diggr Video Game Vocabulary

A Special Edition may be a particular release of a game that is in some way different than another release of the same game on the same platform. This may be because it has fully integrated content that was previously available only as separate expansion material or additional content/features not available in the regular edition of the game. This can also be done in physical form e.g. with merchandise.

The act of creating a video game.

Comprises all game related things.

A location statement connects places or geographic entities with time or time span.

A company which is involved in the video game industry.

The Generic Edition is the creative or economic vision of game which will be realized in Platform Realizations. The Edition denotes a particular instantiation of a video game from a publisher or distributional perspective.

A Local Release incorporates a specific Edition and a specific Platform Realization. It is made available and accessible in a particular region and in a particular language. Local releases can differ in language, graphics localization, customization options for difficulty levels and characters.

Hardware or Software platform for which a Video Game is developed or released e.g. PlayStation 2 or XBox One.

An role relation connects actors (persons or companies) and their roles inside the video game production.

The Platform Realization class denotes a particular instantiation of a video game from a technical perspective. It differs in the development for a particular hardware platform (e.g. PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360). The Platform Realization bundles together such features as special additional hardware or system requirements. A Platform Realization differs to others on the basis of a certain platform and thus by major differences in the program code. A port creates a new platform edition entity.

A role within a game production process, e.g. writer, developer, voice actor, etc.

The Game entity type is an abstract entity that describes features that are shared among different editions of a game. The characteristics that are typically recognized by users when they say “we played the same game” even if they played it on different platforms (e.g. PlayStations 3 and Xbox 360). Features attributed to the Game entity type also support distinguishing between games by genre, mood, theme, setting, plot, etc.

An actor has one or more roles within a game production process, e.g. writers, developers, voice actors, etc. and can also be a company.

...

...

A game production event has one or more contributors, e.g. writers, developers, voice actors, etc. which are defined by a role relation.

A platform realization entity is ported by a company entity. (role shortcut)

An edition has a specific local release.

...

...

A company entity is a publisher of a specific local release.

A platform realization is created during an production event.

The relation between a specific role, actor and a corporation at the point in time of the production process.

Persons or companies are involved in the production event of a video game.

A Platform Realization of a game can be a port of a game from another hardware platform.

A platform realization entity is developed by a company entity. (role shortcut)

Relationship to a specific hardware platform.

The release country or region of a local release.

A company entity is a developer of a specific edition.

Another edition of a game can be in some way different from a generic edition of a game, e.g. Gold Edition, Day One Edition, etc.

A local release is a specific release of an Edition and a specific Platform Realization.

A company entity is a publisher of a specific local release or game. (role shortcut)

A game production role, e.g. writer, developer, voice actors, etc.

The release date of a game entity.

The title of a game entity.

The categorization of a video game e.g. puzzle video game or dungeon crawl.

A variant title of something.