Game Development Tool Essentials

Game Development Tool Essentials provides must-have tips and tricks from industry professionals for strengthening and streamlining your game tools pipeline. Everyone knows the game tools pipeline is important, but in the current environment of shrinking budgets and increased time pressure, developers often have to settle for inefficient, ad hoc, messy pipelines. This unique book will break you out of that cycle. The practical, expert insights contained within will enable you to work faster and more efficiently, so you can spend more time making cool things. Game Development Tool Essentials pools the knowledge and experience of working developers over four critical aspects of the game tools pipeline: asset and data management, geometry and models, Web tools, and programming. Within those sections, you will learn cutting-edge techniques on essential subjects such as COLLADA rendering, exporting and workflow; asset management and compiler architecture; and moving tools to the cloud. If you're a game developer, you need Game Development Tool Essentials. Covers readily available tools and tools developers can build themselves. Presents 96 code samples, 81 illustrations, and end-of-chapter references. Special chapter on moving tools to the cloud.

Game Development Tool Essentials provides must-have tips and tricks from industry professionals for strengthening and streamlining your game tools pipeline. Everyone knows the game tools pipeline is important, but in the current environment of shrinking budgets and increased time pressure, developers often have to settle for inefficient, ad hoc, messy pipelines. 

This unique book will break you out of that cycle. The practical, expert insights contained within will enable you to work faster and more efficiently, so you can spend more time making cool things. Game Development Tool Essentials pools the knowledge and experience of working developers over four critical aspects of the game tools pipeline: asset and data management, geometry and models, Web tools, and programming. Within those sections, you will learn cutting-edge techniques on essential subjects such as COLLADA rendering, exporting and workflow; asset management and compiler architecture; and moving tools to the cloud. If you’re a game developer, you need Game Development Tool Essentials.

• Covers readily available tools and tools developers can build themselves.
• Presents 96 code samples, 81 illustrations, and end-of-chapter references.
• Special chapter on moving tools to the cloud.

Part 1: Asset and Data Management

1. Plug-in based Asset Compiler Architecture
2. Asset Data Management

Part 2: Geometry and Models

1. 3D Format Conversion
2. Building Procedural Geometry Using MAXScript
3. A Uniform Geometry Workflow for Animated Feature Films
4. Rock-solid Content Pipeline with the COLLADA Conformance Test Suite
5. Rendering COLLADA Assets on Mac OS X with Scene Kit
6. COLLADA Exporter for Unity Developers in the Unity Asset Store

Part 3: Web Tools

1. Utilizing HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to Create Rich Debugging Information
2. Moving Tools to the Cloud: Control, Configure, and Monitor your Game with WebSocket

Part 4: Programming

1. Decoupling Game Tool GUIs from Core Editing Operations
2. Building a Game Prototyping Tool for Android Mobile Devices
3. Engineering Domain-specific Languages for Games