How to Make a Game

Get a head start on making your games efficiently by avoiding common design and development pitfalls. Video games combine art and programming; this unique position has opened up opportunities for many pitfalls. This book takes you through the fundamentals of game making and the usual mistakes and bad practices that can harm your games. 

We start with the common difficulties and challenges, ways to find the gaps, and game design. Next, we discuss game engines and other tools you need to choose while making a game, how you should choose them, and the design documents you need to make. We also cover simple but important tweaks in game mechanics as well as the look and feel of your game. We will also discuss conventions for naming, code structuring, project structuring, and coding.

Your thought process will be guided in a way that you can look for the proper approach to make a successful game. The book sheds light upon how to improve the overall game experience and finalize the game for release. Along the journey, we will explore some interesting stories of games and mythology as well.

By the end of the book, you will know about the basic life cycle of a game development process and how to not make a game. 

What You Will Learn

• Discover the fundamentals of game design 
• See some intermediate coding tricks to make your games better
• Grasp the pitfalls to avoid while designing and programming games
• Master the different conventions and practices for file naming and structuring your projects 

Who This Book Is For

People who want to make games. Basic programming experience is assumed.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Don’t 

Chapter 2: The Fault in Our Stars 

Chapter 3: Don’t Reinvent the Wheel 

Chapter 4: Choose Your Arsenal 

Chapter 5: It’s All in My Head: Writing a Game Design Document 

Chapter 6: A Stitch in T ime Saves Nine 

Chapter 7: Git Good 

Chapter 8: Get Smart: Good Programming Practices 

Chapter 9: Game Design – The Three Musketeers1 

Chapter 10: Game Feels and Effects 

Chapter 11: Help! 

Chapter 12: Input Matters 

Chapter 13: Choosing a Platform 

Chapter 14: Game Testing and Publishing -The Great Filter 

Chapter 15: Game Over – The Myth of Sisyphus 

About the Authors

Minhaz-Us-Salakeen Fahme is the co-founder and CEO of Battery Low Interactive Ltd―a company that makes wishes come true. It started as a game studio in 2015 and over the years, grew into a bunch of wings- each working dedicatedly on serious games; web and app development; business and marketing solutions using augmented reality and virtual reality; digital marketing; and small-scale indie games. With their outreach campaigns, Battery Low has reached half a million kids with the experience of immersive technology for the first time. Fahme also conducts sessions on AR, VR, MR, game design, entrepreneurship, career, and leadership for youth and entrepreneurs in educational institutions, national, and international events. He is a blogger and game designer/writer by passion while cats, travels, live concerts, epic fantasies keep him running.

Tanimul Haque Khan is the head of the Unity department of Brain Station 23, a service-based company. He along with his team has been providing AR/VR enterprise solutions since 2018. He has been working with Unity technologies since 2015. He has played an uncountable number of games across multiple platforms mostly on PC and console. He is one of the most well-recognized Unity developers in Bangladesh. Aside from the tech industry he has also co-founded the very first cat cafe in Bangladesh known as Capawcino.