First Semester - The Basics

Coding is the first scary bottleneck for those who want to design video games. Unless you take time to understand the basics, everything can be so intimidating. But if you change your mind on programming, and see it as a honey do list for a computer, than coding becomes far less scary. You just need to learn how computers are instructed and start taking control over it.

For those who have iPads, feel free to download SwiftPlaygrounds and play around with Coding 1.

Swift Playgrounds by Apple
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/swift-playgrounds/id908519492?mt=8

If you have an Android device, or a computer, feel free to comment on possible coding tutorial programs that we can use.

Art intimidates people, and we make the greatest artists into almost mythic heroes, but it doesn’t have to be. It takes time and practice and the right tutorials. You can follow me on Pinterest. I save a huge amount of tutorials on this account to help me learn art, and it should help you learn art as well.

https://www.pinterest.ca/TrollyMcPatriarchy/

Gaming art doesn’t need to the best in the world. If it’s good enough to tell your story than it will work.

Drawing Hub is a fantastic how-to drawing website, you should check it out. Not only do the people show you step by step how to draw something, they explain it as well. I spend at least an hour every single night at this website.

https://drawinghub.com

Sources
InfoGraphic -
https://www.cs.utah.edu/~germain/PPS/Topics/functions.html
Swift Playgrounds -
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/swift-playgrounds/id908519492?mt=8

Functions allow programmers to group lines of code to be called in later pieces of code, to help reduce the amount of coding you have to do to accomplish a task. You can also use functions within other functions to eliminate as much coding as possible.

As coders, we want to reduce the amount of work we do, and functions allows us to do that very thing.

Thanks for watching and Making Gaming Great Again!

Resources -
Drawing Muscles - DrawingHub.com
https://drawinghub.com/tut/how-to-draw-muscles-31694

Procreate for iPad - ($13.99 cnd but it’s worth it)
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/procreate/id425073498?mt=8

If Procreate is too Expensive - Autodesk SketchBook for iPad -
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/autodesk-sketchbook/id883738213?mt=8

Virtual Human Body for iOS -
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/virtual-human-body/id470890348?mt=8

Drawing a humanoid character can be intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be. If you’re starting out, using base materials to trace over is okay because that helps you develop the muscle memory to draw things properly. Every journey of a 1000 miles starts with a single step.

Tracing over drawings or tutorials is a technique called Rotoscoping. It is especially important for animation, as you can start to use different drawings at different times to create a sense of motion.

The best thing to do is use a tablet or touchscreen computer, save the pictures on the website and start tracing over it in programs like Procreate or Photoshop. I use Procreate for the iPad for this tutorial.

Resources -
For Loop definition -
https://www.techopedia.com/definition/19415/for-loop
SwiftPlaygrounds -
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/swift-playgrounds/id908519492?mt=8

For Loops are excellent ways to group a bunch of functions that are the exact same together. In video games, these are the NPCs patrolling around, going to point A doing a couple of things and then going to point B in which the do the exact same thing before they go to point C, which then you can reset the to start at the beginning again.

Resources -
Drawing Muscles - DrawingHub.com
https://drawinghub.com/tut/how-to-draw-muscles-31694
Procreate for iPad - ($13.99 cnd but it’s worth it)
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/procreate/id425073498?mt=8
If Procreate is too Expensive - Autodesk SketchBook for iPad -
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/autodesk-sketchbook/id883738213?mt=8
Virtual Human Body for iOS -
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/virtual-human-body/id470890348?mt=8

In this lesson, I go through how to setup thing up in SketchBook Pro from autodesk, which is absolutely free of charge for iOS users, to allow you to learn how to draw a humanoid figure. I also go through some of the body ratios that you need in order to draw a realistic humanoid character, if you want to draw something from scratch.

Like I said in the last episode, practice makes perfect. Keep on using tutorials, keep on learning, keep on practicing what you learn and you will start to be a good artist.

Thanks for watching the video and making games great again!

Description -
Resources -
Definition of Conditional Programming -
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conditional_(computer_programming)
SwiftPlaygrounds -
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/swift-playgrounds/id908519492?mt=8

Conditional programming can help game developers make their games more difficult, provide missions and quests with reward systems, level up scripting when a character’s experience hits a certain number, and what happens when a character hits another character. It is the backbone of coding a game, so it is essential for aspiring game developers to learn and get really good at conditional coding.

Thanks for making games great again!

