Game Mechanic: A specific way in which a part of the gameplay is implemented. For
instance, the mechanic for doing an attack-jump inCrash Bandicootis to hold down the
“down” or “crouch” button while in mid-jump. The mechanic for sending a unit to a new
location inWarCraftis to click on the unit in question with the left mouse button, move
the pointer to the desired position on the map, and then click there with the right
mouse button. The gameplay as a whole is made up of a number of different game
mechanics combined together.
Game Minute: A narrative description of how gameplay will proceed in a given situ-
ation in a game. These prose narratives are typically written before development on the
game has begun, to give the development team an idea of how the game will play when
it is complete. You will find a detailed discussion of game minutes in Chapter 17, “Game
Development Documentation.”
Gameplay: The gameplay is the component that distinguishes games from all other
artistic mediums. The gameplay defines how players are able to interact with the
game-world and how that game-world will react to their actions. One could consider the
gameplay to be the degree and nature of a game’s interactivity. Of course many different
people have different definitions for gameplay, but as far as this book is concerned,
gameplay does not include the game’s story, graphics, sound, or music. This is easy to
understand if one recalls that gameplay is what separates games from other artistic
mediums; each of these components is found in literature, film, or theater. Gameplay
also does not include the code used to make the game run, the game’s engine, though
that engine does necessarily implement the gameplay. The gameplay, however, could
be implemented using a completely different engine while remaining identical.
Game-World: This is the space in which a game takes place. In a board game such as
The Settlers of Catan, the game-world is represented by the board the game takes place
on. For a sports game, the game-world is the real-world but is limited to the extent of
the field the game is played on. For a role-playing game, the game-world is maintained
within the imaginations of the Game Master and the players. For a computer game, this
is a “virtual” space that is stored in the computer’s memory and that the players can
view via the computer screen. The actions the player makes in a game are limited to the
game-world, as are the reactions of either the game itself or the other players.
GM: Depending on the context, seeGold MasterorGame Master.
Go Live: Term used for when a massively multi-player game is launched and players
start playing it.SeeLive.
Going Gold: The time when a team completes a game and is thereby able to create
the gold master, which is sent to the duplicators.See alsoGold Master.
Gold Candidate: SeeRelease Candidate.
Gold Master: The version of the game, typically recorded onto gold CDs, that is
going to be used by the duplicator to create copies of the actual shipping game. In other
words, the final version of the game.
Graphical User Interface: This is any communications method the player has of
interacting with the computer that is primarily graphical in nature. For instance, the
Macintosh has always had a graphical user interface, as opposed to the text-oriented
one available in MS-DOS or UNIX. Games use GUIs for starting up new games, loading
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