Game Development 101

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Game Development 101

Game Development 101

Young children are increasingly showing interest in game development. There is a multitude of knowledge available nowadays, perhaps at times too much information. The purpose of this manual is to assist parents or younger readers in entering the field of game development. So what does this actually mean? First of all, it indicates that we will concentrate on technologies suitable for novices. Second, it implies that we don’t assume you have any technical skills—in reality, we’ll presume the opposite. So please don’t feel like we’re ever speaking down to you or demeaning your intelligence. On the other hand, if there’s anything we’ve said that’s unclear or confusing, let us know and we’ll do our best to make it plain.

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When is a person too young?

Perhaps one of the most frequently asked questions is this one. How old must I be (or must my child be) to begin game development? Since every child is unique, there is no way to know the answer to this question. An exceptionally driven 6-year-old would probably be able to succeed on the very low end of the range (and with the appropriate equipment). On the opposite end of the spectrum, a typical 12-year-old should possess the academic groundwork and mental capacity to succeed. It is likely that the real age will fall somewhere in the middle.

A few important things should be understood right away.

The initial one is drive. Instead of mental ability, motivation is more likely to be the largest barrier to achievement. Your youngster is ideal for game production if they have a true passion for creation (playing video games is very different from producing them). They should also be open to making mistakes.

The next step is controlling expectations. No matter their age, this is where we lose the most potential game developers. Though it needn’t be incredibly difficult, game production is undoubtedly complex. Your child won’t be developing large contemporary games like NHL or Call of Duty any time soon. Additionally, they won’t develop an MMO ( online game like World of Warcraft ). They must begin very, very small, and gradually work their way up.

A crucial way to say it is that your youngster will fail miserably if their thinking is “I’m going to make the next Minecraft.” On the other side, they may have the ideal mindset to succeed if they believe that “I am going to build the next Minecraft, eventually.” It’s important to understand the distinction there. You need to start small and build on your triumphs, just like with practically any other talent. Starting out too big will only lead to disappointment and failure.

What exactly is game development?

The level of technicality in this part will increase slightly but not significantly. Game development is a broad phrase that encompasses a variety of abilities that work together to form a larger total. Consider game development in the same way you would a car manufacturer. Making a car requires a variety of skills; engineers, graphic designers, manufacturers, quality assurance, and more all work together to create an automobile. However, in a game, it is still feasible for one individual to carry out each of these various jobs. There are many extremely popular games that were authored, illustrated, and scored by the same individual. But it’s vital to understand that this isn’t always the case. In essence, what we’re trying to explain is that creating video games is a variety of tasks. Your child might genuinely like one aspect while disliking another. It’s crucial to consider whether the resources your child will use provide art or audio examples so they can get started without having to complete everything at once.

There are literally hundreds of different names and job descriptions listed in a modern game’s credits, all of which contributed to the creation. However, when just starting out, there are really just two things to concentrate on. generating both the game and the content for the game.

As an illustration, consider the board game Monopoly. That game required the application of two significant skill sets. The game has to first be made. Make the dice rules, create the board layout, create the game cards, etc. Then you had to make the game’s elements, such as the board’s images, each card’s illustrations, the little plastic dwellings, etc.

It truly isn’t any different in video games. You have two tasks: one is to create the game, which is typically referred to as programming, and the other is to produce content for your game, such as art, animation, or music and sound. These abilities are entirely different, although they are typically necessary for a game. When a child expresses interest in game development, they usually mean programming, which will be the main focus of this course. For instance, a youngster who is interested in becoming a game artist usually already has their face buried in a sketchbook. By the way, because there is hardly any distinction between “an artist” and a “game artist,” this is the ideal strategy for them as well.

What exactly is game development?

The level of technicality in this part will increase slightly but not significantly. Game development is a broad phrase that encompasses a variety of abilities that work together to form a larger total. Consider game development in the same way you would a car manufacturer. Making a car requires a variety of skills; engineers, graphic designers, manufacturers, quality assurance, and more all work together to create an automobile. However, in a game, it is still feasible for one individual to carry out each of these various jobs. There are many extremely popular games that were authored, illustrated, and scored by the same individual. But it’s vital to understand that this isn’t always the case. In essence, what we’re trying to explain is that creating video games is a variety of tasks. Your child might genuinely like one aspect while disliking another. It’s crucial to consider whether the resources your child will use provide art or audio examples so they can get started without having to complete everything at once.

There are literally hundreds of different names and job descriptions listed in a modern game’s credits, all of which contributed to the creation. However, when just starting out, there are really just two things to concentrate on. generating both the game and the content for the game.

As an illustration, consider the board game Monopoly. That game required the application of two significant skill sets. The game has to first be made. Make the dice rules, create the board layout, create the game cards, etc. Then you had to make the game’s elements, such as the board’s images, each card’s illustrations, the little plastic dwellings, etc.

