| A | B |
|---|
| message | a special type of event that one part of a program sends to another part |
| collision detection | the task of detecting when two objects in a game (or simulation) touch each other. |
| variable | a place in code to store information. |
| decision | a script can make a decision about what to do next based on the current situation. This is usually done with the "if" blocks. |
| test | the part of a decision or loop that controls what happens. The outcome will be either true or false. You can control the behavior of your script depending on which it is by using decisions and loops. |
| loop | it allows you to have part of script run repeatedly for some number of times. You can control how many times it runs either by specifying it directly or by having a test. You can also have them just run forever until the program ends. |
| projectile | a generic name for a missile, bullet, laser beam, acorn, basketball, or any other object that gets thrown, hurled, or shot as part of a game. |
| sandbox | a program (or part of a program) used by the programmer to experiment and try out new things. It is used by the programmer(s) and is usually not shared with other people on a software team. |
| prototype | a sample program with a limited set of features that is used to evaluate software to see how fun, challenging, and/or marketable it is. The purpose is to demonstrate what the program might look like to people other than the programmers, so unlike a sandbox it is often shown to others on the software team or even people outside the team (like executives or people attending a trade show). |
| Beta | a version of a program that is almost finished and is being circulated for testing, marketing, etc. Unlike a prototype this version will have many features coded (perhaps all). |
| background | a single graphical image associated with the stage. |
| animation | it is a technique that gives the illusion of movement by showing multiple images (called frames or cells) in rapid succession. |
| frame rate | the speed at which successive frames are displayed by a game (or other software), usually measured as “frames per second”) (FPS). |
| simulation | a program that attempts to model some process in order to experiment or entertain. They usually model something real although in the context of game programming what is “real” is more of a spectrum. |
| model-view architecture | a way to design a piece of software that separates the user interface (the view) from the internal workings of the program (the model). The model itself contains both a state, which roughly speaking corresponds to the variables and their values, and the logic, which roughly speaking corresponds to the scripts or code. |
| client-server | a technique for organizing software, related to but not exactly the same as model view. The server (or host) has fundamental control of the game (or whatever) and generally holds most of the state. Clients connect to the server to play and each client has its own view of what’s going on. |
