The document is a glossary of terms related to video game design produced by a student at Salford City College. It contains definitions of over 30 terms organized into categories like "Video Games/Video Game Testing", "Game Engines", and "Concept". For each term, the student provided a short definition from an online source along with their own description of how the term relates to their video game production practice.

1. Salford City College
Eccles Sixth Form Centre
BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN
Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games
IG2 Task 1
1
Produce a glossary of terms specific to the methods and principles of Video Game Design and Video Game Terms. Using a provided template,
you must research and gather definitions specific to provided glossary terms. Any definitions must be referenced with the URL link of the
website you have obtained the definition.
You must also, where possible, provide specific details of how researched definitions relate to your own production practice.
Name:
Alex
ballantyne
RESEARCHED DEFINITION (provide short internet researched definition
and URL link)
DESCRIBE THE
RELEVANCE
OF THE
RESEARCHED
TERM TO
YOUR OWN
PRODUCTION
PRACTICE?
IMAGE SUPPORT (Provide an image and/or video
link of said term being used in a game)
VIDEO
GAMES
/ VIDEO
GAME
TESTING
Demo A game demo is a freely distributed piece of an upcoming or recently
released video game. Demos are typically released by the game's publisher to
help consumers get a feel of the game before deciding whether to buy the full
vers ion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_demo
In my own
production the
demo would be
used to give
people the first
look and play at
the game.
Beta Beta elements are components of a video game that, for whatever reason, are
removed or altered before that game i s released.
http://www.mariowiki.com/Beta_elements
The beta would
al low me to see
what worked in
the game and
wha t doesn’t
work within the
game and I
could add and
remove the
things that do
a d don’t work
within the
game.

2. Salford City College
Eccles Sixth Form Centre
BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN
Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games
IG2 Task 1
2
Alpha Alpha testing is the initial testing of a computer program or system under actual
usage conditions; i t can be done in-house by the vendor, or outside by a
cus tomer or third party tes ter.
The alpha test
would allow me
to see what the
game plays like
and i f that It
does not work
then work can
be done to fix
the things that
are wrong with
the game
Pre-Alpha In short, Pre-Alpha i s like mega early version of the game, before everything i s
finalized.Pre-alpha refers to all activities performed during the software project
prior to testing. These activities can include requirements analysis, software
des ign, software development, and unit testing.
https ://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18fa6p8um68
Gold Thi s is when a game is fully finished Thi s is when a
game is fully
finished
Debug Debugging is a methodical process of finding and reducing the number of bugs,
or defects, in a computer program or a piece of electronic hardware, thus
making it behave as expected. Debugging tends to be harder when various
subsystems are tightly coupled, as changes in one may cause bugs to emerge in
another.
Debugging is
when you find
and ix bugs in
games.

3. Salford City College
Eccles Sixth Form Centre
BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN
Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games
IG2 Task 1
3
Automation Computer animation, or CGI animation, is the process used for generating
animated images by using computer graphics.
White-Box
Testing
White-box testing i s a method of testing software that tests internal structures
or workings of an application, as opposed to its functionality.
Bug Sometimes called a glitch, a bug is just something wrong with the program.
Sometimes i t might be not s erious maybe something like when you prone on
the ground, you might be display
A bug i s when
you find some
thing in a game
that should not
happen
GAME
ENGINES
Vertex
Shader
The vertex shader i s used to transform the attributes of vertices (points of a
triangle) such as colour, texture, position and direction from the original colour
space to the display space. It allows the original objects to be distorted or
reshaped in any manner.
The vertex
shader is used
to trans form
the attributes of
vertices

4. Salford City College
Eccles Sixth Form Centre
BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN
Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games
IG2 Task 1
4
GAME
ENGINES
Pixel
Shader
The pixel shader is another programmable function that allows flexibility in
shading an individual pixel. Whereas vertex shaders can be used to completely
trans form the shape of an object, pixel shaders are used to change the
appearance of the pixels.
The pixel shader
i s another
programmable
function that
al lows flexibility
in shading
Post
Processing
The term post-processing (or postproc for short) is used in the video/film
bus iness for quality-improvement image processing (specifically digital image
processing) methods used in video playback devices, (such as s tand-alone DVD-Video
players), and video players software and transcoding software. It is also
commonly used in real-time 3D rendering (such as in video games) to add
additional effects.
Rendering
Rendering is the process of generating an image from a 2D or 3D model (or
models in what collectively could be called a s cene file), by means of computer
programs. Also, the results of such a model can be called a rendering.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendering_(computer_graphics)
Rendering is the
process of
generating an
image from a
2D or 3D model
Normal
Map
In 3D computer graphics, normal mapping, or "Dot3 bump mapping", i s a
technique used for faking the lighting of bumps and dents – an implementation
of bump mapping. It i s used to add details without using more polygons.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_mapping