Game Design Manual Template -
https://trollyshitpost.files.wordpress.com/2018/11/ctaylordesigntemplate.pdf

Anatomy References -
The Animator’s Survival Kit -
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/the-animators-survival-kit/id627438690?mt=8
The Disney App -
http://appstore.com/disneyanimated

In the past 3 Saturday videos, I introduced the concepts of art, and today, I start to help you understand the most important part of game design, the Game Design Manual. Just download the template that I’ve uploaded to my server, and just copy and past pages and define what you want to create for your game.

The first page is critical in creating interest in your game when you talk to people in the game development community, because it tells the company you are talking to exactly what your game is all about.

References -
Logical Operators definition -
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/logical-operator

SwiftPlaygrounds -
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/swift-playgrounds/id908519492?mt=8

Logical Operators, defining things if two combined variables are true, or if a variable is untrue, or if a variable equals this or that allows game designers to provide puzzles and unique experiences to their games. Building on the conditional programming that is very important for game programming, because games are all about conditions, this helps ensure unique experiences for gamers.

Game Design Manual template -
https://trollyshitpost.files.wordpress.com/2018/11/ctaylordesigntemplate.pdf

The Game Overview is the two page short resume of your game. It describes everything you want to talk about with your game. Every aspect of your game is discussed, and the philosophy behind the game as well.

It is what you give to a gaming company that expresses interest in your game after the elevator pitch, so they can make a more informed decision on whether they want to create the game, or it is the document that keeps inspiring you while you take the months, even years, to create that video game.

Thanks for watching and making games great again.

While Loops -
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/While_loop

SwiftPlaygrounds -
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/swift-playgrounds/id908519492?mt=8

While loops combines the three topics we had taken previously, the for loop, conditional coding and logical operators. It helps define NPC behaviours in games to animate your world. You can use a while loop to have a shopkeeper in a game stay in their shop until a certain time of day, after which it will go home - so the loop for the shopkeeper would be while the time condition is true, the shopkeeper stays in the shop, else if the time condition is false than the shopkeeper goes home, and then the same loop is created every single day in that loop.

Thanks for watching and making games great again.

Game Design Manual template -
https://trollyshitpost.files.wordpress.com/2018/11/ctaylordesigntemplate.pdf

Game Worlds are extremely important in the storytelling of video games. Before you say, video games don’t need stories to be good, in every single game I’ve ever played, there are story elements.

Game Designers know that in a game, every area should have it’s unique challenges you need to overcome, unique factions in it, and unique enemies, including CUPHEAD.

Game Worlds is a triune aspect of stories in games. You need to know the game world in every detail to create the characters that inhabit each part of that world which you need to create the story of your game.

Tutorials -
Draw Anime Bodies -
https://drawinghub.com/tut/how-to-draw-anime-bodies-draw-anime-body-figures-13123
Draw a Simple Anime Girl -
https://drawinghub.com/tut/how-to-draw-a-simple-anime-girl-18593

MGGA - Anime Girl
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.373700876507144&type=3
MGGA - Anime Girl 3 angles
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.373707473173151&type=3

Previous vids -
MGGA - Introduction to Procreate
https://youtu.be/pQqV5_QycL4

MGGA - Introduction to Humanoid Drawing
https://youtu.be/ThdD1BziRf4

Apps -
Procreate for iPad - ($13.99 cnd but it’s worth it)
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/procreate/id425073498?mt=8
If Procreate is too Expensive - Autodesk SketchBook for iPad -
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/autodesk-sketchbook/id883738213?mt=8
Virtual Human Body for iOS -
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/virtual-human-body/id470890348?mt=8

There are some similarities between drawing men and drawing women. First, the basic rules that similar between men and women. Both men and women are about 7 heads tall, and their shoulders and chests are 2.5-3 heads wide. That’s where the similarities end, women’s waists are narrower being 2 heads wide, and the hips of the woman is as wide as their shoulders, so women are more curvy than a man.

In this lesson, we have four tutorials from drawing hub, two that I saved before the tutorials got updated, and two updated tutorials. So if you want to spend time drawing each tutorial 10 times each, you can get all kinds of practice on it.

I always recommend a pencil tool in painting programs to draw before you go onto pen tools, because the pen tool needs to be very precise to look right, where a pencil tool can be drawn over to make look right, a pen tool looks messy if you do that.

After you get enough practice on both the male drawing and the female drawing, take a try at using the pen tool in your drawings. It can be frustrating at first, but after time will get better at it.

Thanks for watching and making gaming great again.

