IDE : All projects in this book are based on VS Code IDE. You can download and install the program from https://code.visualstudio.com/.

Runtime environment : You will execute your video game projects in the Google Chrome web browser. You can download and install this browser from www.google.com/chrome/browser/.

glMatrix math library : This is a library that implements the foundational mathematical operations. You can download this library from http://glMatrix.net/. You will integrate this library into your game engine in Chapter 3, so more details will be provided there.

Explorer window: This window displays the source code files of the project. If you accidentally close this window, you can recall it by selecting View ➤ Explorer.

Editor window: This window displays and allows you to edit the source code of your project. You can select the source code file to work with by clicking once the corresponding file name in the Explorer window.

Output window: This window is not used in our projects; feel free to close it by clicking the “x” icon on the top right of the window.

Technical design : This includes all game code and the game platform and is generally not directly exposed to players; rather, it forms the foundation and scaffolding for all aspects of the game experience. This book is primarily focused on issues related to the technical design of games, including specific tasks such as the lines of code required to draw elements on the screen and more architectural considerations such as determining the strategy for how and when to load assets into memory. Technical design issues impact the player experience in many ways (e.g., the number of times a player experiences “loading” delays during play or how many frames per second the game displays), but the technical design is typically invisible to players because it runs under what’s referred to as the presentation layer or all of the audiovisual and/or haptic feedback the player encounters during play.

Game mechanic(s): The game mechanic is an abstract description of what can be referred to as the foundation of play for a given game experience. Types of game mechanics include puzzles, dexterity challenges such as jumping or aiming, timed events, combat encounters, and the like. The game mechanic is a framework; specific puzzles, encounters, and game interactions are implementations of the framework. A real-time strategy (RTS) game might include a resource-gathering mechanic, for example, where the mechanic might be described as “Players are required to gather specific types of resources and combine them to build units which they can use in combat.” The specific implementation of that mechanic (how players locate and extract the resources in the game, how they transport them from one place to another, and the rules for combining resources to produce units) is an aspect of systems design, level design, and the interaction model/game loop (described later in this section).

Systems design : The internal rules and logical relationships that provide structured challenge to the core game mechanic are referred to as the game’s systems design. Using the previous RTS example, a game might require players to gather a certain amount of metal ore and combine it with a certain amount of wood to make a game object; the specific rules for how many of each resource is required to make the objects and the unique process for creating the objects (e.g., objects can be produced only in certain structures on the player’s base and take x number of minutes to appear after the player starts the process) are aspects of systems design. Casual games may have basic systems designs. A simple puzzle game like Pull the Pin from Popcore Games, for example, is a game with few systems and low complexity, while major genres like RTS games may have deeply complex and interrelated systems designs created and balanced by entire teams of designers. Game systems designs are often where the most hidden complexity of game design exists; as designers go through the exercise of defining all variables that contribute to an implementation of a game mechanic, it’s easy to become lost in a sea of complexity and balance dependencies. Systems that appear fairly simple to players may require many components working together and balanced perfectly against each other, and underestimating system complexity is perhaps one of the biggest pitfalls encountered by new (and veteran!) game designers. Until you know what you’re getting into, always assume the systems you create will prove to be considerably more complex than you anticipate.

Level design : A game’s level design reflects the specific ways each of the other eight elements combines within the context of individual “chunks” of gameplay, where players must complete a certain chunk of objectives before continuing to the next section (some games may have only one level, while others will have dozens). Level designs within a single game can all be variations of the same core mechanic and systems design (games like Tetris and Bejeweled are examples of games with many levels all focusing on the same mechanic), while other games will mix and match mechanics and systems designs for variety among levels. Most games feature one primary mechanic and a game-spanning approach to systems design and will add minor variations between levels to keep things feeling fresh (changing environments, changing difficulty, adding time limits, increasing complexity, and the like), although occasionally games will introduce new levels that rely on completely separate mechanics and systems to surprise players and hold their interest. Great level design in games is a balance between creating “chunks” of play that showcase the mechanic and systems design and changing enough between these chunks to keep things interesting for players as they progress through the game (but not changing so much between chunks that the gameplay feels disjointed and disconnected).

Interaction model: The interaction model is the combination of keys, buttons, controller sticks, touch gestures, and so on, used to interact with the game to accomplish tasks and the graphical user interfaces that support those interactions within the game world. Some game theorists break the game’s user interface (UI) design into a separate category (game UI includes things such as menu designs, item inventories, heads-up displays [HUDs]), but the interaction model is deeply connected to UI design, and it’s a good practice to think of these two elements as inseparable. In the case of the RTS game referenced earlier, the interaction model includes the actions required to select objects in the game, to move those objects, to open menus and manage inventories, to save progress, to initiate combat, and to queue build tasks. The interaction model is completely independent of the mechanic and systems design and is concerned only with the physical actions the player must take to initiate behaviors (e.g., click mouse button, press key, move stick, scroll wheel); the UI is the audiovisual or haptic feedback connected to those actions (onscreen buttons, menus, statuses, audio cues, vibrations, and the like).

Game setting : Are you on an alien planet? In a fantasy world? In an abstract environment? The game setting is a critical part of the game experience and, in partnership with the audiovisual design, turns what would otherwise be a disconnected set of basic interactions into an engaging experience with context. Game settings need not be elaborate to be effective; the perennially popular puzzle game Tetris has a rather simple setting with no real narrative wrapper, but the combination of abstract setting, audiovisual design, and level design is uniquely well matched and contributes significantly to the millions of hours players invest in the experience year after year.

Visual design : Video games exist in a largely visual medium, so it’s not surprising that companies frequently spend as much or more on the visual design of their games as they spend on the technical execution of the code. Large games are aggregations of thousands of visual assets, including environments, characters, objects, animations, and cinematics; even small casual games generally ship with hundreds or thousands of individual visual elements. Each object a player interacts with in the game must be a unique asset, and if that asset includes more complex animation than just moving it from one location on the screen to another or changing the scale or opacity, the object most likely will need to be animated by an artist. Game graphics need not be photorealistic or stylistically elaborate to be visually excellent or to effectively represent the setting (many games intentionally utilize a simplistic visual style), but the best games consider art direction and visual style to be core to the player experience, and visual choices will be intentional and well matched to the game setting and mechanic.

Audio design : This includes music and sound effects, ambient background sounds, and all sounds connected to player actions (select/use/swap item, open inventory, invoke menu, and the like). Audio design functions hand in hand with visual design to convey and reinforce game setting, and many new designers significantly underestimate the impact of sound to immerse players into game worlds. Imagine Star Wars, for example, without the music, the light saber sound effect, Darth Vader’s breathing, or R2D2’s characteristic beeps; the audio effects and musical score are as fundamental to the experience as the visuals.

Meta-game: The meta-game centers on how individual objectives come together to propel players through the game experience (often via scoring, unlocking individual levels in sequence, playing through a narrative, and the like). In many modern games, the meta-game is the narrative arc or story; players often don’t receive a “score” per se but rather reveal a linear or semi-linear story as they progress through game levels, driving forward to complete the story. Other games (especially social and competitive games) involve players “leveling up” their characters, which can happen as a result of playing through a game-spanning narrative experience or by simply venturing into the game world and undertaking individual challenges that grant experience points to characters. Other games, of course, continue focusing on scoring points or winning rounds against other players.