Created: 2026-03-08 10:48
Tags: #notes #gamedevelopment
🗒️Notes:
- Who knows who this guy is?
- Who knows what these little squares are called?
- And why did they make art with these? Why not just draw straight lines?
- How many people play mobile games?
| Industry | Global annual revenue (approx.) | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Video games | $183.9B | Newzoo estimate for 2023 global games revenue |
| Movies (box office only) | $33.9B | Gower Street estimate for 2023 global box office |
| Music (recorded music only) | $28.6B | IFPI 2023 global recorded music trade revenue |
- Picture it: the year is 1989. I'm in 4th grade. For my birthday, I get this game
- And I'm obsessed with it for the rest of my life
- Flash forward 10 years, and I have a computer and I want to make improvements to this game
- Eventually, I want to make it into a different type of game
- Anyone ever heard of a mod?
- Who has ever used a mod?
- Who has ever had an idea for a mod?
- Who has actually made a mod?
- I honestly don't know what the mod is on the left
- I do know what the mod is on the right--anyone ever heard of a game called Portal?
- Pretty cool concept, I hope they remake it
- Notice this word "vanilla"--that just means unmodded
- A lot of game designers start by making levels before they ever write code. Levels are “the playground” of a game 🏟️
- Watching someone else play your level teaches you a lot. If everyone gets stuck at the same jump… that jump might be unfair 😅
- Games with creators can last forever because players keep making new content 🔥
- “Creator mode” games turn imagination into something other people can actually experience. That’s powerful 🧠➡️🌍
- each one of these is a job
- multiple jobs in fact! the bigger the game, the more of these jobs there are
- Now thing about all the elements we talked about:
- Level design
- how does this level work?
- Bowser jumps up and down, shoots fire
- the platform moves back and forth
- the axe when you touch it cuts the chain and sends Bowser into the lava
- Gameplay programming
- which blocks are solid?
- which ones can you walk on?
- which sprites cause death when touched?
- Art
- every pixel has to be designed, just like the first example
- Audio
- can you think of the Mario music in your mind?
- who can "sing" it for me?
- Management
- someone has to be in charge!
- over on the right, the picture of the developers
- the guy in the middle is probably the most famous game developer of all time
- the only one i recognize by sight
- So you've decided to make a game, right? Everyone has reached that decision?
- So you have a choice to make--build your own engine or use one that exists
- Two of the most popular are Unreal and Unity
- At Newman, our coursework uses Unity
- Both of these are free to use by the way
- You can try them out tonight on your computer
- In fact, do that. That's your homework.
- Before we look at Unreal and Unity, I want you to think about a modern game and how complex they are
- Anyone recognize this game?
- Systems to account for:
- walking, jumping, rolling, attacking
- for you, for the enemy
- life bar, stamina bar, magic bar
- items in your inventory
- terrain: grass, water
- music
- So most of this stuff, you can accomplish with Unreal or Unity
Unreal Editor
- Viewport = the big window showing the world (what you’re building) 🎥
- Assets = saved stuff like models, textures, sounds (assets = “game ingredients”) 🧱🎨🎵
- Super detailed scene = lots of objects + lighting + materials (materials = what surfaces look like, like metal or wood) ✨
Unity Editor
- Scene/Game view = build mode vs play mode 🎥▶️
- Hierarchy = a list of everything in the level (characters, lights, trees) 📋
- Project/Assets = your files and game ingredients 🗂️
- Code window = scripts (scripts = code instructions that tell objects what to do) 💻
