Articles

Scripting in Cipher Saturday, May 31, 2003 - Written by Rik Heywood

Cipher needed a scripting language so that developing game code could be as simple as possible, platform independent, secure and available to the mod community. This article explains the process I went through when trying to add this support.
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Why does everything have to be so complicated? Saturday, May 31, 2003 - Written by Rik Heywood

Have you ever noticed that most things are far more complicated than they need to be? Why?
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Coding with Style Saturday, May 31, 2003 - Written by Rik Heywood

I have worked at several companies and about half of them made use of a coding style guide. Working in the half that used a style guide was far more pleasant.
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International Support in Games Saturday, May 31, 2003 - Written by Rik Heywood

Games are international products. When we start working on a new game, we are expecting it to be released all over the world. Since all this is known before a single line of code has been written, why is it that so many game developers don't think about it at all, until after they ship?
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Faster, Faster, Faster Saturday, May 31, 2003 - Written by Rik Heywood

Games are real time applications. Real time applications are a special class of computer software where performance is unusually important. Optimisation is important and understanding how to optimise code effectively is an important skill when developing games and the technology that powers games.
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