© Wallace Jackson 2017 435
W. Jackson, Pro Java 9 Games Development, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-0973-8_18
CHAPTER 18
3D Gameplay Design: Creating
Your Game Content Using
GIMP and Java
Now that you have created your multitiered 3D gameBoard Group Node (subclass) hierarchy, textured all of
the 3D primitives underneath that hierarchy, configured RotationTransition Animation algorithms (objects)
to bring the game board to life, and created a 3D spinner UI to rotate the gameBoard 3D model (hierarchy)
to a random quadrant, it is time to finish the gameplay design and create the visual assets that comprise
the gameplay. These will replace the texture map image assets during gameplay; we will use the existing 24
board game components and morph them into different content configurations, replacing a spinning game
board with content relating to your educational game.
During the chapter, we will look at a work process for creating alternate texture maps that will be
changed during gameplay by changing the Image object asset reference to add content to game board
squares and quadrants, based on random spins and player mouse clicks (or screen touches). Although this
particular chapter does not get into Java 9 too deeply, it is important to note that developing professional
Java 9 games involves digital image artisans, as well as digital audio engineers, 3D modelers, 3D texture
artists, animators, 2D illustrators, and VFX artists. Therefore, we need to cover some non-Java topics during
this book, and this is one of those chapters. Taking a chapter for content design work process will allow us
to cover what it takes to develop a game that is considered to be “professional” by the general public. I’ll be
using many of these new media genres during this book so that I leave no stone uncovered!
Design Your Gameplay: Create Quadrant Definitions
Since this is an educational game for preschool children, as well as individuals who are autistic,
intellectually impaired, and learning impaired, we need to keep the categories simple. One of the perennial
classification paradigms that will match with our color scheme is Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral, which
will leave us with one square for other topics, such as People and Famous Places. Obviously, our green
quadrant is going to be Vegetable because people say “eat your greens,” and the orange quadrant will be
Animal because of the lions, tigers, cats, dogs, and other animals that are exactly that shade of orange. Our
blue quadrant will be Mineral because of minerals such as sapphire and amethyst, which exist in this cool
color spectrum. This leaves the pink quadrant for Other, which we can decide to classify after each spin.
These game board squares’ randomly selected topics will be presented visually using high-quality imagery,
which we will be developing the alternate texture mapping digital image assets for during this chapter
using the professional-level GIMP.