Jacob Cordeiro - Gamestar Mechanic For Dummies

Gamestar Mechanic For Dummies

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Copyright 2014 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2013954110

ISBN 978-1-118-83212-7 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-118-83213-4 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-83214-1 (ebk)

Manufactured in the United States of America

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Chapter 1

In This Chapter

Introducing Gamestar Mechanic

Distinguishing the main components

Navigating the interface with ease

Exploring the skills you can acquire from Gamestar Mechanic

The website Gamestar Mechanic, created by E-Line Media and the Institute of Play, lets you create and play action games in which the player can navigate, shoot enemies, collect coins, and solve labyrinths. You can easily build your own games and publish them for other users to play and review, providing feedback on what you did well and what could be improved.

The concept of a level editor is prominent in a number of games, enabling you to arrange the components of the game in a unique way. Gamestar Mechanic goes the extra mile, using its official levels to teach you the elements of a fun game. Having a community of people who design, play, and review games allows you to step into the world of the game designer, the play-tester, and the critic, having fun every step of the way.

This chapter gives you an overview of what you can do with Gamestar Mechanic and introduces the main areas of the site.

Most video game design platforms, as with all programming languages, can be intimidating to beginners your imagination is often limited by your programming ability. In Gamestar Mechanic, you don't need to know a programming language to create a game. Youre provided with sprites (the components used to build a game), and the goal is to apply them in a fun and innovative arrangement.

In Gamestar Mechanic, you play quests (games created by the Gamestar team) that teach you the core concepts of game design, build your own games in the Workshop, and play a nearly limitless arcade of other peoples games in Game Alley. While playing, you grasp new concepts and apply them to your own games. After you design a game, you can immediately publish it so that it shows up in Game Alley, sharing the game with other players.

Gamestar Mechanic is a safe environment for sharing and discussing and is a useful resource for all ages. Figure shows the first page you see when you log in to the site.

Figure 1-1: This is Gamestar Mechanic.

In the following sections, I discuss the three main areas of Gamestar Mechanic and what you can do there:

• The Quest
• The Workshop
• The Game Alley

The Quest

The Quest is a combination of interesting games and interactive comics that follow the training of game designer Addison Cypher. Each quest involves tutorials and advice that teach you the concepts of game design, allowing you to learn from experience by playing games, repairing broken games, and designing your own games. You must complete the first quest in order to publish games for other users to play, because these quests contain valuable information about how games are made. (See Chapter for more on quest missions.)

The free quests introduce you to the essential concepts of game design via active play and interaction, whereas the premium quests define more advanced concepts that are weaved into a more intense storyline. (I discuss premium accounts in Chapter .) Whether youre a new game designer or you have experience in other programming languages, the Quest is a good place to start introducing yourself to the site.

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Understanding terms used in this book

This book often refers to the terms games, levels, and sprites. In the context of Gamestar Mechanic, a game is a complete, playable work to be published on the site. Every game is divided into separate levels, which are rooms that are cleared in sequence while playing the game. Lastly, levels are created by arranging (on a grid) little creatures or objects known as sprites that contribute different functions to the game.