Design Grammars
If video games are a form of new media, are they constrained by the same rules as printed text? The answer is yes and no.
Take the concept of genre. A genre is a social norm that distinguishes the kind of meaning that can be made and produced using one type of text versus another.
Written works have many different types of genres, like fiction, poetry, and novel. Games, too, have their own genres. Among gamers, the terms action, adventure game, role playing, simulation, etc. have their specific connotations local to their particular community.
Games within specific genres, just as texts within specific genres, are bound by specific guidelines or soft rules. Soft rules can be bent in order to create new meanings and genres.
For this reason the term design grammar becomes a useful way to see them. Grammar is a term commonly associated with language, and in language, the grammar of a sentence, paragraph or text defines the meaning that one will make of it.
Videogames as Texts
In the same ways that written texts are bound by the grammar of language, games are bound by the design grammar of videogame genres. However, these design grammars are very flexible.
Numerous examples exist of games that mix more than one genre, i.e., they are hybrids. For example, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time has certain elements of role playing games, like going on quests and interacting with characters, but it also includes elements of action and adventure games. In addition, Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time includes a number of minigames (e.g., a minigame on using a sling to shoot tokens inside a carnival in Hyrule castle). Each minigame represents another type of game genre.