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Robert Nystrom

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Game Programming Patterns Paperback – November 2, 2014

by Robert Nystrom (Author)

4.7 1,389 ratings

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The biggest challenge facing many game programmers is completing their game. Most game projects fizzle out, overwhelmed by the complexity of their own code. Game Programming Patterns tackles that exact problem. Based on years of experience in shipped AAA titles, this book collects proven patterns to untangle and optimize your game, organized as independent recipes so you can pick just the patterns you need.

You will learn how to write a robust game loop, how to organize your entities using components, and take advantage of the CPUs cache to improve your performance. You'll dive deep into how scripting engines encode behavior, how quadtrees and other spatial partitions optimize your engine, and how other classic design patterns can be used in games.

Print length

354 pages
Language

English
Publication date

November 2, 2014
Dimensions

7.5 x 0.8 x 9.25 inches
ISBN-10

0990582906
ISBN-13

978-0990582908
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Genever Benning; 1st edition (November 2, 2014)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 354 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0990582906
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0990582908
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.6 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.5 x 0.8 x 9.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #33,706 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #6 in Game Programming
- #33 in Software Development (Books)
- #84 in Video & Computer Games

Customer Reviews:
4.7 1,389 ratings

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About the author

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Robert Nystrom

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Robert Nystrom has programmed professionally for twenty years, about half of which is in games. During his eight years at Electronic Arts, he worked on behemoths like Madden and smaller titles like Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure. He's shipped games on the PC, GameCube, PS2, XBox, X360, and DS, but is most proud of the tools and shared libraries he created for others to build on. He loves seeing usable, beautiful code magnify the creative ability of others.

Robert lives with his wife and two daughters in Seattle where you are most likely to find him cooking for his friends and plying them with good beer.

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Heather

Great intro to design

Reviewed in the United States on September 9, 2023

Verified Purchase

Great book. I love getting a view from inside the headspace of professionals.

The writing is very understandable. The example code is C++, but not cryptic to those that don't know much of it, myself included.

It's common for programmers to prove that they're actually human by joking every other page. Some dislike anything getting in the way of their knowledge, so these comments are separated to the margins instead. The book is rather wide because of the copious amount of these comments.
I don't mind as I enjoy his humor, but the book is definitely built around it, if that's something that might concern you.

3 people found this helpful

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Nathan Moore

Great for any type of programmer

Reviewed in the United States on August 10, 2023

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Even though the author wrote this book for game developers, simple computer games work amazingly well as examples to talk about and introduce design patterns that work well in many other software domains. The simple interactive game-like examples used are easily accessible to just about anyone, don’t require wasting a lot of time on domain specific knowledge that some readers might find boring or confusing. The examples are realistic enough that they can be thought of as not purely academic exercises.
The only prerequisite for the reader is knowledge of C++ (or similar Object Oriented C based language). No graphical programming knowledge is needed.
The writing style is good with occasional silly jokes to keep readers from zoning out.

2 people found this helpful

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cybereality

Game Programming GOLD!!! Must Read for Indies, Pros or Anyone Really.

Reviewed in the United States on January 23, 2015

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I will start by saying this book is game programming GOLD! Whether you are a pro or a novice looking to learn, this book deserves to place on your shelf (or I guess in memory if you buy the e-book). While some of the chapters may seem like obvious things for people that have programmed games before, I think even advanced coders will discover a few things they didn’t know.

So let me talk about what this book is. Basically it covers common challenges in game programming and some useful ways of resolving the problem. Though the theme of the book is game development, a lot of this stuff is applicable to any sort of visual or object-oriented programming. Nystrom starts by revisiting the classic design patterns popularized by the seminal book by the “gang of four” in 1994. Surprisingly, 20 years later a lot of those ideas still hold up. Next he moves onto more game specific topics like double buffering (not just for graphics), a game loop, and updating objects. Then he goes into bytecode (really a simple compiler), components, event queues, singletons, object pools, dirty flag and spatial partitioning. It’s actually not the longest book out there at 354 pages, but this is a breathe of fresh air after persevering through The C++ Programming Language (which was great, just very long). The author does not waste pages, though. There are nuggets of knowledge littered throughout the text.

