Computer programming is the process of designing, writing, testing, debugging, and maintaining the source code of computer programs.
169
votes
28answers
22k views
What are good games to “earn your wings” with? [closed]
I believe that in order to become a good game developer, you need to make games.
From a programmer's perspective, what are some good entry level games to get your hands dirty? What skills and ...
93
votes
17answers
26k views
What math should all game programmers know? [closed]
Simple enough question: What math should all game programmers have a firm grasp of in order to be successful?
I'm not specifically talking about rendering math or anything in the niche areas of game ...
65
votes
15answers
8k views
How are bullets simulated in video games?
I have been playing games like MW2 recently and, as a programmer, I tend to ask myself how do they make the game so immersive. For example, how to they simulate bullet speed.
When an NPC fires a ...
62
votes
9answers
17k views
What are some programming design patterns that are useful in game development? [closed]
I have a few books on Design Patterns, and have read some articles, but cannot intuitively figure out which programming design patterns would be useful in game development.
For example, I have a book ...
61
votes
10answers
3k views
What can I do to make sure that I have the energy to work on my game while working full-time?
I work as a software engineer 40+ hours a week and I find that between balancing my personal life and family responsibilities that I have literally no energy to work on game development.
What can I ...
53
votes
4answers
6k views
What are the typical day-to-day tasks of an entry level games programmer? [closed]
What I would like to know is: What are the daily duties of a graduate programmer in the games industry workplace? Is it mostly coding, analysing, designing, or what?
Thank you.
P.S. I am in my ...
42
votes
2answers
2k views
How can I get textures on edge of walls like in Super Metroid and Aquaria?
Games like Super Metroid and Aquaria present the terrain with the other facing parts having rocks and stuff while deeper behind them (i.e. underground) there's different detail or just black.
I ...
40
votes
10answers
4k views
New to creating AI - where to start?
I am new to game programming and am trying to make a basic 2d top-down space game with 2 space ships that fight each other. I am doing well with the user controlled space ship, but have no idea how ...
37
votes
1answer
2k views
Why is this beat detection code failing to register some beats properly?
I made this SoundAnalyzer class to detect beats in songs:
class SoundAnalyzer
{
public SoundBuffer soundData;
public Sound sound;
public List<double> beatMarkers = new ...
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 ...
33
votes
9answers
7k views
C++: Smart pointers, Raw pointers, No Pointers?
Within the scope of developing games in C++, what are your preferred patterns in regard to use of pointers (be it none, raw, scoped, shared, or otherwise in between smart and dumb)?
You might ...
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
4answers
3k views
Multi-threaded game (engine) design resources?
What are the best resources on multi-threaded game or game engine design and development? As this is obviously where computers are headed, I intend to study this topic and I'd like to know what ...
23
votes
2answers
981 views
Is there a way to procedurally generate the history of a world?
I am somewhat intrigued by the diagram found here representing 1800 years of cultural history in an imaginary world some guy created.
This sort of thing would seem to have strong applications for ...
21
votes
10answers
3k views
What are the most commonly used programming languages? [closed]
When I took my Java courses a year ago, I was told that Java is used mostly in the overseas gaming companies while C++ is used here in the US. What languages should I focus on learning in-depth?
21
votes
1answer
825 views
Determine position of a rotated element in Tetris
Tetris-Tiles are stored as a 4x4 boolean matrix. Each rotation step has it's own matrix, the representation of the T-Block would look like this:
[
0, 0, 0, 0,
0, 1, 1, 1,
0, 0, 1, 0,
...
20
votes
7answers
2k views
How to get PS3/Xbox 360 experience without having access to Dev kits?
I am a budding game programmer trying to get into the industry programming for PS3, Xbox 360. The main problem I see is the need to demonstrate my skills to a potential employer, but without access ...
20
votes
5answers
961 views
Beyond “Novice” Game Projects
I was reading this answer on the type of math a game developer should know and this part really stood out at me:
How do I move my game object? The novice might say:
"I know! I'll just do:" ...
19
votes
9answers
2k views
Is storing all game objects in a single list an acceptable design?
For every game I've made, I just end up placing all my game objects (bullets, cars, players) in a single array list, which I loop through to draw and update. The update code for each entity is stored ...
18
votes
1answer
719 views
Which features belong to the engine and which ones to a game?
Right now I find myself implementing and testing new features of my 2D game engine by directly coding them into engine. Simultaneously I have a showcase game (with scripting support) which should call ...
17
votes
7answers
897 views
How important do you find exception safety to be in your C++ code?
Every time I consider making my code strongly exception safe, I justify not doing it because it would be so time consuming. Consider this relatively simple snippet:
Level::Entity* entity = new ...
17
votes
5answers
1k views
Try-catch or ifs for error handling in C++
Are exceptions used widely in game engine design or it is more preferable using pure if statements? For example with exceptions:
try {
m_fpsTextId = m_statistics->createText( "FPS: 0", 16, 20, ...
17
votes
9answers
1k views
How to get a game done?
My problem is, whenever I start programming a clone of a game (for practice) or my own game or some other problem I stop somewhere in the middle of the development, because I lost interest in it.
How ...
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
810 views
It is worth adding 'futuristic' features to our game, or should we put our focus elsewhere?
I'm lead programmer in a medium-sized indie game studio. This is our first game as a team. We're working on a futuristic FPS game, with a profit-sharing buisness plan.
