Glossary

Closure

A closure is a first-class function which has access to variables declared in its surrounding scope. A closure is defined within the scope of its free variables, and the extent of those variables is at least as long as the lifetime of the closure itself. The explicit use of closures is associated with functional programming and with languages such as ML and Lisp. Closures are used to implement continuation passing style, and in this manner, hide state. Constructs such as objects and control structures can thus be implemented with closures.

Curry

Currying a function with arguments returns a function that calls the original function with the arguments provided. For example, the following function (f1 and f2) are equivalent; to create f2, the sayThing function is curried with the first of it’s arguments (verb) to create a function with the second argument (noun) as the only argument:

sayThing = function(verb, noun) {
    alert( "Why don't you " + verb + " the " + noun + "?")
}

f1 = function (noun) {
    sayThing("jump", noun);
};
f2 = sayThing.curry("jump");
Dictionary

Another word for Hash. This term is used to highlight the key-value aspect of javascript objects.

Game loop

The game loop allows the game to run smoothly regardless of a user’s input or lack thereof. A game loop will typically do the following:

  • check for user input

  • run AI

  • move enemies

  • resolve collisions

  • draw graphics

  • play sounds

Hash

A hash is simply a Javascript object, with a set of associated keys and values. For example:

var thing = {
    key : "Value",
    another : [1, 2, 3, 4]
};

In other programming languages, a hash may be referred to as a struct(ure), or a dictionary.

HUD

A heads-up display (HUD) is any transparent display that presents data without requiring users to look away from their usual viewpoints. In Gamma, the HUD is an overlay used to display information to the game player (generally their score and lives).

Minified

Minified source code is code that has been stripped of all unnecessary characters from source code, resulting in code that is compressed and often obfuscated. Sometimes the minification process will combines multiple files.

Rectangular prism

A rectangular prism (or more accurately rectangular cuboid) is a solid shape bounded by 6 rectangular faces. All corners are right angles and it has a uniform height, width and depth. See Rectangular cuboid on wikipedia

Recursion

See recursion.

Scene

The 3D environment, containing lights and objects, that is rendered and displayed to the player.

Spawn

Spawning is the in-game placement of an entity, such as a player character or enemy.

Spawn point

A spawn point is the coordinates at which a character or enemy can appear (or spawn).