This document provides a template for Lewis Brady to create a glossary of video game design and video game terms. For each term, Lewis must research the definition, provide the source URL, and describe how the term relates to his own video game production practice. He must also include an image or video example for each term. The glossary contains terms such as demo, beta, alpha, pre-alpha, gold, debug, automation, white-box testing, bug, vertex shader, pixel shader, post-processing, rendering, normal map, entity system, and UV map.

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:
Lewis
Brady
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 version.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_demo
A demo is a Short version of
a game but does not
include the full game as it is
giving the player a taste of
what the game he i s playing
would be l ike and most
demos produced are free
so everyone i s able to test
the games mechanics and
gameplay.
1.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=z_JFDPCtXFY
2.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=03bw6-V_M3o
Beta Beta means that these games are still in
development and are not yet in their final
vers ion. We are letting users test them out
and give us their feedback so that we can
make further improvements to make these
games as effective and enjoyable as
pos sible.
https ://help.lumosity.com/hc/en-us
/articles/202172720-What-are-beta-games-
A beta game i s in i ts latest
s tages of development and
i s just having its final minor
tweaks to improve game
before being released, and
as a result in this the game
should have little to know
latency issues as I has been
moved from alpha to beta,
then when the developer
thinks is has been improved
to a substantial level he will
de ci de when i t’s to be fully
released.
1.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=b9ZykUaHBWE
2.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=Ll z_ND9DgbY
Alpha A working alpha state game i s the game
i ts elf with all the basic core concepts in
place (and most likely some still being
developed or drawn up) allowing players
the base freedoms that allow the game to
resolve gameplay issues, early exploits,
small bugs, major bugs, early balancing and
many other i ssues that you wont see in a
ful ly released game that does not s tate
that i ts an alpha or beta state game.
http://steamcommunity.com/app/255500/
di s cussions/0/630800445001699632/?insi
deModal=1
An alpha game is in i ts early
s tages of development and
i s s till having major updates
to i t and is not ready for
being fully published.
1.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=WgTQglGvNUs
2.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=6wYGQ2NWvIw
Pre-Alpha Pre-Alpha means that the game still has a
s cheduled list of code and assets to be
wri tten and created. The game i s buggy, i t
l a cks features, it’s prone to cra shing and
performance i ssues. There will be issues
with the frame-rate of the game, and
things that work in one release being a bit
broken in the next. Pre-Alpha means that
the game has not yet reached the s tage of
a pre-alpha game is in i ts
earliest s tages of
development and is having
game changing updates in
terms with resolution
settings and characters
models and there is little of
the game that has been
added yet.
1.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=TTaIk7akOUw
2.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=uQOPb9p3HTQ

2. compl etion where i t can be described as
“Al pha”.
https ://carmageddon.zendesk.com/hc/en-us
/articles/200416352-What-does-Pre-
Alpha-mean-
Gold A golden master, or GM, is the final version
of a software program that is sent to
manufacturing and is used to make retail
copies of the software. The golden master
follows several other s tages in the software
development process including the alpha,
beta, and release candidate s tages. The
final release candidate (RC) becomes the
"release to manufacturing" (RTM) version,
which is also called the golden master.
http://www.techterms.com/definition/gol
denmaster
Golden master is a stage in
the software release cycl e
in which the software is in
i ts full and final
development stage and is
ready to be delivered to the
cus tomer or to be
published commercially.
The term was initially
coined by Apple Computers
to specify software
products that have passed
the entire
production/development
and testing phases.
1.)
http://wpuploads.
appadvice.com/wp
-
content/uploads/2
013/09/goldmaste
r.png
2.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=5Gvp9HRjwZw
Debug Debugging is the process of locating and
fixing or bypassing bugs (errors) in
computer program code or the engineering
of a hardware device. To debug a program
or hardware device i s to start with a
problem, i solate the source of the
problem, and then fix i t. A user of a
program that does not know how to fix the
problem may learn enough about the
problem to be able to avoid i t until it is
permanently fixed. When someone says
they've debugged a program or "worked
the bugs out" of a program, they imply that
they fixed i t so that the bugs no longer
exi s t.
http://searchsoftwarequality.techtarget.co
m/definition/debugging
Is a process of finding
computer bugs, or defects,
in a computer program or a
piece of electronic
hardware, making i t behave
in an unexpected manner.
