Game Engines

Solar2D General Questions/Discussion
#1

I made a mistake in my last post in asking 2 questions and my main question got forgotten.  Sorry.

So, here is my main question.

Can anyone recommend any tutorials or books that teach Game Engine techniques?

Example:

  Clash of Clans - where the enemies run around after different targets. 

  Zoo types of games where non-player characters run around visiting different items including your stuff.

I am NOT worried about the graphics, that will belong mostly to the graphic artist.  I am mostly interested in the game engine.  I have 2 masters, one in math and one in Computer Science (Artificial Intelligence) but I didn’t (kicking myself now) study game engines.  I am VERY interested in learning HOW they do it.

Any suggestions on a book/books I can read that can teach me how?

Thank you!

#2

Some of the stuff in this Game Engine Gems list might be worth a shot.

You can click on the books to see their contents. There’s sort of a mix of design and programming in the Game Programming Gems series. Also, given that you have a math background, you might look at some of editor Eric Lengyel’s own work. I have an earlier edition of his 3D game math book and made some good use of it.

Further on the math front would be David Eberly’s stuff. I’ve got the “Geometric Tools” book and it’s often been helpful. From a look at the contents, it seems his game engine book must be how to take that same material and turn it into an engine. So, the technical side of the engine.

At first, your post suggests you’re after how to do a given genre, but then you mention graduate degrees, so I’m not sure quite what sort of material you really want.  :slight_smile:

This is pretty C+±heavy, but has a good overview of how to structure an engine. Or at least, it did when part 1 still existed… looks like 2-5 are still there, though.

There are quite a lot of game-specific articles at Paul Firth’s site: How to make games, How to make a 2D platform game, How to make a multi-player game, and probably others I didn’t see on the front page. He’s done physics in the games industry, and so also has some articles on that and collision detection as well.

Within the Corona community, roaminggamer has been exploring the mechanics of some games on the Corona Geek show lately, I’m aware of this platformer tutorial, and T&G Apps have a giant list which includes tutorials and templates. That said, I imagine there’s a lot more than that!

Cowboy Programming has some interesting material, particularly in the “Inner Product” pages. I believe the “Evolve your hierarchy” article, in particular, has been influential in quite a lot of projects in recent years.

For retrospectives with some progamming mixed in I can think of: The 3D Software Rendering Technology of 1998’s Thief: The Dark Project, The Graphics Programming Black Book (the last several chapters concern Doom and Quake), and Halcyon Days. But that’s just an off-hand list.

#3

Some of the stuff in this Game Engine Gems list might be worth a shot.

You can click on the books to see their contents. There’s sort of a mix of design and programming in the Game Programming Gems series. Also, given that you have a math background, you might look at some of editor Eric Lengyel’s own work. I have an earlier edition of his 3D game math book and made some good use of it.

Further on the math front would be David Eberly’s stuff. I’ve got the “Geometric Tools” book and it’s often been helpful. From a look at the contents, it seems his game engine book must be how to take that same material and turn it into an engine. So, the technical side of the engine.

At first, your post suggests you’re after how to do a given genre, but then you mention graduate degrees, so I’m not sure quite what sort of material you really want.  :slight_smile:

This is pretty C+±heavy, but has a good overview of how to structure an engine. Or at least, it did when part 1 still existed… looks like 2-5 are still there, though.

There are quite a lot of game-specific articles at Paul Firth’s site: How to make games, How to make a 2D platform game, How to make a multi-player game, and probably others I didn’t see on the front page. He’s done physics in the games industry, and so also has some articles on that and collision detection as well.

Within the Corona community, roaminggamer has been exploring the mechanics of some games on the Corona Geek show lately, I’m aware of this platformer tutorial, and T&G Apps have a giant list which includes tutorials and templates. That said, I imagine there’s a lot more than that!

Cowboy Programming has some interesting material, particularly in the “Inner Product” pages. I believe the “Evolve your hierarchy” article, in particular, has been influential in quite a lot of projects in recent years.

For retrospectives with some progamming mixed in I can think of: The 3D Software Rendering Technology of 1998’s Thief: The Dark Project, The Graphics Programming Black Book (the last several chapters concern Doom and Quake), and Halcyon Days. But that’s just an off-hand list.