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You're reading from Learning AWS Lumberyard Game Development

Product typeBook

Published inOct 2016

Reading LevelIntermediate

PublisherPackt

ISBN-139781786460868

Edition1st Edition

Languages

C++

Tools

AWS Lumberyard

Concepts

3D Game Development

Author (1)

Dr. Edward Lavieri

Chapter 6. Creating Gameplay

In the previous chapter, we explored animations of characters and objects. We looked at Mannequin, Lumberyard's animation tool, and continued our use of Geppetto, Lumberyard's character tool. Animations help bring a game to life, but they have no value on their own. In order to make a game interactive, we need to create gameplay components. That will be the focus of this chapter.

After reading this chapter, you will:

Understand the gameplay concept
Have explored an existing sample game
Have become familiar with the Flow Graph UI
Be able to read Flow Graphs
Have made changes to Flow Graphs to impact game AI
Have edited Flow Graphs to change game physics

Understanding gameplay

Gameplay can be seen as interactions between a player and the game and between players. When a set of rules for a game is adopted and the game starts, gameplay can take place.

Note

Gameplay is often written as Gameplay and Game Play. Neither form is incorrect, nor is one more correct than the other. This book adopts the Gameplay usage.

Examples of gameplay include when you hit the Spacebar, your character jumps; when you come within range of a gun turret, the turret shoots at you; and so on. In the broader sense, gameplay is what permits the game to be played and the parameters in which it takes place.

Lumberyard is a fully-fledged AAA game engine that permits great affordances to introduce gameplay into your games. Later in this chapter, you will gain great insight into how a gameplay is created and managed.

Getting started

In order to learn how to create a gameplay using Lumberyard, we will start by opening a complete game. Amazon has a few samples that can be downloaded from the Lumberyard downloads page as well as some that are part of the game engine download. The following steps will configure the Lumberyard Editor to use the SamplesProject already installed with Lumberyard:

Launch the Lumberyard Project Configurator. If you do not have the shortcut icon on your desktop, you will be able to find the app in the dev\Bin64 folder of your Lumberyard install.
In the Project Configurator, select the SamplesProject icon.

In the Project Configurator, click the Set as default button. This will make our newly selected game the default. This ensures we have ready access to the game's assets from within Lumberyard.
The Asset Processor will immediately start processing the game's assets. This can take a few minutes.

Note
You do not need to close the Asset Processor window. The processor will run...

Exploring the Camera_Sample game

Now that the Camera_Sample game is loaded, switch to Game Mode and experiment with the game. Try to identify gameplay components.

Note

You can switch to Game Mode with the Ctrl + G keyboard combination or by selecting Game | Switch to Game from the pull-down menu system. The Esc key will return you to the Lumberyard Editor.

The first thing you will notice is that a Heads Up Display (HUD) presents you with three game modes.

Basic camera demo

Depressing the 5 key in Game Mode starts a demo in first-person mode with the character travelling around a street block in the game environment. Each time you press the 5 key, the game perspective changes; see the following table for details:

Understanding the Flow Graph system and UI

Flow Graph is a visual scripting system used to create gameplay in Lumberyard. It is, of course, much more complex than that and is used to create and edit in-game events, AI, game logic, and other aspects of games you create. We'll explore the Flow Graph UI and then review graphs for the game modes detailed in the previous section.

Flow Graph is the system that is used to create flow graphs, are organized in modules. These graphs can be viewed as gameplay blueprints. Graphs comprise of nodes with inputs and outputs. These graphs, or blueprints, determine a game's constraints, rules, and gameplay.

Flow Graph UI

Flow Graph is accessible through the View | Open View Pane | Flow Graph pull-down menu. There are 10 unique interface components. The following screenshot assigns numbers to each component and this is followed by a detailed explanation:

The following table provides component names for each Flow Graph interface area, as depicted in the previous...

Summary

In this chapter, we explored the concept of gameplay and how it can be instantiated in Lumberyard games. We took an in-depth look at a sample game that ships with Lumberyard. Specifically, we reviewed the game's gameplay and examined the flow graphs that determined how the gameplay mechanics work.

We also thoroughly explored the Flow Graph UI. This visual scripting system is complex and can be used to create complete games within Lumberyard. You were left with the ability to read, edit, and create flow graphs.

In the next chapter, we will look at the requirements of creating a multiplayer game in Lumberyard. We will also explore Amazon GameLift.

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Published in: Oct 2016Publisher: PacktISBN-13: 9781786460868

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Author (1)

Dr. Edward Lavieri

Dr. Edward Lavieri is a veteran software engineer and developer with a strong academic background. He earned a Doctorate of Computer Science from Colorado Technical University, an MS in Management Information Systems (Bowie State University), an MS in Education (Capella University), and an MS in Operations Management (University of Arkansas). He has been creating and teaching computer science courses since 2002. Edward retired from the U.S. Navy as a Command Master Chief after 25 years of active service. He is the founder and creative director of three19, a software design and development studio. Edward has authored more than a dozen technology books, including several on Java.
Read more about Dr. Edward Lavieri

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Iteration Number.	Game Perspective
1	First-person point of view
2	Third-person point of view
3	Third-person shoulder point of view
4	Top down
5	Side scroller
6	Parented tracking + dynamic zoom
7	Tracking + dynamic zoom
8	Chase
9	Top down player
...