JAWS Space Shooter Game Design Language

1. JAWS Space-Shooter Game Design Language Justin Lu Guoxin Andy Lin Winston Chao Shoaib Anwar

2. The Riddle of all Riddles? • Why do kids become comp sci majors? • Answer: To program financial software… • FALSE Real Answer: To make GAMES of course

3. The Problem So what the Motivation behind a Game Programming Language? DesignersVSEngineers Pros: Pros: • Creativity - Able to implement technical Details • Innovative Ideas Cons:Cons: • Lack of Technical/Programming Skill -Dull and uncreative in Game Design -Ideas too nerdy to appeal anyone

4. The Solution • JAWS • Eliminate the need of in-depth game programming knowledge such as graphics manipulation, collision detection etc. • Allow casual game designers to create games

5. Original Ideas • JAWS should be able to create ANY kind of video game. • Ha… • This would require making a languages like C++ or Java • RPG Adventure a la The Legend of Zelda (original) • That’s very similar to space shooters in terms of collision and movement. Generalize to a Space shooter language

6. Goals of the JAWS Language • Create a simple language with easy syntax similar to popular languages such as Java so it can be picked up easily • Allow the designer/programmer the most freedom and power and design while still keeping the language simple

7. Data Types • The usual: • int, double, string, boolean • New: • entity: represents an interactive entity (player ship, enemies etc.) • point: represents a point in 2D space (x ,y) • movement: describes the AI of an entity • attack: describes the attack algorithms of entity • map: a layout of the background of a level

8. Special Features of JAWS • Distance Operator: ~ • Can be applied interchangeably between point and entity types • Facilitates collision detection while still leaving freedom for the programmer Example: if((playerShip[0]~enemyShip[0])==0){ statusBar[0]’s label = “YOU LOSE” }

9. Special Features of JAWS • Entity type implemented as an array • Why? • Because. • In space shooters you are dealing with a large number of enemies at once. Example: Entity small_alien[10]; small_alien’s location’s x +=5 //move all 10 small aliens 5 //spaces to the right small_alien[3]’s location’s x+=5; //move a single //small alien 5 space to //the right

10. Super Funk Accessor Operator • ‘s • We tried the old “.” operator • It makes more sense to a non-programmer this way. • Example: Bob.hat = “ugly”; Bob’s hat = “ugly”;

11. First an Example… • Here’s a code example defining movement of “metroid” monsters in the game: // now lets create some enemy aliens, lets make 5 entity metroid[6]; alien() { Image = “metroid.gif”; // we will set their AI to dumb_ai, // a movement class we will define ai = dumb_ai; } … // lets set our enemy AI now // it will be a dumb AI which just moves the enemy downwards movement dumb_ai( ) {location’s y -= 1;}

12. Program Structure • A JAWS program is divided into two main parts • The declarations sections • The engine section //A sample JAWS program declarations { //all code and no play //makes jack a dull boy } engine { //all play and no code //makes jack fail PLT }

13. Program Structure • Declarations – • all point, entity, movement, attack and map classes are defined here • Basically the rules and tools of the game are implemented and coded here • Engine – • engine is the main game loop which keeps iterating during the execution of the game. Generally, you would use this section to describe the level progression of a game, the winning conditions etc. • Really Simple games can even leave this part out

14. Implementation • Language designed and specified using ANTLR • Output Language: JAVA • Platform for graphics: JAVA Swing/Java2D

15. Testing Plan • PHASE 1: • component testing to examine basic functionality of each module parser, lexer, walker, and graphical engine. • PHASE 2: • component integration testing. • PHASE 3: • functional testing with sample codes. • Incremental testing was implemented throughout all phases of the project.

16. Lessons Learned • Trying to make another assignment operator and getting rid of ‘=‘ sign is a bad idea. • Difficult to get out of “config” trap while making a game language. • Having a group member with access to the EE comp lab and the ability to install any application you want is key.