Algorithms Definition -
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algorithm

SwiftPlaygrounds -
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/swift-playgrounds/id908519492?mt=8

Algorithms are one of most misunderstood concepts in the world. If you listen to the news, Algorithms are going to create the great robotic uprising, and you can’t go onto a conservative online space and not hear about Facebook, Twitter and Google altering their algorithms to silence conservative thought. Algorithms are to blame, or are they.

Algorithms are just tools, and they’re simply digital solutions to problems. Whether you want to make sure a character has a key before you let them enter a room, or you create level up scripts, or power scripts, or any other coding, anytime you solve a problem with coding you have just created an algorithm. Sure, Facebook, Twitter, and Google are using algorithms in very biased ways to silence conservative voices, so the problem is not algorithms but the people who create them.

Today, I talk about how all the lessons we’ve taken so far have been teaching you how to create your own algorithms to solve issues in SwiftPlaygrounds, and that this concept applies to game development as well, especially level design, which I briefly touched upon in the Game World Page.

Thanks for watching and making games great again.

Game Design Manual template -
https://trollyshitpost.files.wordpress.com/2018/11/ctaylordesigntemplate.pdf

‪Sonic Foxes acceptance speech -‬
https://youtu.be/pyR-8Fcbf48 (2:40 for the direct quote)

‪The Game World section, the Character section and the Story section are the trinity of pages that create the story you want to tell with your game. These help you tell amazing stories that challenge your players and entertain them. Without these you might as well just make a card game.‬

‪With the character section of your GDM, think about all the relevant details as you are creating the descriptions of your characters. All the character classes and powers, the back stories, the stories in the game, their personality, alignment changes and any other thing that should be included, and a full character sheet.‬

‪This may seem daunting at first, but you only need to start with a list of the characters first, and then you can add to this section as time and production permits.‬

‪Thanks for watching this video and Making Games Great Again!‬

Resources -
Draw Anime Bodies -
https://drawinghub.com/tut/how-to-draw-anime-bodies-draw-anime-body-figures-13123
Draw a Simple Anime Girl -
https://drawinghub.com/tut/how-to-draw-a-simple-anime-girl-18593

MGGA - Anime Girl 3 angles
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.373707473173151&type=3

MGGA - Introduction to Procreate
https://youtu.be/pQqV5_QycL4

MGGA - Introduction to Humanoid Drawing
https://youtu.be/ThdD1BziRf4

Procreate for iPad - ($13.99 cnd but it’s worth it)
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/procreate/id425073498?mt=8
If Procreate is too Expensive - Autodesk SketchBook for iPad -
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/autodesk-sketchbook/id883738213?mt=8
Virtual Human Body for iOS -
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/virtual-human-body/id470890348?mt=8

With time and practice, you can learn to draw much better. When it comes down to it, with game design you need to be proficient in drawing characters in all kinds of different angles because of the mechanics of a game.

If you have a side scroller, you need to have great side profiling skills. If you have cutscenes, you need characters that look great from the front and from the 45 degree angle camera. If you have a 3rd person shooter, you need to make sure that backside looks great as well.

I use the Anime Girl 3 angles to teach the basics of drawing the same character from multiple angles. Practicing with these practice sheets is important, because you’ll start to wrap your brain around how to draw characters from any angle, an important skill for any artist.

Thanks for watching and Making Games Great Again!

Variable Definition -
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variable_(computer_science)

SwiftPlaygrounds -
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/swift-playgrounds/id908519492?mt=8

Variables are snippets of code which store a value of any random thing in your program or game. It’s used by game developers to dictate what object in a game does what to where and when, all things that are defined by Variables.

Looking at previous episodes, the Guards are their complete own variable, and Shopkeeps would be their own variable, the player character is their own variable, townspeople are their own variables, a door is a variable, and just about anything is a variable which is defined the developer. That way you can code further things to say Door193 will only unlock with Key039 and not any other key in your pack.

When you understand the game world and the characters involved, you can start to understand that stories are simply a tug of war between protagonists and antagonists where they try to overcome each other’s efforts in order to achieve their goals, ending up as an epic confrontation at the end of the game.

Then you can write a game story, or any story in fact, because you see it as a simple chess match of moves and counter moves.

