Videogame Developer's Strategy Guide -- HobbyGameDev's 50+ best articles
What if you could be making better games, sooner, with less frustration?
For every week from mid-2009 until 2014 I wrote an online article about game development. Though that site, HobbyGameDev, no longer exists, I've curated and updated here the 50+ most read, most shared, and most discussed posts here, adding up to nearly 450 pages to give you a better head start.
This material is also included with membership in our worldwide mentored team practice community, HomeTeamGameDev.com
Level: Beginner-Intermediate
Main Topics: Design for Real-Time Games, Introductory Programming Concepts, Low/Zero Budget Development
=Table of Contents (PDF page numbers, but includes ebook formats)=
Section 1: Getting Started
1.1 : Making Your Own Videogames at Home is Totally Awesome : 14
1.2 : How Long Does it Take to Learn Game Programming? : 19
1.3 : Hobby Game Development: 20 Questions : 25
1.4 : Beginners Shouldn’t Start with a Design Document : 39
1.5 : Clone Videogames to Learn Real-Time Videogame Design : 42
1.6 : General Concepts for Beginning Developers : 45
1.7 : Learn Videogame Development Like Woodworking : 65
1.8 : Fan Habits and Focus are Not Developer Habits and Focus : 70
Section 2: Questions About Education
2.1 : Advice to a New Student in Videogame Design : 74
2.2 : Questions from an Elementary School Class : 78
2.3 : Class Questions About Game Development Career : 83
2.4 : Math for Videogame Making (Or: Will I Use Calculus?) : 89
2.5 : Question About Comp Sci. and Game Development : 94
2.6 : The Ways of Self-Education : 103
Section 3: Programming
3.1 : Game Programming Fundamentals : 110
3.2 : How Programmers Program : 124
3.3 : Position and Speed Variables : 132
3.4 : Float and Int Variables: Casting and Other Issues : 138
3.5 : Hack Then Refactor : 145
3.6 : Basic Real-Time Videogame Artificial intelligence : 152
3.7 : Quick and Dirty Back-Ups : 160
3.8 : Steps in Programming a Simple Realtime Strategy Game : 165
Section 4: Get Motivated
4.1 : Stop Trying to Learn Everything Before Starting : 171
4.2 : "Overcomplicating Everything" : 176
4.3 : Think by Building, Build to Answer Questions : 184
4.4 Your Attitude Matters Even When Working Alone : 187
4.5 : Don’t Wait for an Event, Job, Contest, or Assignment : 191
4.6 : The Brain is Not an Emulator : 193
4.7 : Stop Arguing About What Makes a Better Game : 200
4.8 : Start Before You Have an Idea : 204
Section 5: Game Design
5.1 : Modest First Projects and Incremental Learning : 209
5.2 : Bottom-Up vs Top-Down Game Design : 224
5.3 : Photographer's Algorithm : 232
5.4 : A Little Planning Can Go a Long Way : 236
5.5 : Doing More With Less: Short Videogame Design : 242
5.6 : Colorful Oceans and Chunky Sauces : 251
5.7 : Genres and Conventions: Known Patterns of What Works : 257
Section 6: Level Creation
6.1 : Anti-Design / Backwards Game Design in GoldenEye : 266
6.2 : Level Design Concepts : 273
6.3 : Level Design Process : 281
6.4 : Level Design Q & A : 288
6.5 : Non-Essential Level Art is Essential : 293
6.6 : Visual Language in Super Mario Bros Level Endings : 296
Section 7: Team Projects
7.1 : Videogame Project Management for Hobbyists and Students : 300
7.2 : Communication is a Game Development Skill, Part 1 : 315
7.3 : Communication is a Game Development Skill, Part 2 : 322
7.4 : Establishing a Videogame Development Club : 337
Section 8: Industry
8.1 : A Frank Look at Making Videogames Professionally : 349
8.2 : Indie Game Development as a Career : 358
8.3 : Influence of Business Models on Game Design : 368
8.4 : What’s Japan Doing Differently : 375
8.5 : Intellectual Property and Hobby Game Development : 380
8.6 : Should I Release a Game as Soon as It’s Done? : 392
8.7 : How to Get the Most Out of Your First GDC : 396
Section 9: Game Analysis
9.1 Why Minecraft Worked in 2011 : 406
9.2 Reflections on Three Specific Hobby Game Projects : 422
9.3 Quit Smoking: Effect of Interaction on Interpretation : 434
Last Page : 448
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You'll get a zip file containing the book in original PDF as well as major eReader formats (EPUB, MOBI, AZW3).