Game development glossary

The terms we use when we write about making Mytheria, each explained in a few minutes with the real numbers from the game, and a link to the full post with clips you can try.

Aim assist: Aim assist helps players hit what they meant, by treating targets as bigger, picking the most likely target or letting an action cover an arc.
Client-side prediction: Client-side prediction moves the player's own character the moment they press a key, then checks the result against the host's answer when it arrives.
Core gameplay loop: A core gameplay loop is the short cycle of actions a player repeats, with a reward that gives a reason to do it again.
Damage numbers: Damage numbers are the figures that pop up when a hit lands, showing how much damage it did and to whom.
Environmental storytelling: Environmental storytelling tells a game's story through the world itself, with places, objects and short texts players find while they play.
Frame pacing: Frame pacing is how evenly frames are spaced in time. A game can average 100 frames a second and still stutter if a few frames take much longer.
Game juice: Game juice is the layer of small effects, like flashes, freezes, shakes and layered sounds, that makes an action feel good without changing what it does.
Hit flash: A hit flash turns the struck target a solid bright colour for a few frames on the exact frame of contact, so the hit reads instantly.
Hitstop: Hitstop is a tiny freeze on the frame a hit connects: both fighters hold their pose for a few frames, so the blow feels solid.
Host-authoritative multiplayer: In host-authoritative multiplayer one machine, the host, runs the real game and decides every outcome; the others send inputs and draw what it tells them.
Hue shifting: Hue shifting changes the hue along a colour ramp, so highlights lean warm and shadows lean cool, in place of only making one colour lighter and darker.
Interpolation delay: Interpolation delay draws other players and creatures slightly in the past, between two received positions, so they move smoothly on an uneven connection.
Invincibility frames (i-frames): Invincibility frames, or i-frames, are a short window in which the player can't take damage, usually at the start of a dodge or a dash.
Knockback: Knockback is the push a hit gives its target: a short slide away from the blow that shows how hard it hit and how heavy the target is.
Lag compensation: Lag compensation judges a hit by what the attacker saw: the host puts targets back where they were on the attacker's screen when they swung.
LAN discovery: LAN discovery lets a game find other games on the same local network on its own, usually with a small broadcast beacon, so nobody types an address.
Nine-slice scaling: Nine-slice scaling cuts an image into a three-by-three grid: corners never stretch, edges stretch one way and the middle fills, so one frame fits any size.
Poise: Poise is how much damage a creature can take in a short time before its stance breaks and it staggers, leaving it open.
Screen shake: Screen shake, or camera shake, is a short, fast movement of the camera when something hits hard, which makes an impact feel heavy.
Shuffle bag: A shuffle bag deals items like a shuffled deck: every item once before any repeats, and never the same item twice in a row.
Telegraphed attack: A telegraphed attack warns the player where and when it will hit before it lands, with a wind-up pose, a sound or a shape drawn on the ground.