Engine-design related questions. How code is structured.
87
votes
8answers
12k views
Why are MVC & TDD not employed more in game architecture?
I will preface this by saying I haven't looked a huge amount of game source, nor built much in the way of games.
But coming from trying to employ 'enterprise' coding practices in web apps, looking at ...
78
votes
11answers
9k views
Good resources for learning about game architecture?
Are there any good resources for learning about game architectures? I am looking for high level overviews of different architectures. I tend to find information about the various pieces of a game such ...
75
votes
9answers
6k views
Entity communication: Message queue vs Publish/Subscribe vs Signal/Slots
How do game engine entities communicate?
Two use cases:
How would entity_A send a take-damage message to entity_B?
How would entity_A query entity_B's HP?
Here's what I've encountered so far:
...
64
votes
3answers
14k views
Tips for writing the main game loop?
Can anyone recommend some good tips, articles, sites, etc. for writing the main game loop? What are some things that you should do in the game loop, and what are some things that you shouldn't do in ...
55
votes
11answers
4k views
How to design a replay system
So how would I design a replay system?
You may know it from certain games like Warcraft 3 or Starcraft where you can watch the game again after it has been played already.
You end up with a ...
52
votes
1answer
6k views
Role of systems in entity systems architecture
I've been reading a lot about entity components and systems and have thought that the idea of an entity just being an ID is quite interesting.
However I don't know how this completely works with the ...
40
votes
7answers
7k views
Why don't more games use vector art?
It would seem to me that vector art is more efficient in terms of resources/scalability; however, in most cases I have seen artists using bitmap/rasterized art. Is this a limitation put on the artists ...
38
votes
7answers
2k views
How can I set up a flexible framework for handling achievements?
Specifically, what is the best way to implement an achievement system flexible enough to handle going beyond simple statistics-driven achievements such as "kill x enemies."
37
votes
10answers
6k views
Game State 'Stack'?
I was thinking about how to implement game states into my game. The main things I want for it are:
Semi-transparent top states-being able to see through a pause menu to the game behind
Something ...
35
votes
8answers
5k views
Event Driven Communication in Game Engine - Yes or No?
As I am reading book Game Coding Complete (http://www.amazon.com/Game-Coding-Complete-Third-McShaffry/dp/1584506806/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1295978774&sr=8-1), the author recommend Event Driven ...
30
votes
9answers
2k views
Starting from Scratch - Is it a Mistake if I re-invent the wheel?
Usually whenever I want to start a game, I will think to have a good basic architecture for rendering and better game loop from scratch. I usually don't want to use existing engines. The reason behind ...
29
votes
7answers
1k views
Elegant way to simulate large amounts of entities within a game world
Assume you have a game in which there are many (many many) entities serving some functions, not all of which are constantly needed or need to be considered in every frame. The concrete problem I am ...
29
votes
7answers
4k views
Where can I find good (well organized) examples of game code?
Where can I find good (well organized) examples of game code? I'm hoping that I can pick up some organizational tips. Most examples in books are too short and leave out lots of detail for the sake of ...
29
votes
4answers
2k views
How to avoid the GameManager god object?
I just read an answer to a question about structuring game code. It made me wonder about the ubiquitous GameManager class, and how it often becomes an issue in a production environment. Let me ...
26
votes
10answers
3k views
Alternative to Game State System?
As far as I can tell, most games have some sort of "game state system" which switches between the different game states; these might be things like "Intro", "MainMenu", "CharacterSelect", "Loading", ...
25
votes
3answers
908 views
What can cause ALT-TAB to be 'annoying'/slow/glitchy?
This is more of an open ended question, but I hope to get some good insight on how to avoid the issue.
When playing Games on Windows, I might want to ALT-TAB out of it. Some games have no problems, ...
21
votes
5answers
1k views
Doing powerups in a component-based system
I'm just starting really getting my head around component based design. I don't know what the "right" way to do this is.
