All Questions
55,138
questions
50
votes
10
answers
9k
views
Dungeons in a 3d space game
I'm in the process of creating a prototype for a 3d space game (3rd person). My question is this:
How can a 3d space game have Zelda-like (or similar) dungeons in open space?
Problems:
Space has no ...
- 552
50
votes
12
answers
4k
views
Coming up with manageable game ideas as a hobbyist game developer
I'm trying to come up with ideas for games to develop - as per the advice on this question I've started jotting down and brainstorming my ideas as I get them, and it has worked relatively well - I now ...
- 1,376
50
votes
11
answers
57k
views
What path finding algorithms are there? [closed]
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?
50
votes
6
answers
15k
views
How can I perform a deterministic physics simulation?
I'm creating a physics game involving rigid bodies in which players move pieces and parts to solve a puzzle/map. A hugely important aspect of the game is that when players start a simulation, it runs ...
- 604
50
votes
3
answers
10k
views
How can I generate Worms-style terrain?
I'm working on a Worms-styled game and want to generate some terrain procedurally. I've previously done a lot of terrain generation using perlin noise, and this is what I started out using for this ...
- 1,162
50
votes
2
answers
19k
views
After a succesful glLinkProgram, should I delete / detach my shaders?
After I have a linked program, and thinking about defensive programming, should I delete and detach the shaders used to link this program?
If yes, is that going to free any resources? Or do these ...
- 665
50
votes
6
answers
19k
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 ...
50
votes
5
answers
4k
views
Looking for a good technique for character movement in hack&slash game
I'm making hack&slash game and I want my characters move like for example in Torchlight, Diablo, etc.
Currently I generate set of nodes for all walkable areas of a floor. When I click somewhere ...
- 1,388
49
votes
4
answers
17k
views
How can I completely hide and protect strings from the player in Unity?
I have been using Unity to create a 2D game which will be completely offline (which is the problem), the game-play needs you to enter certain strings at certain levels and Unity compiles to DLLs, ...
- 646
49
votes
3
answers
7k
views
What is the term for a 3x3 tile set used to create larger areas?
What is the pattern/design name of using a 3x3 tileset (usually in a tiled 2D game) that can be used to create larger areas of itself. For example, these:
(Image source)
I thought it was a "9 tree" ...
- 780
49
votes
10
answers
10k
views
How to give the player the feeling of being chased by enemies and force him/her to rush
I have already asked a question about the difficulty progression in my endless runner game: How to make difficulty progression in my endless-runner game?
Now I have to decided that it is a good ...
- 674
49
votes
6
answers
50k
views
Is OpenGL appropriate for 2D games?
I have been teaching myself the OpenGL library for a while now, and want to start making a game. However, for an easier introduction, I want to start with something 2D, such as a top down Pokemon-...
- 1,027
49
votes
10
answers
20k
views
C++: Smart pointers, Raw pointers, No Pointers? [closed]
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 ...
49
votes
5
answers
88k
views
What are some ideal algorithms for Rogue-like 2D dungeon generation? [closed]
What are some good resources regarding procedural content generation in the context of dungeon generation?
Closest article I could find was Algorithm for generating a 2d maze, which isn't quite what ...
49
votes
12
answers
26k
views
How do you prevent your JavaScript / HTML5 web game from being copied or altered?
I'm in the middle of planning a game built using JavaScript and HTML5.
I'm having trouble understanding how you could prevent someone from simply copying the JavaScript from the web server and ...
- 593
49
votes
5
answers
9k
views
What's the newest trend / method for terrain rendering? [closed]
The last time I checked in on terrain rendering, ROAM was the new hotness. Yes, that was a long time ago. I liked ROAM a lot, though, because it was extremely simple to program, and gave pretty ...
- 2,476
49
votes
3
answers
45k
views
How to generate random level from a seed? [closed]
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 ...
