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alt title(s): Video Game
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 irrecognizable/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:

  • Ambidextrous Sprite
    An asymmetric sprite will be perfectly mirrored—meaning it will "switch sides" depending on what side is visible.
  • Back That Light Up
    Handheld game consoles can be lit in several ways.
  • Delusional With Reality
    When Ruleof Fun is ignored in favor of Realism.
  • Dialogue Tree
    Dialogue which proceeds by selecting options from a list.
  • Digital Avatar
    Your custom persona inside the game (and elsewhere in cyberspace).
  • Dynamic Loading
    Techniques used to hide Loads And Loads Of Loading.
  • Event Flag
    Something that happens that triggers something else (possibly totally unrelated) to occur.
  • Every Bullet Is A Tracer
    Graphical aspect wherein bullets and other projectiles are of visible types.
  • Fight Woosh
    Graphic effect that happens when you go into a Random Encounter.
  • First Person Ghost
    In First Person Shooter games, you can never see any part of your body other than perhaps your arms.
  • For The Cel Of It
    Cel shading, a kind of rendering process that makes 3D models look like cartoons.
  • Freeware Games
    Games which have either been created for free distribution, or are formerly commercial titles that have been released from their copyright obligations.
  • 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.
  • Instant 180 Degree Turn
    A character or an object the player is controlling, can turn 180 (different number in 3D games) degrees in an instant.
  • Invisible Grid
    A mainly 3D game mechanic that limits where you can move, jump, and/or land so that you are always on an invisible grid.
  • Isometric Projection
    A form of graphical projection that fakes a third dimension when only 2D graphics are available.
  • Jiggle Physics
    That amazing programming breakthrough that gives breasts realistic bouncing animation.
  • Jump Physics
    It's very different in a Platform Game than it is in real life.
  • Kill Screen
    When an older game gets played so far past expectations, it throws up a screen filled with garbage.
  • Ladder Physics
    Ladders in games act strangely, like letting you climb them while having both arms free.
  • 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.
  • Multi Platform
    Any software program, particularly a Video Game, that is simultaneously developed and (usually) simultaneously released for more than one system.
  • Real Time With Pause
    The ability to affect gameplay while it's paused.
  • 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.
  • Ragdoll Physics
    Games that use increasingly realistic physics for all objects, especially dead enemies.
  • Ratchet Scrolling
    Scrolling controlled by the player but only operating one-way.
  • Respawn Point
    When you die, there's a designated place your new pody 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.
  • Sprite Polygon Mix
    Fifth-generation systems often used fully 3D backgrounds with sprite characters, or static backgrounds with polygonal characters.
  • ThreeQuartersView (3/4ths 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.
  • 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.
  • Waggle
    The dev team feels required to use unique features of a platform in awkward ways, or places it clearly doesn't belong.
  • Wrap Around
    A mechanic where the edges of the screen are hyperspatially connected: move past the left side, and you appear on the right.
  • Wreaking Havok
    Where the coolness of the physics engine conspicuously draws attention to itself rather than meshing with the rest of the gaming experience.

Common gameplay tropes:

Common non-gameplay-related tropes:


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