Unit introduction

The computer games industry has been growing year on year and has become a multi-billion pound industry. With the prevalence of computing devices, games consoles and mobile devices, this growth shows no sign of slowing. Many computer games are vast productions involving a range of people such as programmers, graphical artists, animators, level designers, actors and directors. As a games developer, you will analyse the needs of a client and understand the potential and limitations of different gaming solutions.

In this unit, you will investigate the technologies used in the computer gaming industry and the implications they have for users, developers and organisations. You will analyse how user needs and preferences impact on game design and how target technologies affect the design and development of a computer game. Finally, you will design, create and review a computer game to meet requirements and reflect on the skills and understanding applied during the design and development process.

You will apply analytical skills that would be used by any software developer to investigate the available technologies and current trends in order to design and develop appropriate software solutions. The skills you gain through this unit will benefit you as you progress to employment in the computer gaming industry, for example in computer games developer and software developer roles.

Learning aims

In this unit you will:

A Investigate technologies used in computer gaming

B Design a computer game to meet client requirements

C Develop a computer game to meet client requirements.

STARTING POINT
Create a presentation using only images on your favourite game. 

A: Investigate technologies used in computer gaming

A1 Social trends in computer gaming

Using the following link produce a simple infographic on what it takes to get in to the games industry
https://www.prospects.ac.uk/job-profiles/games-developer

Social trends relevant to computer games, including:

• popular genres

What are these genres?

bellow are a list of the most commonly refered to gaming genres,

• Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) These games are played over a LAN (local area network) or via the Internet. ...
  • 
• Simulations. ...
  • 
• Adventure. ...
  • 
• Real-Time Strategy (RTS) ...
  • 
• Puzzle. ...
  • 
• Action. ...
  • 
• Stealth Shooter. ...
  • 
• Combat.
  • 

Using the list above create a presentation on the sucsessful release within these genres, ensure that you use images to help support your discussions.
For extention, research the income that each of these genres contribute to the overall gaming sector.

• players, e.g. age range, gender, casual gamers, immersive gamers, themes

We know that gaming has the ability to span over a number of  players from a range of ages and genders, games are no longer steriotyped to girls, boys and infants, we can see this in games like call of duety and Fortnite.

What do you think makes a game a success to enable it to cover all players and genders? 

• game production, e.g. mainstream publisher, indie, free-to-play

MAINSTREAM PUBLISHERS

Within the games industry there are a number of big publishers out there, some are,

• Microsoft.
• Nintendo.
• Activision Blizzard.
• Electronic Arts.
• Namco.
• King Digital Entertainment.
• Ubisoft / Vivendi.

These publishers have bought great titles to our games consoles such as, Pokemon, RPGs like the Legend of Zelda series, Far Cry and Assassin’s Creed and a miltitude of other great titles.

Data taken from Zippia gives us information of the annual revenues, number of employees and  some of  the popular games that some of the top publishers have;

Microsoft

Annual Revenue: 7.79 billion USD
Popular Published Games: Halo series; Gears of War series
Number of Total Employees: 120,849

Nintendo

Annual Revenue: 4.21 billion USD
Popular Published Games: Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild; Super Smash Bros. series; Pokemon series
Number of Total Employees: 5,095

Activision

Annual Revenue: 3.57 billion USD
Popular Published Games: Call of Duty series; World of Warcraft; Overwatch
Number of Total Employees: 9,472

Electronic Arts

Annual Revenue: 3.49 billion USD
Popular Published Games: Dragon Age series; Mass Effect series; FIFA series; Madden series
Number of Total Employees: 7,645

Ubisoft

Annual Revenue: 1.57 billion USD
Popular Published Games: Assassin’s Creed series; Far Cry series; Just Dance series
Number of Total Employees: 9,000

INDIE

Indie games developers are often small scall "indepentant" publishers that consisit of small teams that develope titles to work on a range of platforms. Theses studios will normally have limited budgets and can in some cases seek funding through the use of crowed funding platforms to enable them to develope a concept for release or approval by large console owners.

Games that were orriginally indie are;

Minecraft, Super Meatbot and Angry Birds.

FREE-TO-PLAY

• multiplayer

• artificial intelligence, e.g. search algorithms, mathematical optimisation, logic

• emerging technologies

• security of integrated services and multiplayer environments, e.g. Steam,

Google Play^TM.

