The Cynic's
Glossary

Explore, Expand, Exploit, Exterminate. Civilization and Stellaris. Goodbye social life.

Games with massive budgets, massive teams, and zero risks. The opposite of Indie.

A measure of how fast you can click. High APM is required for RTS, low APM is required for life.

Software that is no longer supported by the developer, often pirated by nostalgic gamers who refuse to let go.

A player who will grind for 100 hours just to unlock a digital badge that says 'You did it!'.

An RPG where you click things until they die, instead of selecting 'Attack' from a menu.

Downloadable content that should have been in the base game but was cut to be sold separately.

The attention of an enemy AI. Managing this is the only skill required in most MMORPG raids.

Legal aimbot for controller players. The primary source of salt in cross-platform FPS lobbies.

A version of the game that is barely functional, often sold to players as 'Early Access'.

An alternate account used to smurf or evade bans. A sign of a healthy mental state.

An attack that hits everything in a circle. The best way to accidentally kill your teammates.

A genre defined by short play sessions and high difficulty. Also, a place where you used to spend quarters.

An FPS subgenre where movement is more important than aiming. Dead, but its fans won't admit it.

A document that defines the visual style of the game. Usually ignored by the 3D modelers.

The art of buying a $10 Unity asset pack, slapping your name on it, and wondering why the Steam Algorithm hates you. Often confused with 'efficient development' by delusional solo devs.

A marketplace where you can buy a game instead of making one. See: Asset Flip.

A game where one player is overpowered and four players are terrified. Hard to balance, fun to watch.

A strategy game where you don't actually play. You just watch your units fight and pray to RNG.

The digital puppet you control. Usually customized with expensive skins.

The list of games you bought on Steam sale but will never play. A monument to consumerism.

An update that nerfs your favorite character and buffs the one you hate.

A psychological experiment to see how much homework players will pay to do. Essential for Gacha monetization, despised by everyone else.

A genre where 100 players drop onto an island and 99 of them lose. The Fortnite effect.

A genre where you walk right and punch everyone. Simple, repetitive, and oddly satisfying.

A marketing term for a demo. The game is finished, they just want to test the servers.

Formerly a quality assurance phase. Now a marketing beat where you let players break your game for free so you can delay the Day 1 Patch.

A distinct environment in a game. Ice level, fire level, forest level. Groundbreaking.

A genre for people whose reflexes peaked in 1999. Requires high framerates, low polygon counts, and a complete disregard for modern narrative structures.

The act of funding your game with your own savings, sanity, and relationships. Usually ends in Ramen Profitability or bankruptcy.

A mode where you fight all the bosses in a row. For masochists who hate level design.

An AI player used to fill empty servers or farm gold. Often smarter than actual teammates.

A change that makes a weapon or character stronger. Usually followed by a Nerf next week.

A specific version of the game code. 'It works on my machine' is the standard response to a broken build.

A genre where the screen is 90% enemy projectiles and 10% your hitbox. Seizure warning required.

The speed at which your studio sets money on fire. If your Burn Rate exceeds your Runway, you are technically already dead.

The amount of money you pay Facebook to convince one person to install your game, play it for 3 seconds, and then Churn immediately.

Abilities that stop enemies from moving. The most annoying thing to play against in PvP.

Sitting in a corner with a shotgun. A legitimate strategy that everyone hates.

A derogatory term for people who play games for fun instead of treating them like a second job.

A tool where you spend 2 hours making a face that will be covered by a helmet for the entire game.

A relic of the past. Now you have to pay for 'Time Savers' instead of typing IDDQD.

A save point. If placed poorly, it can ruin the entire game experience.

The sound of players leaving your game forever because you forced them through a 20-minute unskippable tutorial. The nemesis of Retention.

A genre where the controls are intentionally bad to make the game feel 'atmospheric'. See also: Walking Simulator.

A role you choose at the start of an RPG. You will regret your choice 20 hours later.

See: Idle Game. A Skinner box for humans.

