What is
Platform Dependency?
Platform Dependency is when you have a piece of software
that is dependent on a certain platform (XBOX, PlayStation etc.) An example of this is the Uncharted series on
PlayStation. You can only play this video game series on the PlayStation
platform.
What is
Platform Independency?
Platform Independency is when a piece of software can be ran
on multiple platforms e.g. A game that can be played on XBOX and PlayStation.
An example of this is Call of Duty, this game can be ran on various platforms
ranging from PC to XBOX and PlayStation etc.
What is the
purpose of an Operating System?
The operating system is the platform specific software that the user can use to interact with the hardware. You must have a Operating System to be able to run/use other programs and applications. An Operating System also perform basic tasks such as, recording input from a keyboard, sending an output to a display device and keeping track of files on the disk.
PLAYSTATION - Orbis
What is the
purpose of a Device Driver?
A Device Driver is a program that controls a device that is
connected to your PC. There are drivers for Mouse’s, Keyboard’s, GPU’s and
CPU’s etc.
What is an
API and what does it do?
An API (Application Programming Interface) is a set of
protocols for building software. An API shows you how software components
should interact. An API also makes it easier to develop programs by providing the programmer with
all the building blocks.
Game Engines,
Unity,
Unity is a game engine that is commonly used in the games industry to create the level design to a game. You can import your own assets or you can download pre-made assets off the Unity asset store.
The image above shows you all the interface, This what you will see if you to uses Unity. It is quite similar to other applications like, Photoshop, Visual Studies etc... Look at the images below for a more detail look at the different tabs within the window.
This is the Hierarchy, this is where you can find any object/item that you spawn into the scene. From here you can select the object you require with ease instead of trying to find it within the scene. To help with organisation, you can create groups which is useful to put parts of the scene together. For example if you created a building, you put all the objects for that building into a group. This allows you to move the building as a whole instead of a object at a time.
This is the Inspector, this is only view-able when you select an object. From this you can edit the objects, Position, Rotation and Scale etc...
This Probuilder window is an extension which is downloadable from the Unity asset store. This is used to simplify the building process but still allows you to make complex and interesting scenes, objects, buildings and so on.
This window is used to access all the assets which are in the assets folder in the file destination. Once in this file you can select them and use them.
For example, if you are in need of a texture, you can either create your own or download from the asset store, then drag this texture file into the assets folder then you can drag the texture onto the desired objects.
For example, if you are in need of a texture, you can either create your own or download from the asset store, then drag this texture file into the assets folder then you can drag the texture onto the desired objects.
This is the final window that is required for a good knowledge of Unity. This is the scene screen. Any objects you spawn. This is fixed in the middle of the screen.
Construct 2,
Construct 2 is a game engine that is used to create 2D video games. Construct 2 is a very user friendly application which gives the user all the building blocks to create games.
The image above shows you the interface of Construct 2. This is what you will see when you start a new project however, you will have a blank canvas in the middle of the screen.
The image above is a panel which is named as properties. In this window you can edit setting such as the name, the size of the window/scene and much more. You will see this window on the left of the main interface.
This window is titled as Projects. You can find any saved Layouts, Event Sheets and Objects. From this you can rename the different files to whatever you wish.
The image above shows you the Objects window. Here you can select a object/sprite that has already been placed into the game for greater ease to select the object you want.
This is the main part of the interface for Construct 2. This is where you edit the look of your game, moving your objects/sprites around to desired locations.
Finally, this is the Event Sheet tab. Here you can create different lines of code which allows the game to work. In Construct 2, they have made the coding simpler to make the application much more user friendly.
Select a
range of games and research the following;
Game 1: Web
Based – Candy Crush
Candy Crush
is a web-based puzzle game. Any device that can connect to the internet can play this game e.g. computer, smart phone etc... An example of an OS would be Windows, OSX, IOS and/or Android. The only drivers this game requires is for the GPU, Mouse and Keyboard. The game runs on javascript code. The Graphical API for Candy Crush are the Candy Crush servers as it is a web based game. The Sound API is DirectSound. The display of the game depends on the platform you use. For a PC, the monitor would be the display whereas for a mobile phone it would be the screen.
Game 2: PC
Based – Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is played on PC and Mac. It
was once on the Xbox Store but it didn’t really receive much attention from
Xbox fanatics so they stopped supporting it on that platform. The Operating
System used for this game is Windows and OSX. To play this game you would be required to have GPU drivers, Keyboard drivers, Mouse drivers so you can see, move and look around in the game. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive was created on the Source engine which is the successor of the Goldsrc engine. OpenGL is the Graphical API that is used for Counter-Strike:Global Offensive. This game also uses DirectSound as it's Sound API. The display for this game is usually a monitor for computer but you could put the display on any display device e.g. TV, Monitor etc...
· Game 3:
Console Based – LittleBigPlanet
LittleBigPlanet is platform dependent to PlayStation, you cannot play this game on any other platform. The Operating System that a PlayStation uses is named Orbis. The drivers that this game requires is for the GPU, Sound Card and all the other hardware within the PlayStation. The Controllers would require drivers aswell. As for the engine they made it from the ground up so they didn't use an engine that we know they used on they had come up with themselves. The graphical API that this game used was PSGL, which is used on some/most PlayStation 3 games. Most games on the PlayStation 3 share the same Sound API and this game was no acception, it uses DirectSound. The display you would normally see for a console based game would be a TV however, anything with a HDMI port could be connected to these consoles, esspecially the New Gen consoles like PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
Construct 2 My Game Video,
This game I made was created using the game engine, Construct 2. I created this game in the first year of my Games Design course at college. To create this we need to create all the pixel art assets, the sound effects and the background music that played throughout and we had to create a bunch of events sheets (programming) which made the game a game.