA series)
- Multiplayer Games (A broad term for any game with multiple players)
- Platform Games - also known as Jump 'n Run games (Mario)
- Puzzle Games (The Incredible Machine)
- Racing Games (Gran Turismo, Need for Speed)
- Real Time Strategy Games (Populous)
- Role Playing Games (Fable, Morrowind)
- Simulation Games (SimCity, SimAnything)
- Sports Games (Madden series)
- Shoot'em up a.k.a Shmup (2d based shooting games e.g - classic, Space invaders.)
- Text adventures / Interactive fiction
- Turn Based Strategy Games (Alpha Centauri)