A soup-to-nuts overview of just what it takes to successfully design, develop and manage an online game. Learn from the top two online game developers through the real-world successes and mistakes not known to others. There are Case studies from 10+ industry leaders, including Raph Koster, J. Baron, R. Bartle, D. Schubert, A. Macris, and more! Covers all types of online games: Retail Hybrids, Persistent Worlds, and console games. Developing Online Games provides insight into designing, developing and managing online games that is available nowhere else. Online game programming guru Jessica Mulligan and seasoned exec Bridgette Patrovsky provide insights into the industry that will allow others entering this market to avoid the mistakes of the past. In addition to their own experiences, the authors provide interviews, insight and anecdotes from over twenty of the most well-known and experienced online game insiders. The book includes case studies of the successes and failures of today's most well-known online games. There is also a special section for senior executives on how to budget an online game and how to assemble the right development and management teams. The book ends with a look at the future of online gaming: not only online console gaming (Xbox Online, Playstation 2), but the emerging mobile device game market (cell phones, wireless, PDA).

The biggest challenge facing many game programmers is completing their game. Most game projects fizzle out, overwhelmed by the complexity of their own code. Game Programming Patterns tackles that exact problem. Based on years of experience in shipped AAA titles, this book collects proven patterns to untangle and optimize your game, organized as independent recipes so you can pick just the patterns you need. You will learn how to write a robust game loop, how to organize your entities using components, and take advantage of the CPUs cache to improve your performance. You'll dive deep into how scripting engines encode behavior, how quadtrees and other spatial partitions optimize your engine, and how other classic design patterns can be used in games.

Trying to develop your own multiplayer online game can be overwhelming, especially as information on multiplayer specifics is very scarce. The nine-volume Development and Deployment of Multiplayer Games series is an attempt to summarize a body of knowledge that is known in the industry, but is rarely published, let alone published together. The series is highly praised by prominent representatives of the multiplayer gamedev industry. An "Early Praise" page within the book lists several testimonials by people from billion-dollar and/or AAA companies with job titles ranging from Managing Director and CTO to Backend Technical Director and Principal Software Engineer. Genres: From Social Games to MMOFPS, with Stock Exchanges In Between. Development and Deployment of Multiplayer Online Games aims to cover pretty much all the MOG genres - ranging from social games to MMORPGs and MMOFPS. While there are certainly differences between the genres, around 80% of the discussed concepts apply across the board. Level: Intermediate+. This series is not trying to teach very basics of the programming (and is not a book to copy-paste your MOG from). Rather, it is intended for those intermediate developers who want to progress into senior ones, and all the way up to CTOs and architects. In particular, there is no explanation of what event-driven programming is about, what the difference is between optimistic locking and pessimistic locking, why do you need a source control system, and so on. Instead, there will be discussions on how the concept of futures fits into event-driven programming, when the use of optimistic locking makes sense for games, and how to use source control in the presence of unmergeable files. This Volume: Vol. I Vol. I starts Part ARCH(itecture), and includes three Chapters. Chapter 1 discusses Game Design Document (GDD) - mostly concentrating on its multiplayer specifics of GDDs. Chapter 2 explores the all-important aspects of cheating - which is virtually non-existent in single-player games and games between friends, but plays an enormous role in multiplayer games; the resulting analysis leads to Authoritative Server architectures (note that discussion on implementing anti-cheating measures is much longer than it is possible to fit into Vol. I, and will take the whole Vol. VIII). The largest chapter of Vol. I, Chapter 3, is dedicated to typical multiplayer communication flows. Along the course of this discussion, it will cover lots of different topics, including such different things as Client-Side Prediction, Low-Latency Compressible State Sync, Lag Compensation and its dangers, and Inter-DB Async Transfer with Transactional Integrity

Master the Unity Game Engine to Design and Develop Games for Web, Mobile, Windows, macOS, and More! If you want to design and develop games, there’s no substitute for strong hands-on experience with modern techniques and tools—and that is exactly what this book provides. The first edition was frequently the top-selling game design book on Amazon, with more than 70% of the reviews being 5 stars. In a testament to the iterative process of design, this new edition includes hundreds of improvements throughout the text, all designed to make the book easier to understand and even more useful. This book was written with Unity 2017; the book.prototools.net website will cover changes for later versions of the software. Award-winning game designer and professor Jeremy Gibson Bond has spent more than a decade teaching game design and building great games. In that time, his most successful students have been those who combine knowledge of three critical disciplines: game design theory, rapid iterative prototyping, and practical programming. In this book, Bond distills the most important aspects of all three disciplines into one place. Part I: Game Design and Paper Prototyping • The Layered Tetrad framework: a synthesis of 50 years of game design theory • Proven practices for brainstorming and refining game designs through the iterative process of design • Methods and tools to manage game projects and small teams • Processes to make playtesting and feedback easier Part II: Digital Prototyping with Unity and C# • Chapters that guide you through learning C# the right way • Instruction that takes you from no prior programming knowledge through object-oriented programming • Deep exploration of Unity, today’s most popular game engine on both macOS and Windows • Methods for understanding and debugging code issues you encounter Part III: Game Prototype Examples and Tutorials • In-depth tutorials for seven different game prototypes, including a simple action game, a space shooter, a solitaire card game, a word game, and a top-down adventure • Instructions to compile these games for PC, web, or any of the dozens of other release platforms supported by Unity • Improved structure and layout that makes the steps of each tutorial easier to follow • A completely new Dungeon Delver prototype not present in the first edition

HTML5 is a markup language used to structure and present content for the World Wide Web and is a core technology of the Internet. It is supported across different platforms and is also supported by various browsers. Its innovative features, such as canvas, audio, and video elements, make it an excellent game building tool. HTML5 Game Development by Example Beginner's Guide Second Edition is a step-by-step tutorial that will help you create several games from scratch, with useful examples. Starting with an introduction to HTML5, the chapters of this book help you gain a better understanding of the various concepts and features of HTML5. By the end of the book, you'll have the knowledge, skills, and level of understanding you need to efficiently develop games over the network using HTML5.

Explore a comprehensive examination of the art and technology of one of the fastest-growing segments of the game industry with GAME DEVELOPMENT ESSENTIALS: MOBILE GAME DEVELOPMENT, International Edition. This ground breaking text walks students through the overall process of designing videogames and applications for mobile and handheld hardware. Through coverage of team building, production, QA and a look at the black box of the publication process both for independent and publisher backed studios; students learn the entire development process from initial concept to game design. Utilizing real-life examples, interviews and advice from developers already well established in the mobile industry, MOBILE GAME DEVELOPMENT serves as the 'how to' guide for students looking to break into the mobile game development industry.

The art of programming mechanics -- Real world mechanics -- Animation mechanics -- Game rules and mechanics -- Character mechanics -- Player mecahnics -- Environmental mechanics -- Mechanics for externl forces.