5. Salford City College
Eccles Sixth Form Centre
BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN
Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games
IG2 Task 1
5
Entity Enti ty-component-system (ECS) is a software architecture pattern that
implements concepts from Composition over inheritance using a database-like
s tructure. Common ECS approaches are highly compatible with Data-driven
programming techniques, and the two approaches are often combined.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entity_component_system
UV Map UV mapping is the 3D modelling process of making a 2D image representation of
a 3D model's surface.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UV_mapping
Proces s of
making a 2D
image
representation
of a 3D model's
surface.
Procedural
Texture
Procedural textures are textures that are defined mathematically. They are
generally relatively s imple to use, because they don't need to be mapped in a
special way - which doesn't mean that procedural textures can't become very
complex.
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.6/Manual/Textures/Types/Procedural
Thi s is when you
texture the
Items in your
game.
Physics A phys ics engine is computer software that provides an approximate s imulation
of certa in physical systems, such as rigid body dynamics (including collision
detection), soft body dynamics, and fluid dynamics, of use in the domains of
computer graphics.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physics_engine
Phys ics is what
keeps very thing
l ike real l ife
Collision Col l ision detection typically refers to the computational problem of detecting
the intersection of two or more objects. While the topic is most often associated
with i ts use in video games and other physical simulations, i t also has
applications in robotics. In addition to determining whether two objects have
col l ided.
Thi s is what
happens when
two things hit

6. Salford City College
Eccles Sixth Form Centre
BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN
Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games
IG2 Task 1
6
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collision_detection
Lighting
AA – Anti-
Aliasing
A computer generated image is made up of pixels; each pixel can of course only
be a s ingle color. In the rendering process the rendering engine must therefore
as sign a single color to each pixel on the basis of what object is shown in that
pixel.
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.6/Manual/Render/Options/Antialiasing
LoD – Level
of Detail
In computer graphics, accounting for level of detail involves decreasing the
complexity of a 3D object representation as it moves away from the viewer or
according to other metrics such as object importance, viewpoint-relative speed
or pos ition.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Level_of_detail
Animation Computer animation, or CGI animation, is the process used for generating
animated images by using computer graphics. The more general term computer-generated
imagery encompasses both static scenes and dynamic images while
computer animation only refers to moving images.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_animation
the process
used for
generating
animated
images by using
computer
graphics
Sprite In computer graphics, a sprite (also known by other names; see Synonyms
below) is a two-dimensional image or animation that is integrated into a larger
s cene. Initially including just graphical objects handled separately from the
memory bitmap of a video display, this now includes various manners of
graphical overlays.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprite_(computer_graphics)
jus t graphical
objects handled
separately from
the memory
bitmap of a
video display

7. Salford City College
Eccles Sixth Form Centre
BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN
Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games
IG2 Task 1
7
Scene a part of a play, movi e, story, etc., in which a particular action or activity occurs
Library
UI In computing, a graphical user interface (GUI,[1] sometimes pronounced
"gooey")[2] i s a type of interface that allows users to interact with electronic
devices through graphical icons and vi sual indicators such as secondary
nota tion, as opposed to text-based interfaces, typed command labels or text
navigation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphical_user_interface
Frames
Concept a general idea or notion that corresponds to some class of entities and that
cons ists of the characteristic or essential features of the class
Concept is when
you create a
vi sual Idea
Event The core concept in an event driven game engine is the message loop. Similar to
the windows message loop, in which the game keeps a list of things to do each
iteration of the game.
http://cboard.cprogramming.com/game-programming/122082-event-driven-game-
engine.html
The game keeps
a l i st of things
to do each
iteration of the
game.
Pathfinding Path finding or pathing is the plotting, by a computer application, of the shortest
route between two points. It is a more practical variant on solving mazes. This
field of research is based heavily on Dijkstra's algorithm for finding the shortest
path on a weighted graph.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pathfinding