William Bomber

William Bomber

Miss Pottenger

8th English

May 5, 2020

My Capstone Research

There are thousands of video games and millions of people that play them, making very vast amounts of communities. In my opinion video games are one of the best ways of entertainment, and also a good work opportunity. Video game communities are vast and variegated bringing people with the same interests closer together as a community. Video games bring people closer together based on what they are interested in and with so many people playing the same game you can make many friends. One of the reasons everyone likes games is because they have a direct influence on what happens in them from their personal choices. As a person who likes video games I want a direct influence on the community by creating my own.

For my project I want to create my own video game. It will be a top down survival where you are an abandoned android in an abandoned world. I will add an overarching story to it but probably after I have all the basic functions down. I will make the game using Game Maker Studio 2. What this essay will be is a paper about the history of coding languages, the creation of video games and some of the benefits of video games.

To make a game developers have to have the right tools and an important tool they will need is some way to write the code for the game, they need to find the right coding language. For starters we should dive into the history of some coding languages. Many government operations created low-level computer programs for reasons of scanning for bombs and making the final steps of coding computers easier but, in 1952-55 the first actual computer “language” was Flow-Magic witch was followed by FORTRAN (“Overview of”), which was focused around complex math (“10 Programing”), and later improved to COBOL. Many small languages were created but didn’t catch on like Smalltalk (“Overview of”) which used objects to code but created the bases of objects for C++ and Java (“10 Programing”). After needing an update for their computers from PDP AT&T created C which was made to be an improvement on FORTRAN in 1972 (“Overview of”), but was later improved to the more “object oriented” C++ version in 1998. Java was written in 1992 to solve the problem of FORTRAN’s complicated language and slow download into only one type of computer chip making its use very limited.(“10 Programing”)

Using these and other popular languages the gaming industry started to skyrocket and this is partly due to two factors: Games feed the natural human want for social interaction, challenging creativity and offering rewards. The gaming community brings together like minded people sharing the same interests.(“How Did”)

As an easier way of drawing in people to create communities before making a game developers need to know some of the current history of popular games so they can mold their game around it to try and make it popular. At the start of the decade there was a sharp rise in MOBAs, Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas, and Battle Royales in the last decade ( ex: Fortnite, Player Battlegrounds, League of Legends, Overwatch, ect). First person shooters also have made a major mark on the last decade like Call of Duty or DOOM. Other games have more scattered trends but they stay steady for 3D story modes.(Alister)

During the creation of their game, after they have the general Idea of what their game is, developers need to know how they're going to make money off of it. Premium games are paid for upfront where it is better to have all content. Freemium games are relatively free but have in-app purchases. Freemium is harder to get good ratings on because users believe it less valuable because they paid less for it, but Another way for freemium games to make money is ads.You can also promote your game in a popular crowdfunding site, although one problem with this is the fierce competition. If you pre-sale for before release and add exclusive game content or a DLC can give your game an extra boost of popularity before release.(“How to”)

I interviewed Andy Hull who is the programmer for a game called Spelunky. The reason I chose to interview him is because what he worked with previously can be similar to what I’m working on now and a perfect source of information for this paper. As a game programmer he said that he tries to think of the mechanics of the game he is working on and what the player will actually be doing. This meaning when dealing with other entities in the game he tries to think of possible interactions. This leads to the question of how he deals with debugging games, his answer to this was adding ways he could jump to any part of the game to test all the features more easily. Also using breakpoints which are set in code to stop the game when It reaches that point and shows what all the variables are set to to root out any numerical errors. Some of the best ways to get a game out in the public in his view is to get it out on social media and get play troughs in places like twitch and YouTube. Finally, There are three simple steps of a career in game development: 1) work on aspects of game development like art, programming, and music, 2) start making games, and 3) keep making games.(Hull)

To top it all off we should list some of the benefits of video games to show just some of the other side of the argument against video games. A study of a control group of people playing Super Mario 64 for 30min a day for two months shows an increase in brain matter in areas and of memory, strategic planning and fine motor skills.Action games have also improved attention to detail, this shows better eyesight including reading smaller words to noticing small color differentiation.Video games like Minecraft can also be used as a tool for teaching.Children with dyslexia can also benefit, with a group study shows that playing regular video games lead to them reading faster and more accurately. Some brain teasing video games have shown effects in slowing brain aging and improved memory in the elderly.Doctors with high exposure to video games show fewer mistakes in remote surgery.(“Can Video”)

There are many different types of video games and many different ways to create them. Starting off with the history of some coding languages and the success of the gaming industry.Then diving into what you should consider when making a game like how developers make their money. Ending with some of the positives of video games. This is the start of a great career in game development.

Works Cited

Alistar Jones. “Modern History.” ​PC Gamer,​ 20 Feb 2020, 32 - 35.

“Can Video Games Make You Smarter.” YouTube, AsapSCIENCE, Jan 19, 2014,

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OOsqkQytHOs​, Mar 4, 2020.

“How Did Gaming Get This Big.”​EnthusiastGaming, ​Enthusiast Gaming inc., August

20,2018. ​https://www.enthusiastgaming.com/how-did-gaming-get-so-big/​. April 8, 2020.

“How to make money from game development.”​YouTube, ​Ask Gamedev, Mar 16,

2018, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TNXbIwefIG4​. Mar 1, 2020.

Hull, Andy. Personal interview. 26 April 2020.

“Overview of programming languages.”​ ​cs.iastate, ​Iowa State University, n.d.,

http://web.cs.iastate.edu/~cs104/notes/histlanguage.html​. 1​ /—/20.

"10 Programming Languages You Should Learn Right Now." eWeek, 15 Sept. 2006.

Gale OneFile: Business, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A151476586/GPS?u=beav56809&sid=GPS&xid=2430d12 9. Accessed 4 Feb. 2020.