Coding Games
A Comprehensive Beginners Guide to Learn the Realms of Coding in Games from A-Z
Copyright 2020 by Robert C. Matthews - All rights reserved.
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Table of Contents
Introduction
The world of game programming is vast and enticing. For many of us, the desire to program games comes from the first time we played one. For others, its about the developmental challenges and solving puzzles that pop up.
Regardless of why you want to go into the field, game programming has something in store for you. If youre a creative person, then youll enjoy thinking of the intricate mechanics you can put into your game. If youre more of a problem solver, then youll enjoy fixing bugs and issues during coding. On the other hand, if you are detail-oriented, youll enjoy the balancing aspects to ensure your game isnt too easy or too hard.
Many people get into game programming thinking that itll be a breeze and that all they need to do is think of how things should work and thats it. That is the job of a game designer (although that isnt all they do either.) Game programming means knowing the game inside and out.
If youre expecting an easy job, you wont find it in-game programming. However, if youre fascinated by the inner workings of video games, and are willing to put in the time to master it, then youre looking at one of the most fascinating fields out there.
In this book well be going over the expectations of this job and getting you to grips with the basic parts of game programming.
Chapter One: Set Your Expectations
Game programming is vastly different from any other kind of programming. Some of its good parts come from the cutting edge challenges you can come across, as well as the satisfaction of seeing your name run across the credit screen. Furthermore, everyone loves games! Go to any game store and both customers and staff alike will be happy to see you.
If you choose to work for a large company, youll also get to work with some of the greatest game development kits out there from companies like Valve and Unity. These companies make a lot of tools that can help you bootstrap your game from nothing to an enjoyable experience.
The unfortunate part of game programming is that it can be really difficult work sometimes. Youll face management problems, hardware and operating system changes, as well as how best to ensure your users experience the abstract concept of fun consistently.
In this chapter, Ill try to set your expectations of game programming. After it, youll know whether you really want to go on to be a game programmer as a career.
The Good Part
The jobs within the gaming industry are fast changing, and the field itself is constantly evolving. For example, back when I was starting out with game programming, the dominant language to use was Assembly. Today, youd be hard-pressed to find a modern game written in it.
There was no such thing as being simply a game programmer in the early days of the gaming industry. You did everything, ranging from the code to the art and game design elements.
Today, you see large companies segmenting the position into very niche areas, for example, you might be specialized for programming game physics or databases.
Back when I was starting out as a game programmer they wore ties, and you would be hard-pressed to find a difference between them and a regular office.
Today, wearing a tie to an interview as a game programmer is no longer the norm. Ive even seen people show up in a shirt and flip-flops. With that being said, the industry is even more cutthroat than back then. With the boom that games have achieved, the difference between a mediocre and a good game programmer has become massive.
The industry is also quite secretive, which can be quite fun sometimes. Youll get the chance to experience brand new games years before customers get their hands on them. Though you should expect that most big-name publishers will ask you to sign an NDA so that their secrets arent accidentally leaked outside.
The best part of working on games, for me at least, is that they are as close to art as they are to science. While writing this book Ive put a great deal of thought into why I find this line of work so satisfying despite all the pressure. In the end, I simply loved how well games blend in the art and math together.
This can be best exemplified in things such as character movement. As an end-user, you will notice that the movement feels off. But as a game programmer, my job was to figure out why exactly it felt that way and fix it.
The art comes from grasping how the natural human movement looks, and the math came in when I needed to put it in the game. It forces the left and right side of your brain to work together, and when they do- its truly a sight to behold.
Sometimes, the scientifically most sensible approach isnt even the correct one. Sometimes you have to tweak it a little to show the innate imperfections found in human movement, much like an artist would change a facial expression on a portrait.
Its also very fun to work together with designers and take the discussions to and from the lunchroom. Steve, seriously, weve been over this. The master zombie characters came from planet B831; theyre not experiments originating from Earth, that was last weeks pitch!
Personally, I also get a lot of fun out of simply coding. Especially when its going well, as Im one of those people that take bugs as a personal insult from the game engine to me. When you start getting into new technologies, such as new consoles and such, then youll have a lot of fun... and a lot of times when you wish we had just stuck to the simplicity of the NES.
On occasion, youll find fun in optimization. Maybe youll crack the puzzle on how to implement an algorithm in a way that your game now runs at 60FPS, an acceptable framerate, rather than looking like a PowerPoint presentation.
