Video Game Design/Programming/Framework/2D vs 3D

Graphics

Graphics is the common name for the visual presentation of the game environment and also of each visual representation its components. Creating these visual environments begin generally with the concept artist, that in accordance to the game concept creates visual representation not only of the game characters, objects but also how the environments will look like or even the as the visual expansion of the game creator imagination. That part of work is mostly done outside of the game, with third party software dedicated to those distinct tasks and data.

A games graphics are not restricted to in game art, but also in font design, logos and advertisings for marketing purposes, they also can have a great impact on other types of merchandising like t-shits or toys, or other product spin-offs like animation series or even live action movies based on the game concept.

Vision

Vision is the most important sense in humans. Presenting a visually stunning product will trump most other aspects, in attracting players and guarantee initial sales, we already the covered how an attractive presentation is important.

2D or 3D

Most modern games until recently seemed entrenched in the 3D craze, until the mobile phone brought back the market for a return to simpler visuals and good old 2D creativity and innovation. 2D had been mostly relegated to emulators and reimplementation of old game models.

After the initial advances in 3D and the development of good 3D hardware, 3D soon started to be mostly a marketing gimmick, a sell point and a way to hide the frailty of the game concept with good visual, where each new inch gained in performance or visual realism was heralded as a revolutionary must see discovery. Remember what we said about presentation, that is mostly how it is used. Most games do not know how to use it in a way that complements gameplay and game design.

A good 3D game uses dynamic composition of scenes and environments, in most the same way movies do, with the express purpose of showing off the game design and engaging the player's imagination, but with unwavering respect for gameplay.

Graphic's engines

The game engine should be debugged and tested with more primitive environments and models particularly with game consoles. What the game calls the graphics engine is used to manipulate the games animations scripts characters position in an environment and memory allocation for graphics rendering. Other data such as physics, AI and the game scripts are handled by other engines. There is a large misunderstanding with the general public in that a game is made with only one "engine".

User Interface

The user interface is a very important component of any game because this is usually the first thing a new player will see when starting up your game. It is also (in most games) always visible to the player, so it is wise to put some effort into making an interface that is intuitive, easy to use and that looks good! There is nothing like a badly designed interface to put someone off a potentially great game.

A user interface consists of:

• Graphics - Buttons, info panels, maps, etc.)
• Layout - Where those things are placed on the screen
• Interaction - How these things respond to user input; do they bring up a map? your inventory? access settings?