21
votes
3answers
7k views
How does Navigation Mesh path-finding work?
I want to understand how navmeshes work, how to implement them and why it is better than other types of pathing systems.
20
votes
5answers
1k views
Reasons to disable game save during combat (e.g. Mass Effect 2)
So I've been playing Mass Effect 2 (PC) and one of the things I've noticed is that you can only save your game when you're not engaged in combat. As soon as the first enemy shows up on your radar, ...
20
votes
8answers
4k views
How can I develop Flash games without expensive software?
I've been playing with writing flash games in my spare time, but up to this point, I've just been using a trial version of Adobe Flash Professional. I'm aware of FlashDevelop, but their documentation ...
20
votes
11answers
3k views
XNA development tutorials
Can anybody guide me about where can I get the basic starter tutorials for developing using XNA framework?
20
votes
5answers
8k views
How to create a hexagon world map in PHP from a database for a browser based strategy game
I'm trying to create a hexagon world map for my PHP browser based strategy game. I've created a table in my database with the following data per row: id, type, x, y and occupied. Where type is the ...
20
votes
10answers
2k views
Strategies to Defeat Memory Editors for Cheating - Desktop Games
I'm assuming we're talking about desktop games -- something the player downloads and runs on their local computer. Many are the memory editors that allow you to detect and freeze values, like your ...
20
votes
6answers
2k views
Marketing: Angry Birds - How it's done
Why do some apps, like Angry Birds, dominate the market while other cool/fun/addicting apps are never heard of?
I'm trying to figure out the best marketing strategy, or best way to sell an app to ...
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
4answers
1k views
Looking for articles/books on: How do games make money? What models do they use?
I'm trying to research the ways in which games make money. I want to know more about the models they use (free/premium, trial/subscription, free-to-play with micro-transactions, etc.). In addition, I ...
20
votes
3answers
10k views
Android game development in c++
So being a primarily c/c++ developer, I've always thought that the only option for mobile game development for me was using iOS, which allows for c/c++ (and minimising objective C).
I heard from a ...
20
votes
4answers
1k views
Are there any disadvantages of using Distance Squared checks rather than Distance?
I use distance squared checks for basically all my distance (vector3 length) checking, due to the performance increase from not incurring a square root (like in plain length checks).
From the looks ...
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
5answers
973 views
Spreadsheets in Game Design?
There have been two instances from the past two weeks that I've heard from well known successful game developers that they use spreadsheets when designing games.
The first being David Whatley in ...
20
votes
9answers
6k views
Tips and Tools for creating Spritesheet animations
I am looking for a tool that I can use to create sprite sheet easily.
Right now I am using Illustrator, but I can never get the center of the character in the exact position, so it looks like it is ...
20
votes
6answers
2k views
What is a good algorithm to detect collision between moving spheres?
If (for the purpose of collision detection) 3D objects are represented in a game by spheres, what is a good algorithm to detect a collision between spheres?
If each object has a position as of the ...
20
votes
2answers
784 views
How to I teach my artist to do arts for games?
So my girlfriend is an artist and I'm a programmer and we often talk about joining talents and doing some small games or other fun stuff for the different popular platforms currently out.
But because ...
20
votes
6answers
3k views
What is a good linear algebra book for game programmers?
I was told that I should start learning Linear Algebra in order to create good games with good physics.
I'm reading Linear Algebra book and it's completely foreign to me. The author starts out with ...
20
votes
4answers
5k views
What is the cost of distributing through steam?
We are in Pre-alpha stage of a game development project and haven´t yet got reply from Valve about how it works to distribute through Steam. We need this information to do a business model with all ...
20
votes
3answers
5k views
20
votes
4answers
727 views
Attributes for calculating a hit in a turn based game or Roguelikes
I'm trying to figure out a good formula for determining a hit when the player attacks an enemy in a Roguelike. I'd like to come up with something simplistic but, still true to the way it's done in ...
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:" ...
20
votes
1answer
6k views
Is a voxel engine appropriate for a Minecraft-like game?
Why does Minecraft use polygons to draw the world terrain instead of voxels? Would a voxel based rendering engine be appropriate for a fully destructible game world built out of cubes like Minecraft? ...
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 ...
20
votes
6answers
2k views
Game planning and software design? I feel that UML is not convenient
In my university, they always emphasize and hype about UML design and stuff, in which I feel it is not going to work well with game structure design. Now, I just want a professional advice on how ...
20
votes
6answers
2k views
Are there any open source or free 3D modelling/animation tools that are widely used by indie game developers?
I have tried out Blender and Milkshape 3D, but my question is mainly asking if there is any 3D animation/modelling software that is open source, free, or has an indie license available that is widely ...
20
votes
3answers
740 views
Multi-platform multi-threading: What are the real challenges?
