Game Design Essentials

Chapter 1: The Game Jam: Make a real game…right now!  

The Game Jam 

     Modifying the Game Jam 

     Best Practices 

The Game Engine 

     Game Engine History 

     Unreal Versions 

     Installing the Unreal Engine 

     Game Design Fundamentals: Character Movement and Abilities 

     Game Design Fundamentals: Axis Direction in 3D Game Engines 

Making Our Game 

     The Third-Person Platformer 

     Game Design Fundamentals: Graphics 

     Game Design Fundamentals: Constructivism 

Testing The Game 

     Game Design Fundamentals: Bugs 

Publishing The Game 

     Unreal 4 Publishing Directions 

     Common Build Problems 

     Problems running your game? 

Packaging in Unreal 5 

     Game Design Fundamentals: The Post-Mortem 

     Game Design Fundamentals: Going with the Grain 

Congratulations! 

Chapter 2: After the Game Jam: Game Design Basics  

From Penny Arcades to Video Games 

     Game Design Fundamentals: The Birth of the Game Designer 

     Game Design Fundamentals: Iteration 

Video Games and the Personal Computer 

     Game Design Fundamentals: Level Design 

What is Fun? 

What is a Game? 

     Sports Games: Not True Games? 

     Game Design Fundamentals: The Magic Circle 

More Basic Ludology 

Practical Application 

Conclusion 

Chapter 3: Game Design Preproduction: The Paper Design Phase  

Introduction 

Why Do We Document? 

What about Generative AI? 

Different Types of Documents 

The Pitch Document 

Out Next Game: Filling in The Pitch Document 

     Game Design Fundamentals: Making 2D Maps 

Patrick’s Time Travel Adventure 

Game Overview 

Overhead Map 

Gameplay Summary 

Visual References 

The Completed Pitch Document 

     Game Design Fundamentals: Design Documents Aren’t Contracts 

     Game Design Fundamentals: When to Use a Larger GDD 

Conclusion 

Chapter 4: Game Design Production, Part 1: The Whitebox  

Introduction 

Setting Up Your Map 

     Game Design Fundamentals: How Big? 

Scale: Don’t Build a World for Giants! 

Revising Your Whitebox as You Build 

Optional: The Unreal Landscape Tool 

Designing Effective Game Environments 

     Game Design Fundamentals: Landmarks 

     Design Fundamentals: Avoiding The “Trackless Forest” 

     Game Design Fundamentals: Paths 

Completing the Whitebox 

Conclusion 

Chapter 5: Scripting and Programming Basics  

Introduction 

Getting Started with Scripting and Programming 

     Introducing Unreal Blueprint – Events and Actions 

     Game Design Fundamentals: Pseudo-Code 

The Mighty Trigger 

Variables and Evaluating Conditions: If This, Do That! 

What About Other Programming Languages? 

Conclusion 

Chapter 6: The First Prototype  

Introduction 

Getting The Key 

Making the Key Blueprint 

     Game Design Fundamentals: Service to the Player 

The Key-Door System: Some Game Development Fakery 

     Game Design Fundamentals: Thinking in Systems 

     Game Design Fundamentals: How Open Should a Game Be? 

Conclusion 

Chapter 7: The MVP (Minimum Viable Product)  

Introduction 

Reviewing Our Completed Systems 

Our Combat System: Historical Perspective 

Using A Test Map 

Making The Blueprints 

Char_Monster 

     Char_Monster’s Viewport 

     Char_Monster’s Event Graph 

BP_Sword 

     BP_Sword’s Viewport 

     The Event Graph of BP_Sword 

     Game Design Fundamentals: Arrays 

     Level Placement 

     Creating A Winning Condition 

     Implementing 

Conclusion 

Chapter 8: Environment Art Basics  

Introduction 

Understanding Visuals – The Visual Language 

The Visual Actors 

Contrast and Affinity 

     Game Design Fundamentals: Contrast and Affinity 

Exploring Contrast and Affinity in the King’s Castle 

Kit Bashing 

     Game Design Fundamentals: The Beautiful Corner 

Pass One: Basic Structure 

Pass Two: Props 

Pass Three: Lighting and Smaller Details 

     Game Design Fundamentals: Using Editors Efficiently 

Job Complete? Maybe. 

Conclusion 

Chapter 9: User Interface Design  

Introduction 

     Game Design Fundamentals: UI Design Basics 

     Game Design Fundamentals: UX Basics 

The UI and UX Design of the Sample Game 

Creating a UI Widget 

Displaying A Game Widget to the Screen 

Changing Fonts 

Dynamically Changing UI Text 

Solving the UX Problem 

Constructing the Journal 

Conclusion 

Chapter 10: Refining Combat  

Introduction 

Creating More Interesting Gameplay 

     Game Design Fundamentals: Basic Actions and Strategic Actions 

Implementing New Gameplay 

     Game Design Fundamentals: The Dot Product 

Setting Up the Dot Product 

Implementing the Critical Hit 

Tweaking the Monster Movement Behavior and Game Rules 

     Game Design Fundamentals: Second-Order Consequences 

Fixing the Monster’s Rotation 

Experimenting with Level Design 

     Game Design Fundamentals: Using the Z-Axis 

Even More Design Iteration? 

