Superball

Superball is a brick-breaker game. With only 4 types of powerups and 5 levels, the game is not very hard. But unlike most brick breaker games, this is a keyboard controlled game, which will make things interesting.

Unlike my other GameMaker games, I have used fullscreen and other game settings for this game. So you will have to download the game for your Windows, and play it there.

Download it here!!!

Box Jump

Box Jump may be the best of the ones I created when I was in the learning phase. It was made in reference to another game of the same name, and the game has similar levels. The game design was not of main importance at the time of creation of the game, so levels are similar.

Developed this game in Game Maker.

Download it here!!!

Bow and Arrow

Bow and Arrow is a game that offers nothing in the sense of game design or gameplay, with no real challenge, but I developed it in Flash, and i would say that I did a pretty decent job at that, considering it was my first time using Flash. Did not even have any real prior knowledge of Flash, had 2 workshops on back to back days.

You may feel like the game ended after just 1 level, but there is a delay between each levels. There are 3 levels in total, and sadly I did not have time to put in an End screen or Restart button. Sorry about that.

And just to avoid confusion like my friend, the arrows are intentionally delayed, to increase difficulty. (Game Design)

Download swf file here!

Run

I created Run in Game Maker.

I took a game that was of similar type, but instead, it was endless. Only end was when you died or all levels were finished. In my version, however, I made it a level based game. I designed the levels so that each will get tougher and tougher every level, with obstacles. I made it a very short game indeed, and the scoring system may seem lame to you if you win every time.

Download it here!

Blockhole

Blockhole. One of my earliest projects in Unity. Very minimal, not optimized, and not the best game out there. Similar to the android version uploaded on the Google Play Store. However, that one is slightly better code wise.

Originally built using Unity 4.x, currently uploaded build made using Unity 5.3.4

Download the game by clicking the image-

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Techniques used in games

AI (Artificial Intelligence) is one of the key elements for any game. AI is used in a game to create the illusion of intelligence.

Today's generation kids like to play more 3D games like Assassin's Creed, Need For Speed, Prince of Persia, FIFA, etc. rather than 2D games. Artificial Intelligence in such 3D games is quite obvious and easy to spot. For FIFA, the characters that are not controlled by the players are an example of AI. In this case, they are called NPC (Non-Player Characters). But that is not the only AI in these games; even the goals scored, stamina and other stats that are calculated, etc. are also Artificial Intelligence.

The techniques of AI are as follows-

I will explain a few of these techniques here-

       1. Artificial life is that technique in which characters are created with a real-life feel. They are modeled exactly like the real-world animals, humans, trees, etc. and made to have their features. Making these characters do certain gestures, is an important task for any 3D game developer using artificial life.

Example- Like cats should mouth MEOW when said sound is played, and it should not feel like the cat meows with its mouth closed.

Most notable use of this is seen in simulation games, like supercar or flight simulations, where real world characteristics of the supercar/flight need to be replicated in game.

       2. Path Finding is one of the most important AI technique to be mastered. It is used in both 2D and 3D games. Many games, even AAA games, have had serious path finding errors, and these errors are still present in the game industry. Take a look in this video of a few path finding bugs

 There are two techniques of path finding for AI-

I.       Waypoint Technique

II.       Navigation Mesh

              In the Waypoint technique, the map area is filled with points that can be used to make the AI bots move. The bots move from one point to another point connected to it. But when the map has varying terrain, this is a harder method to implement.

Example-

You see how the path from point A to point B is zigzagged and long? That is because the bots have to follow a specific path and cannot go outside the constraints of that path.

              Navigation Mesh, also called navmesh is the walkable area of the map. AI such as bots, hostages in Counter Strike, etc. need this information to ‘walk’. Navigation mesh are saved in *.nav files. Navigation systems can be split into small squares which helps programmers to make entities walk. This is an easier way for pathfinding, which requires less calculation.

