Gameplay Programming Books

[Mind Calamity]

So, what can the vast OGRE community recommend me to read on gameplay programming ?

I have about 2 years of experience in C++, and 3 years of programming experience in general, but I have no idea how to even begin constructing the gameplay mechanics.

So, I believe there are people here knowledgeable of gameplay programming (even those who are not, if you know some feel free to post here), and I'd like to hear some recommendations of books on gameplay programming (or some that cover this).

[tod]

I generally read the writing on beer bottles. It helped me a lot.
Now, seriously, I'm under the impression this is some kind of a secret. I mostly read blogs, or articles, I actually never thought about looking for a book on the subject. Some insight into Indy games can be found here. Next the famous GameDev and Gamasutra.
But overall, the field of game development seems very complex and little researched. That's not really a wonder seeing how most of the big studios just hire students for minimum wage and slave them 14 hours a day.

[Mind Calamity]

I generally read the writing on beer bottles. It helped me a lot.
Now, seriously, I'm under the impression this is some kind of a secret. I mostly read blogs, or articles, I actually never thought about looking for a book on the subject. Some insight into Indy games can be found here. Next the famous GameDev and Gamasutra.
But overall, the field of game development seems very complex and little researched. That's not really a wonder seeing how most of the big studios just hire students for minimum wage and slave them 14 hours a day.

Haha if there was a studio that would hire me and slave me 14 hours a day, I'd be glad to go there, but unfortunately, the part of the world I live in is really underdeveloped when it comes to software development in general, let alone game development (we have about 4-5 mini software development "companies", and the best that you can get to game development is flash games that the guys at college study, and I personally don't like).

The way I see it, there is no alternative to reading articles and some accidental book, the best resource on game development I can get my hands on would probably bee the writing on beer bottles (honestly )

I check GameDev (.net), and I've visited Gama Sutra a few times, but I haven't really taken a look around further than the article that got me there (usually a post on GameDev).

Thanks for your suggestion, tod, I will search the sites and make a collection of articles I find. (I found one on a blog called Binary Creativity, but I couldn't really understand it (by scrolling through it ), since it started and ended in math.

More suggestions are always helpful, guys

[areay]

"Programming Game AI by Example" by Mat Buckland is excellent. It's predominantly about AI and all the examples are in 2D but it talks about FSMs, steering (pursuing, fleeing, flocking, obstacle avoidance etc), path finding, fuzzy logic and has a full game example in there too. It's awesome. I can't recommend it enough.

here's an amazon link http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Game- ... 222&sr=8-1

[tod]

Haha if there was a studio that would hire me and slave me 14 hours a day, I'd be glad to go there

If I ever come with enough cash to start a game studio you'll be my first slave

[Cougar]

For general game programming topics I recommend the following two books:

Game Engine Architecture
Game Coding Complete

Both books cover approximately the same topics (general game architecture), and it's interesting how differently the authors see some areas

For beginners with some limited C++ knowledge I'd recommend: C++ For Game Programmers


Other than that, the "Game Programming Gems" series are a great resource, IMO.

[Klaim]

I agree with cougar.


Also, gameplay programming is a lot like any programming. The most important skill is to understand what exactly you want and what the potential implementation will imply on the final result. Also, understanding game design and how a player feel is key.

AI is the hardest side of gameplay programming, but anything related to controls and camera is still very easy to get wrong.

[Mind Calamity]

Haha if there was a studio that would hire me and slave me 14 hours a day, I'd be glad to go there

If I ever come with enough cash to start a game studio you'll be my first slave

Thanks for the offer, I'd be glad to be your slave for 14 hours a day of game development slavery (fun ), but see that I don't beat you to starting a game studio

BTW I don't really see working under someone else for any reason other than experience as a good thing. (I hate being controlled by someone else, and getting my creative freedom taken - which is exactly how I imagine the big shot game studios, my opinion may not be the reality of game dev studios, but until I see so myself I won't believe that working under someone is fun)

@Everyone else:

Thanks guys I'll check them out. If someone has more, feel free to post

[Pangamini]

I like to go through valve's developer commentaries in their source games. They talk about every aspect, from video memory handling to level design creating certain feelings and incepting solutions to puzzles, rendering.... everything. All attached to the real ingame examples (commentaries appear as you play). Games including ´HL2 and episodes, portal, TF2...

[Mind Calamity]

I like to go through valve's developer commentaries in their source games. They talk about every aspect, from video memory handling to level design creating certain feelings and incepting solutions to puzzles, rendering.... everything. All attached to the real ingame examples (commentaries appear as you play). Games including ´HL2 and episodes, portal, TF2...

I didn't know that Valve's games had such an option, good to know.

I watched "Silent Hill 2: Making Of" - the stuff shown there has little to do with programming, but a whole lot with game design and mood making (always useful), it had a lot of useful things shown there.

Also, video (or interactivity as in Valve's way of doing it) is always better than just reading. (I was watching video tutorials for C++ a few years ago )

And just for reference - my C++ are good enough to handle a something written in a book, I just need to find one. (I can't say the same about my math skills, since I haven't studied linear algebra apart from some research at home, but I think I have the basics done).

[Arkiruthis]

"Programming Game AI by Example" by Mat Buckland is excellent. It's predominantly about AI and all the examples are in 2D but it talks about FSMs, steering (pursuing, fleeing, flocking, obstacle avoidance etc), path finding, fuzzy logic and has a full game example in there too. It's awesome. I can't recommend it enough.

Couldn't agree more, this book is superb. I got it second-hand via Amazon marketplace as I think it was out of print. The book is really easy to read and I like the way states are implemented (he implements them as singleton states, which work great in 99% of situations). The section on vehicle behaviours and steering is also great. His code seems very clean and easy to understand.

The source code examples for this book is now located here (not at WordWare any more):
http://www.jblearning.com/Catalog/97815 ... 4/student/

One thing to note though, Kaspersky gives a warning about a virus in the Lua.exe part of the source code download. No idea whether that's a false-positive or not, but it's not necessary for running any of the examples.

Also, in his communication code I'm not sure he should've used STL "set" for his Telegram code. Multiple telegrams with the same timestamp key get discarded, even if they are for different entities. Only discovered this when sending messages to a bunch of entities at the same time.