My wife needs to know, for academic reasons, what to call such a game. She's writing about using games to learn things, so here's your chance to help improve the general perception of video games 😉
In my childhood, we called the games within a game "minigames" or "the puzzle games inside the game." But I don't know what to call the "container" game, which has the other (mini)games within it.
Examples of games that contain others:
- Final Fantasy 7 (PlayStation 1) contains a Chocobo race, a motorcycle race with Cloud or with a submarine, etc.
- Star Ocean – The Second Story (PlayStation 1) contains a bunny race, a cooking competition, etc.
What do you call the overarching game?
Best Answer
TLDR: You wouldn't call it anything special.
The vernacular in regards to the overarching game is to use a possessive when referring to the minigame. So for instance, Final Fantasy's Chocobo Races. There is no special word or phrase given to the "main game" as you say.
The wiki entry for minigame does not mention a phrase or word to describe the "main game" either. IGN has a phrase that pertains to the minigame calling it "The Game Within The Game" but no phrase that describes the main game either. After further research I am unable to find anything suitable.
Perhaps something to look into would be: Gameification . I know that this doesn't have to do with the name of the overarching game, but it could perhaps lead you to some sort of answer.
This is a little different than including things like Chocobo Racing or Gwent inside of The Witcher series. Gameification basically means putting a gaming element around something that usually doesn't have those elements to increase user enjoyment or engagement.