Timeline

EducationalThe Oregon Trail

The Oregon Trail, created by Carleton College students, teaches about 19th-century pioneer life.

SportsPong

Atari's Pong, the first commercially successful video game, is a simplified table tennis.

Strategy

Invasion, a Risk-like game for the Magnavox Odyssey, is the first console strategy game.

RacingNight Driver

Night Driver is one of the first first-person racing games, with the night road marked only by posts.

Text-based gameColossal Cave Adventure

Colossal Cave Adventure launches the text adventures played by typing commands.

AdventureZork

Zork, made at MIT, understands full sentences instead of two-word commands. From 1980 it is sold split into three parts for microcomputers.

Interactive fictionZork

Zork begins at MIT, with a parser that understands full sentences rather than just Adventure's verb–noun pairs.

Action

Space Invaders, with enemies that fire back and multiple lives, opens the golden age of arcades, dominated by action games.

Arcade

Space Invaders begins the golden age of arcades, which also includes Pac-Man and Donkey Kong.

Block breakerSuper Breakout

Super Breakout, Atari's sequel, puts several balls in play at once in two of its three modes.

Interactive fictionAdventureland

Scott Adams writes Adventureland for the TRS-80, a two-word-command adventure for home computers, and founds Adventure International to publish more.

Shooter

Space Invaders establishes the «shoot or be shot» formula against waves of enemies.

Text-based game

MUD1 takes the text game into a world shared by several players, a root of online role-playing games.

Gambling

SIRCOMA's (later IGT's) Draw Poker establishes video poker in casinos.

MazeHead On

Head On is the first maze game whose goal is collecting every dot while dodging an opponent.

Shoot 'em upGalaxian

Galaxian brings colour graphics and enemies that break formation to dive at the player.

Twin-stick shooter

Nintendo's Sheriff separates movement (with an eight-way joystick) from aiming (with a dial that also covers eight directions).

Action

Pac-Man popularises action built around a character rather than shooting.

AdventureMystery House

Mystery House, by Roberta and Ken Williams, is the first known graphical adventure, with a drawing for each place.

Artillery game

Super Artillery and Artillery Simulator, for the Apple II, bring the genre to graphics screens and add wind, visible terrain and tanks.

FishingFishing Derby

Fishing Derby, one of Activision's first games, pits two anglers on opposite docks against each other to see who first lands 99 pounds of fish.

MazePac-Man

Pac-Man gives each ghost its own way of chasing and adds power pellets that reverse the hunt. It becomes the genre's model.

Maze chasePac-Man

Pac-Man adds a likeable hero and hunting ghosts; magazines of the time such as Electronic Games call games in its style 'maze chases'.

Multi-user dungeon

When the University of Essex connects its network to ARPANET, MUD becomes the first online multiplayer role-playing game on the internet.

Puzzle-platformerSpace Panic

Space Panic, in which you dig holes in platforms to trap creatures, foreshadows the genre.

Role-playingAkalabeth: World of Doom

Richard Garriott's Akalabeth combines an overhead map with first-person dungeons and foreshadows the Ultima series.

Dungeon crawler

Wizardry popularises first-person dungeon crawling with a party of adventurers.

Maze3D Monster Maze

3D Monster Maze takes the maze into first person on a home computer, with a monster hunting you.

Wargame

Chris Crawford's Eastern Front (1941) introduces scrolling maps, supply and morale, and rivals pencil-and-paper wargames.

PlatformerDonkey Kong

Donkey Kong makes jumping the central action and popularises the genre in arcades.

PlatformerJump Bug

Jump Bug is the first platformer with a scrolling screen, horizontally and, in one section, vertically.

Role-playingWizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord

Wizardry introduces the party of adventurers with different classes and menu-driven turn-based combat; it will inspire Japanese RPGs.

Shoot 'em upScramble

Scramble is the first shoot 'em up with forced side-scrolling and several distinct levels.

StealthCastle Wolfenstein

Castle Wolfenstein is one of the earliest games built on stealth; you can disguise yourself in enemy uniforms to walk past guards.

Survival horror3D Monster Maze

In 3D Monster Maze you flee, unarmed, from a Tyrannosaurus through a maze; in 2006 Edge magazine called it «the original survival horror game».

Artillery gameArtillery Duel

Artillery Duel brings to consoles the duel between two cannons separated by a mountain, which changes shape every turn.

City builderUtopia

Utopia, for the Intellivision, already gathers the elements of city building and influences SimCity.

EducationalRocky's Boots

In Rocky's Boots you wire logic gates so that a boot kicks only certain objects. It is one of the first educational programs to use an interactive graphical simulation as a learning environment.

Flight simulator

Microsoft licenses Sublogic's Flight Simulator for the IBM PC, giving rise to Microsoft Flight Simulator.

Maze

In Atari v. North American Philips, US courts stop the clone K.C. Munchkin!, but treat the idea of a maze chase as free to use. That is why games of this kind abound.

Pinball

Bill Budge's Pinball Construction Set lets you build and play your own pinball table.

PlatformerPitfall!

Pitfall! expands the setting to a world of hundreds of screens on a home console.

RacingPole Position

Pole Position, regarded as one of the most important racing games, is the first based on a real circuit and introduces the qualifying lap.

SportsFootball Manager

Football Manager, for the ZX Spectrum, is the first association football management simulation.

Twin-stick shooterRobotron: 2084

Robotron: 2084, by Eugene Jarvis and Larry DeMar, becomes the genre's seminal example and popularises twin joysticks among shooting games.

Business simulation

Danielle Bunten Berry's M.U.L.E. turns a colony's economy into a four-player game.

Party game

Party Mix, for Atari, bundles five individually selectable multiplayer games.

Puzzle-platformerLode Runner

Lode Runner, one of the first games with a level editor, has you collect gold while being chased.

SportsTrack & Field

Konami's Track & Field turns athletics into alternating two buttons as fast as possible and is one of the highest-grossing arcade games of 1984.

Tactical RPG

Koji Sumii's Bokosuka Wars lays the foundations of the genre, known in Japan as "simulation RPG".

AdventureKing's Quest: Quest for the Crown

King's Quest puts on screen an animated character that you walk among the scenery. It is Sierra's first game with a protagonist seen in the third person.

FightingYie Ar Kung-Fu

Yie Ar Kung-Fu replaces Karate Champ's points with a health bar, which becomes the genre standard, and pits the player against opponents with distinct styles.

GolfGolf

Nintendo and HAL Laboratory's Golf comes out for the Famicom and becomes the console's best-selling sports game.