Practical

We will be using Construct 3 to develop our games for this unit. Use the following link to research in to the online based application .

https://www.construct.net/gb?utm_source=scirra&utm_medium=topbar&utm_campaign=topbar&utm_content=c3link

Once you can navigated to the site read through the begginers guide tutorial

https://www.construct.net/gb/tutorials/beginners-guide-to-construct-3-1

These resources are also available in your Onenote unit8 Notebook

One-Minute Verbal Assessment - The teacher asks learners to prepare and deliver a one minute verbal summary of a forthcoming or completed activity, session or topic.

Tickets Please! - The teacher creates two key questions for students to answer before they leave the lesson. Their answers will let her know what to do next.

Question and Answer - Verbal discussion with learners to quantify understanding

A.P1 Explain social and technological trends of computer games.

A.P2 Explain how current and emerging technologies impact computer games’ design and development.

A.M1 Discuss how current and emerging technologies impact on how games are designed and developed to meet the requirements of the users and the larger computer games industry.

A.D1 Evaluate the impact of current and emerging technologies on the design and development of computer games to meet the requirements of the users and the computer games industry.

A2 Technologies used in computer gaming

Technologies are continually evolving; it is vital to remain up to date with what is current at the time.

• Benefits and limitations of different platform options for the development of computer games:

Personal computers, e.g. Windows®, Mac®

Consoles, e.g. PlayStation®, XboxTM, Nintendo®

Mobile devices, e.g. smartphones, tablets, notebooks

Web-based, e.g. Flash®, HTML5.

Create a magazine article on the differences between dedicated gameing Pc's, Consoles, mobile devices and webbased applications. Make valid justifications around your reasoning and discuss thier features and limitations, ensure that you use images in your work as this will be for publication in a minimag.

Hardware options and their effect on the development of computer games, including:

Central processing unit (CPU)

Processor cache is a type of very fast RAM, keeping the processor from slowing down in a similar way to how disk cache helps the hard drive work faster. Graphic files can be huge, so everything that the hardware can do to make rapid transfers of data helps. 
Every program consists of instructions for the processor that are decoded and actioned inside the processor to make them work. When running a program, the processor has to make every instruction work, usually one after another, but some modern processors can run processes side by side. 
The quicker the instructions are run, the quicker a program responds to the user. The processor is very important in maintaining performance with complex digital images, so it's important to choose a system with a powerful CPU. 
The power of a CPU depends upon: processor speed- the faster the circuits are driven, the faster the computer runs processor design - the way the circuits have been designed has a massive effect on performance. Modern CPUs may have single, duo or quad cores with a lot of variation within these designs. 
The core of a processor is a collection of circuits that run programs. For early CPUs, there could only be one core, as the technology of that time needed all the circuits on the chip just to make the processor work. Technology has advanced so much that now manufacturers can include two or more cores in the same chip, equivalent to having two or more CPUs in the same component. 
There is a lot of choice of processor designs and it takes research to find out which performs better. Some graphics manipulations are easy for the processor, e.g. loading a graphic from disk to RAM, which is delegated to the DMA controller(s). 
Many graphics operations involve a lot of processor work, such as: rescaling an image, so the picture is a different size saving or exporting the image into another format, e.g. converting a bitmap file into a JPEG file applying a complex effect to a graphic, such as adjusting the tone or colour balance. All of these operations needs good, fast processor(s) to operate effectively. 

Graphics processing unit (GPU)

The Graphics Processing Unit is a dedicated chip on a computer/consoles motherboard that deals solely with the graphics, and processing of the information to present the images back to the users. These can range from relatively cheap to extremely expensive into the thousands. Improvements over the years in the development of graphics cards have enabled games to become more lifelike and run quickly without making a game look pixellated or leaving ghost images because of poor refresh rates. 

Almost all graphics cards these days carry their own memory allocation, this means that the computer is not sharing resources to make a game work graphically. 

Memory, e.g. random-access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM)

The internal memory of a computer system is called RAM. It is primarily used to hold programs when they are running and any documents or graphics files that the user has opened. There is a constant flow of data between the hard disk, the RAM and the processor. 
When a software application is run, the program is first copied from the hard disk to RAM. Once in RAM, the program can travel at very high speed to the processor where the program code can be run. RAM works at the speed of electricity, much faster than a hard disk, which works at the speed the disk spins. 
Similarly, when a document or data file is opened, it is first copied from the hard disk to RAM. Once it is in RAM, the file can be worked on by the user. Most modern hard disk drives have cache memory built into the control electronics to help the drive work faster. 
The cache is used so that: the FAT is copied from the disk to cache to make finding disk addresses faster, as fast electronic cache is used rather than slow disk to access FAT if data is needed from a drive, the required data is brought to cache, as well as the next data on the disk, so if the computer needs this as well, it is already in the cache, ready to go when data is written to disk, it is very quickly sent to cache so the drive electronics can then write the data to disk at slow disk speed without reducing performance in the rest of the system. 
Usually, there is some cache memory between processor and RAM. This cache may be on the motherboard or part of the processor. The processor works a lot faster than RAM, so needs a good supply of data and software to keep running without slowing the system down. 
 

