Take control of your global game development team and make successful AAA game titles using the 'Distributed Development' model. Game industry veteran Tim Fields teaches you how to evaluate game deals, how to staff teams for highly distributed game development, and how to maintain challenging relationships in order to get great games to market. This book is filled with interviews with a broad spectrum of industry experts from top game publishers and business owners in the US and UK. A supplementary web site provides interviews from the book, a forum where developers and publishers can connect, and additional tips and tricks. Topics include:

Learn to create network games from start to finish with "Fundamentals of Network Game Development." Covering all the essential elements of network game development, this book provides the techniques and strategies necessary to create a quality game. Organized into three core sections--design, design and development, and development--the book explores all the unique, underlying aspects that game designers and developers need to consider when building a game that uses a network to connect players both with the game and with each other. You'll examine the characteristics that set a network game apart from one that is played offline, the different types of games and networks, how the design and development processes differ depending on the type of game, how design elements affect development implementation and vice versa, how to prevent cheating and hacking, and how to test the final product. Throughout each chapter, real games are used as case studies to help guide you through the challenges of creating your own games. "Fundamentals of Network Game Development" provides you with the foundation you need to create professional-caliber network 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

The Practical Guide to Building Reliable Networked Multiplayer Games Networked multiplayer games are a multibillion dollar business: some games now attract tens of millions of players. In this practical, code-rich guide, Joshua Glazer and Sanjay Madhav guide you through every aspect of engineering them. Drawing on their immense experience as both game developers and instructors, the authors lead you through building a robust multiplayer architecture, and creating every engine-level system. You’ll learn through in-depth working code examples for two complete games: an action game and a real time strategy (RTS) game. First, Madhav and Glazer review the essentials of networking and network programming from the standpoint of game developers. Next, they walk through managing game data transmission, updating game objects across the network, and organizing the devices that join your game. You’ll learn how to ensure reliable performance despite the Internet’s inherent inconsistencies, and how to design game code for maximum security and scalability. The authors conclude by addressing two increasingly crucial issues: incorporating gamer services and hosting your games in the cloud. This guide’s content has been extensively tested through the authors’ multiplayer game programming courses at USC. It is equally valuable both to students and to working game programmers moving into networked games. Coverage includes How games have evolved to meet the challenges of networked environments Using Internet communication protocols and standards in game development Working with Berkeley Socket, the most widely used networking construct in multiplayer gaming Formatting game data for efficient Internet transmission Synchronizing states so all players share the same world Organizing networking topologies for large-scale games Overcoming latency and jitter problems that cause delays or lost data Scaling games without compromising performance Combating security vulnerabilities and software cheats Leveraging the networking functionality of the popular Unreal 4 and Unity game engines Integrating gamer services such as matchmaking, achievements, and leaderboards Running game servers in the cloud About the Website C++ source code for all examples is available at github.com/MultiplayerBook. Instructors will also find a full set of PowerPoint slides and a sample syllabus.

A guide to developing network programs covers networking fundamentals as well as TCP and UDP sockets, multicasting protocol, content handlers, servlets, I/O, parsing, Java Mail API, and Java Secure Sockets Extension.

This book will guide you through the basic game development process, covering game development topics including graphics, sound, artificial intelligence, animation, game engines, Web-based games, etc. Real games will be created, and significant parts of a game engine will be built and made available for download. The companion DVD will contain example code, games, and color figures. Processing is a free, graphics-oriented language that provides the basic functionality needed for building games and runs on all major platforms. Moreover, it allows games to be built for desktop computers, HTML 5, and Android. eBook Customers: Companion files are available for downloading with order number/proof of purchase by writing to the publisher at [email protected]. Features: Teaches basic game development including graphics, sound, artificial intelligence, animation, game engines, Web-based games, and more Create a small collection of complete computer games developed throughout the book Uses Processing, a free, downloadable platform with a frame by frame display scheme that is perfect for computer games

The use of game theoretic techniques is playing an increasingly important role in the network design domain. Understanding the background, concepts, and principles in using game theory approaches is necessary for engineers in network design. Game Theory Applications in Network Design provides the basic idea of game theory and the fundamental understanding of game theoretic interactions among network entities. The material in this book also covers recent advances and open issues, offering game theoretic solutions for specific network design issues. This publication will benefit students, educators, research strategists, scientists, researchers, and engineers in the field of network design.

Create games with graphics that pop for the web and mobile devices! HTML5 is the tool game developers and designers have been eagerly awaiting. It simplifies the job of creating graphically rich, interactive games for the Internet and mobile devices, and this easy-to-use guide simplifies the learning curve. Illustrated in full color, the book takes you step by step through the basics of HTML5 and how to use it to build interactive games with 2D graphics, video, database capability, and plenty of action. Learn to create sports and adventure games, pong games, board games, and more, for both mobile devices and the standard web. Learn to use the new HTML5 technology that makes it easier to create games with lots of action, colorful 2D graphics, and interactivity--for both the web and mobile devices Test and debug your games before deploying them Take advantage of how HTML5 allows for SQL-like data storage, which is especially valuable if you're not well versed in database management Explore creating games suitable for community activity and powerful, profitable games that require large amounts of data Whether you want to build games as a fun hobby or hope to launch a new career, this full-color guide covers everything you need to know to make the most of HTML5 for game design.

This book analyzes the effect of policy on the digital game complex: government, industry, corporations, distributors, players, and the like. Contributors argue that digital games are not created nor consumed outside of the complex power relationships that dictate the full production and distribution cycles, and that we need to consider those relationships in order to effectively "read" and analyze digital games. Through examining a selection of policies, e.g. the Australian government’s refusal (until recently) to allow an R18 rating for digital games, Blizzard’s policy in regards to intellectual property, Electronic Arts’ corporate policy for downloadable content (DLC), they show how policy, that is to say the rules governing the production, distribution and consumption of digital games, has a tangible effect upon our understanding of the digital game medium.

This book will guide you through the basic game development process using Python, covering game topics including graphics, sound, artificial intelligence, animation, game engines, etc. Real games are created as you work through the text and significant parts of a game engine are built and made available for download. New chapters on card games and a side-scroller. The companion files contain all of the resources described in the book, e.g., example code, game assets, video/sound editing software, and color figures. Instructor resources are available for use as a textbook. FEATURES: Teaches basic game development concepts using Python including graphics, sound, artificial intelligence, animation, game engines, collision detection, Web-based games, and more Includes code samples using Pygame Features new chapters on card games (Ch.11) and building a side-scrolling game (Ch.12) Includes a companion disc with example code, games assets, and color figures The companion files and instructor resources are available online by emailing the publisher with proof of purchase at [email protected].