Interactive fiction

Yenght, by Nacho Ruiz, is released by Dinamic for the ZX Spectrum, the first text adventure on the Spanish market.

Interactive fictionThe Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Infocom releases The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, written by Douglas Adams with Steve Meretzky, one of the best-known titles of the genre's commercial era.

Light-gun shooterDuck Hunt

Duck Hunt comes out for the Famicom, and in 1985 it joins the NES launch in North America along with the Zapper gun.

Programming game

Core War pits programs written in an assembly-like language against each other.

Space flight simulatorElite

David Braben and Ian Bell's Elite merges space trading and flight simulation with wireframe 3D graphics; it is considered the genre's breakthrough, and its imitators are called 'Elite clones'.

Football (soccer)

Tehkan World Cup popularises the top-down view of the pitch and trackball control; it lays the groundwork for MicroProse Soccer and Sensible Soccer.

Cue sports

Compile's Lunar Pool brings pool to the NES, the MSX and the NEC PC-8000.

EducationalWhere in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?

Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? has you chase thieves using geography clues and an almanac. It was not designed as an educational game, but it succeeded in schools and became the best-selling educational software in North America.

PlatformerSuper Mario Bros.

Super Mario Bros. combines side-scrolling, momentum and variable jumps, and becomes the genre's model.

Point-and-click adventure

Déjà Vu, the first MacVenture game, fleshes out the interface and lets you drag objects around the scene.

PuzzleTetris

Tetris revolutionises and popularises the genre, bringing puzzles to a mass audience.

Puzzle-platformer

In Sega's Doki Doki Penguin Land, you guide an egg to the bottom of the level by shifting and breaking blocks, without letting it fall too far.

Run and gunCommando

Capcom's Commando, with a soldier who fires in eight directions and throws grenades across a vertically scrolling field, sets the genre's formula and popularises it.

Run and gun

Konami's Green Beret takes the Commando formula to side-scrolling.

Shoot 'em upGradius

Gradius defines the side-scrolling shoot 'em up, and its power-up bar lets the player choose how to upgrade the ship.

Visual novelThe Portopia Serial Murder Case

Portopia's Famicom version replaces the text parser with a menu of commands chosen with the gamepad.

Block breakerArkanoid

Taito's Arkanoid refreshes the Breakout formula with power-ups and enemies, and spawns its own wave of imitators.

Beat 'em upRenegade

Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun (Renegade in the West) introduces the belt-scroll format, where you can also move into the depth of the scene.

Japanese RPG

Dragon Quest, published by Enix, becomes the template for console role-playing games.

Open world

The Legend of Zelda, cited among the first open worlds, puts free exploration at the centre of play.

RacingOut Run

Out Run swaps the circuit for a journey with forks, in which you choose the route and reach one of five endings.

Role-playingDragon Quest

Dragon Quest simplifies the RPG for consoles and sets the template for Japanese RPGs, with experience, levels and menu combat.

Run and gun

Namco's Rolling Thunder adds cover mechanics to the formula.

Tile-matchingShanghai

Activision's Shanghai brings mahjong solitaire pair-matching to the computer.

AdventureManiac Mansion

Maniac Mansion swaps typing for verbs and clicks, using the SCUMM engine, and sets Lucasfilm's point-and-click model.

Beat 'em upDouble Dragon

Double Dragon defines two-player co-op and ushers in the genre's golden age.

FightingStreet Fighter

Street Fighter introduces special attacks performed with joystick motions, such as the Hadouken.

Light-gun shooterOperation Wolf

Taito's Operation Wolf popularises military-themed light-gun games on a fixed path.

MetroidvaniaCastlevania II: Simon's Quest

Castlevania II: Simon's Quest tries out an open, non-linear world with role-playing elements, before the series goes back to sequential levels for a while.

PlatformerMega Man

Mega Man lets you choose the order of its levels, and each defeated boss grants a new weapon.

Point-and-click adventure

Lucasfilm Games' Maniac Mansion introduces the on-screen verb-object interface that becomes a staple of the genre.

RoguelikeNetHack

NetHack, an heir to Hack, is developed collaboratively over the internet and becomes famous for how many ways its systems interact.

Role-playingFinal Fantasy

Final Fantasy shows the party side-on facing the enemies and lets you choose their classes, a format the genre will repeat for years.

Run and gunContra

Konami's Contra stands out for its eight-direction aiming, including downwards in mid-jump, and its simultaneous two-player co-op.

Shoot 'em upR-Type

R-Type adds the charge shot and the Force, a pod that works as both weapon and shield.

StealthMetal Gear

Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear is the first mainstream stealth game on consoles: you start unarmed and must avoid combat.

Tactics

Famicom Wars establishes turn-based tactics on consoles.

Beat 'em upFinal Fight

Capcom's Final Fight adds grabs, throws, limited-use weapons and food hidden in barrels, and is acclaimed as one of the best in the genre.

City builderSimCity

SimCity is the first big hit of construction and management games.

Construction and management simulationSimCity

SimCity turns urban planning into a game with no way to win, and is the genre's first big hit.

Falling-block puzzleTetris

Nintendo bundles the Game Boy version of Tetris with the console in North America and Europe; it sells over 35 million copies and takes the genre to the mass market.

Falling-block puzzleColumns

Jay Geertsen's Columns drops columns of three jewels whose order you can change; three or more alike in a line clear, diagonals included.

PlatformerPrince of Persia

Prince of Persia uses rotoscoped animation for fluid, realistic movement and starts the line of cinematic platformers.

Real-time strategyHerzog Zwei

Herzog Zwei, for the Mega Drive, joins strategy with real-time action. You only pilot one ship, but from it you buy units and give them orders, a control scheme that foreshadows point-and-click.

SimulationSimCity

Will Wright's SimCity popularises city building and simulation as a game with no ending.

Sokoban

Adventures of Lolo builds Sokoban-style block-pushing puzzles into its design, as many action-adventure games would later do.

Survival horrorSweet Home

Sweet Home (Capcom) brings together a mansion, a very limited inventory, scarce healing and characters who die for good; it was the main inspiration for Resident Evil.

Tile-matchingColumns

Columns, a falling-block game, starts a line of tile-matching games based on shifting or swapping tiles.

AdventureThe Secret of Monkey Island

The Secret of Monkey Island makes dying almost impossible, so the game focuses on exploration and humour.

Artillery game

Tank Wars, by Kenny Morse, introduces buying weapons and several computer-controlled tanks.

Card game

Microsoft Solitaire ships with Windows 3.0 and becomes one of the most played PC games.