- 2,434
48
votes
19
answers
13k
views
Why are microtransactions more or less universally hated? [closed]
In many games nowadays we see micro-transactions in the form of in-game purchases. The benefits of these purchases can be anything from disabling ads, cosmetic unlocks, or in-game currency. Here's an ...
- 7,720
48
votes
7
answers
62k
views
What are atan and atan2 used for in games?
I am having some trouble understanding Math.tan() and Math.atan() and Math.atan2().
I have ...
- 591
48
votes
17
answers
11k
views
How to create an RTS gameplay experience where all phases of a match are equally engaging without spikes in required concentration?
In games such as Starcraft Brood War, players at the start of the game don't have as much to do compared to later on when they have to manage multiple battles and multiple bases at once. This means at ...
- 635
48
votes
3
answers
11k
views
Do I need an Indie Studio Name?
I've recently been making a mobile game which I'm going to publish to Google Play. Google Play requires a Developer Name. Most Google Play Developer use their game studio name like Gameloft, Supercell,...
- 654
48
votes
6
answers
5k
views
How to prepare a game for localization?
Many projects don't think about localization until the game is done. Then localization is done as a hack, and it's obvious that it was added on later. Some specific areas of concern:
Text strings (...
- 4,486
48
votes
7
answers
5k
views
When prototyping, how can I more easily explore game behaviour?
I build indie games myself, but I'm usually out of energy once I've taken a newly developed game to a level where it's possible to play with behavior, so I settle for refinement instead of exploration....
- 676
48
votes
7
answers
32k
views
Why is the origin in computer graphics coordinates at the top left?
From what I've seen almost all things use coordinates where (0, 0) is at the top left and the positive Y-axis goes in the downwards direction of your screen.
Why is it like this? Why not the ...
- 591
47
votes
4
answers
17k
views
What causes aliasing?
I always hear about aliasing and anti-aliasing and I know what it looks like but what I don't understand is what causes it. Is it a physical phenomenon? Or a numerical one?
If it helps to explain, I ...
- 573
47
votes
11
answers
12k
views
How do I discourage "loot from party members who are about to leave" behavior?
In my RPG, I have companion characters that can potentially leave the party. A behavior I have witnessed among testers is something that I think many RPGs deal with, namely that players will strip the ...
- 1,937
47
votes
4
answers
47k
views
Why don't we use octogonal maps instead of hexagonal maps?
I understand the advantage of hexagonal tiles over square ones. But why aren't octagons used instead? I would think they would provide better, more natural movement in eight directions.
I was ...
- 641
47
votes
5
answers
14k
views
How much "real life" immersion is good?
I've been making a visual novel game where the Player Character can get hungry, thirsty, has energy and also needs to go to the toilet, has sanity,
has cleanliness, has life, has money, has a ...
- 1,430
47
votes
7
answers
38k
views
Immediate GUI - yae or nay? [closed]
I've been working on application development with a lot of "retained" GUI systems (below more about what I mean by that) like MFC, QT, Forms, SWING and several web-GUI frameworks some years ago. I ...
- 1,134
47
votes
11
answers
17k
views
If I design a game that has both guns and melee weapons, how do I make them equally viable?
I have a plan to make a 2D action platformer game, and I've started prototyping a bit in Godot 2D. My intention was to make the character fight with both guns and melee weapons, with gunplay like the ...
- 581
47
votes
12
answers
14k
views
How can people recognize what engine a game uses, based off its graphics?
With many games, you can say "oh, that's the Unreal Engine, for sure", or "this was made with an upgraded Rockstar Advanced Engine". We can often recognize the engine used for a game just by looking ...
- 1,290
47
votes
7
answers
101k
views
Algorithm for dynamically calculating a level based on experience points? [closed]
One of the struggles I've always had in game development is deciding how to implement experience points attributed to gaining a level. There doesn't seem to be a pattern to gaining a level in many of ...
