Academy glossary

Terms

AI-native development

A way of building games where AI tools write and revise a large share of the implementation, while a human still owns design intent, system boundaries, and the decision to ship. It is not a promise that AI replaces game thinking.

Game loop

The repeating cycle that reads input, updates simulation, and presents a frame. Professional games are designed around loops and feedback, not around a pile of disconnected features.

State ownership

A clear answer to which system is allowed to read or write a piece of game state. When ownership is vague, AI-generated patches often “fix” a symptom by writing the same data from a second place.

System ownership

Knowing which module is responsible for a behavior end to end — rules, data, presentation, and persistence — so neighboring systems are not silently rewritten.

Root cause

The condition that actually produces a bug, as opposed to the first visible symptom. Academy case studies require a root cause before a public write-up is published.

Regression test

A test written to fail for the same class of mistake if it returns. It protects a known incident; it is not a substitute for play.

WebGL

A browser GPU API used by some CONTRABAND rendering paths. Context loss, restore, and resource lifetime are runtime concerns — not “just reload the page” trivia.

Pointer lock

A browser input mode that captures the mouse for look/aim. Dialogue and UI must release or pause that capture, or the player cannot click the conversation they are supposed to read.

Entitlement

A server-side record that a learner may access paid Academy materials. It is granted only after a verified purchase. A checkout success URL is not an entitlement.

Release candidate

A build treated as potentially shippable, gated by QA checks rather than by “it runs on my machine.” Steam pages, depots, and achievements are part of that gate — not a later surprise.

Build pipeline

The repeatable path from source to a playable or shippable artifact. If the pipeline is tribal knowledge, AI-generated changes are hard to trust at release time.

Steam Cloud

Valve’s cloud save service for Steam titles. Save format, size, and conflict behavior are design decisions. This glossary does not invent undocumented Steamworks admin details.

Progression

How a player becomes more capable over time — unlocks, economy, difficulty, and feedback. Changing encounter scale is one lever, not the only one.

Game economy

Sources, sinks, and conversion of in-game value. A broken economy shows up as player boredom or panic long before a unit test fails.