How can I find a good fixed ratio between buying and selling prices for the player in an in game market? I'm developing a single player game containing gathering and crafting where I'm still struggling to find base values for the prices of gathered resources and crafted items. (But this is part of Constructing a game stock market) Since it's a single player game and just one in game market that offers items, I do not want to use dynamic pricing, I'm looking for a reasonable ratio between the buying and selling price. I was not able to find any hints on how to determine a good starting point. Is for example 2 1 a reasonable ratio between the buying and the selling price for the player? Things to consider Of course the buying price has to be higher than the selling price or otherwise players could just make fortune by buying and selling the same item. Only some randomly chosen items will be available to buy in a certain time period and rarer items will be seen less often in the shop to buy. The offer should be reasonable enough to tempt the player to buy the item instead of farming the ingredients and craft the item for themselves. Updated the question to fit the constraints.


Fight with creativity burnout I have big creativity burnout Do you have any ideas how can I fight with it ??


What's the economical design difference for a global auction house or seperate auction traders? I'm playing The Elder Scrolls Tamriel Unlimited and there we have local auction houses. (Thy don't have auctions, but I keep the term to not get confused in the following text.) I can see the advantage that guilds (who own these AHs) can set up their own little economy, which is a nice feature. On the other side I always have to check several guild traders to see which one offers my searched item for the lowest price. On the forums, people are discussing heavily whether a global auction house should be introduced or not. This may have pros and cons, too, but I'm not too involved in this game design to really set up a mind for that. Backers argument that an global AH leads to a more regulated market, easier to use and a seller will reach a broader audience (reads When you put in an item, you can be sure that there may be a buyer.) On the other hand critics say that this will make only really useful items get a massive increased price and common used items will drop their prices to their normal selling price. But are these concerns really true? Would the introduction of a global AH really have such a big impact on the game's economy? And if yes, will they more tend to even the prices or really make most of the items useless for selling? You could also ask vice versa If a game already has global AH, what would the impact be if they replaced it with local auction houses? What is the difference for the game's and players' economy if you introduce a global or local auction house system? For clarification I do ask this for the matter of The Elder Scrolls Tamriel Unlimited. But you can also subject this to other games. (This should be more a theoretical question for a developer's decision.)


How do game companies handle DLL resources? This question is based solely on curiosity. I have played a great many games on my PC over the years, and just now realized a trend across all games(most if not all). In the resources of the game, or in other words, next to the executable that runs the game, there are never DLL(Dynamic Link Library) binaries. This means that those games are created by statically linking to source files and dumping them all into the primary executable. I am certain that most of these game projects Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Splinter Cell, and Include other arbitrary examples here , are utterly massive by scale and have hundreds of smaller children projects. I would probably not be wrong, either, in assuming that those same projects(such as API's, etc) could be packaged into a DLL instead of the obvious static linking. I apologize if it seems like I am rambling, but there is a point to this it will be coming up soon. Next, I wanted to address the use of the games graphics API. Most games use DirectX, why is not relevant to this question instead, it is how. Would I be safe to assume that said games are also statically linking to DirectX? And more importantly, why? Is there a logistical reasoning behind this inherently conventional trait? Do game companies statically link all of their resources? And just again, why? Why not use DLLs instead? Hopefully someone can answer this question, having been present or currently are present, working for an actual game company. Oh and I typed this all on my phone so I apologize for any errors.


Implementing cheat safe loot algorithm at clientside I am developing a "city building" type of browser based flash flex game. I was checking some of the implementation of existing one of the popular games in facebook using decompilers. I noticed they have implemented the loot algorithm the client side and sending the loot item to the server which I think is not cheat safe. Knowing the fact that there are cheaters every where and it is easy to manipulate the messages and send the best loot always, is there any way we can counter this type of cheats? I dont have a concrete solution designed for it yet but I am thinking to track the drops by maintaining the loot history. So instead of mere updating the resources inventory, I will implement a logic which will compare the loot with history to see if the player is receiving the rare drops excessively and flag the user or take a smart decision (which I don't have yet) Or Is it a good idea to implement the loot algorithm in the server side? Since this is "city building" kind of game, where it will not have extensive user actions like in typical RPG games which can trigger loot events.


MMORPG Design Question Best idea for adding PvP(PlayerVsPlayer) in open world MMO? Brief Explanation of game Time Travel, one map, open world MMO called ChronoCraft. If you'd like to know more about the game, you're welcome to check out our twitter where we post some of our development https twitter.com Chrono Craft Here are the ideas so far 1 Safe Zones Pros People in major towns are safe and can fight when they leave the safety of the town Cons When dealing with NPC's and Quests(Non instance ones) outside of town, someone can kill you as you are talking to them 2 PvP Zones Pros Instead, areas of the map where PvP is possible is limited to the "wilderness" or dangerous areas(Anything that doesnt have Quest able NPCs) Cons Significantly reduces the area of allowable PvP areas 3 PvP Toggle Pros This allows players to turn on PvP mode in settings where only other PvP enabled players can fight eachother outside of Safe Zones (We would make it so if you are hit, you cant turn off PvP mode until a certain time to prevent people escaping death) Cons Ambushing is limited, because only the people who are ready to fight will have it enabled 4 Separate servers Pros Having a PvE server and a PvP server. Which makes it so the player decides what gameplay he wants. Cons Players cant bring items or money between servers so they may have to start from scratch if they change their mind on what type of server they like playing.(This is to protect the player economy from taking all the resources from one server and bringing them to another server) 5 Time Specific Pros When night falls, then PvP is enabled for everywhere outside a Safe Zone Cons For players wanting to avoid PvP they will be forced to stay in towns half the time which might get boring unless they do fun stuff like running a shop or restaurant. 6 Special Days Pros When there is lighting and rain, PvP is enabled which will happen every few minecraft days in the game. Allowing PvPers to fight outside of safe zones. And a HUD display will make this clear. Cons Players wanting to avoid PvP will have to stay in town during the inclement weather, which they might not enjoy. 7 Level Specific Pros Only players with a similar skill level will be able to fight eachother. So new players dont have to worry about pros slaughtering them early on. Cons It would be hard to fight along friends unless you're the same skill level. "John help me kill this guy" "Sorry cant, he is too low skill for me" 8 Arenas Pros Confines the fight to specific spot like a colosseum Cons Nearly impossible to wage huge fights like 100v100 (Colosseum will make it into the game at some point, but should it be the only PvP option) 9 PvP Everywhere Pros Either (A)Players can figure out their own police protection system or (B) NPC guards in major towns spawn and nearly guarantee the death of a killer in the town. Cons Has alot of potential to be annoying if players dont want to get killed in the middle of business in towns. Might also turn away less PvP focused players. What do you think is the best? Can I mitigate the cons for the one you choose? Is there a better idea entirely?


Advices fo starting a video game design career I'm 24 and have a passion for video games and game design. I've decided I want to design video games as my career. I have no experience with designing video games or coding but I'm interested and willing to learn. I want a job at any level but what would I need to land a job? I have no college experience and I have no money. What is a cheap school, or do I really need to go to school for this, or can I learn on my own? Is it possible to do this with no money? I'm literally broke but I want this so bad I feel like its the only career I'll enjoy. I want to call up company's and ask them what they are looking for in someone they want to hire, is that a good idea? Also I don't know the history of video game design and I don't want to sound like a dummy when someone says something about this field or talks about a famous designer and I have no idea who they're talking about. So what is key info when it comes to this field and where should I find it? Hopefully some of you guys and girls can help me out I know in the future I will create something everyone will enjoy and you guys will remember when you gave me advice and I will always remember you guys for helping me. I'm gifted I know I am and I want to share my gift with the rest of the world by making games that change the Industry. Help me out please.


Art style setting gameplay I'm looking for resources describing art style setting gameplay relationship (from game design perspective). For example, Fallout's colour palette most often is the dark one, models realistic and not cartoonish. Setting post nuclear holocaust. Auditory mature players. I could also take a different example like Borderlands. Art style is cartoonish, comic but not childish. Setting vault raiding monster killing on an alien planet. Auditory mature players, but still appealing to teenagers (I suppose 13 and up). Pixar and Nintendo games tend to be both cartoonish and childish. Setting simple or movie based. Auditory definitely kids, yet can be entertaining for adults for a limited time. GTA cartoonish, comic and somehow childish (especially the first one), yet auditory is definitely mature. Setting working for crime syndicate free roaming. Let's say I create and epic fantasy game (setting). How should I choose most appropriate art style for my game? Are there any canons in art style like there are canons in literature (western, eastern, etc...) How does art style alone suggest what kind of gameplay one should expect? One can release concept art, but setting is generally kept secret so that player could uncover it while playing.


What are the advantages and disadvantages of different grids in a turn based strategy game? The two most common types are using hexagons and squares. My question is rather concerned with game design. Why are specifically those two found so often? What are disadvantages that speak against using other polygons such as triangles, pentagons or octagons?


Taking Physics into account for AI Planning What I've seen in most Game Engines and game engine design is that the Physics Engine is the be all end all system. Basically, AI for example may want to travel to some position, but it simply sends that request (velocity, direction) to the Physics Engine. If the AI really gets to that position is up to the will of the Physics Engine. Is there some Design or Physics Engine which will let you plan out how Physics will react? Before it will actually occur? Take for example that you can do Motion Planning by the AI to nearly eliminate foot sliding. images from aigamedev.com Motion Planning for Fun and Profit!