While a library like SDL provides a cross-platform wrapper API for threading, I think it would be naive to assume that this leads directly to easy development of games across vastly different ...
20
votes
3answers
936 views
Making walls in tile-based games: what am I missing?
After spending time today to jot down some notes regarding the implementation of walls into my tile-based game, I've suddenly realized it's not going to be as simple as I imagined before. While the ...
20
votes
10answers
6k views
Browser-based MMOs (WebGL, WebSocket)
Do you think it is technically possible to write a fully-fledged 3D MMO client with Browser JavaScript - WebGL for graphics, and WebSocket for Networking?
Do you think future MMOs (and games ...
20
votes
2answers
1k views
How to network this entity system?
I have designed an entity system for an FPS. It basically works like this:
We have a "world"-object, called GameWorld. This holds an array of GameObject, as well as an array of ComponentManager.
...
19
votes
10answers
3k views
How are sound effects made?
My friend and I are finishing up our first game right now and I have just discovered that even though he can make some decent music tracks, he has no idea how to make a sound effect. An explosion, 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
5answers
1k views
How should I structure a design document?
Should the design document be a continuous line of text, with real sentences, more like a description of the entire game, or should I structure it in simple points? What are the benefits, and are ...
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 ...
19
votes
2answers
806 views
What are some great tips for a beginner? [closed]
I've always wanted to write games, and recently the chance has come up to do so in a couple of different ways for the Android OS using OpenGL (and I figure once I learn OpenGL on one platform I can ...
19
votes
4answers
2k views
Is game development a super elite club?
We all read job vacancies via the internet like GitHub jobs or StackExchange Careers 2.0 for example. You know, web app development, iOS/Android jobs and many other things. We even read about jobs ads ...
19
votes
3answers
1k views
19
votes
2answers
5k views
How exactly does XNA's SpriteBatch work?
To be more precise, if I needed to recreate this functionality from scratch in another API (e.g. in OpenGL) what would it need to be capable of doing?
I do have a general idea of some of the steps, ...
19
votes
2answers
915 views
Correctly Implementing a “Double Jump”
I'm working on a 2D iPhone game using Corona (Trial version, so I can't use their forums). The game involves the character falling through the sky, and I'm trying to implement a "double jump" for the ...
19
votes
4answers
3k views
Feasibility of an XNA game on PC
A friend and I are doing a 2D XNA game. Thus far, the API seems really cool and performance is acceptable. My question is more towards the release of it though. As other developers how have done ...
19
votes
2answers
1k views
Calculating the rotational force of a 2D sprite
I am wondering if someone has an elegant way of calculating the following scenario.
I have an object of (n) number of squares, random shapes, but we will pretend they are all rectangles.
We are ...
19
votes
2answers
801 views
Who kept a blog for a year with a new game idea every day, and where is it?
There's this indie game developer who tried to come up with a new original idea for a game every day for a year - and he put all his thoughts on his website. +200 ideas so far, if I remember ...
19
votes
8answers
725 views
What pitfalls should one look out for when starting a studio
What are the common mistakes or oversights made when starting a new game studio?
Please only one mistake or oversight per answer and if you can explain why it is an issue and what one should do to ...
19
votes
8answers
2k views
Where can I find fonts for my game?
Where can I find fonts (preferably free, but a reasonable fee is acceptable) that I can use in my for-pay/commericial game?
19
votes
6answers
1k views
Do iOS users use Facebook and Twitter buttons within games?
Does anyone have any insight or experience into the successfullness of placing Facebook or Twitter "share" buttons within an iOS game? For example, when a user gets a high score, presenting them with ...
19
votes
3answers
1k views
Is there a 3D equivalent of hex tile maps?
Probably the biggest advantage of a hex-based versus square-based map tiling is that the center of each hex has the same distance to all its neighboring hexes. Is there a similar shape that tiles this ...
19
votes
7answers
7k views
HTML5 Game (Canvas) - UI Techniques?
I'm in the process of building a JavaScript / HTML5 game (using Canvas) for mobile (Android / iPhone/ WebOS) with PhoneGap. I'm currently trying to design out how the UI and playing board should be ...
19
votes
3answers
4k views
Am I allowed to sell an XNA game by myself?
I just started the developpement of an XNA game and I'm asking myself if it wouldn't be better to use an open-source alternative since I absolutely want to keep the complete control over my game. I ...
19
votes
4answers
1k views
How to determine the amount of experience needed for leveling up
Related questions under this topic might include:
How should I base how much experience points it takes to get to the next level?
What factors are involved in this?
How do I keep the player not ...
19
votes
9answers
3k views
When mapping the surface of a sphere with tiles, how might you deal with polar distortion?
It's easy to deal with the way locations interact on a clean Cartesian grid. It's just vanilla math. And you can kind of ignore the geometry of the sphere's surface for a bunch of it if you want to ...
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 ...
