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Game Development vocabulary · Level Design

Spawn

Meaning in game development, with examples

/spɔːn/verbCore term

In game development, spawn means: To make a character, enemy or item appear in the game world, or to appear in it. A spawn point is the place where this happens.

In Turkish: doğmak, ortaya çıkmak, spawn olmak, oyuna sokmak

How it is used

Used with an object (the game spawns enemies) and without one (enemies spawn behind you); also a noun. Respawn means to come back after dying. Level designers place spawn points and tune spawn rates; players complain about spawn camping.

Example sentences

  1. Enemies shouldn't spawn where the player can see them appear.

  2. I moved the team spawn points further from the middle of the map.

Common collocations

  • spawn point
  • spawn enemies
  • respawn
  • spawn rate
  • spawn camping
  • checkpointA point in a level where the game saves the player's progress, so after failing or dying they start again from there instead of from the beginning.
  • level designThe work of creating the spaces a game takes place in, such as maps, missions and stages, and deciding where players go, what they meet and how hard it is.
  • NPCShort for non-player character: any character in the game that is controlled by the computer, not by a player, such as a shopkeeper, a quest giver or an enemy guard.
  • triggerAn invisible area or condition in a level that starts an event when the player enters it or does something, such as opening a door, spawning enemies or playing a cutscene.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Level Design

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