GLOSSARY
AFTRA—Abbreviation for American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.
This is a union representing journalists and other artists working in the en-
tertainment and news media.
AI—Abbreviation for Artificial Intelligence.
API—Abbreviation for Application Programming Interface. APIs are sets of
protocols and tools for programming software. Software that uses a common
API will have a similar user interface.
asset pack—Another term for closing kit. An asset pack or closing kit contains
all the necessary assets, documentation, and source code to rebuild a game
from scratch without assistance from the original developer.
cinematics—Prerendered or in-game movies that are part of the gameplay
experience. They are used to further the game’s story during gameplay.
closing kit—See asset pack.
code release—A term describing a product that has been fully tested, bug-
fixed, and deemed ready to ship by the publisher.
codec—Software technology that compresses and decompresses data. Specific
codecs are used for doing this. Some movie players, such as Quick Time®,
already have common codecs installed and can view any data compressed
with these codecs. Some codecs are not included automatically in the movie
player and need to be downloaded and installed.
developer producer (DP)—A producer who heads up an internal develop-
ment team comprised of artists, engineers, and designers.
ESRB—An acronym for Entertainment Software Ratings Board, the entity in
the U.S. that assigns age ratings to games.
EULA—abbreviation for End User License Agreement, a legal agreement
between the game publisher and the game purchaser.
Appendix B Appendix B
454 THE GAME PRODUCTION HANDBOOK, 2/E
FIGS—An acronym commonly referring to localizing a game into French,
Italian, German, and Spanish.
fingerprinting—The process of marking a game build with a unique identifier.
This allows developers to track down the source of any unauthorized builds
that are replicated or posted on the Internet.
gold master—The final version of the game code that is code released and sent
to manufacturing.
HUD—an acronym for Heads Up Display. Common user interface elements in
an interactive game. These elements usually indicate the player character’s
statistics, such as health, time elapsed, weapon status, and so on.
intellectual property—Ideas that are protected under federal law, including
copyrightable works, ideas, discoveries, and inventions.
localization—The process of adapting a game to a specific country. This in-
cludes the translation, integration, and testing of localized assets.
localization-friendly—Game code that has been developed with the idea of
creating efficient and easy-to-do localizations. All considerations have been
made in order to best internationalize the game code, which include things,
such as enabling double-byte functionality in the engine and using icons in
the user interface.
NDA—acronym for Non-Disclosure Agreement. A legal document used to pro-
tect proprietary information.
NTSC—An acronym for National Television System Committee. U.S. televi-
sions adhere to NTSC video display standards, which means that the video
image delivers 525 lines of resolution at 60 half-frames per second. U.S.
console games are developed according to these standards so that they will
display on NTSC televisions and other NTSC-compatible video monitors.
operating system (OS)—The operating system performs basic tasks for the
computer, such as recognizing input from the mouse, displaying output to
the monitor, and providing a base for running applications. It also manages
peripheral devices, such as printers and scanners. The OS is language spe-
cific and can detect which languages to display when running applications.
The application needs to have this capability programmed into the code be-
fore the OS will detect the correct language setting.
OEM—Acronym for Original Equipment Manufacturers. They manufac-
ture hardware add-ons for computers, such as video cards, headsets, and
joysticks.
P&L—A profit-and-loss statement generated by the publisher to determine
whether a product will be profitable. Production, marketing, and distribu-
tion costs are compared against the money made from a projected sale of
the game.
PAL—An acronym for Phase Alternating Line. European televisions adhere
to PAL video display standards, which means that the video image delivers
GLOSSARY 455
625 lines of resolution at 50 half-frames per second. European console games
are developed according to these standards so that they will display on PAL
televisions and other PAL-compatible video monitors.
patch—A piece of game code created to deal with existing bugs in an already
shipped product. The patch will modify game files on the user’s hard drive
to fix any critical bugs that inadvertently shipped with the game. The patch
is usually offered for download on the Internet.
PEGI—abbreviation for Pan European Game Information, the entity in Europe
that assigns age ratings to interactive games.
platform—The type of hardware that is required to run a game. Some examples
are PC, Nintendo DS, Sony PSP, Xbox.
proprietary software—Software that is created and owned by the developer.
The software is not authorized for public use, and the source code is not
available publicly. For example, the developer can write proprietary soft-
ware to convert .bmp files to a graphic file format that is recognized by the
game.
SAG—Abbreviation for Screen Actors Guild. This is a union representing actors
working in the entertainment media.
publisher producer (PP)—A producer who works for the publisher and inter-
faces with external development teams.
SDK—Abbreviation for Software Development Kit. An SDK is a programming
package that can be used to develop software. An SDK usually includes APIs,
tools, and documentation. If you are working with middleware, the vendor
will provide you with an SDK with all the pertinent information.
sim-ship—The practice of shipping the localized and English versions
simultaneously.
timecodes—Refers to copying the start time and end times in a cinematic so
the character’s dialogue can be synced as closely as possible to his mouth
movements.
Unicode—An internationally standardized code for representing letters and
symbols as numbers so data can be easily transferred from one computer to
another.
user interface (UI)—Areas of the game where the user can input or receive in-
formation. For example, the user can select a character from a list of choices
or get information about his character’s health from a health bar indicator.
work breakdown structure (WBS)—a project management process where
large tasks are broken down into smaller tasks.
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