Chapter 13. Action Games

When most people hear the phrase video game, they tend to think of action games. The reason is historical: Almost all the earliest video games were action games, and some of those early games—Asteroids, Pac-Man, Space Invaders—have become iconic representatives of the action genre. However, the genre is vast and covers just about any imaginable activity that can be characterized in terms of physical challenges.

In this chapter, you’ll learn the definition of an action game, then go on to study the many subgenres of action games. Following that, we’ll look in more depth at the distinctive features of action games that set them apart from other genres.

What Are Action Games?

Action game An action game is one in which ...

Get Fundamentals of Game Design, Second Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.