# Towards an Ontological Language for Game Analysis

*Source* · `src-zagal-2005-game-ontology-project` · status: **n/a**

| field | value |
|---|---|
| kind | Peer-reviewed paper |
| authors | José P. Zagal, Michael Mateas, Clara Fernández-Vara, Brian Hochhalter, Nolan Lichti |
| venue | Proceedings of DiGRA 2005 Conference: Changing Views: Worlds in Play |
| date | 2005 |
| url | https://dl.digra.org/index.php/dl/article/view/136 |
| doi | 10.26503/dl.v2005i1.136 |
| accessed | 2026-10-31 |

## Notes

Read the DiGRA landing page and the full-text PDF. Introduces the Game Ontology Project, a hierarchy of game concepts abstracted from black-box analysis of many games with methods from prototype theory and grounded theory, grown middle-out. Top level: interface, rules, goals, entities, entity manipulation. Each entry has a name, a description, strong and weak example games, a parent, children, and part-of elements. Organizes design elements, not games, and gives no design advice.

## Citation

José P. Zagal, Michael Mateas, Clara Fernández-Vara, Brian Hochhalter, Nolan Lichti (2005). *Towards an Ontological Language for Game Analysis*. Proceedings of DiGRA 2005 Conference: Changing Views: Worlds in Play https://dl.digra.org/index.php/dl/article/view/136

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Provenance: created in run `2026-10-31-paper-related-work`.