We can all have a good intuitive understanding of what a game is. Common terms “games” include board games like chess and monopoly, card games like poker and blackjack, casinos like roulette and slot machines, military war games, computer games and a variety of children’s games. In academia, it is sometimes referred to as game theory, in which some agents choose strategies and tactics to maximize their achievements within the framework of clear rules of the game. When used in the context of a console or computer entertainment, the word “game” generally represents a three -dimensional virtual world featuring a humanoid, animal or vehicle as the main character under the player’s control. (Or for the older ones among us, maybe it evokes a classic two-dimensional image like pong, pak-man, or donkey kong.) In his masterpiece, A Theory of Fun for Game Design, Rafcoaster defines the game. An interactive experience that gives the player a growing challenge of patterns he learns and eventually masters. Coaster argues that learning and mastery activities are as important to what we call “fun”, just as the moment we recognize a pattern and “get it” becomes a joke.
Video games as a real -time soft simulation
Most 2D and 3D video games are examples of what computer scientists call computer simulations based on real -time soft interactive agents. Let’s break down this verse to better understand its meaning. In most video games, some subdivision of the real world – or imaginary world – is mathematically modeled to be controlled by a computer. This model is an approximation and simplification of reality (although it is a hypothetical reality), as it is impractical to include all details at the atomic or quark level. Thus, mathematical models are imitations of the real world or the game world. Approximation and simplification are the two most powerful tools for game developers. When used skillfully, even very simple models are sometimes indistinguishable from the real thing and more fun.
Agent -based simulations involve the interaction of several different entities called “agents”. It fits the description of most three -dimensional computer games with agents such as vehicles, figures, fireballs and power points. Given the agent-based nature of most games, it’s no surprise that most games today are implemented in object-oriented or at least object-oriented programming languages.
All interactive video games are temporary simulations, which means that the virtual game world model is dynamic – the state of the game world changes over time as the events and story of the game evolve. Video games must also respond to unpredictable input from their players or humans – hence interactive time simulations. Finally, most video games present their stories and respond in real time to player input and turn it into live interactive simulations.
Notable exceptions are in the category of turn -based games, such as computer chess or indirect strategy games. But this type of game also provides users with some form of live graphical user interface.
What is a Game Engine?
The term “game engine” was coined in the mid-1990s to refer to first-person shooter (FPS) games such as the popular software Doom by ID. Doom is built around its core software components (such as a three -dimensional graphics display system, collision detection system or audio system) with clear distinctions between art assets, game worlds and game rules. player games. Game experience. The value of this difference becomes clear when developers start licensing games and converting them to new products, creating new art, world lights, weapons, characters, vehicles and game rules with minimal changes to the “engine” software. This marked the birth of the “Mod Community”, a group of individual players and small free studios that modify existing games and create new games using free tool kits provided by the original developer. . In the late 1990s, some games, such as Quake III and Unreal Arena, were designed with reusability in mind.
