Vocab game design Flashcards
AAA List Games
Games which are advertised frequently and have budgets over $20 million.
Convergence
Video games made to resemble board games and vice versa.
Alpha
Very first build that is shared with testers
Components
parts of your game.
Depth
Whether the game is easy to play or requires more experience.
Design Document
Provides an overview of the game and its learning goals.
Copyright
Law that protects creation.
Abstract
A game that has no connection or nothing to do with the real world.
Analysis Paralysis
When a player is presented with too many choices or decisions.
Avatar
Represents the player in the game (or a sprite).
Bell Curve
Probability distribution where some events are more likely to occur than others.
Decision Making
Making choices that will affect the rest of your game play.
Dynamics -
Results like play actions being put into motion.
Cinematic -
Movie inserted into the video game.
Accessibility -
Easy to learn and easy to play, yet not always easy to master.
Agent -
Middleman between the creator and the publisher.
Downtime -
When a player is not actually participating.
Character Class -
The profession of the character that says what he or she can and cannot do.
Casual Game -
A game played to relax not to beat or win.
Beta -
Very close to final design but still being tested.
Features List
- The key details or selling points of the game.
Fluidity
The extent to which the game circumstances change over time.
Game Design
- Creating the content and the rules of the game.
Game Engine
- Development software that game designers use to manage art, sound, and code.
- Game Writing
- Writing of the dialogue, text, and story within the worlds.
- Genre
- Subcategory of games with well-defined methods and appeal to players.
- Goals
- A desired result or plan that you set to achieve.
- Graphics -
The visual aspects of a game, particularly the art.
- Graphical Interface
- Everything on the screen that the user will see.
- Immersion
- Feeling like you are really in the game as though you are really there.
- Intellectual Property
- Identifiable characters or stories that are owned by an individual or company.
- Iterative
- Something that is repeated over and over.
- Length -
The defined starting and ending points.
- Level Design -
Maps and placements of objects and challenges within those maps
- Luck of the Draw -
Does not require decision making, game is based only on luck.
- Mechanics -
How you move, earn points, gain resources, etc. within the game
- Patent
- A strong form of protection for an intellectual property.
- Play Balance -
A balanced game is one that is fair and each player has an equal chance of winning.
- Player Interaction -
When the action of one player immediately affects at least one other players situation.
- Play Testers -
People who play an unfinished game to find errors, inconsistencies, or other issues.
- Pitch -
Brief description and/or presentation of a game or a game concept designed to secure funding.
- Probability -
The likelihood that something will happen.
- Prototype -
An early/unfinished version of the game.
- Publishers -
Companies that manufacture and distribute games.
- Random -
Occurrences in a game that players have no control over.
- Replayability -
A game that allows it to be played over and over again.
- Rules
- The mechanics enforce these things that you can or cannot do.
- Service Mark -
Legal protection for a tagline or catchphrase.
- Simulation -
Intended to represent some part of reality.
- Space -
The look and feel of the game from its design.
- Strategic -
Strategy that involves your long range plan.
- System -
Collection of game mechanics that produce a given outcome.
- System Design -
Creation of rules and patterns in the game.
- Theme -
Story or history that the game is trying to represent.
- Trademark -
Form of intellectual property that applies to titles and names.
- Transparency -
Whether or not a game reveals its secrets.
- User Interface Design -
How the player receives information and how the player interacts with the game.
- Volatility -
The extent to which the game arrangements are not subject to the changes caused by other players.
- World Design -
Creation of the overall backstory, setting, and theme of the game.
- Zero Sum -
Situation where one player can only gain by taking away from another player.
