background preloader

Game Design and Programming

Facebook Twitter

Eller's Algorithm. Eller's algorithm creates 'perfect' mazes, having only a single path between any two cells, one row at a time.

Eller's Algorithm

The algorithm itself is incredibly fast, and far more memory efficient than other popular algorithms (such as Prim's and Kruskal's) requiring storage proportional to only a single row. This makes it possible to create mazes of indefinite length on systems with limited memory. There is very little written about Eller's Algorithm on the internet. The best source I could find (Walter Pullen's excellent Think Labyrinth website) has a single paragraph description which, while very helpful, I found inadequate to implement the algorithm. Additionally, the algorithm described in Mathematics and Physics for Programmers doesn't seem to work. Markov Chains explained visually. Explained Visually By Victor Powell with text by Lewis Lehe Markov chains, named after Andrey Markov, are mathematical systems that hop from one "state" (a situation or set of values) to another.

Markov Chains explained visually

For example, if you made a Markov chain model of a baby's behavior, you might include "playing," "eating", "sleeping," and "crying" as states, which together with other behaviors could form a 'state space': a list of all possible states. In addition, on top of the state space, a Markov chain tells you the probabilitiy of hopping, or "transitioning," from one state to any other state---e.g., the chance that a baby currently playing will fall asleep in the next five minutes without crying first.

Tiny Tiles Nuclear throne style - JSFiddle. CS50 Course Info. TUN: Uncomfort. How Design Trends Ruin Great Games. GLADIABOTS by GFX47. Tired of those stupid and buggy AIs in video games? Gladiabots is a strategy game where you design the artificial intelligence of a gladiator robot squad. Compete against players from all over the world, perfect your strategy and reach the top of the leaderboard! The game is currently in free alpha version on PC, Mac, Linux and Android (iOS coming soon). Features Intuitive Visual Programming Badass Robots Solo Missions Cross-platform Multiplayer Map editor (coming soon) Community Powered Pay What You Want during Alpha PC / Mac / Linux + Android (iOS incoming) Links Support the dev. What is Interdependence in MMOs? It seems like anywhere you turn these days, you’ll find the creators of some up and coming MMO extolling the virtues of player interdependence in MMOs and how it’s making a comeback in their game.

What is Interdependence in MMOs?

Titles like Crowfall, Saga of Lucimia, and Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen are touting the concept as something of a core design principle, promising that with it as a development objective, their game will usher in a return to the golden age of MMORPG communities. JPL Coding Standard C. JPL Coding Standard C. 10 Coding practices which allows NASA to write millions of lines of code with handful of errors : learnprogramming. Dungeon Generation · Vasuman. This is an interactive article, play with the settings.

Dungeon Generation · Vasuman

Click on the canvas to reanimate. Procedural generation has always interested me. From the landscapes of Minecraft to the hundreds of rougelikes, procedural generation makes any game a more unpredictable and brings near infinite replay value to the game. Sprite Guard plays Hyper Rogue part 1. The Evolution of Dark Souls Level Design (and Bloodborne!) Hyperbolic Geometry in HyperRogue. Here's a list of 229 free online programming/CS courses (MOOCs) with feedback(i.e. exams/homeworks/assignments) that you can start this month (May 2016) : learnprogramming.

12 Free Resources: Learn to code while playing games. CodinGame Solve challenging coding problems fun games.

12 Free Resources: Learn to code while playing games.

Supports all programming languages. Code Combat CodeCombat is a platform for students to learn computer science while playing through a real game. It is a community project, with hundreds of players volunteering to create levels. David Xu's Blog - The Careful Design of Cave Story. The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community.

David Xu's Blog - The Careful Design of Cave Story

The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company. Note: This is a repost of an original article by the author, which can be found here. Widely considered a timeless classic in the indie game industry, Doukutsu Monogatari, translated as Cave Story, cemented itself in indie game history as one of the few critically acclaimed games to have been created entirely from scratch by a single person, Daisuke Amaya, over the course of 5 years. It was released in 2004 as freeware, and its widespread success catalyzed the meteoric rise of the independent games industry. This article studies various aspects of the game and takes a closer look at the detail and intent put into its masterful design. Statistics - What kind of algorithm is behind the Akinator game? Libtcod. PRAW: The Python Reddit Api Wrapper — PRAW 3.3.0 documentation. 3 Things I Learned While Making Nuclear Throne - Rami Ismail. Opinion: Indie Game Design Do-s and Don't-s: A Manifesto.

[Veteran indie game creator Edmund McMillen, known for his work on 2005 IGF Grand Prize winner Gish, Time Fcuk, and Super Meat Boy for WiiWare, shares his opinions and manifesto on making indie games, with 24 clear do-s and don't-s to make your art thrive.]