How to move around in a map and remember position? I am working on sound labyrinth game. My game is about a person getting trapped in the basement and the only way to navigate and get out is through sound. I have created a map over the basement and for each square there has to be a sound. The player starts in b5 with an intro sound and then has to move forward using the arrow keys. I've created this bit of code that plays a sound when forward arrow (keycode 38) is pressed var thriller new Audio("thriller.mp3") document.addEventListener('keydown', function (background) if (background.keyCode 38) thriller.play() , false) My question is How does the code know in which square the player is situated? Is there some smart way in which I can systematize the squares and the sounds they represent?


How do I deal with the problems of a fast side scroller? I'm making a side scrolling airplane game and when I begin going very fast I begin to experience some problems as a player Elements are not distinguishable, like power ups from bullets, etc I start to feel dizzy and uncomfortable There isn't enough time to see what's coming How can I sort this out? Do I use less details in all the grahpics? Tiny Wings has the same horizontal movement speed as in my game but it doesn't suffer from these problems. Are there any other really fast side scrollers I could take as a reference?


How to Store AI Knowledge about the Game World for AI Decision Making I have a game world with a fair amount of AI that have some Senses, like vision, hearing, touch, smell, etc. But I'm not sure how to put that information in a single place for the individual AI to then iterate over it and make a decision. For example, each sense (emitter and receiver) currently returns a structure called a Stimulus with information like position, direction, stimulus type (sight, sound, smell, etc), npc type (human, animal, monster, etc), and so on. And currently, the monster AI just have a hard coded hierarchy of preference touch (e.g., damage events) sight sound smell, so if you fire a gun it'll try to follow that noise but if he then sees you, he'll switch to tracking you visually and forget about the noise. However, this isn't very robust. It doesn't deal with repeated damage events or one player kiting or stale stimuli vs new stimuli very well. Ideally I'd want to use some sort of utility evaluation so that I can get more complex and dynamic behaviour out and I can fix edge cases where it feels like the AI isn't interacting right (e.g., ignoring stimuli that it shouldn't be). I'm not sure how to approach that implementation. Should I just have an array of every stimulus the AI encounters and loop over that every tick? But then how do I prune that list since it'd get very large very quickly and might contain really old stimuli (currently the AI only has one "target stimuli" and new stimuli go through that hierarchy of preference before being either discarded or replacing the target stimuli). (As a side note, this GDC Talk about Creating the Living, Breathing World of Hitman has provided some great information about how they deal with Knowledge, but I wasn't able to discern how they store it and iterate through multiple Knowledge fields of a single AI and so on). (I'd also love any advice on the Knowledge Stimulus data structure itself to be modular enough to hold different types of information, instead of having a bunch of unused fields say how a sound might need only type and direction, but a visual stimulus might only need type and position and so on)


Why do Monsters drop things? Why do Monsters drop things in so many games? It creates all sorts of problems, including in game gold hyper inflation questionable moral implications, if there is a strong incentive toward killing things but no incentive not to Monster killing giving XP is equally bad you rename an ingame currency to XP, the mechanics stay the same. Here you have something like quot fighting force inflation, quot so after some levels you have to have giant giants attacking your small figure or it stops being interesting. This is just hyper inflation written a different way. Is it enough reward if a monster stops killing you? What benefits of monster killing rewards make up for these problems, or how can we compensate for those problems?


When should design give way to marketing and vice versa? When should a Designer draw the line in design decisions when marketing does step in? Where should the bounds be set? (For most part I know this is might mostly be situational. Gut feel like thing. But would like to get some inputs on this as well)


How to deal with raw values and percentages? What is the standard practice for dealing with attribute modifiers in games where units have attributes, such as RTSs, MOBAs and RPGs? Specifically, in which order are "buffs" given to the unit? Suppose the case where unit X has 10 blah points (BP). It obtains two modifiers that add 10 blah points, and another one that adds 30 blah points. Finally, a enemy unit applies a 40 blah points modifier. What is the usual way of processing this, for player familiarity's sake? Aggregate by grouped type (10 30) (1.0 0.1 0.4) 28 Obtention order (10 (1.1) 30) (0.6) 24.6 Aggregate iteratively by type (10 30) 1.1 0.6 26.4 Some other way?


How to become a Ph.D. in video game design? The title says it all, I am wondering if it is possible and if so, how it would be possible, to become a Ph.D. in video game design. I'm quite sure you can become a Ph.D. in pretty much anything, but since video games are such an informal and relatively young sector, I thought I'd ask. Thanks in advance!


Airplane passenger point of view scene I'm building a game with unity where a lot of scenes take place in an airplane as a passenger seated near the window, the airplane has to do a take off and a landing. I can't find any examples of similar scenes anywhere on Internet. So I was wondering which would be the best approach to do this Simulate the airplane physics, "checkpoints" system where the airplane travels through each checkpoints (current solution) Animate the airplane with the unity animator system (tried it but it feels really cheap) Static plane but make things move around him (possibility to have better lightings inside the plane as it is static) 360 Videos The current solution works ok but I'm looking for improvements. I found the intro scene from The Forest pretty similar to what I'm trying to acheive here and I was wondering how they did it. The current system works like this The plane has two engines script who control the speed of the plane. Another script controls the yoke, roll and pitch of the plane. And the last script is the 'Autopilot', each checkpoint tells the plane where to go and at whitch speed. You have to tweak the values until you have a good result which can be really time consuming. Thank you !


Method for creating a next gen MMORPG out of thin air? Update August 2012 thank you all for your answers. I started small as suggested, creating first a Facebook Game about it, the next step will be to port it later on PC for a 3D version, and much later as a MMORPG as I would have build credibility and funding. The upcoming FB game will be done by Blup Blup Game Studio (my studio). Thanks. Original Question Background I am documenting since a few months a game design document (GDD)(sci fi amp fantasy MMORPG) all by myself, without any real game design background (I am just a Chartered Accountant (CA and CISA)). For now, it looks more like a proposal document. The question If you would have a series of amazing ideas that would revolutionized MMORPGaming how would you create that company out of thin air? Focus on creating the initial core team that would create the mockup that would be present to capital venture companies for major financing. You may not be financial expert here but you did a massive amount of games in the past, of various types and platforms. With our different backgrounds we are complementary. Cheers, Raistx P. S. Edited for a leaner question. Removed elements linked to money as it's not the core question. I know how to get money and convince cap venture CIES, but I need a mockup high pitch to do so.


Is my understanding of designing games in layers correct? I have started explaining how a game is designed in layers to a friend of mine. I want to make sure that I explained things, correctly, so I wanted to verify my thoughts. Basically, the way I understand it, games are designed with the following layers, in the following order Rendering Engine Physics Engine Game Engine Scripted Game Is this correct? Am I explaining this right?


Game Design Lexicon terminology for gems etc When a Hero picks up gems or coins or other "collectibles" that add to his wealth in a game, what are those things (gems and coins etc) commonly called and how are they generally referred to in game design terminology?


Scaling web game to suit any screen size I've made a simple multiplayer game, and now trying to make it fit on any screen size. I've tried stretching it out to fit the browser size, but it just appears weird and distorted. I'm also trying to avoid having borders around the edges as it doesn't look particularly nice. Is there a way to solve this that is fair to all players?


What are the code structures for storyline based game? I am curious about how storyline based games are written. For example if the character done Event A, then he meets an NPC and result in Event B. On the other hand if the character didn't do Event A, then he meets an NPC and result in Event C. From the code structure that I've thought up, the NPC should be an object of a class, and there should be a status variable that mark if character have done Event A or not. However, what if there's thousand of similar type of Event as Event A? How'd I handle huge, complex storyline game in coding? I just want to know exactly how the trick was done to keep in check of what Events have happened. Another thing that I'm curious about is how Event is kept in. An object? or just a function? For example Event A might have some flashy effect played in non fmv ,while maybe Event B is an fmv, and Event C might be a battle. and there may be variety of them. Therefore, how would I handle variety of Events with a consistence method? or maybe, at the very least, contain them in a consistence way (function? or Object?) I just want to know how the trick was done.


Tower Defence game scoring system I am in the process of developing my first game on android mobile platform, it s a tower defence game and I am currently busy designing the scoring system. At the end of the stage when the user has defeated all the waves of enemies I want to take his score and somehow calculate a rating out of 3 Stars. What will the best way be to calculate a score? When should I increment the score during gameplay for example when an enemy dies? And how do I calculate if the score is worth 1 3 Stars at the end of the stage? Basically I want help or any ideas on how the formula should look like and how to calculate if the user scored a 1.. 2... or 3 Stars. My variables in game Every enemy has a value Example 5 The stage has a number of life s before you are defeated Example 20 Each stage starts with money that you buy your towers with Example 120 Each towers costs money Example 30 A stage can consist of 1 or more waves of enemies. Any help or ideas would be appreciated as I am new to game development .


It is worth planning before jumping in the code? I always thought that planning is important for a game. But i don't know at which point. Some are telling me to code instead of planning but i feel like its still important because when you will be in the code you will know what to do next more easily. I am currently working on a game that will have lots of content so i decided to start a design document introducing thoses content and at a side level i am doing proofs of concept to check if it can be done. Parts of each proofs of concept then could be used later in the real game. EDIT I am working alone on this project. So my question is It is worth planning before jumping in the code ? Im still interested to know what others have to say about this. Cause i still get some poeple saying i should code instead of thinking.. so what your opinion on this ?