Output, e.g. display, sound

The current market for gaming has numerous outputs that can be used by players to provide a truly immersive experience. Devices that are available today range from,

Oculus Rift

4 and 8 K monitors

7.1 and surround sound

Input, e.g. keyboard/mouse, touch, gamepad, joystick, kinetic, voice

The games sector has moved forward in a huge way from the origins of the humble joystick controller. Games consoles offer a large array of inputs that keep players engaged and interested in the games that they play. Inputs that are used today are,

WII Remote - 

Omni - 

Controller -

Joystick - 

Voice - 

Games Keyboards - Keyboards have developed from not just a device to input text on to a word editor, but to enable keys to perform a specific input based on the program, these even can have a custom image displayed on them also.

Gaming Mice - Mice these days are not just limited to the simple one or two button clicks! Mice for games consoles or PC can have a plethora of buttons in some cases 10 programmable buttons that enable the users to trigger actions on the click of a button. This enables the gamer to be able to throw grenades and shoot a gun whilst zooming through the scope of the gun and run all at the same time.

Steering Wheels - Games like Forza enable players to drive around in high-performance cars and using a steering wheel they can get force feedback to give the impression that they are actually driving the car in real life. Things like understeer and oversteer are not just words that are shown on screen, the player now can experience them. 

Storage, e.g. hard disk drive, cloud

Hard drive The hard drive is the obvious place to store graphical files as it is quick and the graphical software will look there first to open or save work because of the computer system default settings. Modern hard disks are very quick and spacious, with lots of room for work. Hard disk drives also have cache memory to improve the disk performance. 
 

Connections, e.g. internet, local area network, mobile network

New technologies.

The hardware listed above are intrinsic to any computer and how well they run, produce a report detailing why these elements are important within games development and design and what the impact of having insufficient levels of these hardware could have to the overall success of any developed game

Software options and their effect on the development of computer games, including:

Operating system, e.g. Windows, Mac OS, Linux®

The wonderful world of computing, has provided the user of it with a number of different platforms that users can choose from, this has been a battle of dominance for decades since the humble beginnings of Microsoft and Apple. However nowerdays we have many more platforms to offer. Each of the systems like Mac, PC can have open source operating systems on them, or thier own propratory software. However some of these have benefits and drawbacks, these range from lack of support or titles released on them, to non support of features like flash or input options like the Wii.

Programming language, e.g. C++, Java®

There are a number of programming languages that a developer may use in the development of a computer game. These range from high level to low-level languages. Commonly used are C#, C++, and Java, these are classed as Object-oriented languages that can be used to create Android and iPhone applications and games. The use of Javascript can be used in game creation these are classified as "Lightweight" 

Device drivers, e.g. input/output devices

Device drivers are a key element to consoles and games. The use of a device driver enables hardware and software to work with each other, almost like a translator that converts the input into a language that the console hardware can convert into instructions that enable actions to happen in a game.

Console developers often release new driver updates to their systems to allow them to introduce new hardware, a good example of this was when Sony released their PlayStation motion controller originally on the PS3. This allows the consoles to have a longer lifespan by keeping players interested.

Graphics options, e.g. DirectX®, OpenGL

The graphics options for Application programming interfaces (API's) to enable the management of tasks related to the software and GPU are  

DirectX - a Microsoft API 

OpenGL - An open sources API

Audio options, e.g. music, ambiance, file format.

The use of audio within a game is key, the sounds within a game add to the feel and theme of the game drawing gamers in and making them jump and react. Sounds in games enable players to understand when a feature or level has been achieved, and an enemy destroyed, a change in gameplay. The file formats that games can make use of are;

WAV - The WAV file format is uncompressed and as a result the file sizes are large. WAV formats are used on Audio Compact Discs (CD's). 

MP3 - The MP3 file format is often used today on portable players like iPhones, Android players, and dedicated MP3 players. MP3's are compressed and are in most cases (depending on the encoding options) when they are created from an original WAV format are 10 times less in file size.

FLAC - The FLAC file format is compressed in the Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC) format, which is an open source lossless audio compression format.

AAC - The AAC or Advanced Audio Coding is an audio coding standard for lossy digital audio compression it was created to be the successor of the MP3 format. In comparison to MP3, the AAC generally achieves better sound quality than MP3 but at the same bit rate.