Debugging tends to be
harder when various
sys tems are tightly coupled,
as a change in one may
caus e bugs to emerge in
another.
1.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=_uzSw_fb7NQ
2.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=IP0nMv_NI1s
Automati
on
Automation or automatic control, i s the
use of various control systems for
operating equipment such as machinery,
processes in factories, boilers and heat
treating ovens, switching in telephone
networks, steering and stabilization of
ships, aircraft and other applications with
minimal or reduced human intervention.
Some processes have been completely
automated.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automation
Automation has been
achieved by various
meathods including
electrical, electronic and
computers, usually in
combination. Complicated
sys tems, such as modern
factories and ships use all
thes e combined
techniques.
1.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=o4mPJMiX0mk
2.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=Pl jTAgGFYYo
White-Box
Tes ting
White-box testing i s a methodology used
to ensure and validate the internal
framework, mechanisms, objects and
components of a software application.
White-box testing verifies code according
to des ign specifications and uncovers
application vulnerabilities.
http://www.techopedia.com/definition/38
91/white-box-testing
In white-box testing an
internal perspective of the
sys tem, as well as
programming, are used to
des ign tests. The tester
chooses inputs to paths
through the code and
determines the correct
outputs. This i s analogous
to tes ting nodes into in-ci
rcui t testing (ICT).
1.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=3CHRUAMIrVE
2.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=FTnjGxu5HPk
Bug In computer technology, a bug is a coding
error in a computer program. (Here we
cons ider a program to also include the
microcode that i s manufactured into a
A software bug is an fault in
a computer program that
causes it to produce an
incorrect result, or to
1.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=jVPFM7H4Hug

3. microprocessor.) The process of finding
bugs before program users do is called
debugging, Debugging starts after the code
i s fi rst wri tten and continues in successive
s tages as code i s combined with other
uni ts of programming to form a software
product, such as an operating system or an
application. After a product i s released or
during public beta testing, bugs are still apt
to be di scovered. When this occurs, users
have to either find a way to avoid using the
"buggy" code or get a patch from the
originators of the code.
http://searchsoftwarequality.techtarget.co
m/definition/bug
behave in unexpected
ways . Most bugs compile
from mi s takes made by
people in either a
program's source code, or
in frameworks and
operating systems used by
such programs, and a few
are caused by compilers
producing an incorrect
code.
2.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=LgRsXlbftQY
GAME
ENGINES
Vertex
Shader
A programmable function in display
adapters that offers a graphics application
programmer flexibility in rendering an
image. The vertex shader is used to
trans form the attributes of vertices (points
of a triangle) such as color, texture,
pos ition and direction from the original
color space to the display space. It allows
the original objects to be distorted or
reshaped in any manner.
http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/ter
m/53754/vertex-shader
Vertex shaders are run
once for each vertex given
to the graphics processor.
The purpose of this is to
trans form each of the
vertex's 3D position in
vi rtual space to 2D
coordinates at which it
appears on the s creen.
1.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=1G37-Yav2ZM
2.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=2ZNJ_KytrE4
Pixel
Shader
The name used to describe the method in
which a GPU applies textures and renders
pixels to the display. Pixel Shaders are used
to give a more realistic look to objects,
such as reflections.
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/P/Pixel
_Shader.html
Pixel shaders range from
outputting the same color,
to applying a lighting value,
to doing bump mapping,
shadows and translucency .
They can alter the depth of
the fragment or output
more than one color if
mul tiple render ta rgets are
active at once.
1.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=utKHLHbShkk
2.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=Hni9oexEHyE
Pos t
Proces sin
g
Current generation gaming systems are
abl e to render 3D graphics using floating
point frame buffers, in order to produce
HDR images. To produce the bloom effect,
the HDR images in the frame buffer are
convolved with a convolution kernel in a
pos t-processing step, before converting to
RGB space. The convolution step usually
requi res the use of a large gaussian kernel
that i s not practical for realtime graphics,
caus ing the programmers to use
approximation methods.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom_(shad
er_effect)
Pos t-processing is used
mos tly in 3D rendering,
especially for video games.