Thanks for watching and making games great again

Drawing Heads Album -
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.380502469160318&type=3

Procreate for iPad - ($13.99 cnd but it’s worth it)
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/procreate/id425073498?mt=8
If Procreate is too Expensive - Autodesk SketchBook for iPad -
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/autodesk-sketchbook/id883738213?mt=8
Virtual Human Body for iOS -
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/virtual-human-body/id470890348?mt=8

This is the first of three episodes on how to draw a character from scratch. The most important aspect of drawing a character is the face. We’ve all heard these ideas before - the Eyes are the mirrors of the soul, and ‘90%’ of communication comes from our body language.

Most people are extremely intimidated by drawing faces, but once you learn some basic techniques, drawing faces becomes a process that is easily done. First, find the kind of face you want to create, looking at the base faces that I’ve provided in the Facebook Album I’ve linked. The common facial types are in two files for male heads and female heads. Once you select it, just a quick drawing over that base on a new layer and drawing the base lines - 50% down the face for the eye line, then another 25% for the nose, and half of what is left for the lip line.

After that, draw in the details, using the other references, to block in the nose, the eyes and the lips properly to give your character the essentials to show emotion, desire and interest that conveys what you need to our players to feel a connection with that character.

Once that is done for the base emotion on the face, you should start video taping and acting out this character’s reactions to the things that will happen in the game and use those as references to really convey every possible emotion the character will face and draw the facial differences over and over again. All you need to do is duplicate the first face and then erase and redraw the emotions on his face.

The next step is next week, drawing the character from all the different possible angles using the base layers, showing the eye line, the nose line and lip line to reveal the character from all kinds of different angles.

The next week after that, we will learn how to draw a full body character from different angles to convey more character.

Thanks for watching and Making Games Great Again!

SwiftPlaygrounds -
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/swift-playgrounds/id908519492?mt=8

Definition of Instances in Object-Oriented Programming -
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instance_(computer_science)

Introduction to Variables -
https://youtu.be/P-Qufl8suyw

Introduction to Functions -
https://youtu.be/xugrFZ_KBzU

Types are the blueprints of a group of similar objects in programming. With Types, we can define that group - like factions in video games - AntifaThugs are a Type. For each member of that Type, we have an instance of that type. Using the basis of variables that we learned in the last episode, you can use a variable to define which member of AntifaThugs that instance is with a variable that will be Int nAntifa = Antifa +1, with Var Int nAntifa = 0.

Then you can define what behaviours that instance will be involved in, by defining functions which allow those objects to do something that is being defined by the programmer, like attacking Trolly/Trollette, restoring their hp with a potion, etc, etc, etc.

This allows us to create programming which can look at individual behaviour of instances without making every single member of the group doing the exact same thing at the exact same time.

Thanks for watching and Making Games Great Again!

Battle Heart 1 -
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/battleheart/id394057299?mt=8

Battle Heart 2 -
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/battleheart-2/id1232791258?mt=8

While I took animation at college, the game teacher only had one thing to say about designing a UI - look at other popular games and copy what you think is awesome about their user interfaces, because other players probably think the same thing.

If you make your UI so complicated and confusing, most players will not play your game, so think about simplicity in design.

The more simplistic the UI for combat the better, as most players only use 3-4 powers on a consistent basis anyways. Having 10 slots to choose from may be way too much for the player and lead to less fluid game play.

For the next couple of weeks, I’m slowing down production for Christmas and New Years. I’ll only put a video up on Tuesday and Friday for the next couple of weeks.

Thanks for watching and Making Games Great Again.

Drawing Heads Album (4 new drawings on how to draw heads from different angles) -
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.380502469160318&type=3

Apps -
Procreate for iPad - ($13.99 cnd but it’s worth it)
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/procreate/id425073498?mt=8
If Procreate is too Expensive - Autodesk SketchBook for iPad -
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/autodesk-sketchbook/id883738213?mt=8
Virtual Human Body for iOS -
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/virtual-human-body/id470890348?mt=8

Once you understand the basic ratio of the face - 50/50/50 - halfway down the face you get the eye line, halfway down that you get the nose line and halfway down that you get the mouth line, you can start drawing characters from different angles.

All you need to do is make a new layer in your drawing tool, and block out those lines and then start angling the face in the way you want, side profile, 45 degree angle, slightly tilted.

I’ve included brand new drawings and tutorials on the drawing heads folder on my facebook group, so if you want to go there and download them that will help you out like it helped me out.

Next week, I will finalize drawing a character from scratch, looking at how to draw a full body character from different angles.

Thanks for watching and Making Games Great Again.