Example-

In this case, the AI can walk inside the highlighted area (The transparent blueish part).


       3. Speech Processing is means the computer is made to understand ‘natural’ human talk, and then interpret results. This may come in handy best when creating simulations. Examples of how speech processing works are-

References-

AI Blog

The Relation Between The AI Technique and Computer Game AI's Applications

Game Licenses

Game License means a set of rules that publishers must agree to for publishing any game. They can be overall categorized as-

1. Licensing the game to be released on a console (and other platforms)

2. Licensing the intellectual properties for use in the game

Console licensing is necessary to publish games for consoles such as Xbox 360, Playstation 3, etc. Xbox 360, PS3 and Revolution are consoles of companies Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo respectively. They themselves don't have to pay for the licenses, hence they can publish and produce games cheaply. Many people have used Mod Chips which is illegal, and also violates the laws of the license.

Licensing Intellectual property(IP), on the other hand, is optional, especially you are making a small game without copying any intellectual property. IP can be stories, characters, music, brands, etc. Take the example for Need For Speed game series. All cars in the game use names of car brands that actually exist, like Audi, Lamborghini, etc. One cannot just simply use these brands without the consent of the said party, i.e. Audi, Lamborghini, etc. If done, they can be subject to criminal prosecution.

You may get a basic idea here from this, of how a license may be. A typical license should consist various business definitions, including the time of work, holiday numbers, etc.; along with the acceptance of terms and conditions by the licensee; logos have to be used, which the licensor will decide, etc.

Game companies need to be sure that games they create will sell, otherwise they could sustain substantial losses. For this reason, they buy licenses, which may assure more sales for that game. For example, FIFA 2014 (PC Version) is selling for Rs. 2499/- in India. Now imagine if this was not a licensed game, where all players would be using fake/imaginary names, would you have still bought it for the same price? Probably not, especially in India, where people think twice before buying anything.

Copyrights, Trademarks, Intellectual Property and Patents are important when it comes to licensing games. More information is available here.-

Types of Game licenses are-

1. Trademarks protect the brand of any company. Customers are more likely to buy games with a registered trademark, for example EA, Ubisoft, etc. You will never find a game that is developed by someone else and then sold under the name of the Trademarked brand, without a license.

2. Copyrights protect the game contents from being duplicated by different developers. Developers may use the idea or concept of the game, but not its actual contents. For example, Call Of Duty is a similar game to Counter Strike, but it uses different audio, artwork, etc.

3. Patents allow a company to secure any of its invention, be it in the form of IP, or in the form of a new machine. No one can not replicate the product except the patent owner. A patent can not be obtained for old inventions. But obtaining patents can be very expensive.

These are not technically what you would call types of licenses, but they come very close to that-

1. Commercial videogames with freely available source code
2. Creative commons license
3. Freeware license
4. Spyware Licenses

-Some commercial videogames make available the source code of the product for free. Important information like the level design, graphics, audio, etc. are kept private.
Example of games using this type of game license: Duke Nukem 3D

-Creative common licenses allow anyone to freely distribute products of a particular author, but mostly, only to a limited public. For example, a game that has a creative common license, and the author has allowed anyone to distribute the game, but non-commercially, then they can do so. But if anyone is found selling the product commercially, the author can sue.
Example of games using this type of game license: Mari0

-Freeware. As the name suggests, any software or game that is made available free of cost, is known freeware. But not the whole game is made available free of cost. Freeware games have restricted access to the game. Freemake games can be also sub-categorized as DOS-only freeware games, Windows-only freeware games, free online games, etc.
Example of games using this type of game license: Solitare

-Spyware licenses restrict from wrongful collection and usage of client data or information.