Falling-block puzzleDr. Mario

Dr. Mario changes the goal, since it is no longer about surviving but about clearing a bottle full of viruses by lining up four of the same colour with two-coloured capsules.

Multi-user dungeon

DikuMUD sets off a wave of combat MUDs built on its code and shapes early MMORPGs such as EverQuest.

Tactical RPGFire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light

Intelligent Systems' Fire Emblem joins ideas from Dragon Quest with turn-based strategy and becomes the genre's archetype. A character who runs out of health is usually lost forever.

Tower defenseRampart

Rampart alternates phases of building, arming and defending, and sets the genre's template.

Twin-stick shooterSmash TV

Eugene Jarvis's Smash TV brings back Robotron's twin sticks in closed rooms and for two players.

4X

Sid Meier's Civilization popularises the genre and the level of detail that later became standard.

Artillery gameGorillas

Gorillas ships as a QBasic sample program with MS-DOS 5.0, its BASIC code open to anyone who wants to read or change it.

Artillery gameScorched Earth

Scorched Earth, Wendell Hicken's shareware game, adds destructible terrain and ever more powerful weapons, and is considered the genre's modern archetype.

Cinematic platformer

Éric Chahi's Another World (Out of This World in North America) tells its story with almost no text or interface, using cinematic scenes.

Endless runnerSkiFree

SkiFree, a forerunner: you ski down an endless slope with randomly generated obstacles, chased by an invincible yeti.

Falling-block puzzlePuyo Puyo

Puyo Puyo, building on Dr. Mario, drops pairs of coloured pieces that clear when grouped.

FightingStreet Fighter II: The World Warrior

Street Fighter II popularises combos, offers eight selectable fighters and puts the duel between two people at the centre of the arcades.

First-person shooter

id Software's Hovertank uses ray casting to draw 3D faster and achieve smoother gameplay.

PlatformerSonic the Hedgehog

Sonic the Hedgehog makes speed the game's identity.

PuzzleLemmings

Lemmings offers indirect-control puzzles, in which you guide creatures that walk on their own by handing out limited skills.

Turn-based strategy

Sid Meier's Civilization, influenced by Empire and by board games, becomes a landmark of turn-based strategy.

Word puzzle

Wordtris, published by Spectrum HoloByte, mixes words with Tetris-style falling pieces. You form words from the letters as they drop.

Beat 'em upStreets of Rage 2

Streets of Rage 2 is one of the first console games to match the acclaim of arcade beat 'em ups.

Cinematic platformer

Delphine Software's Flashback takes up the formula of Prince of Persia and Another World, with fixed multi-level screens you climb up and drop down through.

Construction and management simulationCaesar

Caesar moves city building into antiquity and demands that you meet each neighbourhood's needs.

Dating sim

Dōkyūsei relies on timed events and becomes a foundational title of the genre.

First-person shooterWolfenstein 3D

Wolfenstein 3D lays the foundations of the modern FPS with ray casting, which works out only the visible walls. Its first episode is distributed free as shareware.

Interactive movie

Night Trap, for the Sega CD, tells its story through live-action video watched via security cameras.

RacingSuper Mario Kart

Super Mario Kart popularises kart racing, with simple driving and items to attack rivals.

Real-time strategyDune II

Dune II brings together the foundations the genre still uses, such as moving units with the mouse and gathering resources. Westwood's Brett Sperry coins the term "real-time strategy" to market it.

Strategy

Dune II popularises real-time strategy, which eventually outsells turn-based strategy.

Survival horrorAlone in the Dark

Alone in the Dark (Infogrames) places 3D characters over hand-drawn backgrounds with fixed cameras framed like a horror film; Guinness recognises it as the first 3D survival horror game.

Tactical RPG

Shining Force, for the Mega Drive, adds even more console role-playing elements.

Visual novelOtogirisō

Chunsoft's Otogirisō reduces play to reading and choosing between story branches, with sound and several endings. It is called a "sound novel".

4X

Alan Emrich coins the term "4X" in a Master of Orion preview for Computer Gaming World.

AdventureMyst

Myst, explored in the first person over pre-rendered images, is the best-selling PC game for nearly a decade and drives the adoption of CD-ROM.

Football (soccer)FIFA International Soccer

FIFA International Soccer swaps the top-down view for an isometric one and starts EA's FIFA series.

Cooking

Motoko-chan no Wonder Kitchen, for the Super Famicom, has a kitchen screen where you prepare meals with the ingredients provided.

FightingVirtua Fighter

Virtua Fighter is the first arcade fighting game with fully 3D polygon graphics and adds winning by ring-out.

First-person shooterDoom

Doom adds better graphics and multiplayer deathmatch, and stores its levels in WAD files that fans can modify. For years the genre is called «Doom clones».

Interactive fictionCurses

Graham Nelson releases Inform, a language for writing interactive fiction, together with Curses, the first game made with it. It opens the era of hobbyist authors who publish for free.

Puzzle-platformerThe Lost Vikings

The Lost Vikings makes you combine three characters with different abilities.

Rail shooter

Star Fox popularises the genre with 3D graphics.

RoguelikeTorneko no Daibōken: Fushigi no Dungeon

Chunsoft's Torneko no Daibōken brings the roguelike to consoles and starts the Mystery Dungeon series.

Run and gunGunstar Heroes

Treasure's Gunstar Heroes lets you combine its four shot types in pairs to create new weapons.

Shoot 'em upBatsugun

Batsugun fills the screen with bullet patterns and opens the way to bullet hell.

Shooter

Doom, the first major hit among first-person shooters, takes the genre into 3D spaces.

SportsFIFA International Soccer

FIFA International Soccer brings the isometric perspective to football and is the best-selling home game of 1993 in the United Kingdom.

Dating sim

Tokimeki Memorial popularises dating sims in Japan.

Light-gun shooterVirtua Cop

Sega's Virtua Cop popularises 3D polygon graphics in light-gun games and starts a renaissance of the genre in arcades.

MetroidvaniaSuper Metroid

Super Metroid polishes exploration with upgrades that open up the map and an automap; its open structure invites sequence breaking.

Real-time strategy

Warcraft: Orcs & Humans takes the genre into fantasy, and its buildings, such as farms, represent a whole society rather than just an army.

Sim racing

With Papyrus's NASCAR Racing, the first true online racing begins, over dial-in servers.

Tactical RPGUFO: Enemy Unknown

UFO: Enemy Unknown (X-COM) alternates real-time base management with turn-based tactical missions, and defines the genre's Western PC variant.

Tile-matchingShariki

Eugene Alemzhin's Shariki is the first of what would become known as match-three games, in which you make clusters of three or more identical tiles on a grid.