Here's the scenario. The player can equip a shield. The the shield is drawn ...
20
votes
2answers
1k views
Several classes need to access the same data, where should the data be declared?
I have a basic 2D tower defense game in C++.
Each map is a separate class which inherits from GameState. The map delegates the logic and drawing code to each object in the game and sets data such as ...
20
votes
4answers
1k views
Architecture a for a central renderer rather than self-rendering
For the architectural side of rendering, there's two main ways: having each object render itself, and having a single renderer which renders everything.
I'm currently aiming for the second idea, for ...
19
votes
4answers
2k views
How to design a game's software such that it is easy to unit test?
Is it practical to use a testing framework like JUnit in a game development situation? What sort of design considerations can you follow in order to make your game more testable? What parts of a game ...
19
votes
4answers
736 views
How to implement a never-rebooting test world?
Am looking for ideas on how to do the following: I want to write a simple "world" in Java. One which I could start and then add new objects later at a later date to simulate/observe different ...
19
votes
6answers
3k views
What designs are there for a component based entity system that are user friendly but still flexible?
I've been interested in the component based entity system for a while, and read countless articles on it (The Insomiac games, the pretty standard Evolve Your Hierarchy, the T-Machine, Chronoclast ... ...
19
votes
3answers
808 views
How to handle multiple story threads in a RPG game?
I designed an RPG game that has multiple story threads, meaning that, depending on the user's choice some things may or may not happen, you can achieve the same thing in several ways, the ending can ...
18
votes
4answers
2k views
How to design an AssetManager?
What is the best approach to designing an AssestManager that will hold references to graphics, sounds, etc. of a game?
Should these assets be stored in a key/value Map pair? I.e. I ask for ...
18
votes
4answers
5k views
How to design a game engine in an object-oriented language?
Whenever I try and write a game in any object-oriented language, the first problem I always face (after thinking about what kind of game to write) is how to design the engine. Even if I'm using ...
18
votes
2answers
2k views
Component-Based System online resources
I've been considering moving to a more component-based approach in my games. Does anyone else have any decent reference material or sample implementations that would help make this transition a little ...
18
votes
3answers
584 views
Do I, and how, separate the concerns of input and game objects?
In probably every game a developer has to somehow deal with input, may it be simple keyboard and mouse events, touch events or something as accelerometer input. This input directly of indirectly ...
18
votes
2answers
837 views
If “ResourceManager” classes are considered bad, what are the alternatives?
I'm hearing conflicting opinions such as:
"Dedicated Manager classes are almost never the right engineering tool"
"Dedicated Manager classes are (currently) the best way to survive a large project ...
17
votes
4answers
2k views
noSQL - Is it a valid option for web based game?
Out of an opportunity and boredom, a friend and I decided to make a web based game. This is the first 'game' I will be making, since usually I program web apps in django.
I've opted to use the same ...
17
votes
6answers
2k views
Is Test Driven Development viable in game development?
As being Scrum certified, I tend to prone for Agile methodologies while developping a system, and even use some canvas from the Scrum framework to manage my day-to-day work.
Besides, I am wondering ...
16
votes
4answers
2k views
“The Game Object” - and component-based design
I've been working on some hobby projects the last 3-4 years. Just simple 2d and 3d games. But lately I have started a bigger project. Soo in the last couple of months I've been trying to design a game ...
16
votes
4answers
1k views
Game engine: a decent way, architecture-wise, to implement scripting support?
I am developing a simple game engine (in C#, if it matters), and I can't think of a decent enough way to implement scripting in terms of architecture.
It's a simple turn-based strategy with custom, ...
15
votes
5answers
738 views
Getting It Done vs Solid Software Design?
With barely enough time at our hands to complete the games we craft, how can you strike a good balance between solid software architecture and making good progress to get it all done?
My personal ...