When a 3D model passes through another object. A feature, not a bug.

A secret club where your friends tell you your game is good because they don't want to hurt your feelings. Useless for actual Playtesting.

An exclusive club for streamers and pre-order customers. Marketing disguised as testing.

Streaming a game from a server. Great if you love input lag and compression artifacts.

A mode where you can ruin friendships by accidentally shooting your teammate.

A programmer who turns caffeine into spaghetti code. The backbone of the industry.

The physics that stop you from walking through walls. Often broken in Speedruns.

A series of attacks that prevents the opponent from playing the game. Fun for one person.

Professional babysitting for 10,000 angry gamers on Discord. Requires the patience of a saint and the thick skin of a rhino.

A mode for people who think they are going pro. They are not going pro.

Beautiful drawings that look nothing like the final game. Used to sell the dream.

Arguments between children about which plastic box is better. The corporations win either way.

Adding aim assist so PC players can complain on Reddit.

The time you have to wait before using an ability again. The enemy of fun.

An item that changes how you look but not how you play. The only ethical Microtransaction.

A farming sim where the only stress is the crushing realization that your virtual life is more organized than your real one. High LTV potential if you add hats.

A system where you combine 5 sticks and a rock to make a sword. Mandatory in every Survival Game.

When the game closes itself. Usually happens right after you forgot to save.

Allowing PC, Xbox, and PlayStation players to play together. A nightmare for balancing.

Begging strangers for money on the internet. See: Kickstarter.

The industry standard for 'poor project management'. A period of mandatory overtime that ruins marriages and produces buggy code.

A movie you can't skip. Usually explains a plot you don't care about.

Extra content you pay for. Can be a full expansion or a $5 horse armor.

The only metric that matters to elitist players. If your DPS is low, you get kicked.

Software that prevents piracy but mostly just annoys paying customers. Denuvo is the final boss.

A chore list that resets every 24 hours. Designed to maximize Retention.

An enemy with too much health and no interesting mechanics. Lazy design.

Content that was finished before launch but held back to squeeze more money out of you.

The 50GB download that finishes the game you bought on a disc. A symptom of aggressive Release Dates and Feature Creep.

Any game with fewer viewers on Twitch than Fortnite. A favorite phrase of trolls.

A negative status effect. Poison, slow, silence. Annoying.

A genre for people who like math but hate spreadsheets. The current darling of the Steam Algorithm.

A free sample of the game. Rare nowadays because publishers know the game is bad.

Special hardware used to make games. Expensive and hard to get.

A video diary where you promise features you haven't built yet to an audience of other developers who won't buy your game.

A branching conversation where all choices lead to the same outcome.

When a game suddenly becomes impossible for no reason. Usually a sign of bad pacing.

A chat app where gamers go to complain. Essential for Community Management.

The ultimate goal of Community Management. A group of players so devoted they will defend your bugs as 'features'.

A player who spends money, but not enough to be a Whale. The middle class of the F2P economy.

The probability of getting the item you want. It is always lower than you think.

A genre about killing monsters in a dark room to get loot. Repeat until bored.

A way to sell a prototype for full price. Works best for Survival Games and Roguelikes. A trap for narrative games.

A hidden secret put in by a bored developer. Usually a reference to another game.

The rank where you are stuck because your teammates are bad. Definitely not your fault.

Software that lets you play old games on new hardware. Nintendo hates this.

The content available after you finish the story. Usually involves grinding for slightly better gear.

The software used to build the game. Unity, Unreal, Godot. Pick your poison.

A mission where you have to protect a suicidal NPC. Universally hated.

Competitive gaming with big prize pools. Where the 0.01% make money and everyone else dreams.

A game you can only play on one console. A weapon in the Console War.

Using a bug to gain an advantage. 'Creative use of game mechanics'.

A business model where 99% of players enjoy your game for free, subsidized by the 1% of Whales with gambling addictions.