Conclusion 

Chapter 11: Spreadsheets and Procedural Design  

Introduction 

Designing A Simple Procedural System for PowerUps 

Creating the Blueprints 

Creating the Actor Blueprint 

Creating a Simple Material 

Creating The Spreadsheet and Data Table 

     Game Design Fundamentals: Spreadsheet Formulas 

Manipulating Data Tables in Blueprints 

Evaluating What Is Happening So Far 

Testing and Observing Results 

Placing a Power-Up Manually 

     Game Design Fundamentals: Hand Crafted versus Procedural Design 

Conclusion 

Chapter 12: Game AI: Overview and Practical Applications  

The “Thinking” Computer 

Don’t Get Confused: Rules-Based AI, Generative AI, and Procedural Systems 

Game Design Essentials: Neural Networks 

Traditional Video Game AI Explained 

State Machines: An Explanation for Game Designers 

Game AI After Pac-Man 

Unreal Behavior Trees 

Creating Some Enemies with Unique Behaviors 

Step 1: Adjusting Our Third Person Character Blueprint and BP_Sword 

Creating Our New Enemy Character 

Creating Enemy_Controller 

Enemy_Controller Setup 1 

Blackboard Setup 

Starting Our Behavior Tree Setup: A Randomly Patrolling Enemy That Shoots Fireballs 

Behavior Tree Tasks: Where (Minimal) Blueprints Live 

Decorators: Modifying Behavior Tree Nodes 

Creating Our Behavior Tree – Thinking About Design First  

Creating The Behavior Tree: Basic Setup  

Creating A Behavior Tree: Enemy_Controller Scripting  

Behavior Tree Implementation: Chase Player  

Making Our Fireball  

Continuing With Our Behavior Tree: The BTT_AttackPlayer Task  

Decorators  

Using a Simple Parallel Composite Node  

Building BTT_FindRandomPatrol  

Finalizing The Behavior Tree Graph 

Creating A Neural Network Blueprint in Unreal 

Implementing The Enemy 

Conclusion 

Chapter 13: More Behavior Trees and an Introduction to Neural Networks 

Building On Our Traditional System, Then Exploring the Future 

Continuing Our Behavior Trees: An Enemy That Patrols Two Points 

Modifying the Patrol Subtree  

Creating the Linear Patrol Subtree: BTT_LinearPatrol  

Creating the Linear Patrol Subtree: BTT_Point1Reached  

Finishing the New Behavior Tree 214 Final Setup in Your Map 

Building A Single Neuron Monster 

Basic Blueprint Setup  

The Sigmoid Function  

Error Amount, Weight Based Learning, Fireball Shooting  

Creating the ShootFireball Function 

Creating Our Homing Projectile  

Setting Up the Material  

Setting Input 1  

Setting The Neuron Output  

The Gameplay: What Do We Do with This?  

Killing The Monster!  

Setting up the Neural Net Monster on a Map  

Game Design Essentials: Why Use Neural Networks in Games?  

Experimentation: Perhaps the most important Game Design Essential 

Conclusion 

Chapter 14: Game Audio Basics  

Introduction 

Implementing Footsteps for the Player 

     Game Design Fundamentals: Audio Files 

Creating an Environment Loop 

Setting Up an Unreal Sound Cue 

Placing Sounds and Manipulating Them in a Sound Cue 

     Game Design Fundamentals: Spatialization 

Setting Up Other Game Sounds 

Game Pickup Sounds 

User Interface Sounds 

Sounds for Combat 

Implementing Game Music 

Game Design Fundamentals: Stems and Music Implementation 

Conclusion 

Chapter 15: Polish  

Introduction 

Adding Particle Effects 

Adding a Post Process Volume 

     Game Design Fundamentals: The Uncanny Valley 

Revisiting Particle Effects 

Conclusion 

Chapter 16: Playtesting, Data Gathering, and Quality Assurance  

Introduction 

     Game Design Fundamentals: The Inner Voice 

Collecting Feedback 

     Game Design Fundamentals: Likert Scales and Thematic Analysis 

Quality Assurance and Bug Reporting 

Creating a Good Bug Report 

Other Information in Bug Reports 

     Game Design Fundamentals: Regression Testing 

Bug Reporting Software 

Further Exploration: Software Development Methodology 

Improving the Sample Game 

Applying the Data 

Conclusion 

Chapter 17: Publishing Games  

Introduction 

Getting Your Game Out There 

Publishing to Itch.IO 

Publishing to Steam 

Publishing on Home Game Consoles 

Marketing And the Problem of Discovery 

Don’t Worry and Make Things 

Conclusion 

Afterword 

References 

Appendix A: Documentation Examples  

Game Pitch Document: 

Full Game Design Document Example 

• Instructors Resources
• Powerpoint