Tile-based game

Tile-based games use small rectangular tiles, usually twice as long as they are wide and twice as wide as they are thick thick, as playing pieces for gambling or entertainment games. Each tile has a back (undifferentiated) side and a face side. Face sides have different ranks or classifications according to the number of spots or according to the symbols engraved thereon.

Some tile based games:

• Dominoes
• Mah Jong
• Chinese dominoes games

Tile based games that use non-rectangular tiles:

• Triominos

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A tile-based game is a specific type of video game where all the playing area elements consinst of small rectangular or, more often, square graphic images, referred to as 'tiles.' Tiles may be laid out adjacent to one another and usually some are allowed to overlap, for example the tile representing the player's character. These types of games usually try to simulate a top-down view on the playing area and are almost always two dimensional.

Some games, like side-scrollerss are, technically, also tile based (that is, the playing area is made up of graphic tiles), but are normally not referred to as such.

Some examples of tile-based games:

• Centipede
• Civilization series
• Dig Dug
• Heroes of Might and Magic series
• Pac Man
• Rogue
• SimCity
• Ultima series (through Ultima IV)

Tile-based games are not a genre unto themselves, but rather refer to the technology a video game uses for its visual representation. For example, Ultima III is a role-playing game, but visually it is tile-based.

Early tile-based games shipped with pre-constructed levels or generated levels at game startup (for example, with SimCity and Civilization) or on the fly (as with Rogue). Recently, however, most games come with an editor that allow players to construct their own levels. While completed levels for a game may hide all traces of tile-based technology, use of an editor for such a game strips away all polish and reveals a game's tile-based framework.