Time based movement Vs Frame rate based movement? I'm new to Game programmming and SDL, and I have been following Lazyfoo's SDL tutorials. My question is related to time based motion and frame rate based motion, basically which is better or appropriate depending on situations?. Could you give me an example where each of these methods are used?. Another question I have is that, in lazyfoo's two Motion tutorials (FPS based and time based) The time based method showed a much smoother animation while the Frame rate based one was a little hiccupy, meaning you could clearly see the gap between the previous location of the dot and its current position when you compare the two programs. As beginner which method should I stick to?(all I want is smooth animations).


What is a good rule for blocking projectiles on a square grid? Suppose we have a square grid, and each tile may or may not be occupied by an object. Some of those objects can be a unit that can launch a projectile at another unit. However, that projectile should be blocked if a third unit is "in the way" of the projectile path. What I want is a rule for whether a projectile path is "blocked" from one tile to another, based on possible intermediate tiles blocked by an object. The blocking rule should satisfy the following criteria 1) It should be based only on the information about the relative position on the grid of the two tiles, and the occupation of tiles by objects. Details such as which object is occupying a tile should not matter. Imagine the same rules would apply with placing stones on a Go board 2) It should be as obvious to the player as possible what the projectile blocking rules are. Imagine they could move a ranged unit to a tile to get a shot, and that movement is irreversible. If they later find out that the shot they wanted to make is blocked, they essentially got screwed over by a game mechanic. I don't want people to lose a game because of opaque mechanics. It should be as obvious as possible to the player that the shot they want to make form a tile is blocked before moving to that tile. 3) The rule should be generally applicable, not just a heuristic for a non general set of possible scenarios. Given any two integer coordinates, X1, Y1 and X2, Y2 we should automatically be able to name the coordinates of all tiles that block those two coordinates. 4) The rule should be invariant to 4 way rotation, translation, and reflection along either axis. Some rules would be obvious. For example, if your shot is completely horizontal vertical (rook movement) or completely diagonal (bishop movement) and something is directly in that path, it should be blocked. But there are cases that are not completely obvious to me, and different rules have been followed in different games. For example, what if the projectile launcher and target are separated by a knight's path? Is an object blocking the projectile if it lies on one of the two tiles that sit between the launcher and target along the long axis of separation? I have seen that being a valid block in the game Hero Academy, though it's not obvious to me that it should be. EDIT I realize that point 2 can be addressed with a nice UI that can inform the player of whether a path is blocked before they commit to their move. However, even if the UI does that, I still want it to be obvious to the player, independent of the UI. (If the player has to play a few games to learn how it works, that's fine, as long as it's easy to learn.) This aligns with my general philosophy that one should maximize the proportion of cognitive effort that goes towards strategic decision making, and minimize the proportion of cognitive effort that goes towards figuring out game mechanics on the spot.


Self set vs explicit goals and their efficacy Just curious if anyone has an insight onto the efficacy of self set goals as opposed to explicit ones in regards to player retention. Content requirements aside are there any anecdotal or quantitative results on which method provides a more immersive experience for a player, and thus is more likely to keep them around and playing?


Create ROI tools for analysis I want to create some ROI tools on my game for personal analysis. Let's say that I have 3 different level of special powers with a recursive cost and certain bonus. So, I want to see when certain level will start have income. 1st example 1000 coins for 10 uses. Bonus 10 on farming speed. 2000 coins for 10 uses. Bonus 20 on farming speed. Etc In this example, I know exactly what the bonus will do. I have the price of the farming per unit and I can calculate the income per use for each power level. So, I can tweak the numbers using the ROI tool to make the effect better. 2nd example 1000 coins for 3 power ups on a weapon. Bonus 1 attack power, 5 chance to destroy the weapon. 2000 coins for 3 power ups on a weapon. Bonus 2 attacking power, 10 chance to destroy the weapon. 3rd example 1000 coins per use. Bonus 30 heal, 5 chance to get injured. 2000 coins per use. Bonus 50 heal, 10 chance to get injured. As you can see, the first example is simple to calculate the income vs cost. However, the second and third example don't have an exact effect and both of them have a probability to either good or bad effect. How do you work on this type of ROI? How do you calculate the pros of each level?


How to make something happen every N seconds in game? I want to have something happen every N seconds, how would I do that? Maybe use a timer but how?


How do I come up with the game mechanics for a puzzle game? I want to make a puzzle game, but I don't know how to start. I have observed that each puzzle game has a core mechanic that enables opportunity for numerous puzzles. I'm not sure how to think of ideas. I was wondering how to come up with ideas for my game. I do not want any of your ideas because I want the game to be original.


Scrambling word into least recognizable form My goal is to present the player with a scrambled word that should be reordered back into the original form OELHL HELLO I want a scrambling algorithm that takes any given word( 3or4 letters, may contain spaces) and turns it into the least recognizable form. While randomly moving every letter around certainly works, I noticed that not all shuffles are equal, some are more recognizable than others. I am posting this question in case someone knows of a better algorithm (maybe based on linguistics) that guarantees least recognizable form.


Comprehension question to MVC Pattern in Game Programming So is my assumption right? If I use MVC in Games I will have to implement a Model,Controller,View for every kind of interaction object. For example in an Motorbike game. My Motorbike object will have its own controller, view and model class. Or is it enough if I define a model,view and controller for the world object and just use that view for drawing my bike?! Or am I mixing something up?


Simultaneous game states I think I understand the basic idea behind a Finite State Machine based game loop. But I'm trying to write a little game in which the same object can simultaneously be in multiple, independent states. At least that's what I want to do. To give you an idea Robot may be in FleeState and FireLaserState at the same time, besides in each of them individually at any time. Would something like this be possible using the FSM pattern? Or ought I to look elsewhere? After all, does the whole idea make sense? Pasted from my comment below A little clarification of why I'd like states to be kept separate I want the player to have the ability to program simple state changes before a game... say "if (health is way too low) flee". But then I want multiple such rules to be active simultaneously in order to keep the game interesting, and cannot know beforehand which other states may be active.


Bomberman clone, how to do bombs? I'm playing around with a bomberman clone to learn game developement. So far I've done tiles, movement, collision detection, and item pickup. I also have pseudo bombplacing (just graphics and collision, no real functionality). I've made a jsFiddle of the game with the functionality I currently have. The code in the fiddle is very ugly though. Scroll past the map and you find how I place bombs. Anyway, what I would like to do is an object, that has the general information about bombs like function Bomb() this.radius player.bombRadius this.placeBomb function () if(player.bombs ! 0) place bomb this.explosion function () Explosion I don't really know how to fit it into the code though. Everytime I place a bomb, do I do var bomb new Bomb() or do i need to constantly have that in the script to be able to access it. How does the bomb do damage? Is it as simple as doing X,Y in all directions until radius runs out or object stops it? Can I use something like setTimeout(bomb.explosion, 3000) as timer? Any help is appreciated, be it a simple explanation of the theory or code examples based on the fiddle. When I tried the object way it breaks the code. Update I now place bombs, and after a certain amount of time delete it depending on the position I placed it. But if I place a bomb before the first bomb explodes it only deletes one of them (obviously since bombX and bombY has changed since the first was placed). Now i need to know how to fix this issue, maybe create a new array with all of the bomb positions? What's the best way of doing this? Current code function placeBomb() if(placebomb amp amp player.bombs ! 0) map player.Y player.X .object 2 bombX player.X bombY player.Y placebomb false player.bombs setTimeout(explode, 3000) function explode() alert('BOOM!') delete map bombY bombX .object player.bombs


Is there any specific reasons to include clearly inferior options in a game? Games contain inferior options A lot of games that I have played contain some optimal options and some clearly inferior ones. Sometimes, like in Heroes of Might amp Magic IV, it could happen due to the limited time the developers had to balance it (e.g. Academy benefits so much more from choosing Gold Golems and then Genies rather than Magi and Naga that there is no reason to go the second way). Sometimes it happens for no apparent reason However, it often happens that the developers clearly had enough time to polish the game, didn't go bankrupt after its release etc., but it is still full of quot trap quot options that sound cool, but are actually inferior to something always available in the same situation, or almost always available in similar situations. There are just so many examples of such, almost every game has something like that. For example, Age of Wonders I began a successful series thga, but a lot of abilities to be chosen for the heroes are clearly underperforming, and a lot of units have clearly better alternatives on the same levels in the same factions. It is important that while some very overpowered stuff often gets nerfed (like it also happened in AoW I), the obviously underpowered choices often stay as they are (as it also happened there). So, I ask Why do game developers create clearly inferior options in their games and don't rebalance them? Is it intentional? If it can be avoided how?


AI to help player by suggesting upgrades Suppose I'm creating a racing game.. I would like to implement an awareness system AI, that will suggest to the player that he can buy that booster or some other upgrade, .. etc. How should I start implementing that? A FSM ? A decision tree ? Suppose that I have variables like, how many crashes, how much is the damage, how many gates I have passed, .. etc how would I use those variables then to say for example you need to buy that stuff?