15
votes
6answers
7k views
How do I build a 2D physics engine? [closed]
The most advanced games I've made are a 8-ball pool game made with the physics engine Box2dFlashAS3 and a platform game with levels.
When I did platform games, I've always wished to know how to make ...
15
votes
4answers
1k views
How does one save a procedural world?
I have recently read about how to create procedural worlds... but how do I save one?
In games like Terraria or Minecraft users can freely modify the landscape, but that world can't be recreated from ...
15
votes
7answers
518 views
Do I need a Point and a Vector object? Or just using a Vector object to represent a Point is ok?
Structuring the components of an engine that I am developing along with a friend (learning purposes), I came to this doubt.
Initially we had a Point constructor, like the following:
var Point = ...
15
votes
4answers
1k views
What is involved for a simple UDP game?
I once tried to write a simple game with UDP in a week as a throwaway test. It went horribly.
I threw it away early. The main problem i had was restoring the game state of all players/enemies/objects ...
14
votes
6answers
1k views
Should Vector3 inherit from Vector2?
I'm creating a couple of classes Vector2 (X & Y) and Vector3 (X, Y & Z), but I don't know whether to make Vector3 inherit from Vector2, or whether to re-implement the member variables m_x and ...
14
votes
5answers
750 views
Do you actually use diagrams to model games?
I mean mostly UML but any method that works is viable. So - do you actually model your games with UML/other diagrams or different methods? I had a subject at my university about modelling with UML and ...
14
votes
2answers
3k views
How are physics or graphics components typically built in a component-oriented system?
I have spent the last 48 hours reading up on Object Component systems, and feel I am ready enough to start implementing it. I got the base Object and Component classes created, but now that I need to ...
14
votes
4answers
3k views
Resource Managers - Are they any good?
Hey.
I've seen many a time in source code, things like this [well, this is more of a pseudo C++ idea of mine]
type defshared_ptr ResourcePtr;// for ease
ResourcePtr sound1 = ...
14
votes
4answers
2k views
How to implement behavior in a component-based game architecture?
I am starting to implement player and enemy AI in a game, but I am confused about how to best implement this in a component-based game architecture.
Say I have a following player character that can ...
14
votes
3answers
650 views
How to create a Ghost Replay feature in a game?
When you set a personal best lap time in a console racing game, you have the option
to compete against your ghost.
How can this feature be created for a single player casual type game?
13
votes
5answers
736 views
Dictionary of common names for code objects
I'm looking for a common dictionary of terms (much like design patterns have a common language for how things interact) that are specific to games.
For instance, if I'm making a game of pong with a ...
13
votes
2answers
608 views
How should I check if a player has completed an achievement?
I'm making an MMO game and I just got to a point where I need to implement achievements... How do I do that? The most straight forward thing to do would be to run this once every 100ms,:
for a in ...
13
votes
3answers
1k views
Dynamic Memory Allocation and Memory Management
In an average game, there are hundreds or maybe thousands of objects in the scene.
Is it completely correct to allocate memory for all objects, including gun shots (bullets), dynamically via default ...
13
votes
6answers
3k views
Game Components, Game Managers and Object Properties
I'm trying to get my head around component based entity design.
My first step was to create various components that could be added to an object. For every component type i had a manager, which would ...
13
votes
3answers
3k views
Finite state machine in C++
So, I've read a lot about using FSMs to do game state management, things like what an FSM is, and using a stack or set of states for building one. I've gone through all that. But I'm stuck at writing ...
13
votes
1answer
722 views
How should I structure an extensible asset loading system?
For a hobby game engine in Java, I want to code a simple but flexible asset/resource manager. Assets are sounds, images, animation, models, textures, et cetera. After a few hours of browsing and some ...
13
votes
2answers
719 views
Where should collision detection logic be placed?
I am developing a small 2D game engine. The characters have a paint method which currently does the following:
Calculate the new position of the character as per its speed, etc.
Update the collision ...
