A soup-to-nuts overview of just what it takes to successfully design, develop and manage an online game. Learn from the top two online game developers through the real-world successes and mistakes not known to others. There are Case studies from 10+ industry leaders, including Raph Koster, J. Baron, R. Bartle, D. Schubert, A. Macris, and more! Covers all types of online games: Retail Hybrids, Persistent Worlds, and console games. Developing Online Games provides insight into designing, developing and managing online games that is available nowhere else. Online game programming guru Jessica Mulligan and seasoned exec Bridgette Patrovsky provide insights into the industry that will allow others entering this market to avoid the mistakes of the past. In addition to their own experiences, the authors provide interviews, insight and anecdotes from over twenty of the most well-known and experienced online game insiders. The book includes case studies of the successes and failures of today's most well-known online games. There is also a special section for senior executives on how to budget an online game and how to assemble the right development and management teams. The book ends with a look at the future of online gaming: not only online console gaming (Xbox Online, Playstation 2), but the emerging mobile device game market (cell phones, wireless, PDA).

The biggest challenge facing many game programmers is completing their game. Most game projects fizzle out, overwhelmed by the complexity of their own code. Game Programming Patterns tackles that exact problem. Based on years of experience in shipped AAA titles, this book collects proven patterns to untangle and optimize your game, organized as independent recipes so you can pick just the patterns you need. You will learn how to write a robust game loop, how to organize your entities using components, and take advantage of the CPUs cache to improve your performance. You'll dive deep into how scripting engines encode behavior, how quadtrees and other spatial partitions optimize your engine, and how other classic design patterns can be used in games.

Trying to develop your own multiplayer online game can be overwhelming, especially as information on multiplayer specifics is very scarce. The nine-volume Development and Deployment of Multiplayer Games series is an attempt to summarize a body of knowledge that is known in the industry, but is rarely published, let alone published together. The series is highly praised by prominent representatives of the multiplayer gamedev industry. An "Early Praise" page within the book lists several testimonials by people from billion-dollar and/or AAA companies with job titles ranging from Managing Director and CTO to Backend Technical Director and Principal Software Engineer. Genres: From Social Games to MMOFPS, with Stock Exchanges In Between. Development and Deployment of Multiplayer Online Games aims to cover pretty much all the MOG genres - ranging from social games to MMORPGs and MMOFPS. While there are certainly differences between the genres, around 80% of the discussed concepts apply across the board. Level: Intermediate+. This series is not trying to teach very basics of the programming (and is not a book to copy-paste your MOG from). Rather, it is intended for those intermediate developers who want to progress into senior ones, and all the way up to CTOs and architects. In particular, there is no explanation of what event-driven programming is about, what the difference is between optimistic locking and pessimistic locking, why do you need a source control system, and so on. Instead, there will be discussions on how the concept of futures fits into event-driven programming, when the use of optimistic locking makes sense for games, and how to use source control in the presence of unmergeable files. This Volume: Vol. I Vol. I starts Part ARCH(itecture), and includes three Chapters. Chapter 1 discusses Game Design Document (GDD) - mostly concentrating on its multiplayer specifics of GDDs. Chapter 2 explores the all-important aspects of cheating - which is virtually non-existent in single-player games and games between friends, but plays an enormous role in multiplayer games; the resulting analysis leads to Authoritative Server architectures (note that discussion on implementing anti-cheating measures is much longer than it is possible to fit into Vol. I, and will take the whole Vol. VIII). The largest chapter of Vol. I, Chapter 3, is dedicated to typical multiplayer communication flows. Along the course of this discussion, it will cover lots of different topics, including such different things as Client-Side Prediction, Low-Latency Compressible State Sync, Lag Compensation and its dangers, and Inter-DB Async Transfer with Transactional Integrity

This engaging book presents the essential mathematics needed to describe, simulate, and render a 3D world. Reflecting both academic and in-the-trenches practical experience, the authors teach you how to describe objects and their positions, orientations, and trajectories in 3D using mathematics. The text provides an introduction to mathematics for game designers, including the fundamentals of coordinate spaces, vectors, and matrices. It also covers orientation in three dimensions, calculus and dynamics, graphics, and parametric curves.

Good game design happens when you view your game from as many perspectives as possible. Written by one of the world's top game designers, The Art of Game Design presents 100+ sets of questions, or different lenses, for viewing a game’s design, encompassing diverse fields such as psychology, architecture, music, visual design, film, software engineering, theme park design, mathematics, puzzle design, and anthropology. This Second Edition of a Game Developer Front Line Award winner: Describes the deepest and most fundamental principles of game design Demonstrates how tactics used in board, card, and athletic games also work in top-quality video games Contains valuable insight from Jesse Schell, the former chair of the International Game Developers Association and award-winning designer of Disney online games The Art of Game Design, Second Edition gives readers useful perspectives on how to make better game designs faster. It provides practical instruction on creating world-class games that will be played again and again.

"This book examines the potential of games and simulations in online learning, and how the future could look as developers learn to use the emerging capabilities of the Semantic Web. It explores how the Semantic Web will impact education and how games and simulations can evolve to become robust teaching resources"--Provided by publisher.

