The Game Taxonomy Breakdown modal shows the full list of genres, themes, narrative tropes, and gameplay features that define a game. It’s the best place to understand how a title is constructed from what it plays like to how it tells its story.
Navigate to Game Breakdown
On any Game Breakdown page, scroll to the Game Breakdown section and click "See All". This opens the modal in an overlay.
Game Breakdown Contents
The Game Breakdown page gives you a comprehensive view of a game's core elements. The latest version includes several New Categories and expanded definitions:
Genres, Secondary Genre, and Sub-Genre: Lists the main, sub, and secondary genres the game fits into (e.g., Action RPG, Roguelike, Life Sim).
Secondary Genre (New): Additional genres that further define the game's identity.
Sub-Genre (New): Specific sub-genres that provide further context.
Narrative: Defines what the game is about, covering Themes, Tropes, Delivery, and Protagonist.
Gameplay: Defines what it plays like, covering Main Concepts and Itemization.
Graphics: Defines what it looks like, covering Perspective, Technology, and Style.
World: Defines how the world is designed, covering Setting, Structure, and Features.
Business Model: Details how the game is monetized (e.g., Free To Play, Microtranscations).
Social Features: Outlines how players interact with others, such as Text Chat or Match-specific Text Chat.
Player Suitability: Features that can influence player appeal, such as Demographic, Complexity, Sexual Content, Violence, and Sensitive Content.
Interacting with the Game Breakdown
Most tags in the modal are clickable:
Clicking a tag opens the corresponding Feature Breakdown Page
You can explore how often that tag appears, what games share it, and who it appeals to
Use this to reverse-engineer the DNA of a game or to build your own design reference list
The Breakdown modal is where creators, producers, and strategists go when they want to see what makes a game tick or what it has in common with (or different from) its competitors.