Curriculum developed by Journeys in Film and provided by the developers of Walden, A Game
Achievements – A system of awards for performing certain feats within the game. Also called trophies or badges.
AI (Artificial Intelligence) – Algorithmic methods for programming “intelligent” actions as part of the game system. For example, AI controlled characters may seem to have situational knowledge of changes to their environment.
Ambience – The background sounds of an environment, which give a sense of place to a game world.
Audio Design – The creation of the audio tracks for the game world, which may include ambience, voice-over, sound effects, and music.
Bonus – A special reward that may temporarily power-up the player’s abilities or give the player extra points.
Camera – A virtual viewpoint within a game engine that gives players a vantage on the game, as would a real-world camera. A game camera may be attached to the player’s character, as in a first-person camera, or it may have separate camera controls allowing the player or the game to change its angle of view.
Challenge (n) – The way in which the game constrains players from accomplishing their goals in order to engage them in play.
Choice – The most basic interaction of a game. Choices can range from minor (having little or no impact on the game) to critical (changing the outcome of the game). Well-known game designer Sid Meier (Civilization), has said that games consist of “a series of interesting choices.”
Cinematic (n) – A non-interactive scene presented between game stages to convey elements of the storyline. These can be rendered live from within the game engine or by pre-rendered video clips.
Color Palette – The range of colors in a particular scene. Often used to communicate mood or emotional change.
Controls – The methods by which players interact with the game, usually through a piece of hardware, such as a keyboard and mouse, touch screen, or game controller. However, newer methods include voice and gesture control as well.
Economy – A system of currency, resources, barter or trade within a game world that allows players to exchange in game values or items with each other or with the game system.
Emergence – The quality of game systems, when put into action by players, to produce multiple and unexpected outcomes.
Energy – A typical player statistic that models real-world health.
Feedback (n) – The response returned by the game system to player input. This may be through aural, visual, haptic, or other means.
First-Person – A genre of video games where the player experiences the game from the first- person perspective.
Game designer – The person (or persons) responsible for creating the rules of the game. The game designer’s goal is to create rules that, when put into action by the players, result in an engaging and meaningful experience.
Game mechanic – An overarching term for how particular aspects of a game system function within the rules. Typical game mechanics include combat, inventory, crafting, scoring and exploration. Game mechanics are often abstractions of real world systems that give the game experience meaning.
Game state – A variable or set of variables that describes the current situation of play; for example, a score set to 11 or an item currently powered to 4. The full game state for video games is typically made up of many variables.
Game system – The system of rules and procedures that define the play of a game.
Game world – The fictional or non-fictional setting of a game, often defined by the layout of the world within a game engine and driven by any underlying environmental or atmospheric systems to give a sense of world dynamics.
Genre – An identification of games by their primary mechanics. For example, role-playing games, first-person shooters, adventure games, or puzzle games.
Graphics – The visual elements of a game. Often distinguished by whether they are two-dimensional (2D) or three-dimensional (3D).
Lighting (n) – The virtual light sources within a game that illuminate game objects. The engine interprets the color, strength, direction, and quality of the light as a part of the rendering process for the game world.
Map (n) – A map may either be the actual layout of a game level or an interface element that shows a representation of that layout, along with important landmarks such as the player position.
Mini-game – A game within a game; often used a structure for gaining resources.
Multiplayer – A game that allows multiple players to play at once, either in head-to-head challenges or in collaboration with each other.
Music Score – The music track for the game. This track may be interactive or non-interactive. Many games use interactive cues to change the score based on player actions or game events.
Non-player character (NPC) – A character in the game that is not controlled by a player. Non-player characters, while not directly controllable, may still be interactive. They are often used to provide information or advance story points.
Objective (n) – What players are challenged to accomplish or what they choose to accomplish within the game system.
Open world – A game world that the player may freely traverse, rather than being restricted to a pre-defined or linear path.
Player character – A character controlled by a player in game. Often the protagonist of the storyline.
Polygons – The building blocks of computer graphics. All objects in 3D game worlds are made up of polygon meshes, which are then wrapped with materials, allowing the engine to render realistic (or non-realistic) game graphics.
Procedural generation – When the game algorithmically creates game elements or situations, such as characters, storylines or world objects.
Quest – An objective-based activity created for the purpose of story or character-level advancement. Quests may follow many common structures, such as gathering or delivering items or completing tasks.
Rendering – The digital processing of polygon meshes, materials lighting, and shading into images that appear solid and three-dimensional.
Resources – Game objects that have value in the game because of their utility and scarcity.
Respawn (v) – The reappearance of a player or character in a game world after having been killed or otherwise removed from play.
Resolution (n) – The quality of detail of a game’s graphics as measured in horizontal and vertical pixels. For example, Full High Definition (Full HD) resolution is 1920 x 1080 pixels, while Ultra High Definition (Ultra HD) is 3840 x 2160 pixels. Rendering in higher resolutions requires greater graphics processing power.
Simulation (n) – A computer game that models a real-world situation or activity. The level of abstraction of a simulation will affect the realism of its outcome, as will the algorithms underlying the simulation.
Single-player – A game that can have only one player at a time.
Sound Effects – Audio elements that are distinct from the background ambience, dialogue or voice-over; they may be linked to specific visual cues. Sound effects may be in a world, such as the sound of an ax chopping or a dog barking, or they may be part of the user interface, such as an error sound or selection sound.
Storyline – The narrative action of a game, which may or may not be impacted by the player’s choices during gameplay.
Textures (n) – The surface detail added to a polygon mesh, which aids the game in rendering realistic imagery.
Third Person — A camera point of view that lets players see the character they are controlling.
Title screen – The main interface for the game, which usually lets players start a game, load a saved game, or access other areas of the software.
Tutorial – An in-game prompt giving information on how to use the game controls or other features.
Upgrade – An opportunity to make game items more powerful or valuable, such as an upgrade to a weapon or structure.
User interface – The visual or other elements of the game that communicate the state of the game, accept input, and return feedback to the player.
Virtual World – A computer simulation of a world. Virtual worlds may be simply visual simulations, or they may include more interactive elements, such as weather systems, city simulations, economies, or other emergent aspects that add to the depth and believability of their presentation.
Voice-over (VO) – Spoken dialogue in the game, either from an off-screen narrator or from on-screen animated characters.