Video Game
Design
Lesson 1
Game Designer
 Person involved in the development of a video game
 Usually works on a part of the game as part of a
team
 Sound
 Backgrounds
 Animation
 Character Development
Room
 Where you place game objects to create a screen
 Start w/ blank screen then add:
 A background
 Images
 Objects
 text
 Other types in 2-d game making software
 Maps
 Levels
 Frames
Room
 After the scene is complete:
 Program interaction & animations
 When players move from room to room:
 Transition
 Visual effect between rooms
 So the player is not faced with abrupt change
in display
Room Backgrounds
 Background can be:
 A solid color
 Image that you create in another program such as:
 Microsoft PowerPoint
 Adobe Illustrator
 Adobe Photoshop
Images
 2-Demensional Images
 Have only Height & Width
 No Depth or thickness
 X & Y coordinates on a grid
Images
 2-D Images used in a game are called:
 Sprites
 Adding any image into Game Maker
 Has to be uploaded as a Sprite
 Cannot add programming to a sprite
 Images used as objects
Objects
 Can receive programming and be placed in a
room
 1st programming an object receives is which
sprite to display
 Ex.  create a ball object  program it to display a
ball sprite
 Each time you place an object in the room
 You create an instance for that object in the game
Instance
 Is an exact copy of an object in the game
 For Example:
 Creating a brick wall
 Have have to create several instances of a
brick object
Objects
 2 types of Objects
 Active  can be interacted w/ during the gameplay
 Ball, wall, characters
 Background  can’t be interacted w/ gameplay
 Clouds
 2 other classifications of objects
 Animated  programmed to move around the
screen
 Static  does not move during gameplay
Programming Objects
 Use a programming or event-editor screen
not in the room
 Follows a logic design process
 Makes it easy to interpret an IF / THEN
statement
 Almost all game interactions follow IF / THEN
logic
 Ex.  IF a ball object hits a wall object, THEN
the ball object bounces
Programming Objects
 Event editor breaks down the logic statement into:
 Condition events
 Describes hat must exist
 IF = What is involved
 Actions Events
 Describes what occurs if the condition event is met
 THEN = action (What Happens)
IF / THEN Statement
IF a ball object hits a wall object, THEN
the ball object bounces
 Condition Event:
 IF the ball object hits the wall object
 Action Event:
 THEN the ball object bounces
Vocabulary
 Event
 Any condition within a game that will cause something to
happen
 Action
 What happens to an object after the event occurs
Sample Logic Statement
Start
Do I have
ice cream
Yes
Check the
Freezer
Go to store &
buy ice cream
Put Ice cream
in the Freezer
Eat it
No
Stop
Vocabulary
 Sounds can be added as:
 Background music
 Part of the action
 Sound effects or Sound FX
 Small pieces of sound used in programming
 Most Commonly used:
 MP3
 WAV
 MIDI
Vocabulary
 Music
 Long sound file
 May be as long as a complete song
 Sample
 Short sound file
 May be as short as 1 second
Game Programming
 Programmers can create games using:
 Game-design software
 In a computer programming language
 Ex. Java, C++, Visual Basic
 Object-Oriented Software
 Allows a visual programming interface
 Programmer can the game objects & drag & drop
programming commands in a programming language
Programming Language
 It is a written language that a computer can
understand
 Similar to verbal language like:
 English or Spanish
 Coding
 The process a programmer uses to record the words &
symbols that the computer can understand
 The result is called  Code
 Lines of code are assembled to form a script
Programming Language
 Script  List of computer commands
 Compiling
 Process of changing computers or scripts into a
file that can run on a computer
 Takes your script or object-oriented programming
& rewrites it as an executable file
 Executable File
 Program file that tells the computer exactly what
it is supposed to do or execute
Programming Language
 User Interface (IU)
 How the player (USER) connects (INTERACTS WITH) the game
 Examples:
 Mouse & Keyboard
 Game controllers
 Guitar controller
 Accelerometer
 Detects how the player is tilting or shaking an iPhone
 The game is programmed to receive some input from the
player (user) & connect those actions to the action in the game
(interface)