Software Engineering Stack Exchange
Software Engineering Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [game-development]

Development is undertaken by a game developer, which may range from a single person to a large business. Mainstream games are normally funded by a publisher and take several years to develop. Indie games can take less time and can be produced cheaply by individuals and small developers. The indie game industry has seen a rise in recent years with the growth of new online distribution systems and the mobile game market.

Game development is the process of creating a video game. Development is undertaken by a game developer, which may range from a single person to a large business. Mainstream games are normally funded by a publisher and take several years to develop. Indie games can take less time and can be produced cheaply by individuals and small developers. The indie game industry has seen a rise in recent years with the growth of new online distribution systems and the mobile game market.

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Why do game developers prefer Windows?

Is it that DirectX is easier or better than OpenGL, even if OpenGL is cross-platform? Why do we not see real powerful games for Linux like there are for Windows?
M.Sameer
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Why isn't Java more widely used for game development?

I'm not a game developer or anything, but I know that Java is not very widely used for game development. Java should be fast enough for most games, so where's the catch? I can think of some reasons: Lack of game developers with expertice in…
Anto
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Developing a feature which sole purpose to be taken out?

What is the name of the pattern in which individual contributors (programmers/designers) developed an artifact for the sole purpose is to serve as a diversion so that management can remove that feature in the final product? This is a folklore I…
adib
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When does "proper" programming no longer matter?

I've been building an android game in my spare time. It's using the libgdx library so quite a bit of the heavy lifting is done for me. While developing, I carelessly selected datatypes for some procedures. I used a hashtable because I wanted…
Kai Qing
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How should I build the data structure for a dynamic, unlimited-size "maze"?

I'm not actually sure that "maze" is the correct term. Basically users start in a single Room that has 4 doors (N, S, E, and W). They can go in any direction, and each subsequent room is contains another room with anywhere from 1 to 4 doorways that…
Rachel
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When is it appropriate to introduce a new layer of abstraction into a class hierarchy?

Suppose I'm creating a game played on a 2D coordinate grid. The game has 3 types of enemies which all move in different ways: Drunkard: moves using type 1 movement. Mummy: moves using type 1 movement, except when it's near the main character, in…
Frank
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Best techniques for an AI of a card game

I’m trying to develop an AI for a card game and I’m a bit stuck about the technique/algorithm I should use. Here are a few assumptions about the game: After the cards are distributed to players, there is no randomness. I mean here that every player…
LaurentG
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Is it reasonable to build applications (not games) using a component-entity-system architecture?

I know that when building applications (native or web) such as those in the Apple AppStore or Google Play app store that it's very common to use a Model-View-Controller architecture. However, is it reasonable to also create applications using the…
Andrew De Andrade
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The Inglish parser (for The Hobbit 1982)

Was fascinated to read about the text adventure game The Hobbit which featured an incredibly robust parser called "Inglish": ...Inglish allowed one to type advanced sentences such as "ask Gandalf about the curious map then take sword and kill troll…
Jordan Reiter
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TCP or UDP for a multiplayer game?

This is a question I see a lot. Most people say UDP is always better for real-time games than TCP. My understanding is that TCP tries to re-send packets over and over til the other side gets them whereas UDP doesn't care. Most of the things I've…
flooblebit
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What's the proper way to model this real-world activity that seems to need circular references in OOP?

I've been wrestling with a problem in a Java project about circular references. I'm trying to model a real-world situation in which it seems the objects in question are interdependent and need to know about each other. The project is a generic…
Damian Walker
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Algorithm for calculating a bullet path to a target with max. 2 ricochets

Sorry for the poor title but I didn't have a better way to phrase it... So there's this amazing game by Nintendo (yes!) on Wii called WiiPlay. There're 9 minigames in it, and my favorite one is called Tanks!. It's about destroying COM enemy tanks…
hello all
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Generic rule parser for RPG board game rules - how to do it?

I want to build a generic rule parser for pen and paper style RPG systems. A rule can involve usually 1 to N entities 1 to N roles of a dice and calculating values based on multiple attributes of an entity. For example: Player has STR 18, his…
floriank
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A free game-development language?

So, I'm trying to teach my much younger cousin a little bit about programming. My initial thought was something like Scratch or Alice, but there were a few downsides to that. Everyone seems to be really in to game programming and developing video…
Bob
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What is the relationship between OpenGL, GLX, DRI, and Mesa3D?

I am starting out doing some low-level 3D programming in Linux. I have a lot of experience using the higher level graphics API OpenInventor. I know it is not strictly necessary to be aware of how all these things fit together but I'm just curious.…
ttb
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