The Problem

Programmers in the game industry face common problems but most knowledge is tribal and held close. The market is flooded with books and education programs which claim to teach game development but rarely do they dig deep. Some of us crave more in-depth discussions of more esoteric aspects of game programming which become apparent only after you've taken a few trips around the block, traveled the obvious routes, looked around and found yourself led astry. We want to speculate, learn and discuss what others have tried, try new ideas and evaluate alternatives.

Part of the goal of this discussion is to attempt to create a "reference architecture" for interactive simulations with visualization (including games, military and other simulations). All game engines share certain features and the game software development community would benefit from using a common language -- somewhat analogous to Design Patterns, but tailored specifically to problems that arise in game engine development.

This blog could have been a forum but this format organizes topics in a manner better suited to the intended purpose: Post a specific problem which is nevertheless generic to many game engines, summarize the conventional wisdom, present cases where the existing solution fails to solve particular relevant problems, suggest alternatives and poll for opinions.

I look forward to our conversations.