Artillery gameWorms

Worms swaps tanks for teams of worms, with time-limited turns and explosions that blow holes in randomly generated maps; its success leads to a long series.

Bullet hellDonPachi

Cave's DonPachi adds a combo system that rewards destroying enemies quickly.

Business simulation

Trevor Chan's Capitalism comes to be described as the best business simulation game.

Cue sports

Celeris's Virtual Pool focuses on accurate 3D physics to help you improve your real game.

Game show

You Don't Know Jack mixes trivia and comedy within the framing of a hosted game show.

Interactive fiction

The first Interactive Fiction Competition (IFComp) is held, a yearly contest for short works that still runs today.

Light-gun shooterTime Crisis

Time Crisis adds a pedal for taking cover and simulated recoil.

Racing

Sega Rally Championship introduces rallying and is the first in which you drive on different surfaces, each with its own grip.

Real-time strategy

Command & Conquer and its follow-up Red Alert (1996) are the most popular early games in the genre. The "tank rush", attacking en masse very early, comes from them.

Tile-matchingTetris Attack

Panel de Pon (Tetris Attack outside Japan) brings tile swapping to a stack that keeps rising from below, with a two-player mode.

Vehicular combat

Twisted Metal, for the PlayStation, is regarded as the first «true» vehicular combat game.

Beat 'em up

Sega's Die Hard Arcade is the first beat 'em up with texture-mapped 3D polygon graphics; soon after, the genre almost vanishes from arcades.

Falling-block puzzleTetris

The Tetris Company starts maintaining standard specifications, revised every year, for every authorised version of Tetris.

First-person shooterQuake

Quake moves to full real-time 3D with polygonal models, and its QuakeWorld version makes online play one of the first forms of electronic sport.

Monster-taming game

Pokémon Red and Green, on Game Boy, centre play on catching, raising and battling monsters, and become the genre's model.

Music

PaRappa the Rapper, considered one of the first music-based games, sparks the genre's popularity.

PlatformerSuper Mario 64

Super Mario 64 moves the genre into 3D worlds with a free camera.

Run and gunMetal Slug

Metal Slug, for the Neo Geo, adds melee attacks, limited-ammo weapons and a tank you can drive, and starts a series that keeps getting new entries.

Survival horrorResident Evil

Resident Evil sets the formula: ammunition so scarce you cannot kill everything, a limited inventory and a counted supply of ink ribbons to save the game.

Virtual petTamagotchi

Bandai releases Tamagotchi in Japan, a pet in an egg-shaped device with three buttons; it goes worldwide the following year and becomes a global craze.

Visual novel

Leaf's Shizuku is the first commercial game presented as a "visual novel".

Action role-playing game

Diablo popularises the isometric action RPG with click-to-move control and random loot.

Bullet hell

Story of Eastern Wonderland, the second Touhou Project game, is the first in the series to be a bullet hell.

First-person shooter

GoldenEye 007, for the Nintendo 64, proves the genre works on consoles and popularises split-screen deathmatch for up to four players.

GolfEverybody's Golf

Camelot's Everybody's Golf (Hot Shots Golf) starts a series of light-hearted golf on the PlayStation; Camelot would later make Mario Golf for Nintendo.

Light-gun shooterThe House of the Dead

The House of the Dead starts the most successful horror light-gun series.

Massively multiplayer online RPG

Ultima Online popularises the genre; the term MMORPG is credited to its creator, Richard Garriott.

MetroidvaniaCastlevania: Symphony of the Night

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, considered the genre-defining Metroidvania, adds a large castle to explore, items that open paths and role-playing experience.

RacingGran Turismo

Gran Turismo, regarded as the most realistic racing simulation of its time, adds real cars and an open-ended career mode of licences, purchases and tuning.

Real-time strategyAge of Empires

Age of Empires slows the pace and adds ideas from Civilization, with a civilisation that advances through technological ages.

RhythmBeatmania

Beatmania becomes a hit in Japanese arcades and gives its name to Konami's Bemani division.

Role-playingFinal Fantasy VII

Final Fantasy VII, with 3D characters, makes the Japanese RPG popular worldwide.

Sim racingGran Turismo

Gran Turismo brings racing simulation to home consoles and becomes the basis for those that followed on console.

SportsGran Turismo

Gran Turismo, a racing simulator for the PlayStation, ships more than ten million copies.

Tactical RPGFinal Fantasy Tactics

Final Fantasy Tactics, with battles on 3D isometric fields and a job system, does the most to bring the genre to North America.

Action-adventure

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time sets the template for 3D action-adventure, with target lock-on and context-sensitive actions.

Exercise

Dance Dance Revolution, cited as one of the first major fitness games, gets players dancing on an arrow platform.

First-person shooterHalf-Life

Half-Life tells its story through scripted sequences without ever taking camera control away from you, and fan modifications of it give rise to Counter-Strike.

Immersive sim

Thief: The Dark Project defines the first-person stealth approach that inspires many later games.

Interactive fictionPhotopia

Adam Cadre's Photopia wins IFComp with a story that has almost no puzzles, showing the genre can centre on storytelling.

Interactive fiction

José Luis Díaz releases InformATE, a library for writing Inform adventures that understand commands in Spanish.

Party game

Mario Party combines a board with minigames and launches a long-running series.

Real-time strategyStarCraft

StarCraft pits three very different races against each other and becomes an international phenomenon; it is still played in professional leagues.

RhythmDance Dance Revolution

Dance Dance Revolution moves rhythm to the feet, with an arrow mat and judgements from Perfect to Miss, and popularises music games played by stepping.

Role-playingBaldur's Gate

Baldur's Gate applies Dungeons & Dragons rules with pausable real-time combat and revives the Western computer RPG.

StealthTenchu: Stealth Assassins

Tenchu is considered the first 3D stealth game, with an indicator that shows the distance and alert level of nearby enemies.

StealthMetal Gear Solid

Metal Gear Solid popularises the genre. Its radar shows the guards' fields of view, and play moves through alert, evasion and infiltration modes.

StealthThief: The Dark Project

Thief: The Dark Project brings stealth into first person. A gem-shaped indicator shows how visible you are, and the noise of your footsteps depends on the floor.

Block breakerBrick Breaker

Ali Asaria's Brick Breaker comes preloaded on some BlackBerry phones and takes the genre to mobile.

Business simulationRollerCoaster Tycoon

Chris Sawyer's RollerCoaster Tycoon has you build and manage an amusement park.

