This area of our Magic Lantern web site is devoted to the sharing and crafting of useful game design and development tools, resources and approaches. It's our firm belief that an open community is a faster growing and more "alive" community. We certainly hope that the resources you find here will aid and inspire you in crafting your own magnificently fun and interactive play experience. Of course, if you've got tips, tools or resources that you'd like to share with us or the game development community at large, please let us know .

Star Castle (1999/2002)

by Mark Sachs

Mark Sachs, ace coder and ML alum, has generously given permission for us to release the source code and executable for his version of the venerable arcade game Star Castle. He originally put it together a while ago, so it's based on DX 5.2. All the info is included in the source archive [43K] and the executable archive [701K]. Here's what Mark has to say about the game:

Remember Star Castle? Perhaps not, as it came out in the arcades at the start of the Reagan Administration. Nevertheless it was a minor classic: an odd little game, elegantly designed and very difficult. A fortress sat in the center of the screen, and your objective was to break through the rotating walls surrounding it and shoot down the fortress itself. This was made more difficult by floating buzz bombs which would try to ram your ship, and the fortress's own main gun which would start firing at you as soon as you broke through the walls! This PC version is very similar to the original, right down to the flickery, eyestrain-generating vector graphics.

Swarmongers (2001)

by George Chadderdon

As a gift to aspiring game coders who are in the process of learning their craft, ML alum George Chadderdon has released the source code, media files and detailed documentation of his vector-based arcade game Swarmongers. The documentation includes a detailed explanation of the game AI. Download the zip here [9.6MB]. Play, study, analyze, modify, learn, enjoy!

Character creation (GDC 1999)

by Paul Schuytema

In 1999, Paul Schuytema had the great opportunity to run three workshops on the craft of character creation. Rather than offering up a dry lecture or simply a "talk soup," he worked on expanding some of the character creation exercises he developed when teaching fiction writing at Monmouth College. They talked a bit about the purpose and value of a central game character, but most of the time was spent on crafting a game character.

 To begin the workshops, we first asked the question: what central game characters come to mind first? The answers were fairly obvious: Lara Croft, Mario, Duke Nukem, Link, Abe, etc. Then, as a follow-up, I asked "Okay, what game character full of depth and complexity come immediately to mind?" As expected, there was a "great rush of silence" rather than a roomful of hands shooting up. After a few seconds, some answers started trickling out: Manny Calivera, Gabriel Knight, Maniac, Kerrigan... clearly, not as many came easily to mind. That was part of my point and thesis: that we have a great opportunity to craft exciting, compelling characters for games, because the field is rather barren at the moment. Click here to see more.

Lightning in a bottle lecture (Chicago GDC, 9/10/99)

by Paul Schuytema

This lecture explored the many facets of our creative mind and the unique creative skills we need to grow in order to become better game makers. It also offered up some useful tools and exercises to do alone, or with your entire development team, to grow your "game creativity." Finally, we offered some suggestions for additional reading and research. Click here to download the PowerPoint presentation.

One of the tools we discussed in the lecture was the use of "mind mapping" -- a type of radial note-taking that is very visual and intuitive (far more than our standard outline method of note-taking). While I'm a firm believer that colored pens and paper are the best way to mind-map, I outlined a few PC-based tools in the talk (see the presentation for some links). Once of the tools was RadialNote, a little app that I put together late last year. Make no mistake, this isn't a polished program at all--it's still a work in progress and it's a tool I made just to suit my own rather unique needs, but if you are interested, you can download it here . Just be sure to check out the readme.txt file for info on how to set it up and use it. Enjoy!

Creative game visualization workshop (Chicago GDC, 9/10/99)

by Paul Schuytema

Player perception

When crafting a game, it’s very useful to take a look at other games out there in order to coldly analyze what a player’s perception of the play experience really is. What feedback are they getting from the game that really and truly provides them information on how to play or adjust their play?

We spent just a few minutes exploring the on-field play in a computer football game. We came to the conclusion that the sounds are only really there for ambience—things move too quickly for a player to use them as aural clues. After the ball is snapped, the "shape and form" of the players really doesn’t influence play either.

In a running play, the player isn’t discerning individual players or key blocks—instead they are looking for "negative space"—areas where there are no other player (doesn’t matter whose team). These are the areas that a player will attempt to control his runner through.

In a passing play, the player generally enters passing mode based on some internal timer and not based upon what appears on screen. When in passing mode, the player quickly checks receivers, not by examining routes or coverage, but by looking for color—does the color of the receiver mean that he is alone, or is there the color of the opposing team’s jersey in the "receiver window?" The player then taps the button to pass to the receiver who has the least "enemy color" surrounding him.

Knowing these limited player perceptions can help us to understand what goes on in a player’s mind during the moment-by-moment play, and to craft our gameplay to "maximize player agency."

Click here to see more.

A Day of Design (GDC, 3/9/00)

by Paul Schuytema

A Soup to Nuts Workshop

This year, I had the great pleasure of running a full day-long tutorial (10 a.m.-6 p.m.) which focused on the nuts and bolts of the design process from the first glimmers of an idea all the way through tech design. In the class, we worked through a series of exercises, designing a game as a class and then taking time out for some "rapid immersion" exercises.

You can download the zip file with my handouts and informational "screamsheets" right here.

Touchpoints of Design (GDC 3/20/01)

by Paul Schuytema

Game design is both a creative art form and a workmanlike craft. This tutorial looks at the design process in overview and distills several key touchpoints that are essential for designers to grasp if they are going to craft a truly engaging and immersive play experience. The turorial begins with the first major touchpoint of design: creativity. The discussion explores the many aspects of a well-honed creative mind and works through a number of nuts-and-bolts creative exercises designed to uncover the unique aspects of the creative genius as it applies to game design. This section of the tutorial ends with an energized group exercise of spontaneous game making. The second section of the session deals with the touchpoint of character. The session explores the primary aspects of compelling character development through discussion and exercises (working together and individually to craft a compelling lead game character). The final section of the tutorial deals with the touchpoint of moment-by-moment gameplay. This is the chewy middle of a game, when story, plot, and cinematics are irrelevant and all that matters is the ebb and flow of play. While this subject matter may seem very ethereal, the focus of this tutorial is upon the practical, and the goal is to empower attendees with a suite of tested and focused tools to enhance their own game designs.

Download a zip file containing the materials for Touchpoints of Design here.