Anyway, we have some very good ...
16
votes
14answers
1k views
Does Big O really matter?
In academia worst case Big O is taught over everything else. Compared to space complexity, normal case analysis, simplicity over complexity, etc.
In particular to game programming and industry, what ...
16
votes
10answers
4k views
Does C# have a future in games development?
I recently learned that the MMO Minecraft is powered by Java from a recent interview on CVG.co.uk on a possible collaboration between two former and now competing colleagues. In the interview he ...
16
votes
15answers
4k views
Simple game engines / development tools made with artists in mind?
I've been working in the 2d art side of games for a while now, and my full time job keeps me very busy on the art side of things, but I'm becoming more and more interested in learning to prototype my ...
16
votes
7answers
2k views
What scripting language would you recommend for a C++ game project?
By scripting here I mean not just putting config data in a script, but scripting parts of the project like some class methods, test specific game loop, etc. This would be not just to accelerate ...
16
votes
4answers
4k views
What should a game engine do?
I'd like to improve my skills/try something new and I'd like to start with 3D. I have read Starting programming in 3D with C++ but I have question about engines:
What should engine do? I know it is ...
15
votes
4answers
555 views
What is “tools development?”
I have been looking at different jobs in the games industry and a lot of the jobs that I have seen advertised are for a "Tool Developer" position. I do not know what this actually is.
Could someone ...
15
votes
4answers
1k views
Effects for Programmers
Does anyone have any good resources for creating special effects, aimed at programmers.
I'm not specifically interested in particle effects, but broader things like:
Fullscreen effects, blur, depth ...
14
votes
4answers
918 views
What should every graphics programmer write
I've seen this question on SO, but here i want it to focus on GFX.
So in your opinion what applications/features should every aspiring GFX programmer write/change to get better?
Community wiki since ...
14
votes
3answers
531 views
Tangible benefits to speed-coding your personal game projects
I noticed a few programmers setting time-sensitive challenges for themselves, usually in the area of "write game of type X in Y amount of time" or "write X number of games giving only Y time for ...
14
votes
3answers
1k views
How does one do unit testing in a game engine?
Much to my shame, I have never written a proper unit test, only small unorganized test programs that I would then dispose of after the test succeeded. I don't really have a clear idea of how unit ...
13
votes
2answers
611 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
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
3answers
915 views
How can a game prevent people from running multiple instances of itself?
I am playing a game called Starcraft II that restricts me from running multiple instances. However, when I run a second instance sandboxed in Sandboxie, I can do so perfectly fine. What might account ...
13
votes
3answers
2k views
Logging library for (c++) games
I know a lot of logging libraries but didn't test a lot of them. (GoogleLog, Pantheios, the coming boost::log library...)
In games, especially in remote multiplayer and multithreaded games, logging ...
13
votes
1answer
685 views
What are pros and cons of Voronoi shatter?
I have seen some Voronoi shatter videos on Youtube.
What is your experience with it?
What are the pros and cons in time complexity, resource complexity, implementation difficulty...?
Does it ...
12
votes
8answers
565 views
Multi-disciplined: Strength or Weakness?
My last two credited titles I was Lead Programmer then moved to Lead Design role. At my current company I kinda switch between design and programming hats quite often.
The bulk of my education is in ...
12
votes
3answers
1k views
Appropriate level of granularity for component-based architecture
I'm working on a game with a component-based architecture. An Entity owns a set of Component instances, each of which has a set of Slot instances with which to store, send, and receive values. Factory ...
11
votes
7answers
670 views
Low coupling and tight cohesion
Of course it depends on the situation. But when a lower lever object or system communicate with an higher level system, should callbacks or events be preferred to keeping a pointer to higher level ...
11
votes
5answers
5k views
Complete Math Library for use in OpenGL ES 2.0 Game?
Are you aware of a complete (or almost complete) cross platform math library for use in OpenGL ES 2.0 games?
The library should contain:
Matrix2x2, Matrix 3x3, Matrix4x4 classes
Quaternions
...
11
votes
5answers
5k views
How can I implement gravity?
How can I implement gravity? Not for a particular language, just pseudocode...
11
votes
2answers
748 views
Could I be going crazy with Event Handlers? Am I going the “wrong way” with my design?
I guess I've decided that I really like event handlers. I may be suffering a bit from analysis paralysis, but I'm concerned about making my design unwieldy or running into some other unforeseen ...
11
votes
3answers
2k views
Beat detection and FFT
I am working on a platformer game which includes music with beat detection. I am currently detecting beats by checking for when the current amplitude exceeds a historical sample. This doesn't work ...
11
votes
1answer
748 views
What research areas exist in game programming?
I'm currently in a group that researches network optimizations and various distributed applications, I'm much more interested in games but more from a research side.Is there a resource that focuses on ...
10
votes
12answers
1k views
Are there cases where globals/singletons are useful in game development?
I know that having global variables or singleton classes creates cases that can be difficult to test/manage and I have been busted in using those patterns in code but often times you gotta ship.
So ...
10
votes
12answers
5k views
How can I make video games if I don't like programming?
I am studying C++ code in my school (my major is computer programming). Honestly, my grades are not so good, and assignments are really hard. Sometimes I feel sad that I will spend 8-10 hours per day ...