Construction and management simulationRollerCoaster Tycoon

RollerCoaster Tycoon becomes a phenomenon and a benchmark for business management with customers who have needs of their own.

FightingSuper Smash Bros.

Super Smash Bros. brings together characters from several Nintendo franchises and replaces the health bar with a damage percentage; you win by knocking the opponent off the stage.

Kart racing

Crash Team Racing starts Crash Bandicoot's series of kart racing games, which grows to many titles.

SportsTony Hawk's Pro Skater

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater popularises extreme sports, with tricks chained into combos, and its series becomes one of the most popular in sports games.

Survival horrorSilent Hill

Silent Hill uses real-time 3D settings shrouded in fog and darkness, a flashlight and a radio that crackles when monsters are near, and goes for psychological horror.

Typing gameThe Typing of the Dead

The Typing of the Dead swaps The House of the Dead 2's gun for a keyboard: you type words to stop the zombies. It takes the genre beyond education.

Immersive sim

Warren Spector is credited with the term «immersive sim» in his post-mortem of Deus Ex.

Simulation

The Sims brings simulation to the everyday lives of virtual people.

Life simulation

The Sims refines the Little Computer People formula and becomes the genre's great success.

Tactical shooter

Counter-Strike, a Half-Life mod, becomes the most popular multiplayer game of its era.

Tower defense

Custom StarCraft maps such as Turret Defense, and later Warcraft III ones, turn tower defense into a genre of its own made by fans.

Bullet hellIkaruga

Ikaruga's GameCube release draws attention to the genre outside Japan.

Courtroom battle

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney alternates investigation with trials in which you hunt for contradictions in testimony.

First-person shooter

Halo, for the Xbox, adapts aiming to the gamepad, limits you to two weapons and adds a self-recharging shield, ideas that many console games will copy.

Hack and slash

Hideki Kamiya's Devil May Cry defines the modern 3D hack and slash, also called the character action game.

Open world

Grand Theft Auto III brings the open world to a 3D city with a physics engine.

Shoot 'em upIkaruga

Ikaruga lets the ship switch between white and black to absorb bullets of its own colour, and the whole design revolves around that rule.

Life simulation

Animal Crossing, for the Nintendo 64, moves social simulation to a village inhabited by animals.

Survival horror

In Tecmo's Fatal Frame (Project Zero in Europe), the only weapon against ghosts is a photo camera.

Tile-matchingBejeweled

Bejeweled is released, after starting out in 2000 as a browser game. It is credited with popularising match-three and launching the casual games industry.

Visual novelPhoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

Capcom's Phoenix Wright mixes reading with investigation and with trials where you look for contradictions. Its 2005 English release brings the genre to Western audiences.

Bullet hellTouhou Koumakyou ~ the Embodiment of Scarlet Devil

Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, the first Touhou game for Windows, introduces the bosses' spell cards and has a focus mode for slower dodging and points for grazing bullets.

Real-time strategy

Around 2002, with Warcraft III, 3D becomes the norm. A mod of that game, Defense of the Ancients (2003), gives rise to MOBAs.

Serious game

America's Army, by the United States Army, takes the serious game into recruitment and training.

StealthTom Clancy's Splinter Cell

Splinter Cell puts light at the centre of play, with a visibility meter and the option of shooting out lights to create shadows.

Visual novelHigurashi When They Cry

Higurashi, by an amateur (dōjin) group, is released in chapters and has no choices at all. It shows that a visual novel can be completely linear.

AdventureSamorost

Samorost, which Jakub Dvorský made as a student, is released for free on Amanita Design's website. It shows a short, wordless adventure played with clicks alone.

Karaoke

Harmonix releases Karaoke Revolution, a socially driven, karaoke-themed music game.

Open-world survival craftStranded

In Unreal Software's Stranded, a castaway manages hunger, thirst and sleep, picks up branches, stones and vines, crafts tools and shelters, and builds a raft to escape.

Tactical RPG

Nippon Ichi's Disgaea: Hour of Darkness mixes tile combat with coloured panels that alter the terrain and a randomly generated «Item World». Its success launches a whole franchise.

Virtual life

Second Life opens to the public a virtual world whose content is created by its own residents.

Word puzzleBookworm

PopCap's Bookworm offers a grid of letters you link together to form words, with burning tiles that threaten to end the game.

Escape roomCrimson Room

Toshimitsu Takagi's free Flash game Crimson Room becomes an internet phenomenon and popularises the genre, which in Asia even gets called 'Takagism'.

Falling-block puzzleLumines: Puzzle Fusion

Lumines brings the genre together with music, as a timeline sweeps the screen to the beat and clears the single-colour squares you built from 2 × 2 blocks.

MetroidvaniaCave Story

Daisuke Amaya releases Cave Story for free, made entirely on his own in his spare time, and helps bring the Metroidvania back as a viable format for independent development.

Visual novel

Ren'Py is released, a free and open-source visual novel engine whose scripts are written in a screenplay-like syntax.

EducationalBrain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day!

Brain Age, for the Nintendo DS, offers mental exercises inspired by the work of neuroscientist Ryuta Kawashima.

Hidden object

Mystery Case Files: Huntsville sets the genre's rules during the casual-gaming boom.

Music

Guitar Hero brings games played with a plastic instrument controller to the West.

RhythmGuitar Hero

Guitar Hero popularises guitar-controller rhythm games in the West.

Survival horror

Resident Evil 4 swaps fixed cameras for an over-the-shoulder camera and puts more weight on action; some critics said the series had left survival horror behind.

Third-person shooter

Resident Evil 4 establishes the over-the-shoulder camera.

Trivia game

Buzz! arrives on PlayStation 2 as a quiz game designed for group play.

Twin-stick shooterGeometry Wars: Retro Evolved

Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved revives the genre thanks to gamepads with two analogue sticks.

Colony simDwarf Fortress

Dwarf Fortress releases its first alpha and steers colony management towards emergent stories.

Construction and management simulationDwarf Fortress

Dwarf Fortress steers colony management towards emergent stories, with inhabitants who have complex needs and moods.

CookingCooking Mama

Cooking Mama turns each step of a recipe into a minigame.

Interactive fiction

Graham Nelson presents Inform 7, in which the program itself is written in sentences of near-natural English.

Light-gun shooter

The Wii Remote, which you point at the screen, brings a small renaissance of the genre on consoles.

RoguelikeDungeon Crawl Stone Soup

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup is released, a free roguelike still maintained by its community and also playable in the browser.

SportsWii Sports

Wii Sports has you play by copying the real movement with a motion controller and becomes Nintendo's best-selling game ever.

