Genre

Term

Belongs to the term

Ludic Frame: A Ludic Frame is an interpretive schema according to which a Ludic Agent reads what happens.

Stack

What it is about

A frame is a schema by which players read what happens in a game. It comes from what they already know and brings expectations with it. The Frame stack has seven sub-decks; the Genre Frames are the one whose knowledge comes not from everyday life but from play culture. A word like “roguelike” or “survival” calls up, for players who know the genre, a whole set of expectations: what one does, how it proceeds, what matters. This is very effective – one word opens up a whole design space – but it can also narrow that space, because genre conventions are powerful.

The 25 cards range from RPG, Adventure and Strategy through Platformer, Shooter and Racing to Deckbuilding, Visual Novel, Tower Defense, Sandbox and Social Deduction. Each names the core expectations of the genre, the activities it suggests, and what follows from it for the design. In addition there are sub-genres, suggestions for breaking the genre, fitting moods and themes, example games and a question for the playtest. For the roguelike, for instance: Hades, Slay the Spire, One Deck Dungeon – and as a break, a roguelike without combat, or one in which the death of one player has consequences for all.

A guide card, a separator card and a blank card belong to the stack.

How to use it

Method: (1) Introduce the Genre Frames as an offer: for those who know game genres, these cards help. (2) Lay out the 25 cards or pre-sort them. (3) Choose no, one or two genres in the team as a frame of reference. (4) Study the back and use the consequences for the design as a checklist. (5) Decide deliberately: which conventions do we adopt, which do we break?

Variant genre fusion: Draw two cards and combine them – a roguelike management game, a horror party game. The combination forces solutions of your own.

Notes for facilitation: Never make Genre Frames mandatory; teams without experience of genres work better with Thematic and Atmospheric Frames. Present the conventions as a toolkit, not as a prescription, and make active use of the suggestions for breaking the genre.

Time: 5 minutes as a quick choice with experienced teams, 10 to 20 minutes as a discussion in a workshop, 20 to 30 minutes with genre fusion and the consequences for the design.

Sequence: optional, in ideation after the Thematic and Atmospheric Frames; for a quick start into the Frame, Thematic and Genre are enough. The stack is particularly useful when the design starts from a mechanism or from the form. In development the conventions serve as a reference.

Relations

Thematic frames come from everyday life, genre frames from play culture; together they give the quickest way into the Frame. Each genre card names moods and themes that fit it – for the roguelike, tension and dread, expedition and temple. A genre suggests activities and mechanisms but regulates nothing: “deckbuilding” leads one to expect acquiring cards and improving one’s deck; how this happens is only determined by the rules. Whether a genre frame takes hold depends on what the players bring with them – this is described by the Habitus stack. Someone who has never played a genre does not read its conventions.

cards

The cards

Genre

GE-01 RPG Genre Players take on roles, develop characters and experience an unfolding story – the growth of the character is the core.

GE-02 Adventure Genre Exploration, puzzles, narration – the path through a story where understanding and discovery matter more than fighting.

GE-03 Survival Genre Surviving under adverse conditions – resources are scarce, the environment hostile, every decision counts.

GE-04 Horror Genre Fear as a design goal – the game wants to frighten, disturb or unsettle, and that should feel good.

GE-05 Puzzle Genre Thinking as the core pleasure – logic, patterns, combinations, the aha-moment as reward.

GE-06 Simulation Genre Reproduction of real systems – understanding by operating, learning by playing with reality.

GE-07 Strategy Genre Planning, overview, long-term thinking – winning comes from the better decision, not from faster reflexes.

GE-08 Action Genre Reflexes, dexterity, intensity – the body reacts faster than the head, and it feels great.

GE-09 Action-Adventure Genre The best of both worlds – exploration and narration meet dexterity and combat.

GE-10 Platformer Genre Jumping, running, timing – space itself is the challenge, and every jump counts.

GE-11 Shooter Genre Aiming, hitting, spatial control – weapons as the tool of interaction, the shot as the core action.

GE-12 Fighting Genre A direct duel – two opponents, a confined arena, combos and timing as the language of combat.

GE-13 Racing Genre Speed, track, competition – arriving faster than everyone else while keeping control.

GE-14 Stealth Genre Staying invisible – patience, observation, the perfect moment when nobody is looking.

GE-15 Roguelike Genre Over and over from the start – randomly generated worlds, permanent death, and every run teaches something new.

GE-16 Management Genre Building, optimizing, steering – keeping complex systems running and letting them grow.

GE-17 Party Game Genre Laughing together – accessible, fast, social, and no one has to read the rules beforehand.

GE-18 Deckbuilding Genre Collecting, combining, optimizing – your own deck becomes a personal machine that runs ever better.

GE-19 Visual Novel Genre Reading, deciding, experiencing – the story as the game mechanism, choice as the only action.

GE-20 Sports Genre Competition by rules – the reproduction or abstraction of physical contests as a game within a game.

GE-21 Tower Defense Genre Positioning, reinforcing, holding the line – waves of enemies meet cleverly placed defences.

GE-22 Sandbox Genre Free creation without prescriptions – the world is the playground, and players write their own rules.

GE-23 Educational Genre Learning through play – knowledge or skills are built up without it feeling like a lesson.

GE-24 Casual Genre Instantly playable, quickly over – the lowest entry barrier, the highest accessibility, playing in the gaps.

GE-25 Social Deduction Genre Lies, suspicion, discussion – someone at the table has a secret, and the group must find out who.

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