Gamestar Mechanic For Dummies®

Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2014 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Trademarks: Wiley, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, Dummies.com, Making Everything Easier, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and may not be used without written permission. Gamestar Mechanic is a trademark of E-Line Media. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: THE PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS WORK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NO WARRANTY MAY BE CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES OR PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS. THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES CONTAINED HEREIN MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR EVERY SITUATION. THIS WORK IS SOLD WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THE PUBLISHER IS NOT ENGAGED IN RENDERING LEGAL, ACCOUNTING, OR OTHER PROFESSIONAL SERVICES. IF PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE IS REQUIRED, THE SERVICES OF A COMPETENT PROFESSIONAL PERSON SHOULD BE SOUGHT. NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR THE AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES ARISING HEREFROM. THE FACT THAT AN ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE IS REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK AS A CITATION AND/OR A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF FURTHER INFORMATION DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE AUTHOR OR THE PUBLISHER ENDORSES THE INFORMATION THE ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE MAY PROVIDE OR RECOMMENDATIONS IT MAY MAKE. FURTHER, READERS SHOULD BE AWARE THAT INTERNET WEBSITES LISTED IN THIS WORK MAY HAVE CHANGED OR DISAPPEARED BETWEEN WHEN THIS WORK WAS WRITTEN AND WHEN IT IS READ.

For general information on our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002. For technical support, please visit www.wiley.com/techsupport.

Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Some material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in print-on-demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at http://booksupport.wiley.com. For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013954110

ISBN 978-1-118-83212-7 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-118-83213-4 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-83214-1 (ebk)

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Gamestar Mechanic For Dummies

Visit www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/gamestarmechanic to view this book's cheat sheet.

Table of Contents

Introduction

About This Book

Foolish Assumptions

Icons Used in This Book

Beyond the Book

Where to Go from Here

Part I: Introducing the Gamestar Mechanic World

Chapter 1: What Is Gamestar Mechanic?

Gamestar Mechanic: An Introduction

The Quest

The Workshop

Game Alley

Exploring What You Can Do on the Site

Playing games

Designing games

Reviewing games

Teaching and Learning via Gamestar Mechanic

Developing skills through game design

Examining the role of teachers

Chapter 2: Getting Up and Running

Creating an Account

Navigating the Website

Exploring the header toolbar

Examining the footer toolbar

Editing Your Account Settings

Getting to Know the Main Page: The Lobby

Understanding the news feed

Reading the message box

Starting Off on the Quest

Exploring the Workshop

The Build a New Game button

Mechanic profile

Exploring the rest of the Workshop

Finding Games to Play in Game Alley

Exploring Game Alley

Searching for games

Interpreting a game’s rating and stats

Writing a Mechanic Bio

Part II: Playing and Designing Games

Chapter 3: The Basics of Playing a Game

Understanding How to Control Your Avatar

Top-down controls

Platformer controls

Effectively Navigating a Level

Navigating a top-down game

Navigating a platformer game

Understanding the Goals and Rules of a Game

Introducing system sprites

Understanding the system sprites in a game

Chapter 4: Completing Quest Missions

Introducing the “Story” Told through the Quest

Exploring the Three Quests

The Pacing of the Quest

Chapter 5: Designing and Publishing Your First Game

Understanding Sprites — the Building Blocks of a Game

Taking a Look at the Structure of a Game

Introducing the Five Elements of Game Design

Space

Rules

Goals

Components

Mechanics

Defining the Gameplay

Building a top-down navigation game

Arranging a platformer-shooter game

Constructing a racing game

Touring the Toolbox Interface

Exploring the sidebar

Examining the tools

Building a Game in the Toolbox

Adding sprites

Moving sprites

Editing sprites

Cloning sprites

Deleting sprites

Editing universal game features

Editing levels

Saving and Publishing a Game

Save

Publish

Analyzing Your Game’s Reception

Reviews and ratings for your game

Game statistics

Chapter 6: Understanding Sprites

Introducing the Properties of Sprites

Perspective: Defines how sprites interact with the level

Collisions: Interactions between sprites

Examining the Characteristics of Individual Sprites

Discovering avatars and their functions

Understanding enemies and their possibilities

Examining blocks and their attributes

Distinguishing items and their effects

Applying System Sprites Effectively

Energy Meter

Frag Counter

Health Meter

Population Counter

Score Keeper

Timer

Timer (Survival)

Part III: Participating in the Gamestar Community

Chapter 7: Reviewing Games

Using the Review Interface

Viewing reviews and comments

Submitting a review or comment

Rating a Game

Understanding the star rating system

Getting to know the gear rating system

Adding Gameplay, Story, and Visual Components to a Review

Implementing the gameplay component

Adding a story component

Integrating a visual component

Learning from Reviews of Your Games

Reading a low rating

Reading a high rating

Writing a Constructive Review

Chapter 8: Earning Ranks and Badges

Gaining Experience Points and Ranks

Obtaining Badges

Gamestar badges

World badges

Completing Challenges

Chapter 9: Meeting the Mechanics

Making a First Impression in the Community

Embracing the Gamestar Mechanic Community

Building relationships

Reporting users for unacceptable behavior

Learning from Other Designers

Getting inspiration

Avoiding stealing someone else’s work

Adding a citation when using someone else's unique content

Chapter 10: Making Yourself Known within the Community

Directing Gamestar Mechanic Players to Your Games

Keeping your games on the Game Alley main page

Leading players to your workshop

Directing Non–Gamestar Mechanic Users to Your Games

Publicizing your games outside Gamestar Mechanic

Sharing games online

Gaining Followers

Part IV: Designing Masterpieces

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!