Third-person shooter

Gears of War combines cover with an off-centre camera, drawing on Kill Switch and Resident Evil 4.

CookingPapa's Pizzeria

Papa's Pizzeria, a Flash browser game, starts a long Flipline Studios series in which the work is split across stations for taking orders, preparing, cooking and serving.

Exercise

Wii Fit uses the Wii Balance Board for yoga, strength and balance.

Interactive fictionLost Pig

Admiral Jota's Lost Pig wins IFComp with a narrator who talks like a clumsy orc and a parser that answers almost any command.

MazePac-Man Championship Edition

Pac-Man Championship Edition refreshes the formula with a time limit, maze halves that regenerate and rising speed.

Maze chase

Pac-Man Championship Edition shows the formula is still alive decades later.

PuzzlePortal

Portal is cited as an example of instructional scaffolding, because each chamber teaches an idea before combining it with others.

Puzzle-platformerPortal

Portal brings the genre into first person with a gun that opens two linked portals through which your body, objects and their momentum pass.

Rhythmosu!

Dean Herbert releases osu!, a free PC game based on Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan, whose songs are made by the community itself.

Tile-matchingPuzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords

Puzzle Quest merges match-three with role-playing, so battles are fought in turns on a board of gems.

Tower defenseDesktop Tower Defense

Desktop Tower Defense removes the fixed path, lets towers form the maze and popularises the genre in the browser.

Beat 'em upCastle Crashers

The Behemoth's Castle Crashers brings the genre to digital distribution with acclaimed four-player co-op, local or online, and characters who level up.

Kart racing

Mario Kart Wii, like Mario Kart DS (2005) before it, is among the best-selling kart racing games.

Physics puzzle

The independent World of Goo builds structures out of goo balls that bend and topple.

PlatformerBraid

Braid, designed and self-funded by Jonathan Blow with no publisher, succeeds on Xbox Live Arcade with time-manipulation jumps and puzzles, and sparks wide interest in independent games.

Puzzle-platformerBraid

Braid, an independent game, builds its puzzles on time manipulation.

Roguelike

At the International Roguelike Development Conference in Berlin, the «Berlin Interpretation» is drafted, a list of traits (procedural generation, permadeath, turns, a grid…) for deciding what a roguelike is; games with only some of those traits are often called roguelites.

RoguelikeSpelunky

Spelunky brings random levels and permadeath to a real-time platformer.

Roguelite

Spelunky shows how to distil the roguelike and apply it to other genres, inspiring the indie wave that followed.

Artillery game

Angry Birds takes the idea to the touch screen, where you launch with a slingshot and must anticipate the trajectory to knock down structures.

Block breakerShatter

Shatter adds physics. Besides moving the paddle, you can pull or blow the ball and the blocks to bend their path.

Dance

Just Dance, played with motion controllers, goes on to outsell Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

Metroidvania

Shadow Complex, by Chair Entertainment for the Xbox 360, is designed on the premise that Super Metroid is the pinnacle of 2D game design.

Multiplayer online battle arena

League of Legends, designed by one of the creators of DotA: Allstars; Riot Games starts calling the genre a MOBA.

Physics puzzle

Angry Birds brings the physics puzzle to touchscreen phones with its slingshot.

Real-time strategy0 A.D.

Wildfire Games releases the source code of 0 A.D. under the GPL, making it a game in the genre that anyone can download, study and modify.

Role-playing shooter

Borderlands popularises the shooter with random loot.

Sandbox

Minecraft appears in beta (the full release follows in 2011) and becomes the great example of free-form building.

Survival

Minecraft, built around gathering and crafting, popularises the genre.

Open-world survival craftMinecraft

The first public version of Minecraft comes out; in its survival mode you gather wood and stone to craft, eat so as not to starve and need shelter because monsters come out at night.

Tower defensePlants vs. Zombies

Plants vs. Zombies swaps the path for lanes on a grid and takes the genre to a mass audience.

Twin-stick shooterMinigore

Minigore brings twin-stick play to iOS and the touch screen, winning critical acclaim and a cult following.

Word puzzleWords with Friends

Words with Friends brings Scrabble-style crosswords to phones, with asynchronous turns against friends online.

Incremental gameCow Clicker

Researcher Ian Bogost releases Cow Clicker on Facebook, a satire of social games in which you can only click your cow every six hours unless you pay or invite friends.

MazePac-Man

For Pac-Man's 30th anniversary, Google puts a playable version on its home page, which is still available in the browser.

PlatformerSuper Meat Boy

Super Meat Boy, made by a two-person team, demands fine control and split-second timing with unlimited attempts; its success spurred other hard indie games such as Cuphead.

Precision platformer

Super Meat Boy packs over 300 levels of fine control and split-second timing.

Puzzle-platformerLimbo

Limbo, from the independent studio Playdead, mixes puzzles and horror and expects you to die many times while you work out how to get past each trap.

Action roguelike

The Binding of Isaac mixes the roguelike with shooting and real-time combat.

Educational

Habgood and Ainsworth compare versions of Zombie Division, a maths game for children aged 7 to 11: in one the content is built into the game itself, and in another the game merely coats it. With the first they learn more and, when free to choose, play it about seven times longer.

Endless runnerTemple Run

Temple Run, one of the earliest 3D entries, introduces an over-the-shoulder view and spawns a wave of clones.

Endless runnerJetpack Joyride

Jetpack Joyride swaps jumping for holding the screen to rise and letting go to fall, and adds three missions at a time as goals besides distance.

Programming game

Zachtronics' SpaceChem has you program manipulator arms in a visual language to produce molecules.

RoguelikeThe Binding of Isaac

The Binding of Isaac applies the formula to top-down action, with randomly assembled basements and permadeath; it is a typical roguelite.

Soulslike

Dark Souls cements the genre's conventions and gives it its name.

Space flight simulatorKerbal Space Program

The first public version of Kerbal Space Program comes out, where you design rockets and put them into orbit with near-realistic orbital physics; it is well received even by the aerospace community.

Tower defenseKingdom Rush

Kingdom Rush, from Uruguayan studio Ironhide, polishes the fixed build-spot formula with a controllable hero and sells over seventeen million copies.

Tower defense

Sanctum blends the genre with first-person shooting and popularises the hybrid in which the player also fights.

Twin-stick shooterThe Binding of Isaac

The Binding of Isaac combines twin-stick-style shooting with the random rooms and permanent death of roguelikes.

AdventureThe Walking Dead: Season One

Telltale's The Walking Dead pushes puzzles into the background and puts dialogue choices at the centre, with consequences that carry over between episodes.