Each of the above files has their merits and their drawbacks, compression is often used to ensure reductions in file sizes, however, this could be at cost of the quality of the sound.

We can take for granted that our IT devices use software to enable us to do things, however, software in games development and design can provide further obstructions to the development of a AAA title, using your previous report on hardware add a new section to review and discuss the necessary software that is required to create games (ensure that you look at the complete system)

Uses of game engines, their capabilities and how they aid computer game developers, including:

Rendering engines

Developers use rendering engines to create games for consoles, mobile devices, and personal computers. The main function within most games engines is a rendering engine ("renderer") for 2D or 3D graphics, a physics engine or collision detection (and collision response), sound, scripting, animation, artificial intelligence, networking, streaming, memory management, threading, localization support, scene graph, and may include video support for cinematics.

Physics engines

A physics engine is responsible for simulating the motions and reaction of objects as if they were under the constraints of real-world (or similar to real-world) physics. It is not usually a standalone program but rather a component of a larger, more interesting program (such as a game).

The input to a physics simulation is generally a collection of objects ("bodies") with properties (such as whether they are rigid or soft, their masses, shapes, and so on) as well as the collection of forces acting on those bodies.

Based on that input, the engine simulates updated positions and orientations of the bodies and applies ("outputs") them. Generally, when objects collide or overlap, that is included in the output of a simulation step in the form of a callback that client code can hook into to handle the specific gameplay logic relevant to the collision.

Essentially Physics engines try to simulate the effects of both gravity and collisions. For better physics engines that means they include both permanent and temporary deformation of objects, including splitting objects into multiple objects, and angular momentum of objects. Ideally, they'd also simulate stress, e.g. how many trucks can cross that bridge until it collapses, but that's quite rare. Further simulation variables like air resistance would also count as physics engine, but these haven't made it into any game yet.

Most physics engines are specialized to some degree and will simulate physics to a point that's necessary for the game. Physics engines for car games are often quite different from physics engines for 3D shooters. And the physics engine of a golf game might have excessive calculations of the interactions of the golf ball and the individual grass leaves, while completely missing the handling of high-speed collisions and deformation of a car (in case it gets hit by a golf ball).

Collision detection

After physics are added to objects in the game they have the ability to collide with each other. This is known as collision detection, it is another key role within a games engine. When an object moves around the game there may be colliders surrounding the game area to ensure that player objects don't walk off the edge of the screen, or the playable area, or through walls. The player in the game will also have colliders that enable them to stop walking through walls or other objects such as enemies.

As you play games you may see a games players arm move through a wall but not the whole player object, this is due to the complexity of the shape of the characters that it would be to taxing on the system to have every part of the player object to have a collider.

Scripting

Almost all games engines will enable developers to create and add new scripts within a game to allow for new things to happen. These can be added using scripting languages like Javascript and C++.  If developers are using the Unreal Engine the program has a library of scripts called "Blueprints" that can be used and manipulated to meet the needs of the developer. 

Animation.

Within a games engine, one of the responsibilities is to animate the objects and make them move. There are two kinds of animation used in gaming, these are;

Vertex-based animation - these move parts of a 3D mesh or a 2D sprite. 

skeletal animation - which is a rigid object, for example, a door opening when a player approaches it.

In a final section to the report that you have created this week identify at least 3 games engines that are used to create games, in your discussions review their features and limitations and how that they aid the creation of computer games. (it is recommended that you use some well known and some smaller less well-known engines to enable you to discuss in sufficient detail.

For pass standard,
learners will provide descriptions of how current and emerging technologies in gaming impact on the users and the games industry. The descriptions must be supported by examples of current and emerging technologies.
Learners will explain the technologies available in gaming and how they affect the design and implementation of a game.
Learners must support their explanations with examples from existing computer games and how they make use of the technologies available during development.

Key Terms

Scripting Language - Programming Language that requires an application to enable is to run, ie a games engine or a web browser

Graphical Node  - Blocks of colour that are used to represent functions of a programming language

Reading: Read and understand texts, selecting material appropriate to purpose, collating from different sources and making comparisons and cross-references as appropriate.

Organising Information: Organise information and ideas into structured and sequenced sentences, paragraphs and whole texts, using a variety of linguistic and structural features to support cohesion and overall coherence.

Clarifying Learning Objectives - Using coloured discs and/or peer explanation, check to ensure that learners have understood the learning objectives.

Question and Answer - Verbal discussion with learners to quantify understanding

Product Evidence - Learners to create product evidence to demonstrate understanding

A.P1 Explain social and technological trends of computer games.