Why are most characters all the same height in games? In the majority of video games I play, I notice that NPC's are the same height. What's up with that? It kinda takes me out of the experience, when I see ten people in a row that are 5 foot 8. Anyone else notice this, or am I crazy?


Easy SpriteKit question on creating a function The following code is what I'm working on to animate characters in a SK scene class. I can run the code without building, no problem, but I can't build it and run it I get one error message Binary operator ' ' cannot be applied to operands of type ' (SKTexture) ' and ' SKTexture! '. The code is below func initStoryBegin() let CaitAtlas SKTextureAtlas(named "cait") let DrewAtlas SKTextureAtlas(named "drew") CwalkAnimation self.animateSheet(CaitAtlas, walkAnimation CwalkAnimation, formattedword "cait 01d") This is where I am having trouble. In the walkAnimation line. func animateSheet(nameAtlas SKTextureAtlas!, walkAnimation (SKTexture) , formattedword String) gt SKTexture for index in 1...nameAtlas.textureNames.count let imgName String(format formattedword, index) walkAnimation nameAtlas.textureNamed(imgName) println(walkAnimation) return walkAnimation override func touchesBegan(touches Set lt NSObject gt , withEvent event UIEvent) let charNode self.childNodeWithName("charNode") if (charNode ! nil) let animation SKAction.animateWithTextures(CwalkAnimation, timePerFrame 0.2) charNode?.runAction(animation) I can't figure out why the code works when I run it, but it doesn't work when I try to build and run? Any help would be greatly appreciated.


How do multiple expansions to a game typically should be implemented? Let's say I have a game that's finished and shipped, what would be the approach that is typically taken in regards to future content such as expansions? I'm not talking about programmatic implementation. I'm talking about how to integrate it to the base game, especially for multiple expansions. If I finished making Expansion Pack 1 which adds new locations, new quests that tie in to the base vanilla game, etc, and then later down the line, I finish Expansion Pack 2 as well, how do I handle if the player only bought Expansion Pack 2 without making it feel disjointed in relation to the lack of Expansion Pack 1? Or should I make all older expansions mandatory before being able to use the latest one? In short, I'm trying to wrap my head around implementing multiple expansions without any of the expansions being mandatory but at the same time, I don't want them to feel "tacked on" to the base game as a side content (meaning, they should be integrated into the game's world). I want them to feel like an actual part of the world. Just that they're optional.


How can I make backtracking interesting? When a player navigates a space for the first time, it is very interesting the content is new, the dangers are unknown, paths need to be found. However, various situations force the player to backtrack, or navigate the same space multiple times. Perhaps the level designers are being economical, or trying to build familiarity with a space. Perhaps the game itself is open ended, or like a sandbox, where navigating the same spaces is part of the game itself. These can make the same spaces seem tedious and sparse. Given that backtracking (or navigating the same space multiple times) is unavoidable, what are some effective, economical ways of making it interesting? Please keep in mind We are reusing levels deliberately, either for effect or to save on cost. Therefore modifying the levels beyond recognition would be against our intent. We also cannot modify the gameplay too much if we were attempting to save cost by reusing levels, incurring more costs by adding gameplay would be counterproductive. One quick fix I had in mind was to give the player some sort of powerup or vehicle so that they could backtrack faster. I'm sure there are better methods, and examples of games where they were used.


Should I use attack effect collision to detect when damage is dealt? I am wondering what a common way for actually dealing damage to different units is. Imagine a game like starcraft for example, should damage be done like this 1) zealot attacks zergling, deal damage to zergling or 2) zealot attacks zergling, create an attack effect on zergling. When this effect collides with the zergling deal damage to said zergling. The advantage of 2 is for projectiles (like a dragoon attack) will deal damage when the attack collides with the target unit. What are your thoughts about this in general? Are there other ways of doing this?


Multiplayer matchmaking algorithm I'm building a game in which there are tournaments. During the tournaments we want players to play against each other in an efficient way. What I'm looking for is a generic algorithm that will match players together in an optimal way in order to Have the lowest amount of games possible Be reasonably sure that after all games are played, the highest ranked player is the best Tricky part Games can have 2, 3 or 4 players in a death match depending on the tournament. Tournaments have two or more players, no other constraints. Does such an algorithm exist? Note For the ranking, I will probably be using an ELO based algorithm (unless you have a better suggestion).


What is the difference between "stealth" and "social stealth?" I was recently researching the stealth mechanics of several games and I stumbled across the distinction of "stealth" (eg. Splinter Cell series) vs "social stealth" (eg. Assassin's Creed series). What exactly is the difference between these two terms?


How do I implement a programming system in my game that is both accessible, powerful, and fast to code in? I'm currently working on a space based sandbox game which will heavily feature the ability to custom program your systems. I want to implement this in a way that is both accessible, powerful (bare minimum would be turing completeness) fast to code in. Text based languages generally only satisfy the latter two requirements, and while it's not to difficult to design a visual language which satisfies the first two, visual languages are a pain to program in due to requiring extensive mouse use. While there are some very accessible text based languages, I want complete non programmers to be able to ease themselves into programming.


How can I solve the problem of attacking being disadvantageous in TBS due to entering the range of enemy attacks? I noticed this thing in Age of Wonders I some time ago, but I can imagine this problem popping up in any other game system where units with equal attack range spend their move points on either moving in range or attacking. In this game, both sides start far away from each other, not being able to hit each other. They have to spend a couple of turns advancing. At some moment it happens that one player moves their units closer to the enemy units to be able to attack them, but also ends up in the opponent's attacks' range, getting damaged before being able to attack themself. Not very good! Sometimes it is acceptable and intended, like if I attack an army of cavalry with an army of archers, my opponent is essentially allowed a free attack because cavalry can usually move further than archer's shooting range. But if both armies have equal ranges, the game can turn into a stalemate, because nobody wants to move forward and be hit first. Getting the first strike is so important that it overshadows a strong unit stats advantage. Even the AI knows to abuse it, waiting for an infinite amount of time before the player attacks. While it is easy to counter this as a player against AI by flanking the enemy ranks in such a way that only one of their units gets in range of many my units and the enemy is forced to advance, a real player could just back off with this unit and wait for me to fully advance, getting hit severely and likely even losing my upper hand if I had one. Thus, it feels like an example of very bad design. How do I design TBS combat in a similar system so that it is not completely disadvantageous to move in and attack unless you have a range advantage? The only possible solution that I see is making the ranges more different, so it is less probable to see units with similar attack ranges, but even in that case such a situation r still not impossible. I am sure that some more elegant solutions exist. So, what are they?


Stuck at enemy movement I am making a TD game in unity, Initially I made all of my enemy movements frame rate dependent say I had a grid point1 at 22.65 and other at 21.1, diagrammatically ( 22.65) ( 21.1) ( 21.1 1.55) ...... so the distance on x axis between two points is 1.55, divided it by 25 jumps with each enemy jump of 0.062 of each frame. On reaching on next point of grid the enemy find again its path. All went fine until I have requirement of FastForward and Pause feature. I used timeScale property of unity but it wont work as they are frame dependent. I also tried double speed of enemy on clicking fast forward button at any time, it has some issues that enemy jumps are now less and it fails to reach on next grid point. Could someone suggest me solution to my problem. Do I need to change the enemy movement code to make it frame independent ?? I need the enemy to reach on the grid specific point I also need later to slow down any one enemy's speed when tower fires on it. Thnx


Spreadsheets in Game Design? There have been two instances from the past two weeks that I've heard from well known successful game developers that they use spreadsheets when designing games. The first being David Whatley in this GDCVault video From Zero to Time Magazine App Success The second being the guys that do Walled Garden Weekly. David said he models everything out and uses excel models to see how everything plays out. What on earth is he talking about? Is it seeing how the game mechanics react to each other? Is there somewhere where I can learn more about how to do this?


Fire Emblem Advance Wars Turn Based Strategy like Artificial Intelligence I have made a Fire Emblem Advance Wars like game, and I was wondering if there are any particular techniques in the AI's in those games. I was wondering how to let the AI make the best decisions. I have the tiles a unit can move to, I have the enemy unit positions and I have formulas to calculate battle outcomes, now I want to add those together so that, for example, the AI attacks the weakest unit, blocks a chokepoint or just moves closer to the enemy if nobody is in range. What is the best approach to this?


Creating a click and drag system in GameMaker Studio 2 I am attempting to create a click and drag system in GameMaker 2, for example a dress up game or maybe a puzzle. How would I go about getting the objects to click and drag? I'm trying to get it so I can click and drag a piece of clothing, for example, and drag it onto a character and then drag another piece of clothing on as well.


Allow Pushing Boosting in free browser MMOGs? There seems to be a set of rules (or game design criteria) common to free MMOGs, to encourage fair competition. One such rule is that each player may have only a single account (despite the difficulty of enforcing this effectively). A related issue has recently come to my attention, where a player who does not themselves play often, instead of using their limited resources for their own gain transfers them to another, stronger player. Commonly these might include spouses or disinterested roommates or children, or friends who are no longer active in the game. Does this advantage violate an essential aspect of the design of the game, or should it be permitted?