This book includes game design and implementation chapters using either Phaser JavaScript Gaming Frameworks v2.6.2, CE, v3.16+, AND any other JS Gaming Frameworks for the front- and back-end development. It is a Book of 5 Rings Game Design - "HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, and SQL". It further analyzes several freely available back-end servers and supporting middleware (such as PHP, Python, and several CMS). This game design workbook takes you step-by-step into the creation of Massively Multiplayer Online Game as a profitable business adventure - none of this theoretical, local workstation proof of concept! It uses any popular JavaScript Gaming Framework -- not just limited to Phaser.JS!! -- on the client-side browser interfacing into a unique, server-side, application using WebSockets. It is the only book of its kind since January 2017 for the Phaser MMO Gaming Framework! * Part I leads you through the world of networks, business consideration, MMoG analysis and setting up your studio workshop. I have 40 years of networking career experience in highly sensitive (i.e., Government Embassies) data communications. I am a certified Cisco Academy Instructor and have taught networking, networking security, game design/development, and software engineering for the past 14 years at the college level. * Part II Guides you into Multi-player Online Game architecture contrasted to normal single-player games. This lays the foundation for Multi-Player Game Prototypes and reviews a missing aspect in current MMoG development not seen in many online tutorials and example code. * Part III contains 3 chapters focused on production and development for the client-side code, client-proxy, server-side code, and MMoG app. This content sets the foundation for what many Phaser tutorials and Phaser Starter-Kits on the market today overlook and never tell you! Upon completion of Part III, you will have your bespoke MMoG with integrated micro-service, and if you choose, web workers and block-chain. * Part IV (Bonus Content) This section includes proprietary Game Rule Books and EULA source code included as a part of your book purchase. It features four (4) Game Recipes -- step-by-step instructions -- listed by complexity "1" = easiest (elementary skills) to "4" = most complex (requiring advanced skills across several IT technology disciplines). Each external “Walk-Through Tutorial” guides you in different aspects of MMoG development. * How to migrate single-player games into a 2-player online delivery mode (not using "hot-seat")! * How to use dynamic client-side proxy servers and migrate this game from its current single-player mode (with AI Bot) into an online 2-player mode (not using "hot-seat")! * How to include "Asynchronous Availability" during gameplay and migrate this gameplay mode (with AI Bot) into an online "Asynchronous Availability" 3-player mode using postal mail or email game turns! The FREE game rule book will help "deconstruct" this game mechanics.

In the global game industry where the U.S. has already established its strong position in PC game and Japan in console game, Korea successfully opened new territory and began to play an important role in the global game industry with a new and emerging product — the online game. This book focuses on this interesting phenomenon and suggests that innovation, which led to the shift from the offline game to the online game, is the rationale behind this. Based on field data gathered through direct investigations with Korean game developers as well as the U.S., Southeast Asian, Chinese and Japanese companies, this book unveils diverse strategies of game companies and presents cognitive differences toward the online game business where various convergences will occur between the online game and other Internet businesses.This book focuses on the innovative factors which made the online game, born in a small Asian country, grow tremendously and successfully to gain competitiveness in the global game industry where the PC and console games had already taken their strong position. Based on authentic, accumulated research conducted over five years in the domain of the online game industry through interviews, case studies and international surveys, the data in this book has huge value since the results were derived from users' data with the cooperation of each game industry.

This book explores innovative approaches to teaching Christian Religious Education (CRE) by integrating online games as an educational tool. Addressing the challenges faced in traditional religious education, the authors highlight how online games can make learning more engaging and interactive for students. Each chapter provides theoretical foundations, practical recommendations, and real-life case studies on the use of online games in CRE. The book offers educators strategies for content planning, implementation, and evaluation, aiming to enhance students’ understanding and application of religious values in their daily lives. By leveraging the interactive nature of online games, this book seeks to foster a deeper connection between students and their faith, making religious education both enjoyable and meaningful.

The definitive guide to more effective and personally fulfilling game development with Agile Methods—now revamped to reflect ten more years of experience and improvements. Game development is in crisis—facing bloated budgets, impossible schedules, unmanageable complexity, and death-march overtime. It's no wonder so many development studios are struggling to survive. Fortunately, there is a solution. Agile and Lean methods have revolutionized development in the game development industry. In Agile Game Development, long-time game developer and consultant Clinton Keith shows exactly how these methods have been successfully applied to the unique challenges of modern game development. Clint has spent more than 25 years developing games and training and coaching hundreds of game development teams. Drawing on this unparalleled expertise, he shows how teams can use the practices of Scrum and Kanban, customized to game development, to deliver games more efficiently, rapidly, and cost-effectively; craft games that offer more entertainment value; and make life more fulfilling for development teams at the same time. Contains several new chapters on live games, leadership, and coaching, including an all-new section on Agile for large teams of up to 1000 developers Updates to all chapters to reflect a decade of experience with more than 200 studios Now covering Kanban and other Agile approaches alongside Scrum Understanding Agile goals, roles, and practices in the context of game development Discovering how Agile benefits every specialty in game development from art to QA Communicating and planning your game's vision, features, and progress Game developers and leaders are recognizing the modern challenges of gaming. Game development organizations need a far better way to work. Agile Game Development gives them that—and brings the profitability, creativity, and fun back to game development.