Mickey MacDonald - Mastering C++ Game Development

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First published: January 2018

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Mickey MacDonald is a professional game designer and developer who has experience in developing both AAA and indie titles for a variety of gaming platforms and devices. Growing up, he always enjoyed playing video games, which inspired him to start creating his own. He is also a technical evangelist at Microsoft with focus on game development. As part of his role, a lot of his time is spent talking to other game developers and sharing the lessons he has learned in his development experiences. In his spare time, he enjoys researching video games and collecting vintage game consoles and computer systems.

Bryan Griffiths is a software engineer who has worked in the gaming industry for more than 15 years and shipped multiple AAA, AR, VR, indie, mobile, and web games. In his career, he has worked on projects for most of the major publishers, including Microsoft, Apple, Sega, and Activision-Blizzard.

Most days, he can be found instructing the next generation of game developers from triOS College's Kitchener campus. Other days, he's out helping companies iterate on their game prototypes, expanding their teams with qualified individuals, or hunting down the last few bugs in a project before release.

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Although many languages are now being used to develop games, C++ remains the standard for professional development. The vast majority of libraries, engines, and toolchains are still being developed strictly in C++. Known for its performance and reliability, C++ continues to be the best option for true cross-platform compatibility.

By picking up this book, you are beginning your journey to mastering this powerful language. Although the journey will be long, it will be filled with discovery! Even after the countless hours I have spent working with C++, I still find myself filled with joy at finding new techniques and approaches. In this book, I want to give you the tools and understanding that will prepare you for continuing this learning journey. While new and flashy tools and engines will arise and potentially fall, having a strong understanding of how games, their tools, and engines are developed at a low level will provide you with valuable knowledge you can always lean on.

This book is intended for intermediate to advanced C++ game developers who are looking to take their skills to the next level and learn the deep concepts of 3D game development. The reader will learn the key concepts used in the development of AAA-level games. Advanced topics, such as library creation, artificial intelligence, shader techniques, advanced effects and lighting, tool creation, physics, networking, and other critical game systems, will be covered throughout the journey.

, C++ for Game Development , covers some of the more advanced C++ topics used in modern game development. We will look at inheritance and polymorphism, pointers, referencing, and the common STL generic containers. The concept of templating and building generic code with class, function, and variable templates. Type inference and the new language keywords auto and decltype and their uses in combination with the new return value syntax. Finally, we will close out the chapter by looking at some core game patterns used today.