One thing I like is how the book is not tied to a particular API or library. The pseudo-code is in C++, but really you could implement the ideas in almost any language. He even goes as far as not using the STL (for example, rolling his own linked list for a few examples). In a real application, you would probably not want to reinvent the wheel for basic containers, but it’s nice that the examples stand alone without any nasty dependencies. I could see a lot of the code here being copied into a real game and being usable with only minor additions. Well, of course you have to modify for your platform or engine or whatever, but the concepts are solid.

Another point is that this makes design patterns concrete (please, no abstract class jokes…). I read the original Design Patterns book years ago but some of the patterns never made sense to me. They were too abstract and, though interesting, sometimes didn’t click for me. This book, on the other hand, clicked the whole way through. Everything made sense, and was immediately clear why it was useful. Sure, I’ve probably learned a lot in the past few years, making Game Programming Patterns more approachable. But I think almost any game coder (or aspiring coder) could get value from this book. I’d give it 5 stars, 10 out of 10, 2 thumbs up, and definite “buy it now.”

20 people found this helpful

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cpsiegen

you may not find any great epiphanies in this book

Reviewed in the United States on November 16, 2016

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The book is a well-written resource for anyone interested in high-performance computing and simulations, not just game development.

If you're already well-versed in design patterns or many of the strategies of game and engine development, you may not find any great epiphanies in this book. However, it's likely still a solid read to refresh yourself and perhaps get a new perspective on those solutions you haven't thought about in a while.

For those who are amateur or beginner developers, this can be a great introduction to more advanced design patterns and modes of thought. As well, the topics discussed within the book apply to many problems outside of gaming that any junior programmer would do well to consider.

In either case, the book is full of practical advice that's obviously founded in the author's real-world experience. He managed to write a technical book in a witty and humorous way that should be easily approachable for even the greenest of developers.

3 people found this helpful

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Ann Marie Avendano

A step up from dry design pattern books

Reviewed in the United States on July 11, 2023

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I had tried to read other Design Pattern books, but they were so boring and didn't keep me engaged. The authors practical application, and clear code examples make this book a lot easier to read and understand.

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Top reviews from other countries

Gabriela

Nice gift for a programmer

Reviewed in Canada on July 12, 2021

Verified Purchase

I liked nice looking cover and also font of the text.

It was a gift for my husband who's programmer. I think he likes it, but that's all I can say for now.

"niknpm"

Print version of the online articles.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 22, 2023

Verified Purchase

Well worth having in print form, if only to support the original author, contains recipes for patterns that are useful for modern game design.

Alejandro Endo

Exactly what I was looking for

Reviewed in Spain on January 16, 2023

Verified Purchase

This books translates a lot of design patters to the game development context. full with examples and advices about how to implement each pattern.

Pedro

Clearly demonstrates that Design Patterns matter

Reviewed in Italy on September 10, 2022

Verified Purchase

This book has the virtue of showing how long-run extensibility and reusability problems emerge in a code base. This is key to explaining design patterns efficiently and avoiding making them look like solutions to imaginary problems.

Every chapter first shows how someone who doesn't think about good software design would build a given application, and how the resulting code becomes harder and harder to maintain the bigger the application gets. After the pitfalls of the "naive" approach are displayed, we are introduced to the pattern and shown how it helps develop the application while keeping our code reusable and extensible. Lastly, since patterns always require to be tailored to the specific use case, a series of variants with their pros and cons is presented for each chapter.

To conclude: all the content is clear, well-presented, and overall a pleasure to read due to Nystrom's friendly writing style. I am in love with this book, and I highly recommend it.

BT

Not just yet another Design Pattern book

Reviewed in India on October 7, 2019

Verified Purchase

Well. It is not a yet another book, which says this is the scenario and this is the use case - this is the useful pattern there.
No, since it is about game programming and hence lot of things about performance should be taken into consideration.
Like when implementing Observer pattern, it gives different alternatives and different trade-offs of each.
It also has some interesting info about how programming languages work and some history.

It's is certainly not yet another book. Brings certain unique things to the table.

6 people found this helpful

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