A setting that prevents motion sickness. If missing, expect a negative Steam review.

Point and click adventure games for people with ADHD. The most saturated market on the planet.

Repeatedly killing the same enemies for resources. See: Grind.

Teleporting across the map because walking is boring. Ruins immersion, saves time.

The silent killer of indie studios. The belief that adding 'just one more mechanic' will fix a broken Core Loop.

A mission where you go get an item and bring it back. Padding for game length.

How much of the world you can see. PC gamers demand a slider for this.

A genre requiring frame-perfect inputs and memorization. High barrier to entry.

A studio owned by the console manufacturer. Sony Santa Monica, Nintendo EPD.

The darkness hiding the map in strategy games. Prevents you from seeing the enemy rush.

How smooth the game looks. 60 FPS is the minimum, 30 FPS is a crime.

Free to play, pay to win. The mobile game standard.

When a game leaves Early Access. Often indistinguishable from the beta version.

Polite sportsmanship, or sarcastic toxicity depending on context.

The strategy you panic-write two weeks before launch. Should include Influencer Marketing, PR, and prayer.

Loot Boxes with anime waifus. The most efficient way to print money if you have no soul.

A massive document describing the game. Obsolete the moment development starts.

Making a game in 48 hours. A great way to burn out and eat too much pizza.

The 30 seconds of fun you repeat for 100 hours. If this sucks, no amount of Polish will save you.

Netflix for games. Great value for players, questionable for developers.

See: Game Loop. The core activity of the game.

Ambushing a player with overwhelming numbers. Dishonorable but effective.

Telling people they aren't 'real gamers' because they play on easy mode.

Watching a streamer's screen to cheat in a multiplayer game. Also, what publishers do to your emails.

A build with high damage and low health. You kill fast, you die fast.

A visual or gameplay error. Sometimes funny, sometimes game-breaking.

Fancy lighting tech that tanks your framerate. Ray Tracing is the expensive version.

Invincibility. Fun for 5 minutes, then boring.

An archaic term for the version of the game that is printed on discs, which is immediately obsolete due to the Day 1 Patch.

Expensive items designed to remove currency from the economy. Prevents inflation in MMOs.

A comic book you read on a screen. Sometimes has choices.

A player who derives fun from ruining the game for others. A sociopath.

Doing repetitive tasks to progress. The core of MMORPGs and F2P games.

A group of players who drama together. Essential for high-level content.

The UI elements on screen. Health, ammo, map. Less is more.

A genre focused on combat with melee weapons. Button mashing encouraged.

A cheater using software to win. The scum of the earth.

The player who keeps everyone alive. Usually blamed when the tank dies.

The red bar that tells you how close you are to failure.

An FPS where balancing is impossible because every character needs a unique ultimate ability that breaks the game.

The invisible shape that determines if an attack hits. Often broken in FPS games.

Weapons that hit instantly. No bullet travel time. Point and click.

The one sentence that convinces a publisher not to delete your email. 'It's Dark Souls but with crabs' is a Hook.

Fighting waves of enemies until you die. Simple, replayable content.

Excitement generated by marketing. Usually leads to disappointment.

Spending real money inside a game. The lifeblood of mobile gaming.

A game that plays itself. The ultimate expression of 'number go up'. High Retention, low dignity.

A buzzword meaning 'the game feels real'. Usually involves minimal HUD.

A genre where you can stack boxes to climb over walls, but nobody buys it because it's too smart for its own good.

Independent developer. Can mean a solo dev in a basement or a team of 50 with a publisher.

The mythical event where too many games are released and everyone goes broke. Spoiler: It's happening right now.

Paying a streamer $5,000 to mispronounce your game's name for an hour. Essential for User Acquisition.

The delay between pressing a button and the action happening. Kills competitive games.

A private version of a dungeon for your group. Prevents overcrowding.

Tetris with items. A core mechanic in RPGs and Survival games.

A lazy way to stop players from going out of bounds. Breaks immersion.

