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Game Design

Chapter 2: Basic Game Flow - Setup 
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It is important to have some sort of framework in mind when trying to develop a game. As a game designer, there is more to it than just the game's mechanics. A proper flow in the game is required.
 
This write up introduces to a basic game flow or structure of a game that may be considered. Throughout this write up, we will also explore how we can use a common tool, such as Microsoft Excel to create a simple prototype using some basic knowledge in Visual Basic scripting. 
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Microsoft Excel is ideal tool to use to prototype since it is a widely used program. As such, you do not need to download a special game related engine to be able to prototype. Additionally, the Visual Basic programming language is simple enough to understand, well documented with many examples to refer to on the internet.
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SETTING UP 
Once you have Microsoft Excel launched, be sure that you have the Developer option activated to allow you access to the Visual Basic Editor.
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To do this. You will need to go to File > Options > Locate the Customize Ribbon options > Check the Developer options 
Next, go to the Developer  tab > Visual Basic to open the Visual Basic Editor, what you will see is something like below
What I like about the Visual Basic Editor is that it mimics a simple game engine. The way it is set up gives you a good introduction of how a game engine is structured and thus find it a good way of understanding game design as well.
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Once you have loaded the editor, we will proceed to set up the structure of our prototype using the flow chart as seen in the previous part. We will be using userForm as an example of the various game menus. To add the userForm, go to Insert > UserForm and add another 2 forms. Next rename these forms as indicated. Do this to the other 2 forms using the screenshot below as an example and reference.
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Now that we have our structure in place, we can start to add some interactive elements into these "screens" to replicate the game flow that we have planned in the next chapter
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