THE DEVELOP
FOR WARD PL ANNER DICTIONARY
Our guide to games development terminology brings you the best and the worst of industry jargon. This month we bring you the letter B
Back loaded – Stifle your chortling (if you’re that creative with identifying innuendo). It’s simply a contract model where payment is only made at a projects end.
Backwards induction – This process may sound like a central heating system, but it is in fact the system by which a gameplay strategy model is reverse engineered from the point of its conclusion to its start, so as to devise the solution (for the player) or the choice available (for the game designer).
Bark – Either the noise of a hound (in the real world) or a short burst of in-game dialogue, typically from an NPC, and often automatically triggered for dramatic effect at a precise moment.
Bézier curve – A curved line, infinitely scalable and thus cheap on memory, adjustable after its creation by merit of the fact it is made of a series of connected points.
Bi-directional Reflectance Distance Function (BRDF) – Aside from being a real mouthful, and great for making yourself feel clever in the presence of non-developers, this term describes a process of considering how the reflection of an object occurs, always considering the position of the player’s view and the light source.
Blackbox testing – A testing and analysis process whereby you don’t even let your poor testers (or unwitting public) know anything about what they are testing, or what it might be a part of.
Bloom – A lighting effect inspired by the way light from behind an object ‘spills’ round in front of the said object when viewed via devices like video cameras.
BLT – A bacon, lettuce and tomato baguette to many of our readers, but in the world of games development, it’s a rendering technique otherwise known as a Block Transfer.
Boolean – A word so nice to roll round the tongue developers throw it about like a Frisbee in a park. As for what it means, it either refers to a kind of variable only blessed with two states, or a search method reliant on comparative operators.
Bottom-up AI – An approach to artificial intelligence where individual units or characters within the game world are only granted intellect specific to their goals, rather than an awareness of any wider structure or strategy.
Boundary testing – A process of testing whereby a tool’s ability to accept inputs beyond its intended range is toyed with.
Brand Manager – The employee – possibly at your publisher – who hassles you enthusiastically for assets.
Brooks’ law – A theory that “adding manpower to a late project makes it later”. Still, sometimes it’s all you can do.
Bug –Nobody likes a software bug, although their existense does keep armies of testers in work. In the simplest form, a bug in this context is an unexpected error in a given piece of software’s code.
Bullet time – It still exists, apparently. You might remember it from Max Payne, when it still felt exciting and fresh.
Bump mapping – A well-established technique for texturing a surface by imitating cast lighting to give an uneven appearence.
Button bashing – A cardinal sin, particularly frowned upon by proper fighting game players that lurk in the few remaining arcades. It’s also something we’ve all done, and evolves randomly stabbing buttons due to a lack of familiarity with a game.
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DEVELOP-ONLINE.NET AUGUST 2012 | 97
SEPTEMBER 2012 User Interface Tools & User Interaction Touch-screens, motion controllers and gesture inputs have changed how gamers interact – but how have they changed how games are made?
BUILD Special Feature: Graphics & Rendering An update on the tools and applications for cutting edge graphics and on-screen beauty.
Regional Focus: London We delve into the UK’s capital city, where a number of new studios have set-up shop.
Events: Develop Quiz – September 19th Tokyo Game Show –September 20th to September 23rd
OCTOBER 2012 Start your own studio Setting up on your own? We can help out with a range of features written by experts in business, finance and law.
BUILD Special Feature: Character Animation This head-to-toe guide examines what’s new in the technologies that make game characters walk, run and save the world.
Regional Focus: South & Latin America We take a look at one of the most talked about, and least explored emerging markets.
Events Apps World Europe – October 2nd to October 3rd MCV / Xbox 360 pub quiz – October 4th Games Media Awards 2012 – October 18th GameCity 7 – October 20th to October 27th
NOVEMBER 2012 Regional Focus: Canada Our yearly look at the games development firms operating in British Columbia, Quebec, Nova Scotia and everywhere inbetween in the expansive country.
Contracting How flexible workforces can ease your production woes – and advice on both becoming a contractor, and working with a freelance team .
Events: Montreal International Game Summit – November 13th to November 14th London Games Conference 2012 – November 21st
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