Instead of rendering 3D
objects to the display, the
s cene is rendered to a
buffer in the memory of the
video card. Pixel shaders
are then used and applied
to the post-processing
fi l ters to the image buffer
before displaying it to the
s creen.
1.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=jXXe8-twFEY
2.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=wSsC1oOmZcY
Rendering Rendering is the process of generating an
image from a model (or models in what
col lectively could be called a scene file), by
means of computer programs. A s cene file
conta ins objects in a s trictly defined
language or data structure; i t would
conta in geometry, viewpoint, texture,
l ighting, and shadinginformation as a
des cription of the vi rtual s cene.
http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve
/wiki100k/docs/Rendering_(computer_gra
phics).html
Rendering is one of the
topics of 3D computer
graphics, In the graphics
pipeline, i t is the last step,
giving the final appearance
to the models and
animation. With the
increasing sophistication of
computer graphics i t has
become a more of a
important subject.
1.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=EJXWLo__PUc
2.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=mqt3kPc0zik

4. Normal
Map
A normal map is usually used to fake high-res
geometry detail on what is actually a
low-res mesh. Each pixel of a normal map
i s used to transfer the normal that's on the
high-res mesh onto the surface of the low-res
mesh. The red, green, and blue
channels of the texture are used to control
the di rection of each pixel's normal. The
pixels in the normal map basically control
what direction each of the pixels on the
low-poly model will be facing, controlling
how much lighting each pixel will receive,
and thus creating the illusion of more
surface detail or better curvature. The
process of transferring normals from the
high-res model to the in-game model i s
often called baking.
http://tech-artists.org/wiki/Normal_Map
In 3D computer graphics,
normal mapping is a
technique used for faking
the l ighting of bumps and
dents an implementation of
bump mapping. It is used to
add details without using
subtantially more polygons.
A common use of this
technique is to define the
appearance and details of a
low polygon model by
generating a normal map
from a height map.
1.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=xrN5jgA8ia8
2.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=gWcfZAAHToU
Enti ty An Enti ty Sys tem is s imply a game
architecture, which i s used to help you
manage your game, no matter how
complex i t may need to be. Entity Systems
help split up your logic from your data,
much the same way the MVC design
pattern helps you split your model from
your view-controller. An Entity System i s
typically split into three major parts:
enti ties, components and systems.
https ://github.com/miguelmartin75/anax/
wiki /What-is-an-Entity-System%3F
An enti ty within a game is
something that exists in
i ts elf, actually and has no
mas s within the game. In
particular, abstractions and
legal fictions are usually
regarded as entities.
1.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=mHCm52LprVg
2.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=NiCB01F4jEs
UV Map Thi s process projects a texture map onto a
3D object. The letters "U" and "V" denote
the axes of the 2D texture because "X", "Y"
and "Z" are already used to denote the
axes of the 3D object in model space.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UV_mapping
UV mapping permits
polygons that make up a 3D
object to be painted with
color from an image. The
image is called a UV texture
map, but it's just an
ordinary image. The UV
mapping process involves
as signing pixels in the
image to surface mappings
on the polygon, this is
usually done by copying a
triangle shaped piece of the
image map and pasting i t
onto a triangle on the
object.
1.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=i IvTUDgaXik
2.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=f2-FfB9kRmE
Procedura
l Texture
An algorithmic way of describing a texture.
Unl ike a bitmapped texture, in which the
texture i s represented as a bitmap, a
procedural texture describes the texture
mathematically. Although not widely used,
thi s method is resolution independent and
can create more precise textures,
especially i f there is great and varying
depth to the objects being textured.
Procedural textures may be 2D or 3D. See
texture mapping and volumetric texture.
http://www.yourdictionary.com/procedura
l -texture
A procedural texture is a
computer-generated image
created by using an
algorithm to create a
realistic representation of
natural materials such as
wood, marble, granite,
meta l and s tone.
1.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=QpkpJ9Cs rkk
2.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=_8CmR_5KXFo
Phys ics A phys ics engine is a s cripting method used
for creating the physics, or movement, in a
project. This movement can include
jumping, side-motion, wall-jumping, and
A phys ics engine is
computer software that
provides an approximate
s imulation of certain
1.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=3-XZ-LJC7_8

5. more. Phys ics engines are commonly
des igned once and used for many projects
or borrowed by other users to save the
time of recreating one.
http://wiki.scratch.mit.edu/wiki/Physics_E
ngines
phys ical systems, such as
rigid body dynamics, soft
body dynamics and fluid
dynamics, is of use in the
domains of computer
graphics, video games and
fi lm production.