CookingCook, Serve, Delicious!

Cook, Serve, Delicious! spreads orders across several stations at once and turns each recipe into a sequence of key presses; dishes are graded by the steps you skipped or got wrong.

EducationalDragonBox Algebra

DragonBox Algebra teaches solving equations with cards that start as creatures and objects, which the game gradually replaces with variables and numbers.

Massively multiplayer online first-person shooter

PlanetSide 2, one of the largest MMOFPS, would go on to host over a thousand players in a single battle.

Puzzle-platformerFez

In Fez you rotate a 3D world to view it from one of its four flat sides, and rotating connects platforms that were out of reach before.

StealthMark of the Ninja

Mark of the Ninja brings stealth to 2D side-scrolling and draws on screen what guards can see and how far noise travels.

Survival

DayZ, a mod for Arma 2, sets off a wave of survival games.

Survival horrorSCP – Containment Breach

SCP – Containment Breach, free and made by a single person, leaves you unarmed against a creature that only moves when you are not looking at it, and you have to blink.

Tactical RPGXCOM: Enemy Unknown

Firaxis's XCOM: Enemy Unknown reimagines X-COM with cover and permanent death, and revives interest in turn-based tactics.

Tile-matchingCandy Crush Saga

King's Candy Crush Saga comes out on Facebook and then on mobile as a free-to-play, level-based game, each level with a goal to meet within a fixed number of moves.

Walking simulator

The commercial release of Dear Esther is a breakout hit that popularises the modern walking simulator.

Word puzzle

Loren Brichter's Letterpress turns a 5-by-5 grid of letters into territory that two players fight over by forming words.

Block breaker

Google turns the «atari breakout» image search into a playable game, with the thumbnails as bricks.

DeckbuilderDominion

Dominion reaches the browser with an official version by Goko, in which the base game is free. Since 2017 the online version has been run by Shuffle iT.

Incremental gameCandy Box 2

Candy Box!, by aniwey, starts as a candy counter and opens up into a small role-playing game in ASCII art. Its sequel, Candy Box 2, comes out in October of the same year.

Incremental gameA Dark Room

A Dark Room, by Doublespeak Games, starts with a fire to stoke and gradually reveals a village, a map and a story with an ending. It shows the genre can tell stories, and its author releases the code as free software.

Incremental gameCookie Clicker

Cookie Clicker, by Julien "Orteil" Thiennot, is played in the browser and reaches 200,000 daily players a month after release; it is credited with a key role in the rise of the genre. Its "ascension" restarts the game in exchange for permanent bonuses.

Puzzle

Stephen Lavelle releases PuzzleScript, an open-source language for making turn-based puzzles in the browser, which brings puzzle design within anyone's reach.

Real-time strategyLittlewargame

Littlewargame, a simple real-time strategy game made in HTML5 with multiplayer, runs entirely in the browser.

Shoot 'em upRadius Raid

Radius Raid wins the js13kGames competition with a browser space shoot 'em up that weighs under 13 kilobytes.

Open-world survival craftDon't Starve

Klei Entertainment's Don't Starve adds a sanity meter to hunger and health, nights in which darkness kills, and permanent death in a randomly generated world.

Open-world survival craft

Facepunch's Rust enters early access: multiplayer only, you start with a rock and a torch, and the main threat is other players, who can raid your base.

Walking simulator

Gone Home, The Stanley Parable and Proteus establish the style as a recognisable genre.

Collectible card game

Hearthstone, free-to-play on PC and mobile, becomes a major critical and commercial success.

Deckbuilder

Dream Quest, a mobile game by Peter Whalen, is the first known example of deck-building with a roguelike structure. Others followed, and its author was hired by Blizzard to work on Hearthstone.

Endless runnerDinosaur Game

Google builds into Chrome an endless runner that appears when there is no connection. In 2018 its creators counted about 270 million games a month.

Incremental gameAdVenture Capitalist

AdVenture Capitalist is among the first to add earnings while the game is closed and to monetise the genre with in-game purchases.

Incremental gameClicker Heroes

Clicker Heroes pioneers prestige mechanics in mobile games, and in 2015 is part of the wave of idle games arriving on Steam.

Role-playing shooter

Destiny adds elements of massively multiplayer games: raids, clans and a shared world.

Survival horror

In Five Nights at Freddy's you do not move: you watch cameras and shut doors with limited power that has to last the whole night.

Bullet hellUndertale

Undertale brings bullet hell into a role-playing game: in each battle you dodge the enemy's attacks by moving a heart.

Construction and management simulation

Cities: Skylines is a major success with the city-building audience and renews that subgenre.

DeckbuilderHand of Fate

Hand of Fate builds each dungeon from cards in your deck and resolves fights as third-person action. It shows that the deck can generate the adventure, not just the combat.

EducationalFlexbox Froggy

Thomas Park releases Flexbox Froggy, a free browser game in which you write CSS code to guide frogs to their lily pads.

PlatformerCeleste Classic

Maddy Thorson and Noel Berry release Celeste Classic, a hardcore platformer made in four days for the PICO-8 fantasy console, playable in the browser.

RhythmCrypt of the NecroDancer

Crypt of the NecroDancer crosses rhythm with the roguelike, since you can only move and attack on the beat of the music.

Automation

Factorio enters early access: you build an automated factory on an alien planet in order to launch a rocket. Version 1.0 arrives in 2020.

Bullet hellEnter the Gungeon

Enter the Gungeon blends bullet hell with the roguelike, in top-down rooms you move through freely.

Construction and management simulationStardew Valley

Stardew Valley, made almost by a single person, brings farm management to tens of millions of players.

CookingOvercooked

Overcooked makes cooking a cooperative frenzy: several chefs prepare orders against the clock.

EducationalMinecraft: Education Edition

The educational edition of Minecraft, designed for use in schools, is released.

Farming simStardew Valley

Stardew Valley, the work of a single developer, renews the genre with farm, village, fishing and mines.

Hero shooter

Overwatch and Battleborn bring the genre mass popularity.

Sokoban

Stephen Lavelle's Stephen's Sausage Roll takes the Sokoban grid to puzzles about sausages you must grill on every side, widely praised by other puzzle designers.

Open-world survival craftP.Craft

NuSan releases P.Craft for the PICO-8 fantasy console: an island, trees to chop, a workbench and a boat to escape, all playable in the browser.

Typing game

Fishing Cactus's Epistory – Typing Chronicles is an action-adventure played by typing: every word you type strikes an enemy or opens the way.

Battle royale

PUBG: Battlegrounds sells over twenty million copies in its first year and becomes the genre's defining game.

