Chapter 1: What Makes a Game?

What Makes a Game? 🎮

Before you build your first game, you need to understand what a game actually is. Not just “something fun on a screen” — we’re going to break it down like a developer.

The Four Pillars of Every Game

Every video game, from Pong to Fortnite, is built on four core elements:

1. The Game Loop

The game loop game loop: A continuous cycle that runs every frame: check input → update game state → render graphics. This is the heartbeat of every game. is the heartbeat of your game. It runs constantly, typically 60 times per second, doing three things:

while game_is_running:
    handle_input()    # What did the player do?
    update_state()    # What changed in the game world?
    render_frame()    # Draw the new frame on screen

2. Player Input

Input is how the player communicates with your game. This could be:

Input Type	Example
Keyboard	WASD to move, Space to jump
Mouse	Click to shoot, drag to build
Touch	Tap to jump, swipe to dodge
Controller	Joystick to steer, buttons to attack

3. Game State

The game state game state: All the data that describes what's happening in the game right now: player position, score, health, enemy locations, etc. is everything the computer needs to know about your game at any moment:

• Where is the player?
• What’s the score?
• How much health is left?
• Where are the enemies?

4. Rendering

Rendering Rendering: The process of drawing all game objects onto the screen as pixels. Happens every frame — typically 60 times per second. is the process of turning your game state into pixels pixels: The tiny dots of color that make up everything you see on a screen. A 1080p screen has over 2 million pixels. on screen. Every frame, the game redraws everything based on the current state.

Think Like a Developer 🧑‍💻

Look at your favorite game and try to identify:

1. What inputs does it use? (keyboard, mouse, controller?)
2. What data is in the game state? (score, position, inventory?)
3. How fast does the game loop run? (Check the FPS counter if it has one!)

Developer Note

In GDevelop (the engine you’ll use in the next chapter), the game loop, rendering, and input handling are all built in. You’ll focus on defining the game state and the rules — the engine handles the rest.

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Key Concepts Checklist

• I understand what a game loop is
• I can name the four pillars of a game
• I know the difference between game state and rendering
• I can identify input types in games I play

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