Battlefield 2 preview on Gamespot.com

Gamespot.com has a good, albeit short, preview article about the upcoming sequel to the incredible game Battlefield 1942, called, simply enough, Battlefield 2.

Advertising in Video Games

These days, advertising is everywhere. But, should it appear in the video games that we play? This issue has been in the news a lot in the past year or two as more and more game publishers are capitalizing on their captive video gamer audience. Advertising in games, if done properly, can improve the gaming experience, making the game world feel more real. But it really depends on the genre of the game. I don't think seeing a billboard for Coca-Cola while running through Qeynos in Everquest II would be very realistic. But, let's say, seeing that same billboard in City of Heroes, or seeing a Coca-Cola brand vending machine in Half-life 2, as opposed to the nondescript no-name variety, would make the game world feel more tangible and more like the real world. It would help the "suspension of disbelief" aspect video games provide and further blur the lines between reality and fantasy.

I'm curious how others feel about the increase in advertising within games. If you play video games, how do you feel about having actual product ads appear on clothing, walls, and/or billboards? More and more, developers are making real-life products part of the gameplay. For example, in the game Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, the player as Sam Fisher, must use a Sony/Ericsson smartphone as part of the game. You cannot progress through the game without using the phone. (Forgive me if any of these details are off; I have yet to play this game). How do you feel about it? Is it too blatant? Or does it make the game feel more "real"?

Also, how do game developers feel about it? Most game developers are gamers themselves so you must have somewhat conflicting feelings about it. On the one hand, more revenue for the games that you make means that you can make better quality games (hopefully) and take chances on new ideas rather the same old sequels. I think the conflict will help keep things in check and not let it get too out of control where games begin to look like Times Square.

Please comment, I'm interested to see what people think, both developers and gamers!

Beginning C++ Game Programming - book review

Beginning C++ Game Programming was my first game development-related book purchase, after seeing it recommended on GameDev.net. What initial sold me on this book was the description of some of the code samples that it contained. I had worked on a basic Tic Tac Toe game a while back to get started understanding basic game development but had trouble with the AI part. So I thought this book might get into some detail about it. Unfortunately, it did not. This example, I should have known since the book is for "Beginners", did not cover AI at all. It had a set of winning moves hardcoded. I was hoping for a more elaborate solution. But, oh well, let's get on with the review. I won't let that little misconception on my part affect my feelings on the book. I felt that the author did a good job of introducing the reader to programming and C++ slowly with basic and always game related samples. This is what I liked about the book. I hate the traditional "Hello World" type beginner programs.

Some of you, if you've read my blog before, might ask why I'm reading a beginning programming book. I have been a professional software engineer/programmer for well over 10 years now, but I have yet to work with C++ or anything even remotely game-related. So I thought this book would be a good start. This book definitely gave me a good beginning understanding of C++ and, having been working with Java for the past 6 years, I could readily understand all the concepts discussed in this book. I would absolutely recommend the book for someone who has done little programming, but the book is definitely not worth it for those who are already well versed reading and writing code. While I did learn a good amount about the syntax of C++, I'd have been better served by reading a book such as C++ Primer Plus (Fifth Edition) which I just received yesterday. For those of you who'd like to get started programming, definitely check out the book Beginning C++ Game Programming as it will be a great resource for getting started, with a good beginner game development slant.

I give this book a 3.5 out of 5 star rating for it's good use of simple game code samples and frequent references to game concepts when explaining things such as arrays and operator overloading. I'd have given it a higher rating had it been a longer more in-depth book for those looking to learn more.

Check back soon for a review of C++ Primer Plus (Fifth Edition).

Cross Genre, Cross Vendor Game Communication

I had an idea for a game, or game platform really, a long time ago. I've always been a big fan of really in-depth flight simulators like Falcon 3.0 and Falcon 4.0. I've also loved infantry-style first person shooter games. Some people like tank simulators; others like submarine games. What I had thought of for a cool idea would be to allow all these types of games to interact together within the same persistent game world, kind of like Battlefield 1942, but on a much larger scale. Wouldn't it be really sweet if the planes flying over the infantry heads were pilots playing Falcon 4.0? And the tanks rolling by were full tank simulator players? Battlefield came close to my vision, but in a much more stripped down form. Those of you in the gaming industry, has an idea like this ever come up? Coming up with an XML-like communication standard across games so they could run within the same gamespace? I'm not sure if I'm explaining my idea enough or if this makes sense. My original idea was to have a single game, similar to Battlefield 1942, that had all those simulator games in one: a full feature flight sim, infantry-style FPS, a tank sim, etc. But I realize that would be virtually impossible, I think. Thinking realistically, I figured those developers that make really incredible flight sims could do what they do best. Each developer would stick to their expertise and make their simulator, but with an open communication standard so all the simulators could talk to a central server than ran the game world/campaign.

It's late in the work day so this isn't really making a lot of sense. I'm really just thinking while I type. To me, this sounds like a cool idea, but probably an impossibility knowing the way large game companies operate. Maybe the open source community could handle it.

Simple First Game Development Ideas

I've always wanted to start creating my own games, but I haven't written any actual games since I was in grade school/high school (if you could call them games). Starting in the fourth grade, I began writing some BASIC interactive fiction type games. I haven't attempted to create anything since those days of basic "choose your path" adventure.

I just ordered a book, Beginning C++ Game Programming, that I saw recommended somewhere online, maybe Gamasutra, or GameDev.net, I forget which. So, while I'm waiting for this book to arrive, I've been thinking about the type of game I'd like to make. Not my ideal type of game, but something just for starters. I trying writing a Tic Tac Toe game in Java not too long ago, but got hung up trying to understand how to use a search tree to choose the next best move for the computer to make. I refused to use the brute force approach since Tic Tac Toe is so simple, it's easy to determine the next best move. But I was determined to learn the proper way of doing it. So I got discouraged and gave up for a while.

Now, I've freed up some time and have ordered this book to try to get me started. And I wanted to start learning C++ too, so I can kill two birds with one stone, hopefully. Anyway, I'm not thinking of ideas for small simple games I can start out with. I have some more ambitious ideas, but since I know nothing of 3d math or programming and no artistic ability, I have to stay away from the larger scale game ideas I have. So I've been thinking of maybe making a remake of Asteroids, or Space Invaders. Just to see if I can get the concept of game programming down. It's very different from server side business application programming, that's for sure.

Anyone familiar with this book I ordered (should arrive today)? Any other book or online resource suggestions you might have to get me up to speed on the basics of game programming? I need to start small and with good explanations.