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How can I successfully finish a hobby game project in my free time? How do I motivate myself to keep it up and drive right through to the finish without losing interest or motivation along the way?
Community wiki
5 revs, 4 users 43%
Michael Klement
320 votes
1 answer
184k views

I believe that in order to become a good game developer, you need to make games. From a programmer's perspective, what are some good entry level games to get your hands dirty? What skills and ...
Community wiki
3 revs, 3 users 100%
Drew
313 votes
14 answers
29k views

I want to give each of 10 players a unique identifying color. Is there an optimum set of colors for this? How do I create one? Every set I've come up with contains colors that are too similar. ...
David Thielen's user avatar
  • 2,965
271 votes
11 answers
114k views

Should a game loop be based on fixed or variable time steps? Is one always superior, or does the right choice vary by game? Variable time step Physics updates are passed a "time elapsed since last ...
Nick Sonneveld's user avatar
  • 2,859
257 votes
36 answers
39k views

When you give the player a rare but powerful item which can only be used once but is never really required to proceed, most players will not use it at all, because they are waiting for the perfect ...
Community wiki
3 revs, 3 users 100%
Philipp
214 votes
4 answers
26k views

Spore allows player-created creatures to be shared by exporting a .png file. That .png is a photo of the creature, but if it's ...
ibrabeicker's user avatar
  • 2,951
208 votes
17 answers
121k views

I'd like to try my hand at making games. In making some simple ones, I realised I can't do art! I've tried to find others to help: Most existing teams wouldn't want me because of my limited ...
user avatar
193 votes
35 answers
38k views

With your typical MMORPG, players can usually farm the world for raw materials essentially forever. Monsters/mineral veins/etc are usually on some sort of respawn timer, so other than time there ...
Community wiki
3 revs, 2 users 67%
Tetrad
185 votes
1 answer
51k views

I've been reading a lot about entity components and systems and have thought that the idea of an entity just being an ID is quite interesting. However I don't know how this completely works with the ...
bio595's user avatar
  • 1,961
173 votes
10 answers
36k views

After looking into optimization a bit, I have discovered (literally everywhere) that it seems to be a universally recognized sin to optimize a game too early. I really don't understand this, would it ...
mr-matt's user avatar
  • 2,779
171 votes
13 answers
152k views

Simple enough question: What math should all game programmers have a firm grasp of in order to be successful? I'm not specifically talking about rendering math or anything in the niche areas of game ...
Community wiki
4 revs, 2 users 100%
Tetrad
169 votes
3 answers
172k views

Khronos Group (the standards body behind OpenGL) has just announced Vulkan: Vulkan is the new generation, open standard API for high-efficiency access to graphics and compute on modern GPUs. This ...
Anko's user avatar
  • 13.5k
161 votes
25 answers
30k views

In my RPG, I have a companion NPC who is overconfident in his abilities and lacks self-control. I wanted to create a few situations where the player needs to reign them in and tell them "no"....
Thunderforge's user avatar
  • 1,957
160 votes
8 answers
58k views

I will preface this by saying I haven't looked a huge amount of game source, nor built much in the way of games. But coming from trying to employ 'enterprise' coding practices in web apps, looking at ...
timoxley's user avatar
  • 1,731
158 votes
31 answers
172k views

Let's make a list of the best books that every game developer should read. Each answer should have a single book (by title and optionally author), a link to buy the book, and a short synopsis of what ...
Community wiki
6 revs, 2 users 69%
DFectuoso
155 votes
3 answers
38k views

Quite a lot of game allow user to play in a "borderless fullscreen window" instead of a "fullscreen mode". I've been wondering. Why would one prefer a fullscreen window over the "built-in" fullscreen ...
LaVolpe's user avatar
  • 1,792
155 votes
11 answers
70k views

Most games build on other games' successes and many are downright clones. Where is the limit of imitation before legal issues come into play? Is it down to literary or graphic work like characters and ...
Fuu's user avatar
  • 2,358
154 votes
18 answers
50k views

What are some of the biggest - and better yet: insidious and unexpected - mistakes that indie game developers make? Especially when making the transition from hobbyist to full-time indie?
Community wiki
3 revs, 3 users 100%
Andrew Russell
150 votes
22 answers
51k views

Every programming language has its standard library of containers, algorithms, and other helpful stuff. With languages like C#, Java, and Python, it's practically inconceivable to use the language ...
munificent's user avatar
  • 12.1k
150 votes
10 answers
99k views

Related: Simple noise generation Understanding Perlin Noise I'd like to generate tileable Perlin noise. I'm working from Paul Bourke's PerlinNoise*() functions, ...
bobobobo's user avatar
  • 17.2k
139 votes
9 answers
105k views

I have a few books on Design Patterns, and have read some articles, but cannot intuitively figure out which programming design patterns would be useful in game development. For example, I have a book ...
Community wiki
2 revs, 2 users 100%
jcurrie33
138 votes
1 answer
101k views

Generally, what are the core things that one should do in the game loop, and what are some things that one shouldn't do in the game loop?
Community wiki
hokiecsgrad
137 votes
16 answers
23k views

Yesterday, I noticed something that I had never noticed consciously before, but which had "ruined" more or less all games that I have ever played: The longer you play a game, the more you get lost in ...
gexicide's user avatar
  • 1,393
136 votes
11 answers
32k views

When creating open-world maps, a big issue to take into consideration is how "borders" of sorts are implemented. Obviously, in an open-world game, there shouldn't be invisible-wall borders, as it ...
Ethan Bierlein's user avatar
  • 1,710
135 votes
4 answers
21k views

I keep hearing the word "affordance" in terms of game design, most recently in the movie Indie Game: Life After. I also vaguely remember it from a UX class in undergrad. But I have no idea what it ...
Evorlor's user avatar
  • 5,891
126 votes
13 answers
151k views

