Hacktorial: Introduction to Game Development with Nick Aversano
On March 3, 2016, Nick Aversano gave a hacktorial on game development. He broke down the process and provided some basic skills to aspiring developers so that they could go on to “make the next flappy bird.” Nick’s talk was in two parts — the first devoted to providing conceptual advice, tips, and tricks to developers, and the second to providing a tutorial in which he taught students how to re-create “Flappy Bird” in Game Maker.
Some of Nick’s tips and tricks included “make lots of things” and “find a good core mechanic”. In addition, he stressed that “premature optimization is the root of all evil.” He suggests that one must constantly make lots of finished and unfinished games, starting out with simple ideas that can help you hone your skills and develop a set of skills. The heart of each of these games would be the core mechanic, an “inherently fun” action that the player does repeatedly in the game. Nick advises that you experiment with various core mechanics, building them fast and trying them all out.
Lastly, he talks about how in game development goes against all that you have learned in class when it comes to optimization. When making a game, He says that you should put together the game as fast as possible, and the focus on making it faster simply because “its much easier to make a fun game fast than it is to make a fast game fun.”
You can check out the entirety of Nick’s talk below, including the hands on tutorial in Game Maker in which he provides you with a simple, step-by-step guide to acquiring some basic skills in game development.
Note: There were many technical difficulties with live streaming during this talk that we do apologize for.
Nick is a recent CS graduate and will work for LinkedIn starting in April. You can also learn more about Nick and his contact information here.
Terrapin Hackers holds many talks and hacktorials like this to introduce CS majors (and non-CS majors) to concepts and fields that may seem daunting. If you’re interested in attending, they are open to all and most are made for beginners so like us on Facebook!
