35
votes
13answers
1k views
Creating meaningful and engaging quests
Kill X number of monsters.
Gather Y number of items (usually by killing X number of monsters).
Deliver this NPC's package to this other NPC who is far far away.
etc.
Yeah. These quests are ...
35
votes
6answers
5k views
Good resources for learning modern OpenGL (3.0 or later)?
I stumble upon the search of a good resource to start with OpenGL (3.0 or later) . Well, I found a lot of books but none of them can be considered a good resource!
Here two examples:
OpenGL ...
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 ...
35
votes
3answers
2k views
Effective marketing strategies for independent game projects
I would really like to hear how other independents generally approach marketing their game with limited resources. I know how critical marketing is since I've seen it first hand on several fronts. ...
35
votes
2answers
1k views
Procedural… house with rooms generator
I've been looking at some algorithms and articles about procedurally generating a dungeon. The problem is, I'm trying to generate a house with rooms, and they don't seem to fit my requirements.
For ...
35
votes
1answer
2k views
How can I reduce aliasing in my outline glow effect?
I'm trying to replicate the glowing outline effect in the Left 4 Dead game. The effect causes an objects outline to glow, even when the object is occluded. Here is a screenshot of the effect:
I'm ...
34
votes
10answers
13k views
Is Java viable for serious game development?
Ever since I was a little kid, my dream has been to develop games. Well, now that I am older, more mature, and have some programming experience, I would like to start. However, I would like to turn ...
34
votes
7answers
2k views
Automated testing of games [closed]
What are your experiences with automated testing of games? What worked, what didn't work?
Please mention what kind of game you were working on, what the target platforms were, the team size, project ...
34
votes
10answers
6k views
Is learning OpenGL 2.1 useless today?
I'm new to 3D OpenGL/DirectX world and I found out that OpenGL 4.1 and GLSL specifications were just released today.
A friend of mine gave me the Red Book for OGL v2.1 but, as far as I've read, 3.x ...
34
votes
9answers
15k views
Easy to use cross-platform 3D engines for C++ game development? [closed]
I want to try my hand at writing a 3D game. However I don't want to start at such a low level of drawing individual triangles and writing my own 3D object loader and so on. I've heard of things like ...
34
votes
1answer
1k views
How do I create particles that react to the player and enemies?
I'm currently making a game with my own game engine which I've written in C++ and I'm using the most recent directx SDK.
The game is a top down space shooter (with a pretty interesting twist) and ...
34
votes
6answers
2k views
How do I find artists to work on my game?
I ask "how" rather than "where" because there are undoubtedly lots of artists that are just plain lousy or unreliable.
Let's assume both paying and non-paying (mods, free games/open-source) ...
33
votes
13answers
1k views
what is the best way to eliminate grinding in games?
This is a very persistent question in game design, especially in games where you need to hold/retain players like MMO or social games. (On a side note grinding can easily calculated so its easy tool ...
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 ...
33
votes
9answers
12k views
Why don't C++ Game Developers use the boost library? [closed]
So if you spend any time viewing / answering questions over on Stack Overflow under the C++ tag, you will quickly notice that just about everybody uses the boost library; some would even say that if ...
33
votes
7answers
4k views
What are the performance difference between unsigned and signed integers?
I am aware of the performance hit when mixing signed ints with floats.
Is it any worse to mix unsigned ints with floats?
Is there any hit when mixing signed/unsigned without floats?
Do the ...
33
votes
4answers
875 views
Pathfinding for fleeing
As you know there are plenty of solutions when you wand to find the best path in a 2-dimensional environment which leads from point A to point B.
But how do I calculate a path when an object is at ...
33
votes
4answers
970 views
How to maintain artistic consistency when working with multiple artists?
I'm making a game that requires a volume of artistic content which is not practical to be created by a single person, so I've enlisted the help of additional artists.
The problem is, each artist has ...
33
votes
15answers
14k views
What tools do you use for 2D art/sprite creation? [closed]
What cheap/free tools do you use for 2D art and/or animation?
I don't really like Gimp's interface, Paint.NET is limited and GraphicsGale is sort of archaic. Cosmigo ProMotion looks like it could be ...
33
votes
8answers
5k views
Where to start with game development? [closed]
I asked this earlier in this thread at stackoverflow.com. One of the early comments redirected me here to gamedev.stackexchange.com, so I'm reposting here.
Searching for related questions I found a ...
33
votes
5answers
11k views
What are some good resources for building a voxel engine?
What are some good resources (tutorials, code, papers, etc.) for learning about voxel rendering?
33
votes
7answers
1k views
Managing text-maps in a 2D array on to be painted on HTML5 Canvas
So, I'm making a HTML5 RPG just for fun. The map is a <canvas> (512px width, 352px height | 16 tiles across, 11 tiles top to bottom). I want to know if there's a more efficient way to paint the ...
32
votes
8answers
6k views
Why do game engines convert models to triangles compared to keeping it as four side polygon
I've worked using maya for animation and more film orientated projects however I am also focusing on my studies on video game development (eventually want to be either programmer or some sort of TD ...
32
votes
11answers
5k views
What path finding algorithms are there?
I'd like to read up on path finding algorithms. Is there a primer available or any material or tutorials on the Internet that would be a good start for me?
32
votes
14answers
2k views
MMORPG design for time-limited players
I believe that there is a significant market of players who would enjoy the exploration and interaction aspects of MMORPGs, but simply don't have the time for the endless grinding marathons which are ...
