Game design and math

But what about that is fun? Well, let's take a step back here. It's not just games that are math. It's art in general. And I don't just mean visual art in a golden-ratio kind of way.

All art is math. Composition is all about shapes, colors, and the relationships between them. Music is about patterns in time and the relationships between notes and chords.

The culinary arts are about the ratios of ingredients, flavors, and textures. Even storytelling revolves around pacing and structure. The secret to creating interesting art in any form is texture. Imagine a blank page-- It's an interesting symbol, but as an art piece, it's not very engaging.

That doesn't change if you make it a red page or a blue page. Homogeneity is just boring. Texture is all about making things different. In drawing, you use lines of different lengths and widths; in painting, you use different colors and shapes of different sizes; in photography, you place objects in different fields of view. Texture comes from the differing ratios between the properties of objects.

The human mind is inherently keyed into ratios, whether you're aware of it or not. So, how do you apply that to game design? Long story short, make things different. Math is typically involved in designing video games when a video game has a physics engine or deals with statistics and probability.

In modern games, the math must be complex to give a game an authentic feel. Determining the path of a bullet or the movement of a car over a race track is a purely mathematical exercise. Mapping the mechanics of real-world physics to the game world requires mathematical knowledge and calculation. Some folks aren't aware of the connections between mathematics and computer programming.

In order to graduate, most game designing majors are required to study geometry, algebra and calculus. Statistics lays at the heart of most video games, when you think about it: the probability of successfully landing a jump, injuring an opponent or choosing the right pathway.

That probability, however, does not exist solely on the side of the gamer in post-production. Linear algebra is a fairly basic math class, but is often required for game designers who lack formal training in mathematics as a course to build upon. In linear algebra, a student will be expected to learn about matrix theory and practical applications of algebra. For game designers, these practical applications will assist in their ability to understand vector spaces in a 3D model of a video game in production.