1. Module Overview

Module Overview Assessment Games Design & Development MacinCloud First SpriteKit App

2. Games Development

Iterative Design Design Documents The One-Sheet The Ten Pager The Beat Chart Game Design Document

3. Games Vocabulary

Vocabulary & Definitions Definitions Of Game Game Features Central Concepts Common Concepts

4. Frameworks

Frameworks MDA Formal, Dramatic & Dynamic Elements The Elemental Tetrad Perspectives The Layered Tetrad

Swift Basics SpriteKit Quick Game New Game Scenes & Nodes Backgrounds Particles Sprites Touchscreen Obstacles Collisions Full Game Scoring A Better Ending Restarting The Game Finishing Touch Final Game ? Extensions

6. SpriteKit Overview

SpriteKit SKNode SKAction Physics Engine SKTexture Particle System Animated Sprite

7. Physics Contacts & Collisions

Contacts & Collisions

8. More Physics

More Physics Joints Assessment

Mid-Module Evaluation

Mid Module Evaluation

Central Concepts

Core Mechanic

The core mechanic is the basic/fundamental game mechanic of a game - first person shooter, platformer, puzzle, hidden object. This is the central activity you will engage with during the game. The game may use many mechanics but it will generally have only one core mechanic. This may also be a hybrid of two or more mechanics.

Core Dynamic

The core dynamic (or simply the core) of a game is the single thing the gameplay is about. Core dynamic is not about theme, it is about gameplay, about how/why the core mechanic is used.

Example Core Dynamics

Territorial Acquisition. These games are often zero-sum games, where the players fight over a limited amount of territory or resources. Think about Risk, for example.
Prediction. Often you find this core in party games or gambling games and luck is involved in making a prediction. Roulette is an example of this.
Spatial Reasoning. Often you need to consider how your game pieces work together to create a successful winning strategy. An example of this core is Tetris.
Survival. This core banks on our natural instincts to survive and is found in many action games. An example is Dark Souls.
Destruction. A game with this core allows players to wreck havoc on most things in the game. It is very common in first-person shooters.
Building. The building and use of structures is a core of many games. Good examples are Sim City and Minecraft.
Collection. The need to collect, own and match things is deeply ingrained in humans. This is a popular core mechanic in many board games and casual games (Match 3).
Chasing or Evading. This appeals to our fight-or-flight response and often works as a driving core in games. An example is Pac-Man.
Trading. This a very cooperative game core. Sometimes, players want to exchange resources and negotiate the values with one another. The most common example is the board game Settlers of Catan.
Race-to-the-end. This core dynamic is very simple to implement and you have already created a Race-to-the-end game in your first homework assignment. It is very common in children’s games.

Features Of Good Games

Try as hard as we might it is impossible to come up with a recipe for making good games. What we can do is identify features that games regarded as good games tend to have.

Player intention – the ability of the player to devise and carry out their plans and goals.
Perceivable consequence – a clear reaction of the game to the player’s actions. AKA feedback
Story – the narrative thread of the game
- “embedded” created by designer
- “emergent” created by players
- Need not be a “story” as such

Game State and Game View

Game State is all the information about a game at a specific moment in time. Every card, position, possession, etc. It is everything you would need to know to recreate a point in a game at a future time.
Game View, in contrast, is all the information a particular player is aware of at a particular time. In Chess the game state and the game view are the same, everyone knows everything. In Love Letter each player has a different game view, each of which is a different subset of the game state. In other words hidden information limits the game view.

Lusory Attitude

A lusory attitude is the state of mind of game players, the acceptance of the rules and goals of the game. The Magic Circle of a game is where the game takes place. Not just the physical space but also the mental and social space created by accepting the lusory attitude of the game.

Improve this page

Administrivia

Lectures