Game Design Secrets

Appendix C

Glossary of Terms and Acronyms

The appendix is a glossary of acronyms and game/tech industry terms frequently mentioned throughout the book. If you’re a longtime gamer or game developer reading this, a lot of them will be painfully obvious; then again, other terms will seem alien or weird. Meanwhile, readers from the business development side of things will probably know many of them quite well, while wondering what the heck terms like “physics puzzle” and “2.5D” are supposed to be. This appendix is for both kinds of readers.

2.5D game Game with graphics that appear to be 3D by using a constrained, isometric perspective. Backyard Monsters and other KIXEYE games mentioned in this book are 2.5D.

3D game Game that displays a first-person perspective or displays the game space with a camera view that rotates along the full X/Y/Z axis.

AAA game Big-budget game, generally for video-game consoles. This book is not about them, because they are a dying breed. Fewer and fewer will develop for them—especially low-budget indie folks.

accelerometer On the iOS, the feature that detects the phone’s position along the X/Y/Z axis.

acquisition cost The amount you’ll spend (such as on advertising) to get a new player to try your game.

A/B testing In game development, comparing user growth, engagement, and other behaviors to a feature change/addition, in relation to a control sample. Example: “We gave a few thousand players a deadly garden gnome to use in the gladiator level, and ran ...