Contents

Preface

Chapter 1 The Art of Programming Mechanics

1.1 Introduction

1.2 Programming on the Right Side of the Brain

1.3 Creating Art from the Left Side of the Brain

1.3.1 Point

1.3.2 Line

1.3.3 Shape

1.3.4 Direction

1.3.5 Size

1.3.6 Texture

1.3.7 Color

1.4 How Game Engines Work

1.4.1 A Generic Game Engine

1.4.2 The Main Loop

1.5 A Scripting Primer

1.5.1 Logic

1.5.2 Comments

1.5.3 Functions

1.5.4 Variables

1.5.5 Operators

1.5.6 Conditional Statements

1.5.7 Arrays

1.5.8 Objects

1.6 A Game Art Asset Primer

1.6.1 The Power of Two Rule

1.6.2 Using Other People's Art Assets

1.7 Summary

Chapter 2 Real-World Mechanics

2.1 Introduction

2.2 Principles of Vectors

2.3 Defining 2D and 3D Space

2.3.1 Cameras

2.3.2 Local and World Coordinate Systems

2.3.3 Translation, Rotation, and Scaling

2.3.4 Polygons and Normals

2.4 Two-Dimensional Games in a 3D Game Engine

2.4.1 Quaternions

2.5 The Laws of Physics

2.5.1 The Law of Gravity

2.5.2 The First Law of Motion

2.5.3 The Second Law of Motion

2.5.4 The Third Law of Motion

2.6 Physics and the Principles of Animation

2.6.1 Squash and Stretch

2.7 Two-Dimensional and 3D Tricks for Optimizing Game Space

2.7.1 Reducing Polygons

2.7.2 Camera Viewing Volume

2.7.3 Fog

2.7.4 Textures

2.7.5 Billboards

2.8 Summary

Chapter 3 Animation Mechanics

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Sprites

3.3 Texture Atlas

3.4 Animated Sprites

3.5 Baked 3D Animations

3.6 Biomechanics

3.7 Animation Management

3.7.1 Single 2D Sprite Actions

3.7.2 Single-Filed 3D Animations

3.7.3 Blending

3.8 Secondary Animation

3.9 Summary

Chapter 4 Game Rules and Mechanics

4.1 Introduction

4.2 Game Mechanics

4.3 Primary Mechanics

4.3.1 Searching

4.3.2 Matching

4.3.3 Sorting

4.3.4 Chancing

4.3.5 Mixing

4.3.6 Timing

4.3.7 Progressing

4.3.8 Capturing

4.3.9 Conquering

4.3.10 Avoidance

4.3.11 Collecting

4.4 Developing with Some Simple Game Mechanics

4.4.1 Matching and Sorting

4.4.2 Shooting, Hitting, Bouncing, and Stacking

4.4.3 Racing

4.4.4 Avoidance and Collecting

4.4.5 Searching

4.5 Rewards and Penalties

4.6 Summary

Chapter 5 Character Mechanics

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Line of Sight

5.3 Graph Theory

5.4 Waypoints

5.4.1 Searching Through Waypoints

5.5 Finite State Machines

5.6 Flocking

5.7 Decision Trees

5.8 Fuzzy Logic

5.9 Genetic Algorithms

5.10 Cellular Automata

5.11 Summary

Chapter 6 Player Mechanics

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Game Structure

6.3 Principles of Game Interface Design

6.3.1 User Profiling

6.3.2 Metaphor

6.3.3 Feature Exposure

6.3.4 Coherence

6.3.5 State Visualization

6.3.6 Shortcuts

6.3.7 Layout

6.3.8 Focus

6.3.9 Help

6.4 Inventories

6.5 Teleportation

6.5.1 Implicit Teleports

6.5.2 Explicit Teleports

6.6 Summary

Chapter 7 Environmental Mechanics

7.1 Introduction

7.2 Map Design Fundamentals

7.2.1 Provide a Focal Point

7.2.2 Guide and Restrict the Player's Movement

7.2.3 Scaling

7.2.4 Detail

7.2.5 Map Layout

7.2.6 Other Considerations

7.3 Terrain

7.3.1 Drawing a Terrain

7.3.2 Procedural Terrain

7.3.3 Procedural Cities

7.3.4 Infinite Terrain

7.4 Camera Tricks

7.4.1 Depth of Field

7.4.2 Blur

7.4.3 Grayscale

7.4.4 Motion Blur

7.4.5 Sepia Tone

7.4.6 Twirl

7.4.7 Bloom

7.4.8 Flares

7.4.9 Color Correction

7.4.10 Edge Detection

7.4.11 Crease

7.4.12 Fish Eye

7.4.13 Sun Shafts

7.4.14 Vignette

7.4.15 Screen Space Ambient Occlusion (SSAO)

7.5 Skies

7.5.1 Skyboxes

7.5.2 Sky Domes

7.5.3 Clouds

7.6 Weather

7.6.1 Wind

7.6.2 Precipitation

7.7 Particles

7.8 Summary

Chapter 8 Mechanics for External Forces

8.1 Introduction

8.2 Up and Running on a Mobile Device

8.3 Integrating Haptics and External Motion into Games

8.4 Accessing Mobile Hardware Features

8.4.1 Accelerometer

8.4.2 Orientation

8.4.3 Web Services

8.4.4 Global Positioning System (GPS)

8.4.5 Augmented Reality (AR)

8.5 The Social Mechanic

8.5.1 Twitter

8.5.2 Facebook

8.5.3 OpenFeint

8.6 Platform Deployment: App Store, Android Market, and Consoles

8.6.1 Publishing for the App Store and Android Market

8.6.2 Console Publishing

8.6.3 Download Direct to Player

8.7 Summary

Index