Battle royale

Fortnite Battle Royale draws tens of millions of players within months.

DeckbuilderSlay the Spire

Slay the Spire enters early access (full release in 2019). Its per-turn energy, enemies that announce their next move and the choice of one card out of three after each fight popularise roguelike deckbuilders.

EducationalCoding for Carrots (Google Doodle)

Google celebrates 50 years of programming languages for children with a playable Doodle in which you snap together Scratch-style code blocks to guide a character to its carrots.

Endless runnerA Day In The Life

A Day In The Life fits in 13 KB for js13kGames. A single tap lets you jump, double jump, dash and fly, and it plays in the browser.

Hidden object

Hidden Folks renews the genre with animated, interactive scenes in which you look for characters and objects.

Incremental gameUniversal Paperclips

Universal Paperclips, by Frank Lantz, turns the "paperclip maximizer" thought experiment into a free incremental browser game with several stages and an ending.

MetroidvaniaHollow Knight

Hollow Knight, by independent studio Team Cherry, earns wide critical acclaim with a huge interconnected kingdom and goes on to sell more than 15 million copies.

Platform fighter

Brawlhalla, free-to-play with full cross-play, leaves years of beta behind; it is part of the indie wave that borrows Smash's mechanics.

Roguelike deck-builder

Slay the Spire enters early access (full release in 2019) and gives the genre its widest exposure.

Run and gunCuphead

Studio MDHR's Cuphead centres the genre on boss fights, with hand-made animation in the style of 1930s cartoons.

Survival horror

Resident Evil 7: Biohazard returns to the resource management and puzzles of the genre's beginnings.

Visual novelButterfly Soup

Brianna Lei's Butterfly Soup is released as pay-what-you-want on itch.io, and PC Gamer names it the year's best visual novel. It is an example of independent visual novels made outside Japan.

Block breakerBreakout Hero

Krystian Majewski releases Breakout Hero, a 15-level block breaker for the PICO-8 fantasy console that plays in the browser.

Colony sim

RimWorld, in early access since 2013, releases version 1.0.

Endless runnerSubway Surfers

Subway Surfers (2012) becomes the first game to pass one billion downloads on Google Play.

Extraction shooterHunt: Showdown

Crytek's Hunt: Showdown enters early access: bounty hunters kill monsters and must then survive the other players long enough to reach an exit.

FightingFOOTSIES

FOOTSIES strips the genre down to movement and one button to teach its fundamentals, which are spacing, hit confirms and whiff punishes.

Interactive movie

Black Mirror: Bandersnatch is Netflix's first major live-action interactive film.

Platform fighter

The success of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate spurs new platform fighters built on licensed characters, such as Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl and MultiVersus.

Puzzle-platformerONOFF

ONOFF, made for js13kGames, has you switch between two layers of the level with one button, and is played in the browser.

RhythmBeat Saber

Beat Saber takes the genre into virtual reality, where you slice blocks with two sabres to the beat, and at launch it becomes the best-selling and highest-rated VR game on Steam.

Social deductionAmong Us

Innersloth's Among Us comes out. In 2020 it becomes a phenomenon during the pandemic and adds to the Mafia formula tasks that crewmates must complete while hunting for the impostor.

Open-world survival craftSubnautica

Subnautica takes the genre underwater, with oxygen, hunger and thirst to watch, and its developers choose not to include lethal weapons.

CookingCooking Simulator

Cooking Simulator, by Polish studio Big Cheese, goes for realism, with a physics engine and over 80 recipes.

Exercise

Ring Fit Adventure turns exercise into the combat of a role-playing game.

Falling-block puzzleTetris 99

Tetris 99 takes the genre into battle royale, with 99 online players sending each other garbage rows until only one is left.

PuzzleBaba Is You

Baba Is You, born at the 2017 Nordic Game Jam, turns the rules themselves into blocks the player pushes and rewrites.

Boomer shooterUltrakill

Ultrakill enters early access, adding fast modern movement and an action-game style to the 1990s template.

Beat 'em upStreets of Rage 4

Streets of Rage 4 renews interest in the series and the genre, and passes 2.5 million copies within a year.

DeckbuilderMonster Train

Monster Train adds a spatial dimension, because cards summon creatures onto the different floors of a train that must be defended.

Extraction shooterEscape from Tarkov

Twitch streams send Escape from Tarkov's popularity soaring, and it reaches 200,000 concurrent players in May.

Light-gun shooter

The Sinden light gun works on LCD monitors and TVs by tracking a white border drawn around the edges of the screen.

RhythmFriday Night Funkin'

Friday Night Funkin' is born at the Ludum Dare 47 game jam and is released free and playable in the browser on itch.io and Newgrounds; its code is also open source.

Serious game

The FDA approves EndeavorRx, the first video game authorised as a treatment for ADHD in children.

DeckbuilderInscryption

Inscryption blends deck-building with horror, puzzles and a story, with cards that require sacrificing others to be played.

First-person shooterQ1K3

For the js13kGames competition, Q1K3 packs into 13 kilobytes of JavaScript an FPS with two levels, five enemy types and three weapons, played in the browser.

SportsDoodle Champion Island Games

Google celebrates the Tokyo Olympics with Doodle Champion Island Games, seven sports mini-games played free in the browser.

Open-world survival craftValheim

Valheim, from the Swedish studio Iron Gate, sells five million copies in its first month of early access, with up to ten players building and surviving together.

Word puzzleWordle

Wordle, a daily challenge to guess a five-letter word, goes viral on the web.

Bullet heaven

The success of Vampire Survivors popularises the genre and sets off a wave of similar games.

Bullet hell

Vampire Survivors popularises «bullet heaven», which turns the genre around: now it is your character who fills the screen with bullets.

CookingPlateUp!

PlateUp! mixes running a co-op restaurant with roguelike elements, such as 15-day runs with random upgrades.

Word puzzle

The New York Times buys Wordle, and the game is quickly adapted into dozens of languages, such as Termo in Portuguese.

Word puzzleAbsurdle

qntm's Absurdle turns Wordle on its head. The answer changes every turn to dodge you, and the puzzle becomes cornering the game.

CookingVenba

Venba uses cooking to tell a story, and each lost recipe that has to be rebuilt by trial and error is a puzzle about a family.

DeckbuilderBalatro

Balatro, the work of a single developer, applies deck-building to a poker deck and to jokers that change the scoring rules.

Tactical RPGPico-Saga

Pico-Saga brings the Fire Emblem formula to the PICO-8 fantasy console, with maps generated anew each game and playable in the browser.