- 625
47
votes
6
answers
4k
views
Why do games seemingly reload the entire level when restarting a level?
Is the data really modified that much during play?
I'm assuming the longish pause between restarting a level is the entire level reloading. But it seems to me that a well implemented system should ...
- 623
47
votes
9
answers
32k
views
How does pathfinding in RTS games work?
[crossposted from stackoverflow]
In a game such as Warcraft 3 or Age of Empires, the ways that an AI opponent can move about the map seem almost limitless. The maps are huge and the position of other ...
- 471
47
votes
4
answers
9k
views
A ball hits the corner, where will it deflect?
I need to brush up my trigonometry and hope you can help here with a simple mathematical model. Here is my model so far in the image attached. I am aware that the frame animation has other problems ...
- 964
47
votes
10
answers
16k
views
How can I prevent false score reports to global highscore tables?
Browser and mobile games commonly have global highscore tables. It's also common for those tables to contain scores of 2,147,483,647 — where people have figured out the webservice call that ...
- 661
47
votes
4
answers
42k
views
How were cartridge-based games programmed? [closed]
I'm thinking of like the SNES, N64, Atari... even the DS today, I suppose.
SNES games did not usually take up more than 4 MB of space, and N64 games were usually 32 to 64 MB worth of data.
These ...
47
votes
3
answers
3k
views
How to determine which thrusters to turn on to rotate the ship?
The configuration of the ship changes dynamically, so I have to determine which thruster to turn on when I want to rotate the ship clockwise or counter clockwise. The thrusters are always axis aligned ...
- 731
47
votes
10
answers
4k
views
How to know when your game concept is simply not fun and to stop
I'm a new hobbyist game developer but have yet to come up with something original that I found to be really fun. The hardest part I find about game development is this:
You have an idea that in your ...
- 471
47
votes
7
answers
5k
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'...
- 477
46
votes
16
answers
7k
views
How do I make educational games engaging not boring?
We make educational games for school students, age 7-18; we can't have any violence or blood in them.
I have scoured Google Play and YouTube for good examples of educational games.
So far I found ...
- 603
46
votes
10
answers
11k
views
How can I make my players interested in the game lore of my MMORPG?
In WoW (World of Warcraft), players skip all quest descriptions, and mindlessly spam "auto attack button", ignore the environment, lore, NPCs as they never existed. I.e., they enter a brain dead "mode"...
- 941
46
votes
6
answers
5k
views
How can I quickly check if my sprite tiles well?
I am trying to create tilemap sprites that tile nicely, but checking how well they tile is really cumbersome.
Ideally, I'd like to have an image editor that shows a layout like this, so I could see ...
- 461
46
votes
5
answers
50k
views
What is the purpose of glScissor?
I know that it is more efficient than stencil test, but am I right assuming that the same functionality could be achieved using projection transformations with viewport?
- 633
46
votes
4
answers
14k
views
How can I avoid giant player classes?
There is almost always a player class in a game. The player can generally do a lot in the game which means for me this class ends up being huge with a ton of variables to support each piece of ...
- 792
46
votes
2
answers
79k
views
How to make a character jump?
I am currently making a game in C# using Direct X 9.0. The game remake is Donkey Kong NES. I have nearly everything completed, but I am having problems with the physics of Mario's jump. I have ...
- 463
46
votes
5
answers
19k
views
What is the purpose of a "press start" screen?
A lot of games start with their intros and 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 the main menu ...
- 2,543
46
votes
2
answers
18k
views
Why are normal maps predominantly blue?
Why normal maps are predominantly blue instead of a random color?
I guess normal vectors of a 3D object can point in every direction, like:
...
- 862
46
votes
8
answers
53k
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 ...
- 2,714
46
votes
4
answers
83k
views
Developing games in Go? [closed]
Google's new Go language is still in its infancy, and it has yet to find widespread real-world use or support. Even so, it seems like a promising experiment, and I wonder if it could have a future in ...