A.P2 Explain how current and emerging technologies impact computer games’ design and development.

A.M1 Discuss how current and emerging technologies impact on how games are designed and developed to meet the requirements of the users and the larger computer games industry.

A.D1 Evaluate the impact of current and emerging technologies on the design and development of computer games to meet the requirements of the users and the computer games industry.

Statistic extracting information: Tables, Diagrams, Charts and Graphs

Using numbers: Written or mental methods, using a calculator, rounding and estimating, problem solving

Design a computer game to meet client requirements

B1 Computer games design processes and techniques

Mathematical techniques and processes.

Math's and logic are intrinsic to the core programming of any computer game. How the game is design required the use of a "Technical Specification that provides an outline to the code required for the game, additional to the process identification of the functionality that the game will have and the maths that will make it happen.

Graphic processing and editing techniques.

Platform and delivery.

Visual styles.

How games are designed visually in the current day's links in some way, to their overall success, however,  it is worth commenting that this is only part of the overall success of a game, gameplay is still vital. 

When you look at the games that are developed today they have styles that give users near human playable characters and assets, look at the latest release of Red Dead Redemption (10/2018)

The visuals in the game are amazing, they pop and give a real sence of setting.

There are other games that have their own visual style, Minecraft,

 even down to no colour

Assets.

Games are constructed by a number of assets, these are built in environments outside of the game and then imported into it. For example the activity in Construct 3 that was to create a simple game, you used images that were created in a graphics package outside of the engine and then imported into it for them to has events, triggers and handlers added to it.

Gameplay features

interaction model, e.g. avatar, omnipresence

participation, e.g. single player, multiplayer

narrative, e.g. story, dialogue

game setting, e.g. physical, temporal, environmental, emotional, ethical

goals, e.g. what the player needs to achieve in the game

challenges, e.g. what the player must overcome

rewards, e.g. what the player will receive for completing goals or challenges

player actions, e.g. run, jump

rules, e.g. valid moves, how high the player can jump

feedback, e.g. how the player knows their progress

difficulty, e.g. degree of challenge

game mechanics, e.g. inventory, scoring, win condition

Using a game of your choice use the above-identified gameplay features and explain where they are within the game and how are used by the game and the benefit to the player. Ensure that you have created a section heading for each.

game structure, e.g. storyboard, flowchart, activity diagram

Naughty Dog are the creators of the hit series Drakes Unchartered, 

quality, e.g. compatibility, performance, gaming experience.

Why are the above important to any game?

Listening: Listen and respond to speakers ideas and perspectives, and how they construct and express meanings

Reading: Read and understand texts, selecting material appropriate to purpose, collating from different sources and making comparisons and cross-references as appropriate.

Organising Information: Organise information and ideas into structured and sequenced sentences, paragraphs and whole texts, using a variety of linguistic and structural features to support cohesion and overall coherence.

Capturing Progress - The teacher matches activities to learning objectives. Learners assess and record progress as they complete the planned activities.

Peer Check B4 Submission - The teacher asks pairs to ensure that completed work is ready to be submitted for either summative or more formative trainer assessment. The teacher may provides the group with success criteria to help them assess the completed work.

Question and Answer - Verbal discussion with learners to quantify understanding

A.P1 Explain social and technological trends of computer games.

A.P2 Explain how current and emerging technologies impact computer games’ design and development.

A.M1 Discuss how current and emerging technologies impact on how games are designed and developed to meet the requirements of the users and the larger computer games industry.

A.D1 Evaluate the impact of current and emerging technologies on the design and development of computer games to meet the requirements of the users and the computer games industry.

Using Numbers: Counting, Place value, adding and subtracting, multiplying and dividing.

Money: Budgeting, Estimating, Rounding to nearest pound, using correct symbols, calculating costs using a calculator

Using numbers: Written or mental methods, using a calculator, rounding and estimating, problem solving

B2 Design documentation

Assignment 2 OUT, please refer to your onenote.

• Requirements of the brief, including audience, purpose and client requirements.

Let's refer to your One Note! 

Legal and ethical considerations applicable to the equivalent legislation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, e.g. copyright, royalties, digital rights management.

• Game design, to include:

o type of gameplay

o data dictionary

o algorithm design, e.g. pseudo code

o storyboards, flowcharts, activity diagrams

o visual styles, e.g. world (terrain, architecture, objects), characters, non-playing characters, feedback interface, perspectives (2D, 3D, first-person, third-person, scrolling, aerial and context-sensitive)

o full motion video

o assets, e.g. graphical, audio and video

o gameplay features.

