Crash Course in
Game Development
Mohammad Shaker 
Founder, Designer and Developer, Strong Emotions
Wikilogia Talk, April 2015
Games, Types and Game Engines
Who Am I?!
2008-13 
 
Grad, Artificial Intelligence. F.I.T.E of Damascus, Syria
2010-now 
Instructor: Programming and Graphics Languages
2013-now 
Researcher: Procedural Content Generation, ITU Copenhagen
2014-15 
 
MSc. in Human-Computer Interaction and Ubiquitous Systems, UJF, France
2014-now 
Founder, Designer and Developer, Strong Emotions
All Practice, No nonsense.
Let’s start with
Stats
Let’s start with
http://www.acrasio.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Gamification-Acrasio-large.jpg!
BIG
NO
Read about “Stickness”, Book: Made to Stick, Chip Heath and Dan Heath !
Game
Development
Development! Design!
Games Types
Action
Role Playing Games (RPG)
Stealth and Shooter
Real-time Strategy (RTS)
Arcade
Simulation
Sports
Racing
Puzzle
Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO)
Games Types, A MIX
Physics-based, Puzzle
Open World
Turn-based Strategy
Forget all this. Always Remember:
Rules are made to be broken
Platforms
Platforms
•  Portable (PS Vita)
•  Stand-alone (PC, Xbox, PS4)
•  Mobile
•  Gadget (Apple Watch, Android Watches)
Game Ratings
EarlyChildhood!
Everyone!
Everyone,10+!
Teen,13+!
Mature,17+!
Adult,18+!
RatingPending!
Entertainment System Rating Board
(ESRB)
Rating
Symbols
Content
Descriptors
Blood, Animated Blood, Blood and Gore, etc.!
Game Engines
What’s What?
Unity3d [Free & Paid]
Unity3d: Crossy Road
Unity3d: Republique
Unreal Engine [Free]
Unreal Engine [Free]
UE: Real Boxing [iOS and Android]
Unreal Engine
Unity
Unreal Engine
Unity
•  Free!
•  Royalty [5% on everything]!
•  Whole engine for free!
•  C++!
•  Blueprint: no need to code!
•  Whole engine + profiler!
•  Graphics is awesome!
•  Easy to use [just after a bit]!
•  Free!
•  Paid [1,500$ or 75$/month] !
•  Free vs Paid: Sub vs Whole!
•  C#, JS, Boo!
•  -!
•  No profiler in Free version!
•  Graphic is good/very good!
•  Easy to use!
•  More than 50% of mobile (that rely on
3rd party engine)!
Unreal Engine
Unity
•  Free!
•  Royalty [5% on everything]!
•  Whole engine for free!
•  C++!
•  Blueprint: no need to code!
•  Whole engine + profiler!
•  Graphics is awesome!
•  Easy to use [just after a bit]!
•  Free!
•  Paid [1,500$ or 75$/month] !
•  Free vs Paid: Sub vs Whole!
•  C#, JS, Boo!
•  -!
•  No profiler in Free version!
•  Graphic is good/very good!
•  Easy to use!
•  More than 50% of mobile (that rely on
3rd party engine)!
Unreal Engine
Unity
•  Free!
•  Royalty [5% on everything]!
•  Whole engine for free!
•  C++!
•  Blueprint: no need to code!
•  Whole engine + profiler!
•  Graphics is awesome!
•  Easy to use [just after a bit]!
•  Free!
•  Paid [1,500$ or 75$/month] !
•  Free vs Paid: Sub vs Whole!
•  C#, JS, Boo!
•  -!
•  No profiler in Free version!
•  Graphic is good/very good!
•  Easy to use!
•  More than 50% of mobile (that rely on
3rd party engine)!
Unreal Engine
Unity
•  Free!
•  Royalty [5% on everything]!
•  Whole engine for free!
•  C++!
•  Blueprint: no need to code!
•  Whole engine + profiler!
•  Graphics is awesome!
•  Easy to use [just after a bit]!
•  Free!
•  Paid [1,500$ or 75$/month] !
•  Free vs Paid: Sub vs Whole!
•  C#, JS, Boo!
•  -!
•  No profiler in Free version!
