Codemotion Roma 2015 - In the talk we present the learning path that a web site and web application developer should take to become a game developer. Some of the notions introduced will be game design, storytelling, game loops, game mechanics, game feel, physics, lightning, audio: all themes that are secondary or absent in traditional web application development but that are necessary in game development, even within the limited means of HTML5 games. Also the different approaches to browser games will be discussed, e.g. HTML5 CSS3, SVG, Canvas. A final note will be about development methodologies.

1. From Web to Game Development
Pietro Polsinelli @ppolsinelli ROME 27-28 march 2015

2. Get these slides:
http://bit.ly/web2games
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3. Notes from the diary
of a personal voyage
that is still happening.
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4. Ambiguity in title:
Isn’t web development a form of
game development???
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5. With “web” I don’t mean games
that run in the browser.
Web development as creating
sites and web based apps for
customers.
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6. Customer: “Turn a site into a
game”
I released a site for RAI
encouraging teenager girls to
write.
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7. 7

8. Asks a sequence of questions.
Has challenges, points,
scoreboard.
Has winners.
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9. Create a web based app for
suggesting ideas for a new fiction.
Turn visitor from passive watcher
to creator.
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10. So its almost a game. A web
based game.
I’m already on a good start to do
game development.
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11. Wrong.

12. Wrong.Wrong.
Wrong.

13. So what is the first game you
want to make?
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14. http://bit.ly/agdArtInt
http://gameinternals.com/post/2072558330/
understanding-pac-man-ghost-behavior

15. 15
No narrative.
Hyper simple animations.
Hyper simple space.
And fixed camera, no audio sources …

16. 16
Game loops, physics,
animations, AI,
growing difficulty (levels),
characters.

17. 17
If not a story, a sense of purpose.
(Giving a sense of purpose
on a web site is rarely a problem.)

18. 18
As web developer,
you have no idea.

19. 19
And this is a very, very
simple game.

20. The components of an opera:
story, music, scenography,
scenes, actors, secondary
characters, drama, [pro singing /
difficulty levels]
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21. 21

22. Its actually worse.
All the secondary characters are
moved by AI.
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23. 23

24. You may decide to generate the
scene and story each time.
And so on.
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25. As a web developer you have to
acquire a whole new set of
concepts to do games.
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26. To become what?
Depends on the budget,
depends on the team size.
From 0 to infinity and beyond.
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27. Lets stick to the worse case: a
small budget, so a small team.
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28. Crossing the chasm
• Crossing the chasm

29. You will need to acquire brand
new skills along two distinct lines:
as game developer and as game
designer.
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30. And the line between the two
blurs the more you know about
both.
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31. Note:
design in the sense of usability of
UI graphic design comes after
(game) design.
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32. The game update
loop.

33. Everything updates.

34. Your methods will be called 80
times per second on the same
object ...
instead of once per request.
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35. The independent life of your
objects will be your saviour and
your curse.
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36. That is why composition is mostly
used instead of inheritance.
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37. “Breakpoints?
No, you don’t use breakpoints
much in Unity”
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38. http://gameprogrammingpatterns.com/

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40. The structure of
space

41. Even picking the most
regimented, simplified, finite
solution, it’s a mess.
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42. 42

43. 43

44. Amit Patel http://bit.ly/agdHx
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45. Book? Prototype.
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46. Game Feel

47. Feel is a highly technical problem.
42240
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48. 48

49. Material from Game Feel book examples.

50. Daniele Giardini http://www.demigiant.com/

51. See http://easings.net/en#

53. Soccer ball physics
http://www.soccerballworld.com/Physics.htm

55. 55

56. Perception is a construction, and
a game is a coherent universe
where you may set your own
laws.
Ok, but…
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57. 57
Too much creativity.

58. 58

59. Not Just Game Feel

60. Creating games today is not
restricted to building arcades.
Even if you are building “small”
games.
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61. You very often want / need a
form of narrative.
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62. 80 Days: branching universe text
based, but …

63. Sunless Sea: the importance of a slow ship
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/237657/Postmort
em_Failbetter_Games_Sunless_Sea.php

64. Relations and gossip: narrative!
(Kardashian Hollywood)

65. Evolving the narrative dimension
in a game is nor obvious nor
trivial.
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66. Example on the sublelties of these
models.
Representing values like “moral
stance” of a character again
requires refined modeling tools –
not just a variable.
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67. 67

68. And see the ensuing discussion
on Reddit here
http://bit.ly/nar2vars
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69. Game Designer as
Translator / Traitor

70. Game design and modeling
practice trains you in translating
work and learning situations in
possible contexts for a game.
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71. 71

72. Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Category, competition,
avatar, war, reward, levels
Vs.
Inclusive, mentor, path,
story, transformation
A language change.

73. Participative Action Research

74. And there is way
more …

75. http://greweb.me/illuminated.js/parcycle/

76. And audio, texturing, 3D
modeling, particle effects …
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77. So?

78. We’ve seen just a
few of the several
things to learn.
So you need to be
Da Vinci?
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79. The Love

80. You are creating the magic circle
– a world with new rules.
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81. With games you can dance on the line between art & the
masses.

82. In games you are in a highly
creative environment.
This even if you are designing say
games for health, games for EU,
like I do.
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83. People that have been in the field
for a long time do these weak
attempts to present it as
“just a profession like any other”.
They don’t believe it either.
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84. So …
Only The Love will make you
survive this ordeal.
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85. Just consider in creativeness that
you don’t need to author, you
just need to let yourself be
authored.
You don’t need to be writer, just
let yourself be written.
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86. Little work I do in the Indie game
world puts me in contact and in
work pairs with real artists.
Some of them don’t even know
they are.
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87. 87

88. 88

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90. 90

91. Special thanks:
Daniele Giardini for ideas &
feedback
http://www.demigiant.com/

92. My twitter stream is mostly
dedicated to game design
http://twitter.com/ppolsinelli
A blog on game design
http://designagame.eu
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