Call of Duty: Why we put 'own twist' on Battle Royale mode

To create storyboards for your assessments you can use storyboards, in the link below you will find a royalty-free template.
Storyboard Template

Construct How 2's

Player animation and platform creation 

How to get the screen to follow the player

Jumping on an enemy

Creating Collectables

Making an Enemy

Voice: Opportunities within lesson to develop their own reflective writing as well as develop technical writing skills within the production of their treatment.

Reading: Read and understand texts, selecting material appropriate to purpose, collating from different sources and making comparisons and cross-references as appropriate.

Voice: Opportunities within lesson to develop their own reflective writing as well as develop technical writing skills within the production of their treatment.

Learning Capture - Teachers allocate time at the end of the session for the group to write down what they think they have learned. The information shared helps the teacher to see which content he may need to revisit and so shapes future planning.

Just a Minute - At the end of the lesson teachers ask learners to summarise their learning. The comparison of these summaries against learning objectives informs planning.

Question and Answer - Verbal discussion with learners to quantify understanding

Product Evidence - Learners to create product evidence to demonstrate understanding

B.P3 Produce designs for a computer game that meet client requirements.

B.P4 Review the designs with others to identify and inform refinements.

B.M2 Justify decisions made, showing how the design will fulfil its purpose and client requirements.

BC.D2Evaluate the design and optimised computer game against client requirements.

BC.D3Demonstrate individual responsibility, creativity and effective self-management in the design, development and review of a computer game.

Collect and record data: Questionnaires, Observation, Tally

Length, weight, capacity, temperature: Measuring, using scales, ruler, tape measure, thermometer Recording and comparing results, converting, Choosing appropriate units and measuring instruments, estimating.

B2 Design documentation

Assignment support - Ensure that your report that supports the development of your game includes the following;

1. Game Design Requirements and platform for release.

2. Narrative - What is your game story? It is key to outline/tell the story of your game from start to beginning, detailing the special levels, the bosses, collectibles (even if not interacted with) enemies and obstacles.

3. Storyboard - Using images (even in stick form) to show the flow of the key scenes in the game and levels, using notes to further explain what is in the frame.

4. Assets Table - Identifying the sprites, sound, text that will or possibly will not appear in your game. This table will in your assignment be large.

5. Pseudocode - This is a written explanation of the interaction/process some of your key assets will follow, i.e
                 player spawn,
                        user input left move sprite player left,
                        begin walk animation,
                        if user input ends,
                        stop animation,

6. Test Plan - It is important to test for functionality of your game against some preset points, these should appear in your test plan, i.e, on collision with the enemy, destroy the player.

7. Data Dictionary - This should be a list of key data values that you refer to in your game and supporting documentation this will enable the user/reviewers to understand any values of the data. i.e

8. Identification of Genre - Ensure that you have made reference to your game type and the genre that it falls in to (action, sport)

9. Identification of the visual styles that the game has/is following (top down, scroller, first person), the players having oversized heads, disproportionate sizes of player sprite i.e. a car's wheels on a driving game. Location of the HUD (heads up display), messages presented to a player in the middle of the screen.

10. Gameplay features, i.e score, timers, secret levels. Anything that makes your game unique.
 

• Choice of programming languages, application program interface (APIs) and computer game development kits.

When it comes to the implementation and creation of a game, the careful selection of the language that the game will be coded in needs to happen. Games can be implemented in a number of languages, some more complex than others, these will in most places provide the developer with more features and capabilities than others.

There are a number of programming languages commonly used, these are;

C#

C++

Javascript

HTML 5

Older languages used are ;

Python

Delphi

API's

In some development packages, the program will have a potential library of pre-coded applets and sections of code that have been written that can be used by the developer, this in turn, saves a considerable amount of development time. These API codes can be root/core code for device-specific features to be enabled.

Research the development kits available for game creation. create a simple powerpoint that identifies the most popular kits available.

• Intended platform/media for delivery.

Consideration around the platform that your game should be released on is important, failure to give this consideration can result in not targeting the correct audiences. Look at flappy birds, a simple game that worked for mobile, its simplicity meant that it was able to be deployed on to mobile platforms, requiring no joystick, however it would it be as successful on a console?

You must also consider the use of the PEGI rating system when delivering your game. The body responsible for applying UK PEGI ratings is the VSC Rating Board. Essentially, the PEGI ratingon a game confirms that it contains content suitable for a certain age group and above. So a 7-rated game is suitable for everyone who is seven or older, while an 18-rated game is deemed suitable for adults only.

PEGI

Create a leaflet on games that have had success across a multiple number of platforms, in your leaflet give your opinions on why you think these were successful.

