Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 19.1. Gap between game specification and development. (a) Current gap, where
developers must rely on a combination of intuition and experience when bridging the gap
between the stages. (b) Eberos GML aims at reducing the gap by providing developers
with an intermediate stepping stone between stages.
In order to develop Eberos GML2D, we began by abstracting some concepts
common to 2D games. We accomplished this by identifying some of the major
components common to all 2D game such as sprites, animation, sound effects, etc.
Once we identified these components we continued to identify subcomponents, for
example, the frame delay, which is a subcomponent of all animations. During this
process, we also identified the logic and source code segments that were common
among our previous 2D games. This latter information was then used in the de-
velopment of the semantics of our language as well as the translators from Eberos
GML2D model to source-code implementation.
Before we move on to explain the constructs of Eberos GML2D, let's first look
at the specification for a simple game of Pong for the PC. First, we'll show how it
would look in plain English and then how it would look with Eberos GML2D.
Specification for Pong : Plain English
This game of Pong has two players. Each player controls a paddle at each side
of the screen. Player1 controls the paddle at the left of the screen, while Player2
controls the paddle at the right side of the screen. Player1's controls are the A key
for moving the paddle up and the Z key for moving the paddle down. Player2's
controls are the up arrow key for moving up and the down arrow key for moving
 
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