A camera angle that looks down from a corner. Classic for RPGs and Strategy games.

An RPG from Japan. Expect spiky hair, big swords, and the power of friendship.

Kills divided by Deaths. The measure of a player's ego in FPS games.

The superior control scheme for shooters. Controller players disagree.

A platform for selling promises. Great for validating a Hook, terrible for actually funding development.

A replay showing how you died. Usually reveals the enemy was camping.

Killing multiple enemies without dying. Rewards you with overpowered abilities.

The total amount of money you can extract from a single user before they realize they should be doing something else.

Network delay. The universal excuse for losing.

A path in a MOBA map. Top, Mid, Bot. Choose wisely.

The day the game is released. Usually accompanied by server crashes.

A list of the best players. Usually topped by hackers.

The maximum level you can reach. When the real game begins.

Creating the spaces where the game takes place. Good level design guides the player invisibly.

A game with a set path. Opposite of Open World. Not a bad thing.

The hell that begins after you launch. Constant updates, events, and bug fixes to prevent Churn.

Translating the game into other languages. Essential for global sales.

Surprise mechanics! A great way to get your game banned in Belgium.

Backstory that isn't in the game. Found in wikis and item descriptions.

The study of games. Academic term for 'thinking too hard about fun'.

When your cutscene says 'war is bad' but your gameplay awards points for headshots. Critics love this term.

A genre you should never attempt to build unless you have $100 million and a death wish.

A toxic community simulator disguised as a strategy game. High Retention, extremely high salt levels.

The ugliest, buggiest version of your game that is still technically playable. Ship it or die.

Automating a sequence of inputs. Cheating in some games, essential in others.

The story missions. Often ignored in favor of side quests.

The blue bar that lets you cast spells. Don't run out.

Dominating key areas of the map. Crucial in RTS and FPS.

The system that pairs you with other players. Everyone complains about it.

A rule or interaction in the game. Jumping, shooting, crafting.

The most effective strategy currently. Follow it or lose.

A review aggregator. A low score can kill a studio's bonus.

A buzzword for a virtual world nobody wants to live in. VR Chat but corporate.

A 2D platformer where you get lost for 10 hours. Requires excellent Level Design to avoid frustration.

Horse armor. The beginning of the end.

Optimizing a character to the extreme. Sacrificing fun for efficiency.

A small game inside the main game. Fishing, lockpicking, Gwent.

Mobile Object. A generic enemy monster.

User-created content that modifies the game. Can fix bugs or add Thomas the Tank Engine.

A variation of the game rules. Deathmatch, Capture the Flag.

A visual effect that smears the screen when you turn. The first thing PC gamers disable.

A creature or vehicle you ride. Faster than walking.

Playing with other humans. Unpredictable and often toxic.

Digital extras. In modern RPGs, they have more lines of dialogue than your real friends.

Acting like a background character with no agency. An insult.

The story. Can be linear, branching, or non-existent.

Trying to tell a story while the player is bunny-hopping around the room and ignoring your dialogue.

A change that makes something weaker. Always controversial.

Replaying the game with your endgame gear. A power trip.

A new or bad player. Used as an insult.

Movement is controlled by the game, you just aim. Like a theme park ride.

Killing an enemy in a single hit. Satisfying.

Requires an internet connection even for single player. Hated by everyone.

A free trial before launch. Stress testing the servers.

A massive map filled with icons. Can be immersive or overwhelming.

Making the game run smoothly. Often neglected until after launch.

Too strong. Needs a Nerf.

The flow of the game. Balancing action and rest.

Testing your game with index cards because you're too lazy to code. Surprisingly effective for Strategy Games.

A group of players adventuring together.

The list of changes in an update. Analyzed religiously by hardcore players.

How AI navigates the world. Often results in enemies running into walls.

Buying power with real money. The cardinal sin of gaming.

If you die, you lose everything. High stakes.

Simulates gravity and collisions. Havok, PhysX.