Also, games can have an Open-Game License (OGL). Such licenses allow users to work freely on the game, to modify them. However, users are not at liberty to make changes as they wish. They can only modify parts of the game that the game developers have agreed to, in the license.
Lets take an example from the game Dota 2:

^ This is the normal view of the Dota 2 interface. Dota 2 allows various artists (even those outside their development team) to develop new User Interface (UI) for the game. However, Valve, i.e. the developer of the game may decide to use the art in the game. Users can not publish their artwork in the game directly. Here's how a user-created UI in Dota 2 looks like-

Game Companies like to have licenses in order to make sure that their new innovative ideas are not stolen or duplicated by competitors. But imagine if a company has licensed and patented over a first person shooting game. Now, if any other game company wants to create a first person shooting game, but in a whole new way, with different guns, etc. But since the first company has already got the patent for the IP, no other developer may create such a game. In such case, there would not be new games. Keeping this in mind, game licenses have a certain period, after which they expire. Different countries have different timespan allowed for license validity. The timespan in various countries is given here.

Many websites like http://www.megadox.com provide license agreements for video game rights.

To understand more, you can see Rockstar Games' license is as follows.

Reference-

http://www.ign.com/articles/2006/05/06/the-economics-of-game-publishing

Research and Development (R&D)

Research is the primary and most important aspect of any software, especially  when it comes to games. One cannot just come up with an idea for a game, and directly start building it.

Research must be conducted for various activities such as how the current market conditions are, how much would it cost for the game to be put into production, etc.

Mainly, there are two types of Research-

          1. Qualitative Research
          2. Quantitative Research

-Qualitative Research is the data we collect that is not in the form of numbers. This can be anything ranging from the plot, gameplay, game reviews, etc.

-Quantitative Research deals with numbers, like how much the game was rated, how many copies of the game were sold, how much money did the game make, how many liked the game, how much was the production cost, etc.

While presenting the data, it is necessary that you properly distribute the quantitative data from the qualitative data, and not just put all the collected data together in any order.

These were the 2 types of Research when it comes to games.
Now, how we collect this information is a very crucial matter.
Most people get information from Wikipedia, and think their work is done. Well that's the easy way out. Developers of Wikipedia themselves say not all their information is valid, for anyone can edit the data. Always find other reliable sources for collection of data when it comes to R&D.

There are 5 techniques of research-

          1. Primary Research
          2. Secondary Research
          3. Market Research
          4. Production Research
          5. Audience Research

-Information which is available directly through the developers, publishers, etc. of the game is primary information, eg. information from the game websites, game videos released by the game company, etc.

-Information collected from sources other than the game company is secondary research. Even if newspapers or internet articles provide you information about a game that is directly coming from the game company, that still would be secondary information, because it is not you who has been in direct contact with the company. During (video) interviews, however, if the interviewer asks a question that addresses your concern, then that can be considered primary, not secondary data.

-Market Research is done by any game company, i.e. research about the current market trends, etc. For eg. it would be pointless releasing games on Floppy-disks in the current market, hence market research is necessary. Also, the number of games sold, ranking of the game, etc. would be market research too. Everyone is a potential game market and importance is laid on increasing the game sales based on the current market conditions.

-While beginning any new game project, it is important for any game company to plan the costs to be incurred in the production of the game and all factors that can affect the production cost of the game. Production research examples are cost of the game produced, and number of developers, artists, designers needed, etc.

-Audience research is the data that is collected from the audience, i.e. people who have played, or experienced the game. Audience data can be personal opinions about the games from various players' perspectives, found on social networking site groups, personal blogs, fan pages, user-reviews, etc. Surveys done by neutral parties also are a type of audience research, but when game companies hold surveys, they can also be marketing or audience related.

A very important thing to remember. If you play a particular game, and you find it interesting, or bad, you cannot say that it is primary research. That would come under audience research. Unless you are talking about the plot, new features of the game, etc., which will be the same for all users, in which case you can say it is primary research.
Example:
I like Ittle Dew- completely my personal opinion. Makes it audience research. (Subjective)
Ittle Dew minimum requirements- 512 MB. Makes it primary research. (Objective)