What knowledge would I need to make a good simulation game I have an idea for a game like theme park but don't know how simulation games are made. I am not on my first game so I would appreciate constructive answers instead of "its hard, don't do it". What I want is to know how simulation game mechanics are put together. I figure it would be heaver on the AI than normal games and not knowing much about AI would like to know some programming techniques I should look into for this style game. Specific techniques please not just a book on AI. What sort of architecture would be used? I guess it would have some sort of probability engine with pre designed events that are triggered based on the AI state. Would it use a Finite State Machine (FSM) or be purely event driven? Any information on how a sims game functions would be cool.


Why do games suggest you take a break? A lot of games will suggest you take breaks from them every 30 minutes or so, I think this is especially common in Nintendo games, but they aren't the only ones to do it. What is the advantage to this? Does this somehow help get you to play it more or does it help sell more copies?


iPhone Game Sprites I have made games with cocos2d for the iphone however I am looking to move on from that, is there a good direction you could suggest? If not I was planning on using what the SDK gives me, and so for example to make a sprite, say the player on screen, rather than a CCSprite, what would be best to use? What do I need to go and learn? Thanks.


How to utilize miniMax algorithm in Checkers game I am sorry...as there are too many articles about it.But I can't simple get this. I am confused in the implementation of AI. I have generated all possible moves of computer's type pieces. Now I can't decide the flow. Whether I need to start a loop for the possible moves of each piece and assign score to it.... or something else is to be done. Kindly tell me the proper flow algorithm for this. Thanks UPDATE MiniMax code Now I coded the algorithm but not getting correct moves. Please help me find out the logical error.


Is there a concept of "pasted on theme" in video games? I've prototyped an idea and so far it's quite fun to play. However, it's still abstract and uses placeholder art. I've been thinking about a theme story to add to the game, but I don't want to make it too obvious it was added almost as an afterthought. There's a concept of quot pasted on theme quot within the board game community which basically refers to a game which is easy to reskin without redesigning some of the mechanics. I was wondering how big of an issue this is with video games (indie games in particular of course) and anything else I could do about a story for my game.


What makes a game a game vs something else like a puzzle or a toy? Famously the Sims and similar games have been described by some designers as Toys and not "really" games. I'm curious if there is a good answer to what makes something a game. For example many companies sell Sudoku games EA has an iPhone one, IronSudoku offers a great web based one, and there are countless others on most platforms. Many newspapers publish Sudoku puzzles in their print editions and often online. What differentiates a game from a puzzle? (or are all Sudoku "games" misnamed?) I'm not convinced there is a simple or easy answer but I'd love to be proven wrong. I've seen some definitions and emphasize "rules" as core to something being a game (vs. "real life") but puzzles have rules as well as do many other things. I'm open to answers that either focus only on computer games (on any platform) or which expand to include games and gameplay across many platforms. Here to I'm not fully convinced the lines are clear is a "game" of D amp D played over a virtual tabletop with computer dice rollers, video amp audio chat a computer game or something else? (I'd lean towards something else but where do you draw that line?)


How do games go about designing weapon damage? In Action RPG games, I was wondering how weapon damage numbers and attack speeds are decided on. Do most games come up with their own or do they "steal" numbers from other games? How would I go about coming up with my own numbers?


What are easing functions? I found this cool website for game development and it has a list of easing functions Although the site contains a description of what they're for, it goes over my head. What are easing functions and what are they used for? Update I found a better example of the functions themselves from Phaser.io's source code. These functions are much simpler than the answers here would suggest. They only take one parameter, k. As part of the answer, I'd like to know how to use these.


How does 2D Game Physics work? Possible Duplicate How do I build a 2D physics engine? If we take the game Angry Birds that had big success lately I were thinking how do they implement the physics in a game like that? Your are shooting of your birds and they hit something that will fall off and in turn creating a chain reaction of things either falling or exploding.. Are all this happening with calculations with rules considering all collisions together with gravity etc.?


Mini Game Platform for PC similar to Warcraft III Custom Games I think it would be fun to make a game for pc that has an online community like Warcraft III (the RTS, not the MMORPG), aka there's lobbies and chat rooms and users can host games to play with eachother. And there's no seriousness, just fun mini games that last on average 30 60 minutes, more or less depending on the game. I searched google but it's really hard to find anything. Is there anything similar to this idea that's already out there? Or is this a first? Also, in making this, any recommendations, flaming, or random comments? (yes I know it is hard to make an online game and such, especially since I have no experience with networking. I do have 2 3 years of programming experience, however). Some more info on what I want to create. I want it to be easy for users to create games and play with friends. All of us game creators have ideas, and we probably draw them out on paper (graph paper for me). Wouldn't it be amazing if it was a matter of a couple hours to transfer that idea to a fully working game, even if it is in 3d?


MiniMax not working properly(for checkers game) I am creating a checkers game but My miniMax is not functioning properly,it is always switching between two positions for its move(index 20 and 17).Here is my code public double MiniMax(int board, int depth, int turn, int red best, int black best) int source int dest double MAX SCORE INFINITY,newScore int MAX DEPTH 3 int newBoard new int 32 generateMoves(board,turn) System.arraycopy(board, 0, newBoard, 0, 32) if(depth MAX DEPTH) return Evaluation(turn,board) for(int z 0 z lt possibleMoves.size() z 2) source Integer.parseInt(possibleMoves.elementAt(z).toString()) System.out.println("SOURCE " source) dest Integer.parseInt(possibleMoves.elementAt(z 1).toString()) (int )possibleMoves.elementAt(z 1) System.out.println("DEST " dest) applyMove(newBoard,source,dest) newScore MiniMax(newBoard,depth 1,opponent(turn),red best, black best) if(newScore gt MAX SCORE) MAX SCORE newScore maxSource source maxDest dest maxSource and maxDest will be used to perform the move. if (MAX SCORE gt black best) if (MAX SCORE gt red best) break alpha beta cutoff else black best (int) MAX SCORE the score if (MAX SCORE lt red best) if (MAX SCORE lt black best) break alpha beta cutoff else red best (int) MAX SCORE the score for ends return MAX SCORE end minimax I am unable to find out the logical mistake. Any idea what's going wrong?


Tweaking incentives for lottery with a twist I have been developing a game which is a lottery where your chance of winning is proportional to the square of your bet. To prevent people from overbetting the pot (optimal strategy shouldn't just be to bet as much as possible, I think), and to make subsequent jackpots appealing, I've made it so the winner gets (current round bets past round leftovers) 2. 48 of the jackpot goes forward, and 2 of the jackpot goes to the house. This is generally working, but when there are not many people on the site, one person will sit there and drain the pot every round with the minimum bet. Though I think the concept is pretty cool, I have the feeling that some small tweaks could make a big difference. Any ideas how to get the pot to grow as big as possible? Apologies if this is not the right place to post.


Match 3 game level generator I made match 3 game and now i trying to add level generator. Now I generate level by filling random cells with random blocks, but I want to create generator which for given number of moves and number of block kinds generate level. What algorithms I can use if they exists?


What is the best way to manage 'state' in Phaser? I have heard that this is not the best way to manage state in phaser var game new Phaser.Game(800, 600, Phaser.CANVAS,'YourGameName') game.state.add("Boot", Boot) game.state.add("Preload", Preload) game.state.add("MainMenu", mainMenu) game.state.add("Play", Play) game.state.add("GameOver", GameOver) game.state.start("Boot") so what is the best way to do it. I am newbie in Phaser game development.


Simultaneous game states I think I understand the basic idea behind a Finite State Machine based game loop. But I'm trying to write a little game in which the same object can simultaneously be in multiple, independent states. At least that's what I want to do. To give you an idea Robot may be in FleeState and FireLaserState at the same time, besides in each of them individually at any time. Would something like this be possible using the FSM pattern? Or ought I to look elsewhere? After all, does the whole idea make sense? Pasted from my comment below A little clarification of why I'd like states to be kept separate I want the player to have the ability to program simple state changes before a game... say "if (health is way too low) flee". But then I want multiple such rules to be active simultaneously in order to keep the game interesting, and cannot know beforehand which other states may be active.


How to prevent the "Too awesome to use" syndrome? When you give the player a rare but powerful item which can only be used once but is never really required to proceed, most players will not use it at all, because they are waiting for the perfect moment. But even when this moment comes, they will still be reluctant to use it, because there might be an even better moment later. So they keep hoarding it for a moment which will never come. In the end, they will carry the item around until it is outclassed by other, more readily available resources, or even until the very end of the game. That means that such one shot items don't provide any gameplay value at all. They are simply too awesome to use. What can you do to encourage the player to make use of their one shot items and not hoard them?


Does Pokemon use any deep A.I in battle? A Pokemon wild battle. The enemy may have up to 4 moves. I am wondering, is there any.. A.I going on here, or does the enemy simply take a random move and then executes it? Are there not any battle factors conditions that may change the enemy's behavior? I guess it makes sense to categorize moves by "Offensive" "Defensive" and or "Healing", and from there make choices depending on HP etc... dunno.


What's an appropriate difficulty scale for weapon efficacy vs difficulty to obtain? I'm writing up a design document for a voxel based adventure game, similar to minecraft, but fixing a lot of fundamentally broken game mechanics, or at least updating those mechanics to be more suited to an adventure game. I'm considering creating a weapon scale from 1 10, where weapons at 1 are least powerful, and weapons at 10 are most powerful. I was considering making the materials to make the weapon most common for the level 1 weapons, and 10x less common for the most powerful weapon, but if you look at minecraft, diamonds only occur in 0.1 of blocks and they still feel too common, unless you're prone to dying of course. In keeping with the adventure focus, would it be better to have the higher tiers of weapons only come from monster drops, or from a combination of a rare monster drop and a mineable item, or are there other common game mechanics I could use to have a super powerful weapon that's also hard to get, but worth your time to get? To state the question another way, for the time investment, should a weapon that's 10x as powerful take 10x as long to obtain, or 20x or higher? Are there any studies that show any correlation between "fun" in how long players will grind for an item and an appropriate time investment scale for obtaining equipment?


