I fly kites, make video games and do other fun things
by Steve Pavlina, founder of Dexterity Software. Reproduced with permission. Part of a series. When asked during an interview how he managed to reach the top as a professional bodybuilder and Hollywood actor, Arnold Schwarzenegger replied with a single word, “Drive!” All great success ultimately begins with an idea, but what makes ideas become reality is …
by Steve Pavlina, founder of Dexterity Software. Reproduced with permission. This article is part of a series. One of the best ways to increase your shareware sales is obvious: release a new product. Of course, this is much easier said than done. But what if there were a way to develop and release a new product …
by Steve Pavlina, founder of Dexterity Software. Reproduced with permission. This article is part of a series. You worked hard to create a quality product. You promoted it using every means at your disposal: submitting to hundreds of download sites, soliciting reviews, issuing a press release, improving your web site, creating a compelling shareware version, and …
by Steve Pavlina, founder of Dexterity Software. Reproduced with permission. This article is part of a series. In my corner of the software industry, I will work from six months to a couple years to develop and release a new computer game. I can sell sequels or expansion packs, but I generally cannot sell upgrades as …
Working with games means programming, but it is also a special kind of programming. When working on a game you know will be used for competitive play in some ways is like the Formula One race cars; everything you do needs to consider performance. When working on a game you may know that the game is going …
In my last article I wrote a little about the initialization side of RAII, Resource Acquisition Is Initialization, in this one I will talk about the flip side, RAII is also about destruction and cleanup.
On gamedev.net recently there have been several questions about game objects. What are they? How do they work with the rest of the system? What belongs in the object? When should they be created and destroyed? This week I’ll be addressing a few of these.
Over on Gamedev.net, somebody asked if it was possible to finish a game using only the time available in nights and weekends. The answer is a qualified “Yes”. If you are a student just learning the basics, your game may be something like “guess the number”. That is an actual game, but it is not …