2.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=9v4Mvm8k7sw
Col l ision Col l ision detection comes in two forms,
di s crete and continuous. Advanced engines
support both, as they have different
properties. In general, continuous collision
detection is very expensive and only used
where it i s really needed. The majority of
col l ision and physics is handled using
di s crete methods. In discrete methods,
objects will end up penetrating each other,
and the physics engine then works to push
them apart. So the engine does not
actually s top a player from walking partially
through a wall or the floor, i t just fixes it up
after detecting that the player is partially in
the wall/floor. I'm going to focus on
di s crete collision detection here, since
that's what I have the most experience
implementing from s cratch.
http://gamedev.s tackexchange.com/questi
ons /26501/how-does-a-collision-engine-work
Col l ision detection refers to
the problem of detecting
the intersection of two or
several more objects. While
the topic i s often associated
with i ts use in video games
and other physical
s imulations, it also has
applications in robotics.
1.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=NGh-Vh_NYO0
2.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=PJZpDQMtOk8
Lighting Simulated illumination is defined as the
method by which vi rtual 3D game
envi ronments are rendered taking into
account all lighting information in the
s cene. Due to the flexibility of game
rendering engines, and the variety of game
s tyles, we organize simulated illumination
exhibited in games into a dimension
ranging from more abstract forms of l ight
a nd colour re presentation, e.g. “Rez”
(United Game Arti sts, 2002), through cel-shaded
games, to those that approach
photorealism (which incorporate a range of
l ighting that approximates the visual
experience of real space).
http://gamestudies.org/0701/articles/elna
s r_niedenthal_knez_almeida_zupko
Lighting or what is normally
referred to as Global
i l lumination i s generally
used in 3D computer
graphics that are meant to
add more realistic lighting
to 3D s cenes.
1.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=YQw4YqutWsE
2.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=a5FzvJxhj_0
AA – Anti -
Al iasing
Smoothing the jagged appearance of
diagonal lines in a bitmapped image. The
pixels that surround the edges of the line
are changed to varying shades of gray or
color in order to blend the sharp edge into
the background. This technique is also
cal led "dithering," but is usually known as
anti -aliasing when applied to diagonal and
curved l ines.
http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/ter
m/37810/anti-aliasing
Anti -aliasing means
removing components that
have a higher frequency
than i s able to be properly
shown by the recording
device. This removal is
done before sampling at a
lower resolution.
1.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=DY47bTEiGVM
2.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=DxAb2A9jeFg
LoD –
Level of
Deta il
One important component of this
"language" is the level of detail -- or the
specificity required for a particular element
at a particular stage of the project. The
level of detail for a BIM model must
correspond to the needs of the modeler,
the project engineer, and the estimators
Level of detail involves
decreasing the complexity
of a 3D object as it moves
away from the viewer or to
the other metrics such as
object importance or
pos ition. Level of detail
1.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=I1wObzEm4_4
2.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v

6. and s chedulers. LOD identifies how much
information is known about a model
element at a given time.
http://www.vicosoftware.com/BIM-Level-of-
Detail/tabid/89638/
techniques increases the
efficiency of rendering by
decreasing the workload on
graphics pipeline stages.
=Vs I3JggyhpA
Animation A s imulation of movement created by
di splaying a s eries of pictures, or frames.
Cartoons on television is one example of
animation. Animation on computers is one
of the chi ef ingredients of
mul timediapresentations. There are many
software applications that enable you to
create animations that you can display on a
computer monitor.
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/A/ani
mation.html
Animation is modeled and
manipulated by an
animator. The animator
usually starts by creating a
3D polygon mesh to
manipulate. A mesh
includes vertices that are
connected by edges and
faces, to give the
appearance of form to a 3D
object or environment. the
mesh is then given an
internal structure called
that can be used to control
the mesh by weighting the
vertices.
