Mini Guides

By: Matthew Nixon

Analyzing a Game

Play through a level or two and note everything the player can do. Note the environment and every unique thing about it. Note the enemies and what each of them can do. Have different items for different tasks. For instance when in the Venturing Out section, you should have one item for programming the player’s jump and one for making the graphics for the player’s jump. Then later you’ll have another item for making the sound for the player’s jump. When I do this, I make the lists separately, so I’ll go through all the gameplay elements making a list of all those, then I’ll go through again and make a list of all the GFX elements I’ll need, then a list of the sounds… etc.


Then take that list start to fill out the following items:

  • Name

  • (optional) Category/categories (movement, UI, menu… etc.)

  • Description

  • Complexity

  • (optional) Tags

  • (optional) Design pattern

    • Possibly an example of implementation

    • In the future, implementations in different engines


  1. Give each thing a name: If you’re making your own list of items so that you don’t have to repeat effort when working on new games, then name it something descriptively useful. For mine, for a basic AI movement pattern where it bumps into walls and falls off ledges, I named it “AI Movement - Basic Falling” That works for me, but you should find what works for you.

  2. Describe the item: This should be a concise but clearly defined description of the element. If you gave this to someone else to do, they should have no problem picking it up and creating it close to how you imagined it.

  3. Estimate how complex the task is:

    • 1. Basic

    • 2. Easy

    • 3. Moderate

    • 4. Challenging

    • 5. Difficult

  4. Categorize it as the type of thing it is: If you choose to categorize it, try to keep them down to a few categories. Like “AI Movement” for a category, so that when you look it up it’s easy to find what you’re looking for or something close enough.

  5. Add in tags: If you want to further help with searches, this might help.

  6. Design pattern: This can wait until it’s implemented in a game and you know a good way to achieve the desired result. If you’re not > 90% sure about the implementation, then hold off on writing up the design pattern until you really like the method.


2D Graphics Plan

    Do one of these for a whole game, then the next game try the next step up.


Basic Shapes

    Start with basic shapes, circles, squares/rectangles, triangles… etc. Place them in the right places to represent your characters. Get the basic animations by just moving them around. Have fun with colors. Don’t worry about shading yet.


Simplistic

    This is somewhere between basic shapes and cartoonish. Do about the same thing, just using color blotches. Don’t worry about shading yet, just make all the animations that you need.


Shaded Basic

    Create about what you would have created with simplistic, but this time add in either a shadow or a highlight color to give the graphics a bit of shape.


That’s About It

    At this point, you should be well on your way to making some decent or at least acceptable graphics. These steps aren’t too far off from the process of making graphics. At least not too far from mine. Sometimes I start by having the standing frame, sometimes I don’t.I use basic shapes when making the animations, then I roughly add in color blobs that represent the different parts, then I shade and adjust and finalize. Add in both shadow and highlight colors, try to give them shapes. Once you’re here there are a lot of good theory and design practices to look into.


3D Graphics Plan

    The 3D plan is about the same. 3D stuff is also a lot more complicated. Do one version per whole game then on the next game go up a level.


Basic Shapes

    Start with basic shapes, spheres, boxes, cones, cylinders… etc. Place them in the right places to represent your characters. Get the basic animations by adding in basic skeletons and creating the animations. Have fun with colors. Don’t worry about textures yet.


Simplistic

    This is somewhere between basic shapes and cartoonish. Do about the same thing with the basic shapes, but connect the parts together, and maybe tweak the meshes a little bit. Get a handle on how the bones affect the meshes.


Textured Basic

    Create about what you would have created with simplistic, but this time add some textures, try to keep it simple and just do color textures for now. Get a decent at mapping U|Vs.


That’s About It

    At this point, to get better, you’re going to have to practice more, look at other people’s work, read up on techniques and processes, and really get into it. These steps aren’t too far off from my process either, I usually start with a sketch, whether I have one or not, I make the basic shape of the character/item, then I adjust, texture, create a skeleton, then finalize.