Game design, programming and more
Game-unit path-finding is something that most players never notice until it doesn't work quite right, and then that minor issue becomes a rage-inducing, end-of-the-world problem. During the development of StarCraft there were times when path-finding … [Continue reading]
At a certain point in every programmer's career we each find a bug that seems impossible because the code is right, dammit! So it must be the operating system, the tools or the computer that's causing the problem. Right?!? Today's story is about … [Continue reading]
The first-ever multiplayer game of Warcraft was a crushing victory, an abject defeat, and a tie, all at once. Wait, how is that possible? Well, therein lies a tale. This tale grew organically during the writing to include game AI, the economics of … [Continue reading]
In my previous article about StarCraft I talked about why we rebooted the project and changed it from a follow-on to Warcraft -- derisively called "Orcs in space" in 1996 -- into the award-winning game that we were finally able to deliver after two … [Continue reading]
In this post I'm going to talk about linked lists, a seemingly trivial subject that many programmers -- even good ones -- seem to get terribly wrong! Then I'm going to share techniques (with source code) to make your game engine code simpler, … [Continue reading]