Opinion: Indie Game Design Do-s and Don't-s: A Manifesto

One of the most common questions I'm asked in interviews is, "Do you have any advice for independent game developers who are new to the scene, or tips for developers in general? " Well, I actually answered it this time: I came up with this list of indie do-s and don't-s. Now, I'm going to make clear that I'm not perfect and I'm sure as the years go by this list will change. But from where I stand right now, having made independent art/games for a living for the past 10 years, the advice below is crucial to all indie game designers, and all artists for that matter.

Handmade Hero. Reddit: the front page of the internet. Learn Ruby The Hard Way. Analysis: The Eight Rules Of Roguelike Design. [In a special design column taken from his acclaimed GameSetWatch '@Play' series, John Harris examines the history, present and future of dungeon-exploring games, this time paying special attention to the eight critical design elements of a successful roguelike.]

Analysis: The Eight Rules Of Roguelike Design

Back in November, in my previous column, I mentioned a number of proposed rules of roguelike design, and promised soon to describe them. How to make money on Android. How to make money on Android We just had our $200,000th birthday.

How to make money on Android

It took longer than I thought (2.5 years), but Puzzleboss costs essentially nothing to run ($48 last month), and has a streamlined web ui for managing the entire business so it’s increasingly low-touch. That money is from sales, not ads. Upfront sales, not IAPs. We started with a pretty crappy MVP that looked very similar to this early version we cross-compiled to web.

Some background. PSX Livestream - Anton, Jon and...Shuhei! 10 Raspberry Pi Projects for Beginners. The Raspberry Pi is a great little machine—it’s very affordable, highly portable, and user-friendly.

10 Raspberry Pi Projects for Beginners

But when you first get one, it can be a challenge to figure out which projects you should take on first. These 10 Raspberry Pi projects for beginners are great for getting an introduction to the hardware and software capabilities of the Pi, and will help you get up and running in no time! Pi-Powered Motion Sensor and Alarm Sensors and alarms are often considered to be the domain of the Arduino, but the Raspberry Pi can work with hardware, too! Creating a simple motion sensor and piezo buzzer alarm will teach you the basics of working with external hardware with the Pi, and this particular project uses Python, so you’ll start learning a bit of that, too.

Programming as Performance. Artificial Intelligence. This is an Archived Course EdX keeps courses open for enrollment after they end to allow learners to explore content and continue learning. All features and materials may not be available, and course content will not be updated. Check back often to see when new course start dates are announced. Artificial intelligence is already all around you, from web search to video games. AI methods plan your driving directions, filter your spam, and focus your cameras on faces. The course will introduce the basic ideas and techniques underlying the design of intelligent computer systems. Statistical and decision–theoretic modeling paradigm. Join us today to learn more about how AI affects your life, and where it is headed in the future. The history of The Elder Scrolls: from Arena to Skyrim. There were two ways to make a character in Arena. You could choose a class from a list of 18, or have one chosen for you after filling out a questionnaire like a cross between the quandaries at the start of Ultima IV and the Voight-Kampff test from BladeRunner.

Daggerfall adds the option to create your own class, as well as a second set of interview questions to determine your background, asking about your childhood nickname, motivation for seeking adventure, and so on. As well as influencing starting skills, these answers were incorporated into the player’s journal to create a backstory for who they were before being roped into helping the Emperor with his latest problem.

From the start Daggerfall aimed for a higher level of detail than Arena. To achieve that it shrunk in scope from an entire continent to two provinces, High Rock and Hammerfell, which is still massive compared to the later games. To get to that overworld though, players have to survive the beginning. JavaScript. JavaScript (often abbreviated to JS) is a scripting language used by most web browsers. Roguelikes can also use it as a scripting language (e.g. for scripted events or quests). This allows changing game behavior without recompiling. Some browser-based roguelikes are written in JavaScript or its Microsoft relative JScript (and JScript.NET).

With the advent of Node.js, io.js and v8, JavaScript can be used outside of the browser as well. Coding.Cookies - Building a Roguelike in Javascript - Part 1: Introduction. As I've mentioned in the past, I've always enjoyed playing roguelike games such as NetHack, Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup and ADOM. If you've never played these games before I highly encourage you to check them out.

The ASCII graphics may not be for everyone but the incredibly deep gameplay more than makes up for it. I've tinkered on a few home-grown roguelikes in the past and it's always proved to be great fun. Inspired by the most recent 7DRLC, a competition where participants must make a roguelike in 7 days, I went on a search for blog posts regarding developing roguelikes.

