Main Menu

Site Home Page

Glossary of Terms

Current Class Mod Package

Divider

Help! My mod is corrupted!

Divider

Week of June 15th, 2009

Topics:

  • Getting Help
    • The "Assistance" windows
    • The Lexicon
    • The Forums
  • Variables
    • Type-casting and the types
    • Conventions
    • Constants
  • Who Dun' It?
    • Who Spoke?
    • Who Used the Placeable?
    • Who Activated the Item?
    • Who Crossed the Trigger? Who Entered the Area?
    • Was it a Player? a DM?
  • Creating Objects
    • Preparing the Object
      • The Resref
      • The Object Type
    • At a Waypoint
      • Find the Waypoint
      • Find the Location
    • Where the player is
      • Find the Location
    • Create the Object
      • Deciding on a Tag
      • Spawning in the Object
      • Doing Things to the Object after Creation
  • Tracking Variables
    • Local Variables
    • Persistent Variables
  • Some Useful Scripts
    • Making Changes to the Avatar When It Enters the Game
    • Fiddling with the Avatar's Inventory
    • Destroying the Inventory Items
    • Destroying "Non-Destroyable" Items
    • Taking Gold From the Player
    • Giving Gold To the Player
    • Giving General Inventory Items to the Player
    • Giving Equipable Items and Forcing an Equip Action
    • Random Walk

Homework: Dungeon and Quest

Divider

Week of June 7th, 2009

Topics:

  • Items
    • Properties
    • Building your own items
    • How to make an item have a conversation.
  • Creatures
    • Properties
    • Building your own
  • Triggers
    • Choosing the right one
    • Drawing a trigger
    • Trigger Properties
    • Trigger Events and Scripting Preview
    • Examples of Trigger Use
  • Waypoints
    • Waypoint Properties
    • Waypoint Directions
    • Uses for Waypoints
    • Scripting Preview
    • How to Set Up a Patrol Route
  • Conversations
    • How they're used
    • The basic tree.
    • Branching
    • Links (or "Loop backs")
    • Tokens: Built-in and Custom
    • Colorizing the Text
    • Including Other Speakers
    • "Actions Taken" and other events
    • Conditional Nodes
  • The Journal
    • Categories
    • Entries
    • Updating the Journal through Conversations
    • Updating the Journal through Scripting
  • How to Test Your Mod
    • The Build Module Option.
    • The Real Way
    • The Test Module Option

Homework:


Divider

Week of June 1st, 2009

Topics:

  • Areas
    • Area Properties
    • Module Properties
  • Tiles
    • Tile Properties
  • Names
    • Blueprint / Resref
    • Tag
    • Display Name
  • Doors
    • Door Properties
    • Transitions between doors
    • How to make a door close itself
    • How to have a transition without a door
  • Placeables
    • Placeable properties
    • Spawning placeables.
    • How to stack placeables
    • How to have a placeable hold a conversation

Homework:

Divider

May 27, 2009

Topics

Homework

 

  

GAME CONCEPT AND DESIGN
COSC 320.101_SU09
SUMMER 2009

Tonight we talked a bit about towns and cities. Now the project is to build one.

  1. Using the toolkit, open your current module and create a new area for your town.
  2. Design your town using some thought concerning what sort of town it is, where it's located, and so forth. This will very likely be key in determining the size and complexity of your town.
  3. Name your town using the logic processes we discussed earlier.
  4. Make a transition link between your landscape area to the town so we can move back and forth between them.
  5. Feel free to make any changes you might need to make to your opening land area to accomodate this new town.
  6. When you're done, give the mod a quick test.

If all is working, then once again email the entire mod to me and I'll incorporate it into the class mod making as few changes as possible.

Then on Monday night, we'll tour them and see what's been created and hear why.

Reading:

Please read through Chapters 8 and 9 in the Rules of Play book.

  • 8 is sort of a "Duh! Why not tell me something I don't know" chapter. Do read it but don't feel the need to memorize it. Just read it and let it sink in and percolate.
  • 9, however, deals with the Magic Circle which is a very important philosophical bit of insight into all games...not just video games. It is almost the cornerstone thought behind all our ideas of game design.

If you're really interested in the design process, read through (and try to understand how to play) the first commissioned game, Sibling Rivalry. It contains more than a small amount of insight and food-for-thought.