• Timeline, e.g. outlining which different assets are included and when different assets will be combined.

• Production schedule, e.g. timeline of development.

• Hardware, software and other resources required.

Using your Construct account look up the requirements of the application and investigate the features that the pro version will provide. create a simple powerpoint that identifies the features and what they enable you to bring to your production.

• Test plans to check playability, performance and other quality characteristics.

Test plans are a vital piece of equipment that enables developers to check for the functionality of a specific part of the game or features within it. A test plan sets out the areas that need to be reviewed and the expected output/outcome, if this is different to the actual outcome then this should be recorded allowing for the developer to review/check and change the code/game to meet the expected outcome of the tested area.

A testing document is normally laid out in a tabular form, using the following structure.

What types of Tests are there that we can do?

playability, 

performance,

quality characteristics.

create a test structure, this will enable you to identify in your projects later what you expect your game to do and have and to evaluate its success or issues in its creation/complete state.

• Constraints, e.g. platform limitations.

Question and Answer - Verbal discussion with learners to quantify understanding

Product Evidence - Learners to create product evidence to demonstrate understanding

More Than Just a Minute - Learners assess themselves against key learning points indicating a level of understanding to inform teacher planning.

B.P3 Produce designs for a computer game that meet client requirements.

B.P4 Review the designs with others to identify and inform refinements.

B.M2 Justify decisions made, showing how the design will fulfil its purpose and client requirements.

BC.D2Evaluate the design and optimised computer game against client requirements.

BC.D3Demonstrate individual responsibility, creativity and effective self-management in the design, development and review of a computer game.

Analysis of information: Interpreting Results, Drawing conclusions from data, Comparing data

Area, perimeter, volume: Calculating, applying calculations to real situations

B3 Reviewing and refining designs

• Working with clients and others to improve the quality, effectiveness and appropriateness

of designs, including:

o gathering feedback from the client(s) and potential users

Within the development and creation of a game it is key to seek feedback from others both linked to the game (the developers) and not linked (the players/user testers) this will throw up information that may have been overseen or misinterpreted from the original brief.

The feedback should be consistent across the targeted individuals to allow for comparisons and arguing the final output.

A good way to represent this would be through a form layout such as below,

Your questions should reflect the elements that you have included in your game by your client and the intended target audiences.

o communicating with clients, e.g. email, verbal communication

o scheduling and documenting meetings

o agreeing and adjusting timescales

o refining ideas and solutions.

• Updating design schematic documentation based on review and feedback.

Speaking:Speak to communicate clearly and purposefully; structure and sustain talk, adapting it to different situations and audiences; use Standard English and a variety of techniques as appropriate

Listening: Listen and respond to speakers ideas and perspectives, and how they construct and express meanings

Organising Information: Organise information and ideas into structured and sequenced sentences, paragraphs and whole texts, using a variety of linguistic and structural features to support cohesion and overall coherence.

One-Minute Verbal Assessment - The teacher asks learners to prepare and deliver a one minute verbal summary of a forthcoming or completed activity, session or topic.

 Self Assessment - Learners compare their work against success criteria given to them by the teacher and identify ways to improve the work done so far.

Question and Answer - Verbal discussion with learners to quantify understanding

Product Evidence - Learners to create product evidence to demonstrate understanding

Length, weight, capacity, temperature: Measuring, using scales, ruler, tape measure, thermometer Recording and comparing results, converting, Choosing appropriate units and measuring instruments, estimating.

Organising and Representing data: Drawing tables, charts and graphs

Collect and record data: Questionnaires, Observation, Tally

Develop a computer game to meet client requirements

C1 Principles of computer games development

• Design schematics.

• Computational processes applied to computer games development, e.g. use of

rendering engines.

• Principles of mathematics applied to computer games development, e.g. vector, physics.

• Prototyping and game engine selection.

• Tools and techniques used to develop computer games.

• Quality characteristics used to test and assess suitability of computer games.

• Technical constraints.

Anonymous Assessment - Learners assess an anonymous piece of work containing deliberate mistakes against given success criteria.

C2 Developing computer games

• Visual style:

o omnipresent, e.g. area of vision

o avatar, e.g. line of sight.

• Input methods: Games and games console can have a wide range of inputs as discusses in previous weeks, in your game depending on the software that you have chosen to use you may be able to use the following;

o keyboard and mouse

o gamepad

o customisation of control, e.g. user configuration.

In most cases you will be able to customise these hardware tools to work in a way that you prefer, this could be through the games them selves or through third party software or hardware, for example XMapper.