How to effectively gather info about how players play my HTML5 game? I'm finishing another HTML5 game, and this time I'd like to do some spying business on the players... Mostly just basic stuff when they are playing, for how long, what upgrades they are buying the most and so on. Now, my first idea was just to collect this information during the gameplay, and then have a Javascript function fire when they close the tab browser, and said function would send it to my server via Socket.io. This, of course, wouldn't work, because anyone who takes a look at the code would realize it and could start sending a tonne of false info which would mess up my statistics. Questions Is there a way to effectively do this? If yes, what kind of info should I be looking for, aside from stuff I already mentioned?


Averaging Camera Position I'm making a camera which tracks the player. I am using a basic algorithm to calculate a position for the camera relative to the player. Then I am taking an average of this over the last x number of frames. This creates a nice chase camera which always slightly lags and evens out the players movements. Where I am running into trouble is with delta Time. How can I weight each entry in my list of previous positions so that delta time is taken into account. Currently I'm having an issue where, when the frame rate is particularly slow, the camera lags really far behind the player. I should also mention that currently I am adding each entry ElapsedTimeInSeconds 0.01f times to give the weight. So the average is effectively over fewer frames if the frame rate is slow. I also tried entering values as Value DeltaTime, then keeping an average of delta time to divide the values by when I get them back out of my average tracking class but that didn't work. What I think I really want is an average over the last n seconds rather than the last n frames.


What are the other three "game dynamics"? Seth Priebatsch recently gave a tedtalk entitled Building the game layer on top of the world. In it, Seth described four game dynamics, techniques used by game designers to make games fun and addictive. The four dynamics that Priebtsch described were Appointment dynamic a dynamic in which to succeed, one must return at a predefined time to take a predetermined action. (Real life example happy hour) Influence and status the ability of one player to modify the behavior of another's actions through social pressure. (Example different color credit cards as a reflection of status) Progression dynamic a dynamic in which success is granularly displayed and measured through the process of completing itemized tasks. (Example linkedin profile progress bar) Communal discovery a dynamic wherein an entire community is rallied to work together to solve a challenge. (Example finding interesting content on Digg.com) Seth explained these four game dynamics in his talk and added that his company has an additional three. Does anyone know (or have any theories) about what the other three game dynamics are?


Is there any API that returns information about "all games"? I'm building a project about games and I need to make a "portfolio" of games. Something like a catalog of Netflix, but about games, and I need some basic information about the game, like Publisher, Genre, Developer, Release Date and some more information. Someone know a free API that returns the date that I need? I tried Steam API, but doesn't work for me. Obs Returns a JSON.


When creating a game engine, how should I define the position of objects? I'm building a custom game engine, in C using SDL, and I'm not sure how I should define the position of my game objects. I tried googling a bit, but I wasn't sure how to refine my search terms to get what I'm looking for. Should I define the position (x, y) of my object to be the top left of the object, for ease of rendering? Since my game is tile based, it also makes sense to have the position of the tiles as the top left position. Perhaps I should define it to be the center of the object, which seems to make more sense, logically? If we use width 2 and height 2 to calculate it, does the slightly truncated integer for even sized objects matter? How do other games do this? Right now, my objects are defined by the top left corner, and it's annoying to do operations that find the center of the object.


What is the better way to speed up gameplay as the level rises? I started with game programming couple of weeks back. For the starters I tried to develop ZigZag (link takes you to 2 min gameplay). I am done with the logic of gameplay by now. It runs well and all. Now I want to speed up the gameplay as user passes some score. Say after 100 points increase the speed of the ball. I have two options Control the speed using time delay by varying time.delay(var). Actually increasing the speed of the moving ball Not sure which one is a good idea in long term, I'm looking for help from experienced game developers. You can checkout the source code https github.com ravi ojha zigway blob master zigway.py


What are the cons of a 3 team FPS? In creating a video game concept, there are very little video games that offer a 3 team multiplayer FPS (think like Overwatch Call of Duty but with 3 teams instead of 2). The only 'mainstream' games that offer this are RTS games. What are the cons of implementing a 3 team multiplayer FPS game?


Help developing a scoring system for a tech tree based game I'm working on a tech tree based project in which the player would select "advancements" to effect several measurement stats, or "basic stats". I have a working excel model that will calculate the "scores" for these basic stats based on advancements selected, but I'd eventually like to use these measurement stats that I have to calculate higher level measurements like population or total production power. For example in the case of calculating "Population", I'd like to take the (current pop (current pop. fertility rate)) death rate. Fertility rate would be calculated based on the "basic stats" of "health" and "food supply", and death rate on metrics like "health" and "squalor". I'm not really sure how to use these measurements though... If health and food supply both start at 0 and increased by 5 over the course of a few turns, how should I use these scores in a meaningful way to do what I'm trying to do in the case of fertility rate? Fertility rate should be expressed as a certain percentage of total pop. but I'm not sure how to get there from two scores of 5. I don't think this will be a simple process, but I feel like I'm missing some basic concepts to put this into place. Is there a name for this kind of scoring system? Any ideas would be appreciated! Thanks.


Prototyping a puzzle game for solvability of levels I am in the prototyping phase of making a puzzle game for iOS. The basic premise of what the player has to do is get from point A to point B by navigating through a maze like setup, while moving blocks out of the way, and avoiding enemies. This is my first approach to a game like this so I am wondering how others have made sure that the levels they create are solvable. For example take the classic Unblock game where you have to move the red block off the game board by moving the other non red block pieces out of the way. It gets difficult because they are all in a tight space with not much movement to be had. Has does the creator know that the arrangement of puzzle pieces are placed in a way that makes it possible to solve the puzzle? Do they start with paper prototypes and work from a solvable end state backwards to make the initial game board layouts?


Factors to consider when building an algorithm for gun recoil What would be a good algorithm for calculating the recoil of a shooting guns cross hairs? What I've got now, is something like this Define min max recoil based on weapon size Generate random number of "delta" movement Apply random value to X, Y, or both of cross hairs (only "up" on the Y axis) Multiply new delta based on time from the previous shot (more recoil for full auto) What I'm worried about is that this feels rather predicable, what other factors should one take into account when building recoil? While I'd like it to be somewhat predictable, I'd also like to keep players on their toes. I'm thinking about increasing the min max recoil values by a large amount (relatively) and adding a weighting, so large recoils will be more rare it seems like a lot of effort to go into something I felt would be simple. Maybe this is just something that needs to be fine tuned with additional playtesting, and more playtesters? I think that it's important to note, that the recoil will be a large part of the game, and is a key factor in the game being fun challenging or not.


Is there a rule of thumb to scale up the environment by 33 ? I was reading an article on Gamasutra called A Rational Approach to Racing Game Track Design, and I found the following A commonly acknowledged rule for third person games is that the environment should be scaled up by a factor of around 33 percent (on page 2) I am just curious has anyone else heard of such a rule, and if so, where else could I find references to it?


Representing feelings such as temperature, pain, smell, taste, hunger, and thirst immersively In a totally immersive, simulation type role playing game, the player should not look at bars or numbers to keep track of his or her stats, so another method of showing these stats is needed. For example, the player needs to know when to eat, because games (currently) cannot incite a real feeling of hunger. The player also needs to know if they are hurt, so they can take appropriate measures. Somehow, these feelings must be represented visually or audibly. I'm not a fan of coloring and blurring the screen to show feelings like how most first person shooters show that you have been shot. What are some ways to represent these feelings immersively?


How is game difficulty tested balanced? How is game difficulty typically tested or balanced so that there's a steady progression of difficulty how do I ensure that no level is too difficult or too easy for its point in the game? Are play testers of various skills brought in, or a random sampling of people? What considerations are should be taken into account during the actual level design process?


Pairing algorithm for the Elo rating system Imagine a 1 on 1 (not teams) competition between AI bots, like the Google AI Challenge. The various bots are assigned an ELO rating based on the outcome of the various versus matches. The reason I specify AI bots as they can compete 24 7 without regard for player fatigue, geolocation, etc. Given limited server resources only so many bouts can be run per day. I'm looking for a heuristic (or an optimal algorithm) to choose which two bots should compete next. All the past competitions have been tracked. By this I mean that the algorithm has more to work with than just the ELO ratings. The use cases I'm partitularly interested in The competition has been pairing randomly for while and now I want to make intelligent pairing decision. The Elo rating have stabilized and a bot is updated. The Elo ratings have stabilized and new bot is introduced to the competition. Update I need to clarify. I'm not looking for an algorithm that will provide fair matches. I'm looking for an algorithm that will find matches most likely to update the Elo ratings of the bots to their "true" ratings with the least number of matches.