Latency to the server. Low ping is good, high ping is lag.

A fancy word for 'we failed, so we're changing the genre'. Usually happens when Runway is running low.

An art style chosen not for nostalgia, but because 3D animation is hard. Still requires actual talent.

Searching for a tiny interactable object. Annoying in adventure games.

The hardware you play on. PC, Console, Mobile.

Jumping. That's it. If your jump feels bad, your game is bad.

The ability to make meaningful choices. Essential for RPGs.

Watching strangers struggle to open a door in your game for 20 minutes. A humbling experience.

An adventure genre played with a mouse. Puzzle heavy.

The last 10% of development that takes 50% of the time. Juice, screenshake, and sound effects.

The building block of 3D models. More polygons = better graphics (usually).

Moving a game to a different platform. PC ports are often bad.

A blog post explaining why your game failed. Usually blames the Steam Algorithm instead of the bad Game Loop.

New content is stronger than old content, making old stuff obsolete.

The fun part where you dream big before the reality of Production crushes your soul.

Paying for a game before it's finished. A gamble.

A meme originating from Call of Duty. Forced interactivity.

Using math to create infinite boring content. Great for Roguelikes, bad for narrative.

Leveling up and getting stronger. Keeps players hooked.

A bank that also has opinions on your art style. Can save your studio or destroy it.

Money given by a publisher to develop the game. Comes with strings attached.

A mental challenge. Can be logic, physics, or pattern based.

Fighting AI that is either too stupid to move or has aimbot. Hard to balance.

The fastest way to find out your netcode is broken.

The unsung heroes who find the bugs you wrote. Treat them well.

Pressing a button when prompted during a cutscene. Lazy design.

A task given to the player. Kill rats, save princess.

Luck. Determines loot drops and critical hits. Pray to RNGesus.

Spreadsheets with dragons. Requires massive Scope and content.

Adding levels and stats to a non-RPG game. Everything has RPG elements now.

A dead genre. If you're making one, good luck.

Stopping the game in anger. Usually followed by uninstalling.

High-level group content in MMOs. Requires coordination and time.

Making just enough money to not starve. The indie dream.

Realistic lighting simulation. Requires a powerful GPU.

Restarting a franchise from scratch. New story, same name.

A lie you tell your community. Always add 6 months to your first estimate.

Rebuilding an old game with modern tech. Resident Evil 4.

Polishing an old game. Higher resolution, same bugs.

Drawing the graphics on screen.

Coming back to life after death.

Keeping players coming back. Day 1, Day 7, and Day 30 metrics determine if you have a business or a hobby.

When players punish you for a balance change by destroying your Steam rating.

A free game given to press before launch. Embargoed until release.

Giving a 3D model a skeleton so it can move.

A plan for future updates. Often delayed or abandoned.

A game where you die a lot. Saves on content creation because the player replays the same levels forever.

Like a Roguelike, but you keep some progress after death. More accessible.

Lag that snaps you back to a previous position. Infuriating.

The number of months until you go broke. Calculated by dividing bank balance by Burn Rate.

Attacking early and fast. Zerg Rush.

A game with no goals, relying on the player to make their own fun. Often code for 'we didn't finish the design'.

Unlimited resources and no goals. Just build.

Reloading a save until you get the desired outcome.

When your simple platformer suddenly needs a crafting system and a fishing minigame.

When the display shows two frames at once. Fixed by V-Sync.

Something that always happens the same way. Not dynamic.

Pre-paying for future DLC. A leap of faith.

The computer that hosts the multiplayer game. Blame it for lag.

Code that tells the GPU how to draw pixels. Magic.

The cameo king. Appears in every indie game.

Games released solely to farm trading cards. The bottom of the Steam barrel.

Optional content. Distracts from the main story.

Work, but you don't get paid. Truck Simulator, PowerWash Simulator, etc.

A dying breed according to EA, but the only thing players actually want.

The limit of how good you can get at the game. High ceiling = esports.