1.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=XYd3YZdpJTE
2.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=RkxKlkCV4xU
Sprite A spri te is a bitmap graphic that is designed
to be part of a larger s cene. It can ei ther be
a s tatic image or an animated graphic.
Examples of spri tes include objects in 2D
video games, icons that are part of an
application user interface, and small
images published on websites.
http://www.techterms.com/definition/spri
te
A spri te is a two-dimensional
animation that
i s integrated into a scene.
Including graphical objects
handled separately from
the memory bitmap of a
video display, this now
includes various graphical
manners.
1.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=a3NBt3FjBm0
2.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=g0zfDs99z-E
Scene A cuts cene or event scene (sometimes in-game
cinematic or in-game movie) is a
sequence in a video game over which the
player has no or only limited control,
breaking up the gameplay and used to
advance the plot, strengthen the main
character's development, introduce
characters, and provide background
information, atmosphere, dialogue, and
clues.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cutscene
Scene is a computer art
that specializes in
producing demos, which
are vi sual presentations
that run on a computer.
The main goal of a demo is
to show off programming
ski lls.
1.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=ApKG87BM84U
2.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=Be9hhIIwwgQ
Library A l ibrary i s a useful framework to tackle a
specific need within a game engine. A
framework that entails the needs for a
compl ete game is a game engine.
http://gamedev.s tackexchange.com/questi
ons /10770/whats-the-difference-between-a-
l ibrary-and-an-engine
A graphics l ibrary i s a
program library designed to
help in rendering computer
graphics to a monitor. This
involves providing clearer
vers ions of functions that
handle rendering tasks.
1.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=IPGfrNQceT8
2.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=Ub_wf8wJAds
UI In information technology, the user
interface (UI) i s everything designed into
an information device with which a human
being may interact -- including display
s creen, keyboard, mouse, l ight pen, the
appearance of a desktop, i lluminated
characters, help messages, and how an
application program or a Web site invites
interaction and responds to i t.
http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition
/user-interface
The us er interface, in the
industrial design is the
where interactions
between people and
computers occur. The goal
of thi s is to effectively
operate control of the
computer on the user's
end. Examples of this
concept of user interfaces
include the interactive
aspects of computer
operating systems,
operator controls, and
1.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=gMZRwGqj6nM
2.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=d74O-b4g2ao

7. process controls.
Frames Data transmission term for variable-size
packet of data bits in a particular format
and with codes (called flags) that mark the
beginning and end of the packet. A frame
generally contains its own control
ins tructions, and information for
addressing and error detection. Depending
on the protocol of the network, it may be
al so be called a block or cell.
http://www.businessdictionary.com/defini
tion/frame.html
In computer networking, a
frame is a digital data
transmission unit that
includes frame
synchronization, a
sequence of bits or symbols
making it possible for the
receiver to detect the
beginning and end of the
packet in the s tream of
symbols or bits.
1.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=vwWCyH2HfEU
2.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=AXHK1ntbe54
Concept In metaphysics, and especially ontology, a
concept is a fundamental category of
exi stence. In contemporary philosophy,
there are at least three prevailing ways to
understand what concept i s.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concept
The focus in making
Concept has moved from
squeezing as much out of
the computer as possible to
making stylish, beautiful,
wel l-designed real time
artwork to be added to the
game.
1.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=EM58x2RwXWQ
2.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=LOCMGR2WB00
Event An event, in a computing context, i s any
identifiable occurrence that has
s ignificance for system hardware or
software. User-generated events include
keys trokes and mouse clicks, among a wide
variety of other possibilities. System-generated
events include program loading
and errors, also among a wide variety of
other possibilities.
http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition
/event
An event i s an action or
occurrence detected by the
program that may be
handled by the program.
Events are handled with the
program flow, that is, the
program has one or more
places where events are
handled, frequently an
event loop.
1.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=5v4Zbqn20hs
2.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=8BnlKyWi1iA
Pathfindin
g
Pathfinding 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
Pathfinding in video games
features the way in which a
moving AI finds a path
around an obstacle, and the
mos t frequent example i s
s trategy games in which the
player directs units around
obs tacles. Pathfinding has
grown in important
recently as games and their
envi ronments have become
more complex, and as a
result in this many AI
packages have been
developed.
1.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=sztPglYAdvE
2.)
https ://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=RSU6pZnzBUM