Hello,

The lesson you are watching is called “Programming and creating games”.

My name is Athena and I will be the presenter of this lesson.

During this course you will watch several videos.

Some of them will content important information – necessary for understanding the electronic games and scratch software, which will be the basis of these lessons. Some other, most of them, will show you how to create some games step by step.

In all videos you should often press the freeze button to see the screen well. Do not forget that you are watching an IT course. This means that what you see, you should try it yourself – directly on your computer.

It is important you have patience and persistence.

The first section of the first lesson is called “Components of Electronic Games”

We will move to Stevie’s class to attend this lesson.

Have fun!

Good evening to you all! To all of you in my classroom and to you who are watching us from your computer screen.

Today we will discuss about the components of an electronic game.

– I love electronic games.

– Although I know a lot of things about games, I’m sure I will learn much more today!

A very important component of a game are the characters.

In most of the games, the player uses a character in the game world.

This character may be an animal, a prince, a car, a warrior, and so much more.

In order to create a sense of risk and competition there are usually characters – opponents that the player must beat or escape from.

A second very important component of an electronic game are the goals. All the games aim for the players to achieve at least one main goal.

Very often, the player will have to achieve several smaller goals in order to achieve the main goal.

The main goal may be winning a fight or conquering an enemy or even reaching a certain number of points.

Intermediate smaller targets can be e.g. to unlock a door leading to a new level, or to gain a more effective weapon or vehicle or skill.

The rules of a game define what is allowed and what is forbidden to do. For example, can the character walk into the water?

Can the character stop and have a break for some time or is there a time restriction?

All these issues become clear from the beginning of the design of the game and are its rules.

A really important component of the game are the objects

All the games contain items

Stars, weapons, swords, coins, money, treasures, keys that unlock doors. Some of these objects, help the main character to achieve his goal and some of them prevent him.

The next very important component of an electronic game are

M E C H A N I C S

Those are mainly the actions that our character can perform.

Can he walk? Run? Jump? Fly? Pick up an item? Use a gun? How fast will he run? How high will he jump?

Engineering is the core of the game.

Well designed engineering will contribute to create a very good game.

Another important component of an electronic game is the control of the characters.

Keyboard, mouse, joystick.

Games are more entertaining when the player feels that he fully controls his character.

So the way we control our character must be easy and the computer must respond to the player’s “hits” immediately.

Another important component of an electronic game is its environment

Is it a 2 or 3 dimensional game?

From what angle does the player see the game? From above? From the front? Is it from inside?

Are there any limits restricting the character movements?

And the last important component of an electronic game is the level of difficulty

A game isn’t fun if it’s too easy.

The same happens if the game is too difficult.

Most games set easy goals at the beginning as the player is still learning and more difficult goals afterwards when the player’s skills have improved.

The achievement of the appropriate level of difficulty at each game level is the “key” of creating a great game.

Hello

In the following section we will focus on “Secrets for creating a successful game”.

Watch Stevie in a very interesting presentation.

Do not forget that you must, whenever you feel is necessary, freeze the screen to read more carefully the relevant texts.

Have fun!

In this lesson, we will show you some secrets about the creation of an electronic game.

I think I should jump into the screen so I can present all the information properly.

Hoop

Assign a mission to your hero. Tell a story that describes this mission.

By doing this you will be able to give a meaning to the actions of your hero but also to the player who controls him.

This story will help to create the world of the game and the objects that surround it.

This will help create more beautiful game screens.

Sounds can create strong feelings.

By changing or entering a new sound you can create the feelings of anxiety, fear, joy or surprise to the player.

Modern games nowadays use realistic sounds to make players feel they are in the game. Also, with or without sounds, you can create characters that appear suddenly on the screen.

Fear and anxiety about their display will be highly appreciated by the players.

What could be behind a door? The anxiety of the wait can often be worse than the fear of the reveal!!

A game would be too easy if the player had the ability to stop and calm down and think.

But if time is important, the game would probably be more exciting.

Use different colors to create a different atmosphere in the game.

Light blue, yellow and green color can create a warm environment.

On the contrary, the color of the ice and white create coldness.

Dark colors create a more “dangerous” environment.

Most games played with consoles have three-dimensional photorealistic

environments of extraordinary quality.

Nevertheless, after the appearance of Minecraft, games with simple graphics – cartoons – are still very popular today.