It truly isn’t any different in video games. You have two tasks: one is to create the game, which is typically referred to as programming, and the other is to produce content for your game, such as art, animation, or music and sound. These abilities are entirely different, although they are typically necessary for a game. When a child expresses interest in game development, they usually mean programming, which will be the main focus of this course. For instance, a youngster who is interested in becoming a game artist usually already has their face buried in a sketchbook. By the way, because there is hardly any distinction between “an artist” and a “game artist,” this is the ideal strategy for them as well.

What is Programming?

Therefore, there’s a good probability that when you mention game development, you really mean game programming. Describe programming. Programming, in its most basic form, is the art of instructing a computer what to do. This entails actions like “when the user pushes the UP arrow do this” or “when player health equals 0, draw that” in the context of game development.

How you program games, however, is a far deeper discussion and one of the most difficult concepts you will have to learn. The fact that it will rely the most on your child may be much more significant. We all have different ways of thinking and expressing ourselves. In rare circumstances, a child may prefer one particular style while another child may loathe it.

In general, there are three ways to instruct the computer in game programming (and frequently a combination of all three):

Visually – This method of game production is quite popular among beginners and game developers in general (Unreal Engine 4, one of the most commonly used commercial game technologies has a Visual scripting interface called Blueprint for example). In visual programming languages, you often drag and drop to create your game screen before connecting everything in a manner akin to a flow chart. Basically, it’s the equivalent of making a flowchart in programming. This may be the best course of action for your child if they are a visual thinker.

Unreal Engine

Scripting languages – Using simple text files, you can instruct a computer to perform a task using scripting languages. The visual editor seen in the image above is still frequently used to create games, but when instructing the computer what to do, code is used rather than text boxes or flowcharts.

Here is an illustration of the LUA scripting language using the LVE 2D game library:

LUA scripting language using the LVE 2D game library

This small passage of text instructs the computer to open the “whale.png” image and draw it on the screen.

Traditional Programming Languages are used extensively in the creation of video games. The most popular names include C++, Java, C#, and others. We’ll start by emphasizing that for a number of reasons, we do not advise beginning young programmers to use a traditional or, more precisely, a compiled programming language.

The main query you may have is: What distinguishes a scripting language from a compiled programming language? Most of it boils down to complexity, much of which is technical and outside the purview of this paper. When working with compiled languages, there are several issues that are simply not an issue when working with scripting languages. Things include linking (hard to describe), compiling (the process of converting the text you write into a form the computer can understand), and more.

Perhaps more significant is its goal. Scripting languages are typically considerably more narrowly focused and created to simplify things for the developer. Simply put, scripting languages are typically more simple to learn and use.

In the end, you will frequently discover that game development tools provide both a visual system and a scripting language, allowing for the creation of a large chunk of the game with drag and drop and the control of smaller portions using a scripting language.

 

 

What are IDE and a library?

Okay, let’s talk about one last subject before diving in. There are numerous phrases and idioms that are used frequently but could be confusing. We’ll quickly go over a few of them.

Language – This is the programming language that is employed. We communicate with computers in a variety of languages, just as we communicate with one another in languages like English, Spanish, German, etc. The coding language used in the aforementioned case was Lua.

Integrated Development Environment, or IDE – This is an application that combines several different tasks. Not every idea will have an IDE, so you’ll need to use several tools to carry out various tasks. A text editor, a programming language, and numerous tools are typically all included in an IDE.

Library – Think of a library as someone who is doing a lot of your job. In most cases, even the “basic stuff,” like drawing on the screen, isn’t actually a part of the language. Instead, such things are written and made accessible to you through libraries. In certain instances, like with GameMaker or Construct, everything is pre-bundled for you. In some situations, such as Lua, you choose a library to go along with the programming language. There are benefits and drawbacks to each strategy. For instance, Gamemaker simplifies the process of getting started by packaging everything together, but with Lua, users may easily switch to another library if they don’t like the one they’re using.

Sprite – A sprite is a graphic that is utilized in a game, such as the player. A sprite might be only one image or it can include several images for animations. A Sprite is always a moving, visually striking object in the game, albeit the precise definition varies from engine to engine. If you’ve ever played Super Mario Brothers, you might recognize Mario, the turtles, fireballs, etc. as sprites. However, objects in the world like pipes and the sky are not typically seen as sprites.

HTML 5 – This one can be a little confusing: HTML 5. The most recent version of HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language), the language used on websites, is HTML5. In most cases, an HTML document is what you are viewing when a webpage loads in your browser or on your phone. The tricky thing is that HTML5 is actually a catch-all phrase for a number of technologies that interact to run the web. These include HTML itself, a language that specifies a webpage’s contents, CSS, a language that specifies a webpage’s visual appearance, and finally JavaScript, a scripting language that manages the logic. Although it’s not strictly correct, the terms HTML, HTML5, and JavaScript are sometimes used synonymously. Games made using HTML5 don’t have to be played in a web browser.

Debugger – It can be challenging to determine why your game isn’t functioning properly. A debugger is a tool that some packages provide to assist you in finding issues or “bugs” in your game. For novices, it is a bit of an advanced tool, but when you need one, a debugger can be quite helpful. Click here for more information on debugging, but be aware that this is a rather technical page.

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