Why do some videogame sequels become bigger? Sometimes I'm wondering why sequels in games usually strive to have new features, making them more complex, taking much longer to finish and also sounds much harder to keep motivated into it. I understand that it's needed because gamers don't want to buy the same game with just a different story. but occasionally these features seem to make the original intention of the game more complex than I think it should be. If a developer is always with the thought to make his next game bigger than the previous, then that means that they'll become overly cluttered with tons of features that a gamer may or may never use. That sounds like a waste of effort to me. Maybe it's just that I prefer a simple style from indie games, but when I look at the larger companies, then sometimes I've a feeling they're trying out a lot (if not too much) to sell well. Just take a look at Mario Kart 8, Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey as example. They're all so complex compared with what the series used to be. Now imagine how large their next game has to be in order to top that, if that's even possible. So my question is what leads game developers to focus on making the next game even bigger? And are there viable ways to avoid this trend? I'm used to the phrase 'less is more', but I wonder if that also fits in this situation.


Game Design Education I am very interested in a career as a video game designer. to clarify i mean one of the people to figure out how the mechanics, story, levels and art all work together. To any designers on the website what post secondary education should I look for? I know that typically they have knowledge of all different parts of game development but is there anything specific I should be looking for that would helpful as a base?


How to develop and optimize the illusion of meaningful character development between the player and NPCs? How to develop and optimize the illusion of meaningful character development between the player and NPCs? It's very hard for a game developer to create unlimited dialogue options for just one NPC for the player to interact with, and develop some type of meaningful relationship with. Instead most developers create the illusion of choice in order to minimize the amount of dialogue an NPC has, yet maximize the player's illusion of meaningful development with that NPC. I am pondering the idea of creating a Skyrim Mod that implements a clever way of reusing pre spoken dialogue of all NPCs and to create the opportunity for the player to interact with the NPCs and create an illusion that the player makes meaningful dialogue choices to develop some type of relationship with NPCs later imposing consequences on the either player, the NPC, or both later in the game. I am not asking of a way to create new dialogue, but rather how to cleverly reuse dialogue to achieve the same effect for different and new events. This is not just specific to Skyrim. The same ideas can still be useful for games under current development. The illusion of choice is a very difficult concept to think about. A web series titled Extra Credits provides an excellent definition for this. For convenience I have copied very important terminology from Extra Credit that will help fortify answers to this game development question. What is agency? to have some control of an outcome What is choice? any moment during play that the player could perform 2 or more distinct actions but has to pick some number of actions less than the total number available to execute What is consequence? making you realize the impact of something you did What is the difference between choice and consequence? choice makes you think about what actions you will take, yet consequence makes you think about actions you have already taken What is meaningful choice? when the decision making process isn't arbitrary, when the player understands the choice their making and has some system to weigh their options, this does not by any means mean they have to fully understand what the consequences of each option will be only that they believe they have what the need to weigh the choices presented to them meaningful choice is not a logical calculation with a definitive answer What is illusion of choice? any moment in a game where you as a player feel as though you're making a choice when in reality theres either no alternative option actually being presented or the consequences of that choice are negligible players hate it when they notice the illusion of choice


Engaging ways to include party members in a fast paced action RPG Imagine a dynamic action RPG, where you constantly need to use your reflex to avoid bullets and fight against hordes of enemies. What would be a best way to incorporate other team members? I can think of several ways but all have disadvantages Giving them orders manually is out of questions when there's so much going around that you need all your attention just to make sure your main is not hit by any incoming attack Using a dynamic pause like in classic cRPG such as Baldur's Gate makes the game slower and interrupts action that ideally should be quick, dynamic and engaging Making them autonomous is difficult to balance. If they're too weak or ineffective, then the player will constantly gets annoyed at them, that they can't get anything right and die constantly. If they are too efficient then they can ruin the game because player could just sit back and watch them defeat all the enemies. If they just pretend to engage the enemy to left the action to the player this can happen Most action RPGs seem aware of these difficulties and prefer to have a single character for the player to run and control. This simplify things greatly but I don't want to lose the party, for plot related purposes, banters, interactions etc. What would be a good way to have the best of both words? How can I best include side characters in a fast and dynamic gameplay?


How to move around in a map and remember position? I am working on sound labyrinth game. My game is about a person getting trapped in the basement and the only way to navigate and get out is through sound. I have created a map over the basement and for each square there has to be a sound. The player starts in b5 with an intro sound and then has to move forward using the arrow keys. I've created this bit of code that plays a sound when forward arrow (keycode 38) is pressed var thriller new Audio("thriller.mp3") document.addEventListener('keydown', function (background) if (background.keyCode 38) thriller.play() , false) My question is How does the code know in which square the player is situated? Is there some smart way in which I can systematize the squares and the sounds they represent?


Choosing Language on Mobile Game Currently I'm trying to localize a mobile game into popular language. Apart from technical stuff (like how to store string and including supporting fonts), I'm a bit confused about designing two things choosing first language when they play game for the first time and changing between them Currently, I already have several options about choosing first language Language is chosen programatically based on user's default language font Ask user on first time run to choose which language thay want Just set default language to english About changing language, is it necessary to give user the option to change language? (assuming that my localization team is really good without any flaw when localizing this mobile game)


Techniques for building out a game idea and mechanics I've been finding that many of my projects fall into the abyss of my "game mechanic tests". That is, they aren't really "games", but rather sandboxes where I try out various things and find some mechanics that would be fun. Now, I'd like to actually create a game out of some these ideas. Since so many of my "games" end up turning into additional sandboxes when I get distracted by a new idea("whoa, that's cool", and suddenly the whole game completely changes.. twenty times.. sometimes back and forth between several competing ideas), I'd like to actually plan out the mechanics, how they will fit together, and altogether how the game will work as a whole, even though I know I still need to be semi flexible for when things play test differently than expected. This is compared to my usual strategy of, "Let's just get started and then I will build a game out of whatever I create" mindset. What techniques are used for planning out a game idea (even if just roughly), before actually just jumping in? Is there specific software which helps? How do I go about managing the planning phase in general and keeping things up to date if things start to change? See this great answer on a separate question for the type of actual design I would like to work on for my game, opposed to the programming focus I generally approach things with.


What are the advantages of putting cheat codes into a game? Some games have cheat codes in them, but I'm not sure I want to add some to mine because I fear they'll ruin the game by making it too easy to beat. What would be the advantages of putting cheat codes into my game?


Ethical F2P monetisation methods I am just starting out in indie game development and one thing that seems clear to me is that in the mobile space at least, unless you are already a famous developer, have a well known brand franchise or are just plain lucky, then you need to price your game at zero to stand any chance of being installed on devices. So to make money you must use Free to play (F2P) monetisation methods. In my own experience with myself and my kids plus reading around on the Web a lot of these methods are not appreciated by the players... My questions is Which F2P methods do players find ethical and acceptable? I am looking for specific game mechanics and an answer which references or is based on data research (if there is any) and not personal opinions or anecdotal references to successful, money making F2P games like Candy Crush Saga or Clash of Clans etc.


iOS gaming with copyrighted characters? Can I use animate characters in an iOS game if I do a citation in the credits. Ex Steven univers in a fighting game and I list Rebecca Sugar in the Credits or by the character bio.


Practical balance of "chance" video game mechanics I've been a small games developer and designer for years, and I've recently begun working on more serious design documents for bigger projects. A common theme I'm running in to is imbalance when it comes to "chance" RPG mechanics. Critical Strike Chance. Chance to Hit Dodge Miss Parry Block so on. The biggest problem in modern RPG games is factoring in Haste (Attack Speed), since it compounds so aggresivly with the other base mechanics. Obviously, the more times a player attacks, indirectly increases their "rate" of critical strikes, or hits. This creates an immense imbalance, and most of the solutions come in the form of capping haste or utilizing diminishing returns or to killing the big stat increases. As a designer and player, I don't feel this is a healthy way to deal with the issue. It's not a "fun" solution. Recently, gamers seen Blizzard's answer to this Haste issue in Diablo3, by halfing the stat increases on most all items. Here is a practical example 50 chance to critically strike, with 1 attack per second on average 0.5 critical strike per second. 50 chance to critically strike, with 2 attacks per second on average 1 critical strike per second. The second situation is by far favorable, rather than increasing your Critical Strike Chance alone, since not only will you see more larger numbers (or hits in terms of a miss chance mechanic) per unit of DPS, you'll also be hitting more and games with Proc Chance mechanics also benefits. More Complex games balance such things with Internal Cooldowns and Weighing the stats against each other, but often times Haste still comes out on top as being the supremely powerful stat. Is it practical to instead use a Rate to decide weather or not something happens vs stat weights, capping and cooldowns? My simplified example is Critical Strike RATE Crit Chance Attacks Per Second The result is basically a simple stat weight system. Mechanics such a proc chances still benefit from Haste, however it may be easier to change the damage output of attacks and abilities to reflect the balance. This keeps enjoyable haste mechanics in the game, which are fun to play. It also creates more depth for slower attack builds, rather than just an ability or proc benefiting from slow weapons. Is this a near sighted solution? Are there working examples of games currently on the market that don't cap or punish "haste" character builds?


