Game Architecture: Model-View-Controller

When programming a new game, most of the time you implement some basic features and start from there. As the game gets bigger, your code gets more interwoven, and the classes bigger. And before you know it you end up with spaghetti code and god classes, and that’s the last thing anyone wants.

Let’s assume we’re programming a racing game, and we have a class called RaceCar. Soon enough that class will contain a method to update it’s state, to draw it onto the screen, to accept user input, etc. It will become huge with all kinds of different functionality in there. So how can we divide up our game so it’s nicely split up into modules and classes? Just read on and learn ;).

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deWiTTERS Game Loop

The game loop is the heartbeat of every game, no game can run without it. But unfortunately for every new game programmer, there aren’t any good articles on the internet who provide the proper information on this topic. But fear not, because you have just stumbled upon the one and only article that gives the game loop the attention it deserves. Thanks to my job as a game programmer, I come into contact with a lot of code for small mobile games. And it always amazes me how many game loop implementations are out there. You might wonder yourself how a simple thing like that can be written in different ways. Well, it can, and I will discuss the pros and cons of the most popular implementations, and give you the (in my opinion) best solution of implementing a game loop. (more…)

deWiTTERS Tao of Coding

(This article was translated to Serbo-Croatian by Jovana Milutinovich)

This guide describes the coding style that I developed over the years. My style isn’t very widespread. As a matter of fact, I don’t know anyone who comes even close to the weird way I program. But I like it and want to share it with you anyway (you lucky bastard!). I use it for all kinds of programming languages: C, C++, Java, C#, Python,… .

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Welcome

Welcome to my brand new blog about how to create and sell your own games. I’ll provide you all the technical, business and marketing info you need for creating your very own game development company. My plan is to publish a step-by-step, ready to use guide on how to do this. First I’m going to publish the more popular articles from my http://dewitters.koonsolo.com site. Then I’ll start posting new articles for those who are just Read more…

Huge price discount on Mystic Mine

In our last post we told you that we’re now working on our next game. But as you might know this can costs a lot of money, especially for a small game developer. So to gain some funds quickly we’re going to do this crazy promotion and sell our current game ‘Mystic Mine’ at a huge price discount! On Monday, June 1, we’ll send out a mail to all our newsletter subscribers, which contains the Read more…

Koonsolo’s next game!

Some time ago I asked our mailing list subscribers to fill in a survey to help decide our next game, and I was amazed that so many took the time to fill this in. To be honest I expected only a few would give feedback. So a big “thank you” to everybody who provided their feedback! It seems that a lot of you like the originality and optical illusions in Mystic Mine, so this is Read more…

5 Facts about Mystic Mine

Did you know that… … in Mystic Mine multiplayer or quick play, you can skip to the next level by going to “menu” and then click on “skip level”? … you can become a Mystic Mine fan on Facebook? Just go to http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mystic-Mine/59579458282, click on “Become a Fan” and be one of the first fans! … something happens when you click on the hat of the miner in the main menu? … by playing adventure, Read more…

Mystic Mine Now Available!

Koonsolo is pleased to announce the release of “Mystic Mine”, a refreshing game for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. In Mystic Mine you guide a gold car through a mine, switching rails with a single button. You can only go down, but thanks to an optic illusion in the levels, you can always reach every point. Play this game alone or invite some friends and play against each other. The game supports up to Read more…

Mystic Mine release for February

Koonsolo announces that their upcoming game Mystic Mine will be released in February 2009. You will be able to purchase the game through the Koonsolo website. The game introduces a whole new concept that nobody has seen or played before. Its most remarkable features are: Levels with an impossible optical illusion Play with a single button Multiplayer with up to 6 people on 1 keyboard Subscribe now to the Koonsolo newsletter and get notified when Read more…