Chapter 1What Is a Game?
Defining exactly what makes a game is the subject of much heated debate. This chapter attempts to provide a working answer to the question “What is a game?”
Topics to be discussed include:
- An overview of the basic goals and features of a game
- Genres of games
- Various distribution platforms for games
Games Can Be Many Things
For every person you ask, “What is a game?” you will get a different answer. It has a wide range of definitions, but for our purposes of focusing on children’s games, a game is an interactive experience, where one or more players are presented a goal and has to take action to reach that goal. A set of rules constrains the ways in which the player can reach the goal. The player often has to ...
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