2D Games: An introduction

Welcome

To 2D game development!

Over this unit you’ll be learning about the technical construction of a game in a 2D game engine.

Does anyone know what a game engine is?

Game Engines 101.

A game engine is the program we use to build the game world.

Its where the games interactivity.

Game Engines 101.

Much like a car engine its made of lots of different parts, which all spin seperately but

when put together they make things happen.

Its where the games interactivity.

Interactivity is the key concept for games development.

What does interactivity mean?

An action, caused by something else’s influence.

All games are built on interactivity

Lets look at Angry Birds….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9niqSk9VCi8

• What happens when the player pulls their finger back?

• What happens when they release their finger?

• What happens when the bird hits the buildings?

• What happens when the bird hits all the pigs?

INTERACTION

When I do (A) then (B) happens.

When the (bird hits the pig) then (the pig dies).

Interaction drives the game forward

Log onto Moodle and click on the link

You have 15 minutes to list all the interactivity you can see in a

playthrough of the first 5 levels.

Think about:

• What happens when you press a certain key….

• What happens when you get to bandage girl?

• What happens when you hit a grinder?

Etc…..

Feedback

• What did we find out?

PART 2: Game Pre-production

In the 2nd part of the lesson we are going to look at how we can break a game down into its simplest concept.

Game Concepts

We can break a games idea down based on its:

• Avatar:

• Challenge:

• Mechanics:

What do these mean?

Game Concepts

We can break a games idea down based on its:

• Avatar: Who you play as

• Challenge: What you have to do

• Mechanics: How you do it

Lets try it with Angry Birds

• Avatar:

• Challenge:

• Mechanics:

Working in pairs

Prepare a PowerPoint presentation where you analyse at least 3 mobile games, explaining their avatars, challenge and mechanics.

You should also explain what the narrative (story) of the game is, and include some gameplay videos.

You have 30 minutes.

Presentation time

Next week

We will be starting to use GameMaker.

In the meantime you can download

GameMaker for free at home by using the link

on Moodle.