Ways to use this list
- Game design class: each team spins a genre and has one lesson to make a paper prototype, with rules a classmate can follow without help.
- Game jam theme: combine the genre you spin with a theme word for a weekend build, like tower defence plus "underwater".
- Gaming club: spin a genre for the next session and everyone brings a game from it that suits all ages in the room.
- Media studies: compare how three genres create tension, such as a puzzle game's clock, a stealth game's guards and a racing game's rivals.
- For a full idea to build, pair the genre with a prompt from the random game idea generator.
Press Spin the wheel, tap the game or press the Space bar. Change the list in the box as you
like: add your own, delete what doesn't suit you, or write *2 after an entry to give it double the
chance. The game buttons switch the same list to a duck race, hat, claw machine and more.
The full list (52 entries)
- Platformer
- Shooter
- Shoot 'em up
- Fighting
- Beat 'em up
- Hack and slash
- Stealth
- Action-adventure
- Battle royale
- Endless runner
- Survival
- Role-playing game (RPG)
- Action RPG
- Dungeon crawler
- Roguelike
- Open world
- Point-and-click adventure
- Text adventure
- Visual novel
- Interactive story
- Detective game
- Escape room
- MMO
- Real-time strategy
- Turn-based strategy
- Tower defence
- City builder
- Management game
- Tycoon
- Life simulation
- Farming game
- Flight simulator
- Sandbox
- MOBA
- Puzzle
- Match-three
- Physics puzzle
- Hidden object
- Rhythm game
- Party game
- Trivia
- Word game
- Idle game
- Deck-builder
- Educational
- Fitness game
- Cosy game
- Monster collecting
- Sports
- Racing
- Kart racing
- Sports management
Questions people ask
What are the most common video game genres?
The big families are action, adventure, role-playing, strategy, simulation, sports and racing, and puzzle. Most games mix two or more, giving us the action RPG, the puzzle platformer and the survival city builder.
What is the most popular gaming genre?
It depends on how you count. Player surveys often put casual puzzle games at the top, because so many people play them on phones, while best-seller charts are usually led by action, shooter, sports and role-playing games.
What is a roguelike?
A game where every run builds a new random level, and when you lose you start again from the beginning, often keeping a little progress. The name comes from an early 1980s computer game that worked this way.
How can I use a random genre to design my own game?
Spin a genre, then spin again with Winners set to 2 for a twist, such as a farming game that is also a rhythm game. Sketch the main action the player repeats, the goal and one obstacle before touching any code.