Video Game Tropes

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
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An article in this index will be about these things:

  • Gameplay mechanics--including mechanics borrowed from Tabletop Games.
  • Characterization and setting tropes specific to game characters and settings.
  • Setting tropes that aren't necessarily specific to games but are used in games to the degree they are pretty much stock elements, or without which many games would be unrecognizable/unplayable.

NOTE: Please do not add tropes to this index if they can instead be put in one of the sub-categories.


Tropes related to technical aspects of video games:

  • Two and a Half D
    A sidescrolling platform game in a three-dimensional world.
  • Three Quarters View
    A method of portraying three dimensional space in a two-dimensional plane. Basically, it's a tilted bird's eye view perspective in which both the top and front of an object is seen at the same time, and the vertical axis indicates both height and depth.
  • Ambidextrous Sprite
    An asymmetric sprite will be perfectly mirrored--meaning it will "switch sides" depending on what side is visible.
  • Arcade Perfect Port
    Once the golden standard for ported video games when the difference in processing power between arcade and home was substantial.
  • Automatic New Game
    If the game can't find a previous save file, it skips the usual choice of "New Game" / "Continue Game" and starts up a new game by default.
  • Back That Light Up
    Handheld game consoles can be lit in several ways.
  • Camera Centering
    Quickly focusing the camera behind the player so you can see the same direction they are.
  • Camera Perspective Switch
    When the camera switches between first and third person perspective, or vice versa, either manually or dynamically.
  • Cel Shading
    A kind of rendering process that makes 3D models look like cartoons.
  • Combat and Support
    A pair of combat roles players can select between based on their respective play-styles.
  • Console Cameo
    A replica of the console a game is on (or another console by the same company) appears in the game.
  • Cut and Paste Environments
    Repetition of levels/environments, either in part or whole.
  • Dialogue Tree
    Dialogue which proceeds by selecting options from a list.
    • Shall I Repeat That?
      When, at the end of a long set of text or dialogue tree, the person with whom you are speaking asks to start the entire conversation over.
  • Digital Avatar
    Your custom persona inside the game (and elsewhere in Cyberspace).
  • Digitized Sprites
    Converting an existing or pre-made image into a sprite.
  • Dynamic Loading
    Techniques used to hide Loads and Loads of Loading.
  • Elaborate Equals Effective
    Items and weapons will have a better look as they grow stronger.
  • Essence Drop
    Dead enemies drop some intangible thing (usually spheres) that refill your health, magic, etc.
  • Event Flag
    Something that happens that triggers something else (possibly totally unrelated) to occur.
  • Evolutionary Retcon
    As graphics technology improves, the appearance of the enemies changes so they are scarier, more detailed, and/or more and more lifelike.
  • Faux First Person 3D
    A way to simulate 3-D graphics by arranging 2D elements into a perspectivical picture.
  • First Person Ghost
    In First Person Shooter games, you can never see any part of your body other than perhaps your arms.
  • Fixed Camera
    The camera in a game shifts, but you can't control it.
  • Flip Screen Scrolling
    A continuous gameworld scrolls only in full-screen intervals, or is otherwise rendered as a series of "screens".
  • Freelook Button
    The ability to switch from player control to camera control (when you can't have both), and simply observe all the gameworld's Scenery Porn from the character's perspective.
  • Freeware Games
    Games which have either been created for free distribution, or are formerly commercial titles that have been released from their copyright obligations.
  • Game Favored Gender
    When gender differences lead to one gender being more useful than the other.
  • Going Through the Motions
    3D games have a recognizable set of animations for each character which are repeated throughout the game.
  • Graphics Induced Super Deformed
    Video game characters have big heads in-game due to the low pixel count they take up.
  • Head Swap
    Same body, different head.
  • Hyperactive Sprite
    Sprites which will not have an idle mode, thereby being animated as if moving when it should be standing still.
  • Isometric Projection
    A form of graphical projection that fakes a third dimension when only 2D graphics are available.
  • Kill Screen
    When an older game gets played so far past expectations that it results in a Game Breaking Bug.
  • Loading Screen
    Please wait, your trope description is loading.
  • Magnet Hands
    Characters in Platform Games will always be holding their weapon, no matter what kind of crazy acrobatics they're engaged in.
  • Mook Debut Cutscene
    A short, usually wordless cutscene runs when you meet a new kind of mook.
  • Multi Platform
    Any software program, particularly a Video Game, that is simultaneously developed and (usually) simultaneously released for more than one system.
  • Point Build System
    The opposite type of Game System to the Class and Level System, you spend points to buy stats & skills.
  • Post Processing Video Effects
    Common visual effects that are applied after the scene is rendered by the game engine.
  • Ratchet Scrolling
    Scrolling controlled by the player but only operating one-way.
  • Real Time with Pause
    The ability to affect gameplay while it's paused.
  • Repeatable Quest
    Quests that can be repeated.
  • Respawn Point
    When you die, there's a designated place your new body pops out.
  • Scripted Event
    Events in video games which are programmed to unfold in the same way each time.
  • Shareware
    A popular form of game distribution, especially during the 1990s.
  • Side View
    A video game perspective in which all objects are viewed strictly from the side, with little or no amount of their tops or bottoms visible.
  • Skybox
    A graphical representation of the sky that "wraps around" a computer game-world, and is used to simulate the "sky" of a game-world.
  • Soft Reset
    The ability to restart just the game, without having to reboot the system.
  • Sound of No Damage
    A sound effect played when something is hit without taking damage.
  • Sprite Polygon Mix
    Fifth-generation systems often used fully 3D backgrounds with sprite characters, or static backgrounds with polygonal characters.
  • Suddenly Blonde
    A character's design must be constrained due to technical limitations.
  • Tech Demo Game
    A game that has such high hardware requirements, it's almost like a tech demo for said hardware requirements. It can also refer to games that make an obvious push to show off power (such as a game for a video game console).
  • Thematic Series
    A series of loosely connected games.
  • Top Down View
    A bird's eye view of the action.
  • Vector Game
    Any game that uses a vector graphics display.
  • Video Game Geography
    The consequences of making maps fit to a game instead of the other way around.
  • Who Forgot the Lights?
    They made it dark for atmosphere. Pity you can't see anything.
  • Wrap Around
    A mechanic where the edges of the screen are hyperspatially connected: move past the left side, and you appear on the right.
  • Zip Mode
    An out-of-story way to quickly get from one area to another, to minimize Back Tracking.

Common gameplay tropes:

Common non-gameplay-related tropes: