RITx: GAME104x Video Game Design: Teamwork & Collaboration

AAA: Big-budgeted games that are at the top of the "video game scale". They have high production value. (W2, Scale of Development)

AR: Augmented Reality (W4, Looking Ahead)

Artists: In the games industry, "artists" is a broad term that encompasses those who have a role in creating the visuals, the look and the feel of the game. (W1, Overview)

Associate Producer: Entry-level producer. (W1, Overview)

Audio Programmer: A programmer who also likes creating and editing audio. (W5, Choosing a Field)

Barcade: A entertainment place with a combination of games, bars and food. (W3, History of Video Arcade)

Breaking In: Starting a career in any given industry. (W5, Breaking In)

CA: Conference Associate Program, a program where you volunteer part of your time in order get a free GDC pass. (W4, Annual Calendar)

Character Artist: Responsible for creating humanoids, aliens, or other characters in the game. (W1, Visual Art)

Concept Artist: Responsible for setting the look, feel, tone and overall visual look and style of the entire game. (W1, Visual Art)

The Crash: An event that happened in 1983 where many companies in the video game industry closed, many people lost their jobs and because of this video games were quickly declining in popularity. (W3, History of Console)

Creative Director: Concerned with the over arching design and process of design across all projects. (W1, Overview)

Credits: A list that is usually shown at the end of the video game that acknowledges the people who contributed to the creation of the game. (W4, Challenges in the Industry)

Database Programmer: Keeps player data organized for large online games. (W1, Programming)

Developer: Also known as a programmer, responsible for building the game according to the specs. Game developers do not get paid much since they are the last ones on the list to get paid. They get whatever is left over after paying retailer, first parties, publishers and licensors. (W1, Overview)

Dev Kits: A set of development tools that allow the creation of software for a particular platform or framework. (W2, PC Vs. Console)

Digital Rights Management: Also referred to as DRM, the copyright protection for a developer's game. (W2, Online Digital Business Model)

Door Problem: Think of game design as answering the simplest question. Is there a door in the game? And, how does that door work? There are so many different ways that a door can work. (W1, Overview)

E3: Electronics Entertainment Expo. (W4, Annual Calendar)

E3 Build of a Game: Demo game to show at E3. (W4, Annual Calendar)

Edutainment: A game that is suppose to be fun and educational. (W2, Serious Games)

Emulator: Simulates a piece of hardware with software. (W2, PC Vs. Console)

Engine Programmer: Creates the set of tools other programmers use to make the game. (W1, Programming)

Environment Artists: Responsible for creating the environment of the game (ex. trees, rocks, dirt walls, floors, etc.). (W1, Visual Art)

First Party: The manufacturer of the gaming console (ex. Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony, etc.).(W2, Traditional Business Model)

Free-to-Play Model: Also known as F2P Model, a combination of shareware and micro-transaction model. The game is 100% free, but the player is given incentives to spend money in the game on virtual goods. F2P games also make money from advertisements. (W2, Online Digital Business Model)

Game Audio: Creates sounds, sound effects, and background music.(W1, Overview)

Game Critic: A writer who analyzes the game. There are multiple perspectives that the critic can view the game from; design, functionality, mechanics, influence on pop culture, storyline, etc. (W2, Journalism)

Game Designer: Creates the game specs and create the design documents.(W1, Overview)

Game Development: Creating games. (W5, Game Studies)

Game Engines: Tools and programs that make it easier for other people to create games. (W4, Looking Ahead)

Game Reviewer: A writer who reviews whether or not the game is good, who should buy it and it is worth a person's time and money. (W2, Journalism)

Games Journalist: A writer who discusses events in the game industry, when a new product/game is announced, when a large game developer acquires another game developer, when a game developer goes out of business, etc. (W2, Journalism)

Gamification: Taking non-fun tasks and building a game to make the task more fun and engaging. (W2, Serious Games)

Gaming Industry: The gaming industry is not the same as the games industry. The gambling industry calls itself the gaming industry because it has a less negative connotation attached to it. (W2, Gambling)

Gameplay Programmer: Implements the rules and mechanics of the game.(W1, Programming)

Game Studies: An academic field that looks at the relationship between games and society, games and culture and how games affect us and we affect games on a broad scale. (W5, Game Studies)

GDC: Game Developers Conference. (W4, Annual Calendar)

Graphics Programmer: Involves a little art and a lot of math. (W1, Programming)

Group-Think: When one person in a group has an idea and the other people in the group are more likely to agree with this idea. This a dangerous concept as it leaves little room for conflicting views and diversity. (W4, Challenges in the Industry)

Hourly: When a person is paid by the hour. There are restrictions to the amount of hours a person works before they become eligible for overtime pay. (W4, Challenges in the Industry)

IGDA: International Game Developer Association. (W4, Challenges in the Industry)

III: Larger-scale Indie projects. (W2, Scale of Development)

Indie: Short for independent. Indie games are games that aren't considered AAA games. There are three categories of Indie games:
1. Smaller scale than AAA, small studio, lower-budget and more experimental games
2. Independent of a publisher. The developers publish their own games.
3. Punk-rock games, a highly-experimental and disruptive game that are not corporate games.
(W2, Scale of Development)

Lead Programmer: Works with other leads to get a high level view of the project and identify obstacles. (W1, Programming)

Lead QA: Responsible for communicating and interacting with the production team. (W1, QA)

Let's Play: Videos of someone recording a play session of a game and usually comments on it as they're playing. (W2, Journalism)

Level Designer: Construct virtual spaces that people have to navigate. (W1, Overview)

Licensor: Responsible for licensing the game. Not all games require a license. The licensor and the publisher usually split the percentage of profit the publisher would usually get on its own. (W2, Traditional Business Model)

Lockout Chip: A proprietary piece of hardware that meant that only Nintendo cartridges would work inside the NES. (W3, History of Console)

Ludology: Looking at the elements of games that make them uniquely game such as rules and mechanics. (W5, Game Mechanics)

Micro-Transaction Model: Developers create in-game currency to obtain more money from the player. (W2, Online Digital Business Model)

Mid-core Games: Games aiming towards the middle scale of game production. (W2, Scale of Development)

MMO: Massively Multiplayer Online Games. (W2, Online Digital Business Model)

Narratology: The study of games as new media, analyzing them as a story-telling medium. (W5, Game Studies)

NDA: Non-disclosure agreement (W4, Annual Calendar)

Network Programmer: Gets the game working over the network. (W1, Programming)

NES: Nintendo Entertainment System (W3, History of Video Arcade)

Online Portals: A website that allows players to purchase games, but does not allow them to purchase and share/host the game on another website (ex. Steam, DOG, Desura, etc.). (W2, Online Digital Business Model)

PAX: Penny Arcade Expo. (W4, Annual Calendar)

Piracy: Someone makes a copy, and starts distributing it, of a game that they did not pay for. (W2, PC vs. Console)

Plane Jam: The rule for plane jams is you take a laptop or another development device on the plane with you. When the cabin announcement comes on that you can use approved electronic devices, you start developing a game from scratch and your goal is to complete it before you land and before your laptop runs out of battery, whichever comes first. (W5, Breaking In)

Porting: Porting is also the term used when a video game designed to run on one platform, be it an arcade, video game console, or personal computer, is converted to run on a different platform. Earlier video game "ports" were often not true ports, but rather reworked versions of the games. (W2, PC Vs. Console)

Publisher: Pays for the development of the game. The publisher is the one who is taking the financial risk if the game doesn't sell. (W2, Traditional Business Model)

Producer: Goes back and forth between all the different teams of specialits and make sure that everyone has everything they need in order to get their work done. (W1, Overview)

QA: Quality Assurance. (W1, QA)

QOL: Quality of life, a broad term to describe working conditions in the games industry. (W4, Challenges in the Industry)

Retailer: The store that a game is purchased from (ex. GameStop, Target, Walmart, etc.). About half of the price of the game goes to the retailer because floor space is expensive. (W2, Traditional Business Model)

Ralph Baer: Thought of as the father of the console. He was not a game developer. He figured out that you could send signal to a television by connecting a box to the space where the antenna would normally go. (W3, History of Console)

Salary: When a person is paid the same amount of money every pay period, regardless of how many hours they work or their performance. (W4, Challenges in the Industry)

Security Programmer: Prevents players from hacking servers or systems. (W1, Programming)

Serious Games: Using game technology to do things other than just entertainment. (W2, Serious Games)

Shareware Model: The developer provides the gamer the ability to play the first few levels of a game for free and encourages them to share with their friends. If the buyer likes the game, then they could mail money to the developer and receive a disk with the full game on it. (W2, Online Digital Business Model)

Shovel-ware: Computer jargon for a bad or useless thing. (W3, Why Study History)

"Social" Gaming: Games that take place on social networks. (W3, History of Mobile)

Space Invaders: A Japanese game that came out in 1978. Started the trend of video arcades. (W3, History of Video Arcade)

Tech Focused QA: Responsible for communicating and interacting with the production team. (W1, QA)

Technical Artist: Responsible for writing automated test suites. (W1, Visual Art)

Technical Designer: The main function of this role is to design, however they also assist developers with programming. (W1, Programming)

Technical Director: Uses their technical background to look at the overall technology that the company is using. (W1, Programming)

Third Party: Developers or publishers that made games for a console they didn't own. (W3, History of Console)

Tools Programmer: Creates tools for people who aren't programmers to get their stuff in the game. (W1, Programming)

VCS: Video Computer System. (W3, History of Console)

Video Arcade: A space dedicated to arcade games. (W3, History of Video Arcade)

VR: Virtual Reality. (W4, Looking Ahead)

White Label Studios: Studios that work on a game and purposely do not receive credit. (W4, Challenges in the Industry)

Winter Holidays: When most games are released. (W4, Annual Calendar)

2D Artist: Also known as a pixel artist, involves manipulating individual pixels on the screen. This includes both still images and animations. (W1, Visual Art)

3D Artist: Creates three dimensional piece of art in the game. (W1, Visual Art)

8-bit Consoles: Gaming consoles had smooth hardware scrolling tile and sprite based graphics instead of block-based graphics. (W2, History of Console)

16-bit Generation: Started when Sega release the Sega Genesis and Nintendo released the Super Nintendo. There was a transition to more mature games, multi-button game controllers, better color, better sound, etc. (W3, History of Console)