The Top 10 Cliché Video Game Themes
Because so many game worlds have been introduced over the years, some of them have become hoary clichés. Most developers run screaming from these, but they still have their uses. I therefore present them to you:
- Outer space—You can easily see how a black television screen may have served as inspiration to early game developers as the perfect stand-in for outer space. Brightly displayed vector-drawn stars looked great on those early CRT screens. Player-controlled spaceships meant no animations. Spaceships could be rendered in simple geometric shapes. Gameplay could be based primarily on physics: an important advantage to those early programmers during the days prior to game designers and artists. As the earliest game genre—the shooter—evolved, outer space continued to be a popular locale for video game battles to be waged. Outer space also allows for all the tropes of sci-fi: aliens, spaceships, computers, and futuristic...