•  Graphic is good/very good!
•  Easy to use!
•  More than 50% of mobile (that rely on
3rd party engine)!
Unreal Engine
Unity
•  Free!
•  Royalty [5% on everything]!
•  Whole engine for free!
•  C++!
•  Blueprint: no need to code!
•  Whole engine + profiler!
•  Graphics is awesome!
•  Easy to use [just after a bit]!
•  Free!
•  Paid [1,500$ or 75$/month] !
•  Free vs Paid: Sub vs Whole!
•  C#, JS, Boo!
•  -!
•  No profiler in Free version!
•  Graphic is good/very good!
•  Easy to use!
•  More than 50% of mobile (that rely on
3rd party engine)!
Blueprint in Unreal Engine: No need to code.
Unreal Engine
Unity
•  Free!
•  Royalty [5% on everything]!
•  Whole engine for free!
•  C++!
•  Blueprint: no need to code!
•  Whole engine + profiler!
•  Graphics is awesome!
•  Easy to use [just after a bit]!
•  Free!
•  Paid [1,500$ or 75$/month] !
•  Free vs Paid: Sub vs Whole!
•  C#, JS, Boo!
•  -!
•  No profiler in Free version!
•  Graphic is good/very good!
•  Easy to use!
•  More than 50% of mobile (that rely on
3rd party engine)!
Unreal Engine
Unity
•  Free!
•  Royalty [5% on everything]!
•  Whole engine for free!
•  C++!
•  Blueprint: no need to code!
•  Whole engine + profiler!
•  Graphics is awesome!
•  Easy to use [just after a bit]!
•  Free!
•  Paid [1,500$ or 75$/month] !
•  Free vs Paid: Sub vs Whole!
•  C#, JS, Boo!
•  -!
•  No profiler in Free version!
•  Graphic is very good!
•  Easy to use!
•  More than 50% of mobile (that rely on
3rd party engine)!
Unreal Engine
Unity
•  Free!
•  Royalty [5% on everything]!
•  Whole engine for free!
•  C++!
•  Blueprint: no need to code!
•  Whole engine + profiler!
•  Graphics is awesome!
•  Easy to use [just after a bit]!
•  Free!
•  Paid [1,500$ or 75$/month] !
•  Free vs Paid: Sub vs Whole!
•  C#, JS, Boo!
•  -!
•  No profiler in Free version!
•  Graphic is very good!
•  Easy to use!
•  More than 50% of mobile (that rely on
3rd party engine)!
Unreal Engine
Unity
•  Free!
•  Royalty [5% on everything]!
•  Whole engine for free!
•  C++!
•  Blueprint: no need to code!
•  Whole engine + profiler!
•  Graphics is awesome!
•  Easy to use [just after a bit]!
•  Free!
•  Paid [1,500$ or 75$/month] !
•  Free vs Paid: Sub vs Whole!
•  C#, JS, Boo!
•  -!
•  No profiler in Free version!
•  Graphic is very good!
•  Easy to use!
•  > 50% of mobile (that rely on 3rd party
engine)!
Asset Store in Unity3d
Other
Game Engines
Source 2 [GDC 15, Free]
Source 2: Half-life, Counter Strike, Left for Dead, Titanfall
CryEngine: The fastest high-end renderer in the world
CryEngine: Crysis
CryEngine: Crysis
CryEngine: Ryse of Rome
CryEngine
Source 2
•  Counter Strike, Half-life, Titanfall!
•  Free!
•  Multi-platform Support!
•  Crysis, Ryse of Rome, Sniper 2!
•  9.90 USD/EUR!
•  Multi-platform Support: PC, xBox, PS3 !
•  The fastest high-end renderer in the
world!
Unity3d
Unity3d: Bad Peggies
Unity3d: LA Cops
Unity3d: LA Cops
Unity3d: SyncSeven
Unity3d: Ori and the Blind Forest
Ori and the Blind Forest: 4 years into making
Gamification
Duolingo
Duolingo - Motivation
Duolingo - Badges
Duolingo - Social
Duolingo – Social Competition
FourSquare
FourSquare
Coursera, Prof. Kevin Werbach, University of Pennsylvania
https://www.coursera.org/course/gamification
Serious Games
Weebee on a Mission, FITE of Damascus, Syria, 2014
Thx.

Indie Series 01: Intro to Games