The Basics of Game Development – for programmers This talk is an
overview of what exactly is involved in game development – from
the point of view of a programmer. These are the major
components of game development. A game platform is the hardware-
software combination on which a game runs. These are the major
game platforms: - Console (e.g. Xbox 360, Wii, PS2/PS3). - PC
(Windows, Mac) - Mobile (iPhone, others) - Web Browser Based -
Arcade Machines (i.e. the dedicated game play machines you see
in video-games parlours in malls) The platform makes a big
difference to the kind of games you can build. For example,
consider the consoles. Here the hardware is fixed. This is good
because a game is a very optimized piece of software. So the
more you know about the hardware, the more you can optimize, and
the better will be your gameplay. (Compare with a PC game where
it can be played on PCs with vastly different hardware
capabilities. Then you end up programming to the minimum
requirements, which is sub-optimal for t