32
votes
8answers
5k views
Is the TCP protocol good enough for real-time multiplayer games?
Back in the day, TCP connections over dialup/ISDN/slow broadband resulted in choppy, laggy games because a single dropped packet resulted in a resync. That meant a lot of game developers had to ...
32
votes
6answers
7k views
Component-based game object systems in practice
Let's see history of success. Which popular games (and game engines) were built using component-based game object system? Each answer should contain:
Game Title (one per answer)
Author / Company
...
32
votes
8answers
12k views
How to learn 2d animation?
Where can I learn how to do simple 2d animation well? Or is it really just literally drawing every single frame of something in photoshop? Is there tips or tricks? Tutorials to help get started?
...
31
votes
12answers
7k views
Is it reasonable to write a game engine in C?
Even though C++ appears to be king, from what I've been told C is still widely used in games, especially on the consoles. However, would writing an entire game engine in C be unreasonable today? What ...
31
votes
6answers
1k views
Why use random numbers when it comes to rewards and stats?
Many games use random numbers for things like attack damage, gold loot, or monster type being spawned. It is obvious that random numbers allow you to generate content to make games more re-playable, ...
31
votes
6answers
6k views
Multi-threaded games best practices. One thread for 'logic', one for rendering, or more?
I'm aware there is immense slowing whenever data synchronization is required (let alone any mutex locks).
I was thinking getting it to the extreme and doing threads for any subsystem conceivable. But ...
31
votes
6answers
9k views
31
votes
3answers
4k views
“Press Start” screen - why?
Just wondering: A lot of games start with their intros/vendor videos, and then show a "Press Start" screen before the actual main menu.
I never quite figures out the purpose of this, why not go to ...
31
votes
5answers
16k views
What are the pro/cons of Unity3D as a choice to make games?
We are doing our school project with Unity3d, since they were using Shiva the previous year (which seems horrible to me), and I wanted to know your point of view for this tool.
Pros:
multi ...
31
votes
4answers
941 views
Creating an illusion of stress and danger
I'm currently experimenting with an adventure game setting where at some point the game is quite calm and the player has to solve puzzles and at some point there are enemies or environmental traps.
I ...
31
votes
2answers
2k views
In a browser, is it best to use one huge spritesheet or many (10000) different PNG's?
I'm creating a game in jQuery, where I use about 10000 32x32 tiles. Until now, I have been using them all separately (no sprite sheet). An average map uses about 2000 tiles (sometimes re-used PNG's ...
31
votes
2answers
2k views
How does a game without loading times work?
We're talking about an expansive game that is not divided in levels or checkpoints. A 3D adventure, for example.
31
votes
7answers
6k views
How were 8-bit and 16-bit games developed? [closed]
We have a lot of information on the internet out there on plenty of engines, SDKs, fancy IDEs, etc.
But how did people manage to develop games in the past? Are there 'famous' tools? What was the most ...
31
votes
3answers
4k views
How do audio based games such as Audiosurf and Beat Hazard work?
Note: I am not asking how to make a clone of one of these. I am asking about how they work.
I'm sure everyone's seen the games where you use your own music files (or provided ones) and the games ...
31
votes
6answers
2k views
How can I promote my game? [closed]
I am a beginning indie developer, and I want to get the word out about my game. What sites can I go to to ask about reviews of my game, and where might I be able to talk about and get feedback on my ...
30
votes
6answers
2k views
Is it unprofessional to leave game resources to the open eye?
I'm still having problems packing my resources, after going through complicated APIs and basically just zip files which are exhausting my brain, I thought I could also pack the game with the resources ...
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 ...
30
votes
3answers
12k views
How are voxel terrain engines made?
A few days ago I found something called voxel terrains and I think that they're pretty cool. But I don't know anything generating them. Do you model it in your modeling software or use something like ...
30
votes
2answers
2k views
Good game design process for a do-it-all programmer
I am pretty new in game development - on Android platform and thinking about one-man game development. I know I can't professionally do everything such as graphics, sounds, and music but I think I can ...
30
votes
7answers
4k views
How to improve Minecraft-esque voxel world performance?
After playing Minecraft I marveled a bit at its large worlds but at the same time I found them extremely slow to navigate, even with a quad core and meaty graphics card.
Now I assume Minecraft is ...
30
votes
6answers
2k views
What is a good file format for saving game data?
I need to save some custom game data. Map, player, etc.
All of them will have "sub objects". For example, a map and map will have an "array" of tiles. ie, hierarchical data. Hopefully nothing ...
30
votes
2answers
2k views
How to render realistic ice?
I am trying to write an ice shader in Unity that looks good and at least semi-realistic.
If the following shot (found on Google) was CG, what would its shader include? (the foreground cave). I might ...
30
votes
7answers
7k views
How to generate random level from a seed?
How would I go about using a random seed to generate a game level? The same seed should always generate the exact same level.
For this example it would be a Worms style level. So each level would ...
30
votes
7answers
10k views
How'd they do it: Millions of tiles in Terraria
I've been working up a game engine similar to Terraria, mostly as a challenge, and while I've figured out most of it, I can't really seem to wrap my head around how they handle the millions of ...
30
votes
8answers
2k views
How are deterministic games possible in the face of floating-point non-determinism?
To make a game like an RTS networked, I've seen a number of answers here suggest to make the game completely deterministic; then you only have to transfer the users' actions to each other, and lag ...
