RSS Parrot

In Defence of Steam Greenlight

http://higherorderfun.com/blog/2012/09/06/in-defence-of-steam-greenlight/

Published: September 6, 2012 22:55

A few days ago, Steam’s already controversial service “Greenlight” (intended as a way to let the community decide which indie games are to be published by it) was surrounded by a true storm of controversy on Steam when they announced that all developers…

Math for Game Programmers 05 – Vector Cheat Sheet

http://higherorderfun.com/blog/2012/06/03/math-for-game-programmers-05-vector-cheat-sheet/

Published: June 3, 2012 17:23

This is the long due fifth article in this series. If you aren’t comfortable with vectors, you might want to take a look at the first four articles in this series before: Introduction, Vectors 101, Geometrical Representation of Vectors, Operations on…

The guide to implementing 2D platformers

http://higherorderfun.com/blog/2012/05/20/the-guide-to-implementing-2d-platformers/

Published: May 20, 2012 15:20

Having previously been disappointed by the information available on the topic, this is my attempt at categorizing different ways to implement 2D platform games, list their strengths and weaknesses, and discuss some implementation details. The long-term…

On how Diablo III fails to live up to the Diablo legacy

http://higherorderfun.com/blog/2012/05/17/on-how-diablo-iii-fails-to-live-up-to-the-diablo-legacy/

Published: May 17, 2012 21:09

[Edit: I’m now halfway through Act II, and everything I say stands – and, in fact, the problems have become even more obvious] Diablo III just got released this week, to a spectacularly catastrophic launch day in which almost nobody could play. But once…

“Fourteen years were not enough” / “14 anos não foram o suficiente”

http://higherorderfun.com/blog/2012/02/05/14-anos-nao-foram-o-suficiente/

Published: February 5, 2012 05:12

A while ago, there was a discussion in a mail group composed of members of the Brazilian videogame industry, regarding its perceived lack of progress when compared to many other countries – the case in point was that even Iran was showing more impressive…

SPJam 2011 – Down Goes the Phoenix

http://higherorderfun.com/blog/2011/11/22/down-goes-the-phoenix/

Published: November 23, 2011 01:52

Last weekend, I was in São Paulo with my friends at Studio Miniboss to join the first edition of SPJam. The event was lots of fun and a success, with almost a hundred entrants and over 20 digital or board games. Our entry, made in the 48 hours of the…

Best of Game Development Videos and Presentations

http://higherorderfun.com/blog/2011/09/09/best-of-game-development-videos-and-presentations/

Published: September 10, 2011 02:17

Here’s a list of my favourite videos and presentations on several subjects related to game development. I strongly recommend every single video listed below, at least those that match your area of expertise. If you can think of any good videos that I…

Religion in MMOs: Proposal of an Experiment

http://higherorderfun.com/blog/2011/06/19/religion-in-mmos/

Published: June 19, 2011 04:45

Here’s an experiment idea: It’s common in RPGs to have some sort of religion system, generally with a multitude of deities which are more-or-less at peace with one another, and whose followers typically do not try to murder each other at the first…

Multi-thread OpenGL texture loading

http://higherorderfun.com/blog/2011/05/26/multi-thread-opengl-texture-loading/

Published: May 26, 2011 08:29

Those who have used OpenGL are probably aware that you can only invoke OpenGL procedures for a given context on the thread that currently owns it – usually, the main thread. This leads many programmers to assume that OpenGL is strictly single-threaded, and…

Programming is Art

http://higherorderfun.com/blog/2011/02/16/programming-is-art/

Published: February 16, 2011 04:42

Programming is a subject most often lumped in with engineering or science, and there are countless books dedicated to writing better code, but is this a good approach? To me, it seems much more reasonable to understand it as a form of art. Does it matter?…