I'm developing a classical 2d RPG (in a similar vein to final fantasy) and I was wondering if anyone had some advice on how to do damage formulas/links to resources/examples? I'll explain my current ...
user127817's user avatar
  • 1,863
124 votes
20 answers
47k views

In several games the AI is designed to give the player an easy time without their knowledge. This can be having a 0% chance to hit the first time you appear, enemy letting you sneak up on them by not ...
PStag's user avatar
  • 1,260
124 votes
12 answers
19k views

Has piracy EVER resulted in a developer getting shut down? That is, has piracy ever been so detrimental that it brought about the downfall of a game studio? If I were to release a game, should I be ...
yuritsuki's user avatar
  • 1,257
120 votes
10 answers
22k views

I have two user cases: How would entity_A send a take-damage message to entity_B? How ...
deft_code's user avatar
  • 7,652
117 votes
28 answers
29k views

I'm currently working on a very small scale MMO game planned to support approximately hundred players per server, but we're having trouble with our economical model. For various reasons we have ...
Applekini's user avatar
  • 8,543
115 votes
21 answers
77k views

I want to develop an MMO, like World of Warcraft, but some basic research says that it is going to take a lot of time and money. I'd like to know why. Why is it so expensive to develop an MMO?
Dr. Snoopy's user avatar
  • 5,115
115 votes
7 answers
257k views

I am new to game development. I am interested in developing 2D games for the Android platform. What is the best place to start with (i.e) What are the basics and how to proceed? I already have ...
Community wiki
Ragunath Jawahar
114 votes
6 answers
45k views

There are a lot of version control systems available, including open-source ones such as Subversion, Git, and Mercurial, plus commercial ones such as Perforce. How well do they support the process ...
Community wiki
9 revs, 4 users 89%
Cyclops
113 votes
13 answers
34k views

What's the incentive of sharing games one designs themselves for free online such as itch.io? I see people doing this and I don't understand.
feynman's user avatar
  • 1,243
112 votes
10 answers
9k views

Are there any recommended blogs or whitepapers that talk about making the AI in an RPG game feel more real? (Specifically in turn based combat.) I know something must be out there, but I am only ...
user avatar
111 votes
4 answers
25k views

For example the famous Flappy Bird game, or anything that sort really, is the player(in this case the bird, or the camera whichever you prefer) moving forward or is the whole world moving backwards(...
Lendrit Ibrahimi's user avatar
  • 1,029
111 votes
2 answers
42k views

Divinity: Original Sin 2 has a beautiful see-through system. When I go behind walls, a splash mask will appear, and when I move around the game, it changes. It's like a dissolve shader, and has a ...
Seyed Morteza Kamali's user avatar
  • 8,383
110 votes
7 answers
67k views

I am developing an online multiplayer game. It works well when I test it on the local area network, but before I release it I would like to test how the user-experience works out for someone who has ...
Philipp's user avatar
  • 123k
109 votes
6 answers
188k views

I am developing my first 2D game in Unity and I have come across what seems an important question. How do I handle data between scenes? There seems to be different answers to this: Someone mention ...
Enrique Moreno Tent's user avatar
  • 2,038
106 votes
13 answers
31k views

Some games have cheat codes in them, but I'm not sure I want to add some to mine because I fear they'll ruin the game by making it too easy to beat. What would be the advantages of putting cheat ...
Casanova's user avatar
  • 1,839
106 votes
11 answers
40k views

Are there any good resources for learning about game architectures? I am looking for high level overviews of different architectures. I tend to find information about the various pieces of a game such ...
Community wiki
7 revs, 5 users 100%
Colin Gislason
105 votes
5 answers
21k views

If an engine supports Windows, OS X, and Linux, why do we sometimes see games using these engines, like Space Hulk: Deathwing, restricted to Windows only?
Nathan's user avatar
  • 1,095
103 votes
3 answers
16k views

I'd like to recreate a flaming effect like the one from the logo on the title screen of the N64 game 'The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time,' shown below: A quick look into the textures used in the ROM ...
nathanburns's user avatar
  • 1,153
102 votes
12 answers
72k views

This could include specific game dev, general dev or general game podcasts. Please provide a brief description along with links.
Community wiki
7 revs, 5 users 57%
Colin Gislason
99 votes
7 answers
6k views

Every game which builds a community while still being in active development will soon be confronted with players who post suggestions for new features on its forum. Most of these suggestions, however: ...
Philipp's user avatar
  • 123k
98 votes
4 answers
78k views

Most game development (game design, art, programming, etc.) can be done by one person with relatively little equipment: A game designer needs a pencil and paper, an artist Photoshop or Paint, a ...
Gustavo Maciel's user avatar
  • 5,156
96 votes
12 answers
16k views

In a simple business simulation game (built in Java + Slick2D), should a player's current amount of money be stored as a float or an ...
Lucas Tulio's user avatar
  • 1,317
96 votes
9 answers
59k views

I heard that in an OpenGL game what we do to let the player move is not to move the camera but to move the whole world around. For example here is an extract of this tutorial: OpenGL View matrix In ...
danijar's user avatar
  • 5,761
94 votes
2 answers
26k views

I'm new to both gamedev and Blender, and there's something I can't shake: In Blender, a single render (even using the more advanced Cycles renderer) can take up to 45 seconds on my machine. But ...
smeeb's user avatar
  • 1,055
93 votes
3 answers
16k views

In my latest game I'm making, you can slice a 2D object arbitrarily, demonstrated in this gif: You can continuously cut it into hundreds or thousands of pieces. This doesn't create a lot of lag, ...
Garflington's user avatar
  • 137

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