Presents a collection of articles on computer game programming, covering design techniques, engineering techniques, and production techniques.

This book is about the fastest growing form of electronic game in the world--the Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG). The evolution of these self-contained three-dimensional virtual worlds, often inhabited by thousands of players, is described here. This work also delves into the psychology of the people who inhabit the game universe and explores the development of the unique cultures, economies, moral codes, and slang in these virtual communities. It explains how the games are built, the spin-offs that players create to enhance their game lives, and peeks at the future of MMORPGs as they evolve from a form of amusement to an educational, scientific, and business tool. Based on hundreds of interviews over a three-year period, the work explores reasons people are attracted to and addicted to these games. It also surveys many existing and upcoming games, identifying their unique features and attractions. Two appendices list online addiction organizations and MMORPG information sites.

The Practical Guide to Building Reliable Networked Multiplayer Games Networked multiplayer games are a multibillion dollar business: some games now attract tens of millions of players. In this practical, code-rich guide, Joshua Glazer and Sanjay Madhav guide you through every aspect of engineering them. Drawing on their immense experience as both game developers and instructors, the authors lead you through building a robust multiplayer architecture, and creating every engine-level system. You’ll learn through in-depth working code examples for two complete games: an action game and a real time strategy (RTS) game. First, Madhav and Glazer review the essentials of networking and network programming from the standpoint of game developers. Next, they walk through managing game data transmission, updating game objects across the network, and organizing the devices that join your game. You’ll learn how to ensure reliable performance despite the Internet’s inherent inconsistencies, and how to design game code for maximum security and scalability. The authors conclude by addressing two increasingly crucial issues: incorporating gamer services and hosting your games in the cloud. This guide’s content has been extensively tested through the authors’ multiplayer game programming courses at USC. It is equally valuable both to students and to working game programmers moving into networked games. Coverage includes How games have evolved to meet the challenges of networked environments Using Internet communication protocols and standards in game development Working with Berkeley Socket, the most widely used networking construct in multiplayer gaming Formatting game data for efficient Internet transmission Synchronizing states so all players share the same world Organizing networking topologies for large-scale games Overcoming latency and jitter problems that cause delays or lost data Scaling games without compromising performance Combating security vulnerabilities and software cheats Leveraging the networking functionality of the popular Unreal 4 and Unity game engines Integrating gamer services such as matchmaking, achievements, and leaderboards Running game servers in the cloud About the Website C++ source code for all examples is available at github.com/MultiplayerBook. Instructors will also find a full set of PowerPoint slides and a sample syllabus.

This is an astonishing collection of ideas, information, and instruction from one of the true pioneers of Massively-Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games. MMOs from the Inside Out: The History, Design, Fun, and Art of Massively-Multiplayer Role-playing Games speaks to the designers and players of MMOs, taking it as axiomatic that such games are inspirational and boundless forces for good. The aim of this book is to enthuse an up-coming generation of designers, to inspire and educate players and designers-to-be, and to reinvigorate those already working in the field who might be wondering if it’s still all worthwhile. Playing MMOs is about fun, immersion, and identity. Creating MMOs is about imagination, expression, and art. MMOs are so packed with potential that today's examples are little more than small, pioneering colonies on the shore of a vast, uncharted continent. What wonders wait beyond the horizon? What treasures will explorers bring back to amaze us? MMOs from the Inside Out is for people with a spark of creativity: it pours gasoline on that spark. It: Explains what MMOs are, what they once were, and what they could – and should – become. Delves into why players play, and why designers design. Encourages, enthuses, enrages, engages, enlightens, envisions, and enchants. Doesn't tell you what to think, it tells you to think. What You Will Learn: Myriad ways to improve MMOs – and to decide for yourself whether these are improvements. What MMOs are; who plays them, and why. How MMOs became what they are, and what this means for what they will become. That you have it in you to make MMOs yourself. Whom This Book is For:MMOs from the Inside Out is a book for those who wish to know more about game design in general and MMO design in particular. It's for people who play MMOs, for people who design MMOs, and for people who study MMOs. It's for people with a yearning to see beyond the world around them and to make manifest the worlds of their imagination.

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

An easy-to-follow, tutorial manner that uses the learning-by-example approach. If you are a developer who wants to start making multiplayer games with the Unity game engine, this book is for you. This book assumes you have some basic experience with programming. No prior knowledge of the Unity IDE is required.

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).