SwiftPlaygrounds -
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/swift-playgrounds/id908519492?mt=8

Array Definition -
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Array_data_structure

This is the final introduction to coding video I am creating, Introduction to Arrays. Arrays are databases that contain data inside of them. In game design, this could be used to generate random opponents in random places, defined by an array of enemies that can appear on the map, and another array with spawning locations for those random enemies. With a function, you could randomize which enemy is going to spawn in which place because Arrays are numbered.

Since this is my last episode for coding, I’ll cover the rest of the lessons from SwiftPlaygrounds through solutions videos while talking about some basics on how this would apply to Game Development, but many of their lessons are strictly SwiftPlaygrounds lessons which allow you to gain some more experience in coding. My first such lesson will be on the Array puzzles next week.

Starting in February, I’m going to start to work on lessons on 3d modelling using Blender for art lessons. I’ve already see how I am going to accomplish this, I’ll teach you all how to make the Solar System and a little spaceship flying through it. SpaceForce FTW! I will create a little animation through Blender over the next three months to show you how to do all of this.

Thanks for supporting my channel over the past three months and Making Games Great Again!

Apps -
Procreate for iPad - ($13.99 cnd but it’s worth it)
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/procreate/id425073498?mt=8
If Procreate is too Expensive - Autodesk SketchBook for iPad -
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/autodesk-sketchbook/id883738213?mt=8
Virtual Human Body for iOS -
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/virtual-human-body/id470890348?mt=8

Drawing a human body can take practice, and sometimes you don’t have it right. No worries though, with digital art, it is only a few clicks of a mouse or a flick of your stylus to erase what you find wrong and redo it.

Remember, the face ratio is 50/50/50 - halfway down the face is the eye line, halfway down that is the nose line, and halfway down that is the mouth line. Once you have your face all proportioned, the body falls right down from the face.

At 2 head lengths, a woman’s breasts are seated. The chest starts at about 1.25 heads down, and goes to 2.5 heads down and is 2 heads wide, including the shoulders. The hips are 2.25 heads wide and start at 3 heads down and go down to the 4th head down.

Arms are about 2.5 heads tall, and start at the top portion of the chest. Legs start half way down the Hips, at about 3.5 heads down, and go down to the full 7 heads tall character height.

After you have that skeleton in, feel free to draw in a sketch of the character to get everything looking natural and then ink the character in a add the proper colouring.

So ends our lessons on drawing a character from scratch. From here you should be able to draw any character you want out of your head. Just keep on practicing. Have patience, you’re not going to be perfect. In fact Vincent Van Gogh would destroy 90% of his paintings before he had one he was proud of, so if it takes you 9 tries before you get a character right, don’t worry.

Thanks for supporting my channel and helping me Make Gaming Great Again.

Blender Guru -
https://www.youtube.com/user/AndrewPPrice

Apps-
Procreate for iPad - ($13.99 cnd but it’s worth it)
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/procreate/id425073498?mt=8
If Procreate is too Expensive - Autodesk SketchBook for iPad -
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/autodesk-sketchbook/id883738213?mt=8
Virtual Human Body for iOS -
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/virtual-human-body/id470890348?mt=8

Wow, we’re finally done it. We’re at the end of the first phase of Make Gaming Great Again, ending our introduction series of the basic skills and concepts of game development. In this episode, I look at how to create caricatures of people and bring them to life, an important art skill to master.

When you do caricatures, you have to think about the person you are caricaturing. You need to learn the mannerism, their physical characteristics, and their personality. As an example, since I have a caricature of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in my game as PM JT, the name is a caricature that he seems like some surfer dude/ski dude here in Canada, he’s informal, but virtue signals his support of causes like the LGBT community, so his ski jacket is rainbow coloured, exemplifying this guy who is way out of his element as he leads a nation.

Caricatures are fun little elements that can bring lots of things to life. We see them every single day with caricatures of all kinds of public figures and they are an important part of democracy, keeping public figures in check if they go too far, be it Donald Trump, Justin Trudeau or Anita Sarkeesian.

For the rest of the month, I want you to keep on going through my channel, thinking about and working on a game idea, because in February I’m going onto the Blender and I’m going to teach you how to create 3d art for your video game. 3d games sell better than 2d games by far, if they are done right. So while you are doing that, go to Blender Guru’s channel and start learning some 3d art with him, so next month you will be able to create a scene where a space ship flies through the solar system which is also animated.

Thanks for all the support you have show me by coming to my channel to learn game development, helping to Make Games Great Again.