Procedurally splitting and merging paths I'm making a text based adventure which sends the player along different paths depending on their choices. Each scene is like a node in a directed graph. Each node has a time step which is equal to the number of nodes prior 1. There is a maximum of Tn nodes per time step, say 5, and so you can visualise this in this way I want to generate paths like these. Where a node points to more than one other, that could be called a fork and where two point to one, that could be called a merge. At any particular timestep there will tend to be Tn 2 paths, only rarely going down to one or up to Tn. Does anyone have ideas or know of any similar work? (One small issue paths never cross that is, those on the left stay on the left until merging to the right. And there's no wrapping from far left to far right. Because of this, it seems like nodes on the far left or far right of a timestep will have a smaller probability of merging. Is this avoidable?)


Ideas for attack damage algorithm (language irrelevant) I am working on a game and I need ideas for the damage that will be done to the enemy when your player attacks. The total amount of health that the enemy has is called enemyHealth, and has a value of 1000. You start off with a weapon that does 40 points of damage (may be changed.) The player has an attack stat that you can increase, called playerAttack. This value starts off at 1, and has a possible max value of 100 after you level it up many times and make it farther into the game. The amount of damage that the weapon does is cut and dry, and subtracts 40 points from the total 1000 points of health every time the enemy is hit. But what the playerAttack does is add to that value with a percentage. Here is the algorithm I have now. (I've taken out all of the gui, classes, etc. and given the variables very forward names) double totalDamage weaponDamage (weaponDamage (playerAttack .05)) enemyHealth (int)totalDamage This seemed to work great for the most part. So I statrted testing some values... enemyHealth ALWAYS starts at 1000 weaponDamage 50 playerAttack 30 If I set these values, the amount of damage done on the enemy is 125. Seemed like a good number, so I wanted to see what would happen if the players attack was maxed out, but with the weakest starting weapon. weaponDamage 50 playerAttack 100 the totalDamage ends up being 300, which would kill an enemy in just a few hits. Even with your attack that high, I wouldn't want the weakest weapon to be able to kill the enemy that fast. I thought about adding defense, but I feel the game will lose consistency and become unbalanced in the long run. Possibly a well designed algorithm for a weapon decrease modifier would work for lower level weapons or something like that. Just need a break from trying to figure out the best way to go about this, and maybe someone that has experience with games and keeping the leveling consistent could give me some ideas pointers.


How to make a simple escape the room game? I want to make a very simple "escape the room" game. I was hoping for something that looks something like this. You would see images of some room and you click around to move or to add things to inventory. Then, you can select something in your inventory to use that item with something on the screen. During the whole game there would be a text box describing what is happening (probably in really broken English instead of Japanese). I am looking for something that can be quite simple. I would prefer to have the ability to play sound (probably mp3's) when something happens. It can be web based or a downloaded executable or .jar file. It doesn't have to be perfect, just a proof of concept really. What is the best approach to get this game working with minimal effort? Are there some libraries that can help? I have plenty of Java experience and some C , PHP, and others. I'd rather avoid Windows based technology as I primarily run Linux. I am willing to learn other languages if they have a huge advantage. Ideally, if someone could point me to an example program that I can modify. I'm not expecting to sell or distribute this game.


Welcoming new players to an MMO game with veteran players who have amassed lots of wealth One of the main problems in the game Knight Online has been that the servers that have been open for a long time have users with a lot of items. If I want to join as a new player, it is not logical for me to play the game in those servers because there is no way that I can catch up with the players there (unless I buy a lot of item with real money). Because, in order to obtain "good" items, you have to be in the regions of the game where you will fight with other users, so as a newbie, there is no chance that you can compete with those users. For example, there is a trend in KO a new server opens, after two years people get quite strong and almost no new user joins the server, and then those strong users just gain more and more items and sell them. Then the server dies practically, with no new blood joining it and old users eventually leaving. What is a strategy I can use in my MMO to regulate the wealth distribution, or keep it accessible to new players, even when other players have been accumulating wealth for a long time?


What can be a game play element in a game with Shakespeare's plays as the main theme? I was thinking of learning about making games, so I thought of an idea about making a game on a play, since the content is already there. I actually found well parsed XMLs of Shakespeare's plays. I thought of a few rather simple game play elements, but none seem fun. I thought of a 'word shooter' but it wouldn't be much fun since there are so many speech lines. Then I thought of a game where you have to match which of the characters currently on the screen said a particular dialog. I know that this game probably will not be much fun, but I could try to make it fun. What I may be able to do right now is make an application which 'enacts' the whole play. You can skip right to any act or a scene in an act etc. It will be a 2d game and i will use pygame.


How can I make text based combat more engaging? I'm making a text based adventure in Java, and currently I have a fairly limited combat system where you can do one of 3 things attack with your sword attack with magic(if its unlocked) drink a health potion This system works but is fairly boring and uninspired. I want to make the combat enjoyable yet given the limitations of a text based game, but I don't know how to accomplish this. If anyone knows how to make this system more engaging fun, it would be greatly appreciated.


How to resolve combat of stacks of units to mitigate numerical advantage I just started designing an strategy game where player's armies consist of stacks of units. For my design I was aiming to reproduce the following behaviour for a full combat of multiple turns (for simplicity assume both stacks are the same unit) 1 vs full stack the single unit is killed, the full stack hardly notices. half stack vs full stack the half stack is killed, the full stack sustain noticeable damage. almost full stack vs full stack full stack wins but gets almost wiped out. If randomness is involved, any of both may win, although the bigger one has statistical advantage. My first approach was to add up the stats and treat each stack as a single unit, resolve the combat and then calculate how many units are killed. That didn't produced the expected results, as even the slight numerical advantage in one side produced it to win by a huge margin. The reason is that after each turn, the bigger stack would kill more enemies than the smaller, widening the power difference for the next turn. This different increases exponentially until the smaller stack is quickly obliterated. As a second approach I treated each unit in a stack individually for the combat (something that I wanted to avoid), which produces much better results. However now I have many choices about how to resolve the combat. Should it be a series of 1 vs 1 or should I allow units to gang up on others? Should I pair each evenly or randomly? Should I leave extra units unpaired as "reserve", or all units should fight at least once?


What benefits does a game design degree have for a hobby game programmer? I am interested in studying game design, not because I want a job in the games industry, but because I am interested in the subject itself. I read the following questions, but they mostly deal with the effects on your career in game industry. Should I consider a graduate degree in game development? Game Development Degree vs Computer Science Degree First I thought a game development degree could be beneficial. But from the websites of colleges that offer such degrees, I feel like its more about basic programming with examples from games. This college offers game design degrees, for example. My question is, can I benefit from such a degree when I already have a degree in Computer Science, I already know programming, I'm already developing a game and finally, I have this site to help me when I get stuck?


Creating Level iPhone I am thinking about a new game idea for the iPhone and presumably all the levels would have to be made programatically. So Im wondering what the best method to approach it? Say I have a game with a standard typical 2d, top down maze. Thise maze is simply made up of walls, multiple rectangles on screen, making paths. Do I have to manually work out the position of every rectangle and put it in with an x and y position or is there a better way? I see this taking, forever, there must be certain ways developers approach these situations to get by them efficiently and quickly surely? Thanks.


Why has it become commonplace for NPCs to have one weapon per class instead of variants? For instance, in Half Life 2 you have Civil Protection, Combine Soldier and Combine Elite. Each class has a weapon. Is there a shift away from this at all, where the NPCs are matched with the player in the sense that the weapon they choose to use is based upon their advantage, while still maintaining some sense of competitiveness? Is there a reason this became the norm? Does it have to do with all the variables and complications that can arise from doing that?


Turning a board game idea into a browser based, slow paced gameplay Suppose I want to create a strategy game with global mutable state shared between all players (think game board). But unlike a board game, I don't want it to be real time action and or turn based. Instead, players should be able to log in at any time of the day and spend a fixed number of action points per day as they wish. As opposed to a few hours, game sessions would run over a few weeks. This is meant to reward good strategy rather than time spent playing (as an alternative, hardcore players could always play multiple games in parallel instead) as well as all kind of issues related to live playing like disconnections and synchronization. The game should remain addictive still have a low time investment footprint for casual players. So far so good, but this still leaves open the question of when to solve actions and when they should be visible. I want to avoid "ninja play" like doing all your moves just a few minutes before daily point reset to take other players by surprise, or people spamming F5 to place a well timed action which would defeat the whole point of a non real time game. I thought of a couple of approaches to that Resolve all events in a single scheduled process running once a day. This basically means a "blind" gameplay where players can take actions but don't see their results immediately. The thing is, I played a similar browser game a few years ago and didn't like the fact that you feel disconnected and powerless until there's that deus ex machina telling you what really happened during all that time. You see the world evolve in large increments of one day, which often doesn't seem like seeing it evolve at all. For actions that have an big impact on the game or on other players (attacks, big achievements), make them visible to everyone immediately but delay their effect by something like 24 hours. Opposing players could be notified when such an event happens, so that they can react to it. Do you have any other ideas how I could go about solving this ? Are there any known approaches in similar existing games ?


How to make a simple score system for my game? I'm making a simple game and I can't seem to impliment a simple score system. As the object moves 10 units forward the score should increase by 10. My issue is that when I turn the object around and move backwards the score decreases.


How do I fairly distribute new powerful cards to players in a collectible card game? I'm writing a game in which users start with a few cards. They use those cards to play against other players. The winner can steal a card from the other player. The aim is to get more different rare higher powered cards. If everyone starts with 10 low powered cards, how would anyone ever get higher powered cards? They'd just be playing against people who have the same type of cards as them. How do you fairly distribute these more powerful cards among players?