Rot. Software development process. In software engineering, a software development process is the process of dividing software development work into distinct phases to improve design, product management, and project management. Extreme programming. Software development methodology Planning and feedback loops in extreme programming Extreme programming (XP) is a software development methodology which is intended to improve software quality and responsiveness to changing customer requirements. Four Examples Of Excellent Interface Design. Welcome class. Take your seats and take out your note paper. We’ve all struggled through a game with a bad interface, one where none of the icons are clear, the screen is cluttered, and elements are unresponsive. Writing a reddit Bot — PRAW 3.3.0 documentation. In the Getting Started tutorial, we wrote a script to break down a redditor’s karma. How to write fiction that comes alive - Nalo Hopkinson.

Can reading fiction actually build morality and help you grow as an individual? Learn to Code and Build Projects for Nonprofits. Equation Calculator - Symbolab. Game Maker's Toolkit - Why Nathan Drake Doesn't Need a Compass. What are some bad habits self-teaching programmers should avoid? : learnprogramming. Roguelike Elements in Games: What the Indie Scene Gets Wrong - Niche Gamer. While the indie scene is often thought of as more creative than the AAA industry, it also has its fads and trends that dominate the market. The most well-known of these was the popularity of pixel platformers, although even before the indie boom, there were the occasional independently-made games that became popular.

Nowadays, many indie developers are interested in borrowing mechanics from roguelikes, especially the ones that defined the genre: permanent death and procedural generation. As with everything popular, there are critics and detractors. Layout Types [DCSS - Code and Docs Wiki] Bartle Test. Bartle's Taxonomy - What Type of Player are You? - Extra Credits. SCP Foundation. Curses Programming with Python — Python 2.7.10 documentation.

Abstract This document describes how to write text-mode programs with Python 2.x, using the curses extension module to control the display. IRDC UK 2015 - Mark Johnson, Algorithmic Generation in Ultima Ratio Regum. IRDC 2014 - Procedural Graphic Generation. Googling for code solutions can be tricky — here’s how to get started. Mad Libs was driving me mad. In order to learn JavaScript earlier this quarter, I set out to build a web application that would mimic a game of Mad Libs and immediately got stuck.

Python. An Introduction to Interactive Programming in Python (Part 1) - Rice University. Mapgen: Tunneling Algorithm - Cogmind / Grid Sage Games. Danger momentum — Making maps with mazes (Roggle’s Dungeon... Gwan of Gwanington - A Farming Based Roguelike. Welcome. FAQ Friday #22: Map Generation : roguelikedev. Comparative study of field of view algorithms for 2D grid based worlds. PROCJAM 2014 - Procedural Doesn’t Mean Random: Generating Interesting Content - Hazel McKendrick.

How does procedural generation work? Where can I learn more about the mathematics used to create No Man's Sky? : NoMansSkyTheGame. CodeCombat - Learn how to code by playing a game. A Adonaac's Blog - Procedural Dungeon Generation Algorithm. Sandbox style free roam has taken over the mission based approach of past games and I think it's hurting game design quite a bit. : truegaming.

Design Goals Illustrated: NetHack vs. Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. Six Months of Roguelike Development FAQs : roguelikes. The Last of Us Changed My Life: In Depth Analysis and Dissection. Before Spelunky and FTL, There Was Only ASCII. C# Tutorial. Vlambeer's Success. Comparative study of field of view algorithms for 2D grid based worlds. Years Later, Fans Discover The Strange Truth About Fallout 3's Trains. Book Breakdown: Dungeon Hacks, Final Draft. An Analysis of Shopping In Angband. Why is Fallout New Vegas typically considered to be better than Fallout 3? : Games. Some guy made 340 games in 18 years... what did he miss ? : gamedev. Your game idea is too big. Your game idea is too big. I asked 4 people working on famous opensource projects: "How to learn programming?" and combined their responses into a video : learnprogramming.

Resources. TotalBiscuit's Post-Surgery Q&A. Taught Myself to Code at age 30 for a Career Shift. Employed Within the Year as an iOS Developer AMA. : learnprogramming. I'm Zach Sims, CEO of Codecademy. We teach people the skills they need to find jobs. : learnprogramming. Why I'm glad Splatoon doesn't have voice chat : nintendo. 17 Coding Challenges to Help You Train Your Brain : learnprogramming. Stealth? : roguelikedev.

General Programming

Python. Design Postmortem: Story-Driven Roguelike, Sproggiwood. OpenGameArt.org. Sarah Woodrow's Blog - 7 truths about indie game development. Ira Glass on Storytelling. Make Games - Finishing a Game. About - Project Euler. Mouse Movement During Games.