How easy it is to start playing. Low floor = accessible.

A branching path of upgrades. +5% damage.

A cosmetic appearance for a character or item.

Digital clothes. The primary GDP of the gaming industry.

A high-level player on a new account crushing noobs. Pathetic.

Releasing your game in Canada or New Zealand to fix bugs before the Americans see it.

Getting stuck in a state where you can't progress but the game hasn't crashed.

Action RPGs where the dodge roll is the most important mechanic. Must be 'tough but fair'.

The architecture of your game. Everything is connected, and touching one noodle breaks the sauce.

Killing enemies as soon as they respawn. Toxic.

Players finishing your 10-hour game in 12 minutes. A sign of good mechanics or terrible collision detection.

Damage that hits an area. Explosions.

Local multiplayer on one TV. A dying art.

A 2D image used in a game.

A resource that limits running or attacking. Manage it or die.

A number defining a character's attribute. Strength, Agility, Intelligence.

Avoiding detection. Crouching makes you invisible.

The dark god that decides your fate. Feed it Wishlists and Reviews or perish.

The hunger games for indie demos. The most important marketing beat for a PC game.

When PC gamers buy games they will never play because they are 75% off.

Games for people who like to think. Hard to monetize, hard to market.

Someone who plays games for an audience. Influencer.

Being unable to move or act because of repeated CC. Frustrating.

A role focused on helping teammates. Heals, buffs.

Punching trees to make tools to punch rocks. The ultimate Early Access genre.

Scary game with limited resources. Resident Evil.

Chess with waifus. XCOM or Fire Emblem. Niche but dedicated audience.

A role focused on taking damage and protecting the team.

Crouching repeatedly on a dead enemy. Disrespectful.

Problems you create today to save time, which will destroy you tomorrow.

Researching new technologies in strategy games.

The image wrapped around a 3D model. Paint.

Using math to find the best build. Spreadsheet gaming.

Camera behind the character. You can see your skin.

How often the server updates. Higher is better.

Ranking characters or items from best (S) to worst (F).

How long it takes to kill an enemy. Low TTK = fast paced.

The first thing you see. Press Start.

Negative behavior. Insults, griefing, throwing.

See: AAA. Big budget games.

Someone playing too seriously in a casual game.

Gameplay that waits for you. Perfect for strategy, hated by the TikTok generation.

The part of the game everyone skips and then complains they don't know how to play.

Streaming platform. Where games live or die.

The buttons and menus. If it's bad, your game is unplayable. Often an afterthought.

How the game feels. Not to be confused with UI. Good UX is invisible; bad UX is painful.

Your most powerful ability. Long cooldown.

The engine that powers 50% of games and 100% of memes about bad games.

The engine you use if you want your game to look good but run at 15 FPS on low-end PCs.

A patch that changes the game. Fixes bugs, adds content.

Buying players. See CAC.

Buying players through ads. Expensive.

Syncs framerate to monitor refresh rate. Prevents tearing, adds input lag.

Goggles that put you inside the game. Motion sickness simulator.

Games that are announced but never released. Star Citizen is the king of this.

A polished 5-minute demo used to trick Publishers into giving you money.

A book that requires a mouse click to turn the page. Cheap to make, hard to sell.

Talking to teammates. Usually muted due to toxicity.

A narrative game with no fail state. Critics love them, streamers talk over them.

A guide on how to beat the game. Cheating?

A cheat that lets you see through walls.

A player who spends thousands of dollars on your F2P game. The target of all mobile design.

When the whole team dies. Restart the encounter.

The currency of Steam. Get 10,000 or don't bother launching.

Desperate attempts to get Wishlists through TikTok trends and Reddit posts.

Creating the history and culture of the game world.

Points earned for doing things. Level up.

Overwhelming the enemy with cheap units. Starcraft term.

A style of game review that is faster than your game's frame rate. If he likes it, you win.

A genre that refuses to die, much like its antagonists. Please stop making these.

An area of the map.