• Asset integration, to include:

o graphical, e.g. raster, vector

o animation and video, e.g. cut scene, story, arc

o audio, e.g. syncing sound clips with visual displays

o texture mapping, e.g. applying texture to a mesh

• Advanced features, to include:

o artificial intelligence, e.g. search algorithms, learning algorithms

o 3D rendering, e.g. 3D environment, first-person view

o save game state, e.g. options to save, auto-save points

o multiple players, e.g. multiple player controls, via network

o player progression, e.g. achievements, leader boards.

Speaking:Speak to communicate clearly and purposefully; structure and sustain talk, adapting it to different situations and audiences; use Standard English and a variety of techniques as appropriate

Reading: Read and understand texts, selecting material appropriate to purpose, collating from different sources and making comparisons and cross-references as appropriate.

Anonymous Assessment - Learners assess an anonymous piece of work containing deliberate mistakes against given success criteria.

Ratios: Calculating ratios, applying ratios, Scales e.g. Maps

Fractions: Sharing amounts, Calculating fractions, Comparing fractions

Length, weight, capacity, temperature: Measuring, using scales, ruler, tape measure, thermometer Recording and comparing results, converting, Choosing appropriate units and measuring instruments, estimating.

C3 Testing computer games

• Test computer games including playability, compatibility, stability and acceptance.

• Obtain feedback from others, e.g. effectiveness, presentation, performance, accessibility,

portability, robustness, purpose.

• Make improvements and/or refinements to computer games in response to testing and

feedback from others.

Reading: Read and understand texts, selecting material appropriate to purpose, collating from different sources and making comparisons and cross-references as appropriate.

Anonymous Assessment - Learners assess an anonymous piece of work containing deliberate mistakes against given success criteria.

Ratios: Calculating ratios, applying ratios, Scales e.g. Maps

Statistic extracting information: Tables, Diagrams, Charts and Graphs

C4 Reviewing computer games

• Quality of the computer game.

• Suitability for audience and purpose.

• Suitability against the original requirements.

• Legal and ethical constraints.

• Technology constraints.

• Strengths and improvements.

• Platforms and compatibility.

Interactive Speaking : Interact with others, shaping meanings through suggestions, comments and questions and drawing ideas together.

Speaking:Speak to communicate clearly and purposefully; structure and sustain talk, adapting it to different situations and audiences; use Standard English and a variety of techniques as appropriate

Listening: Listen and respond to speakers ideas and perspectives, and how they construct and express meanings

Anonymous Assessment - Learners assess an anonymous piece of work containing deliberate mistakes against given success criteria.

Ratios: Calculating ratios, applying ratios, Scales e.g. MapsStatistic

extracting information: Tables, Diagrams, Charts and Graphs

C5 Quality characteristics

• Sources of quality characteristics which can be measured suitably against computer games, including playability, performance and presentation.

C6 Skills, knowledge and behaviours

• Planning and recording, including the setting of relevant targets with timescales, how and when feedback from others will be gathered.

• Reviewing and responding to outcomes including the use of feedback from others, e.g. IT

professionals and users who can provide feedback on the quality of the computer games and their suitability against the original requirements.

• Demonstrate behaviour and its impact on outcomes to include professionalism, etiquette, supportive of others, timely and appropriate leadership, accountability and individual responsibility.

• Evaluating outcomes to help inform high-quality justified recommendations and decisions.

• Evaluating targets to obtain insights into own performance.

• Media and communication skills, including:

o the ability to convey intended meaning, e.g. written (email, design documentation, recording documentation, reports, visual aids for presentation use), verbal communication requirements (one-to-one and group, informal and formal, situations)

o use of tone and language for verbal and written communications to convey intended meaning and make a positive and constructive impact on audience, e.g. positive and engaging tone, technical/vocational language suitable for intended audience, avoidance of jargon

o responding constructively to the contributions of others, e.g. supportive, managing contributions so all have the opportunity to contribute, responding to objections, managing expectation, resolving conflict.

Speaking:Speak to communicate clearly and purposefully; structure and sustain talk, adapting it to different situations and audiences; use Standard English and a variety of techniques as appropriate

Organising Information: Organise information and ideas into structured and sequenced sentences, paragraphs and whole texts, using a variety of linguistic and structural features to support cohesion and overall coherence.

Sentence Structure: Use a range of sentence structures for clarity, purpose and effect, with accurate punctuation and spelling.

Anonymous Assessment - Learners assess an anonymous piece of work containing deliberate mistakes against given success criteria.

Statistic extracting information: Tables, Diagrams, Charts and Graphs

Time: Reading clocks and calendars, using timetables, organising appointments, conversions, dates