The Game Developer's Open Source Handbook

With the cost of game development increasing regularly, studios are looking for innovative ways to reduce their budgets without compromising quality. At the same time, developers are looking toward more complex and customizable software, tools, and libraries to build truly next-generation games. These goals have traditionally been mutually exclusive, but open source software can solve both problems by providing game developers with free, high-quality tools and libraries for every aspect of the development process. Graphics, audio, physics, networking, and movie playback code are all available for the taking; developed, written, tested, and ready to use. This software is complemented by a wide range of end-user tools for both the programmer and artist including graphic editors, IDEs, MIDI sequencers, and 3D editors. The Game Developer's Open Source Handbook uncovers this world of open source software and teaches management and game developers what code is available, where to get it, how to incorporate it into existing processes, and, most important, how to adhere to the license agreements for redistribution. The book is for all game developers, especially the "Indies," who want to use the wealth of free software in their own games to help increase the scope of the technology available and reduce the fi nancial burden. Members of the Linux fraternity will also fi nd it a useful insight into the methods by which these libraries can be applied into constructing a game. In addition, the book will be required reading for the producers and systems analysts of game studios who want to see the big picture. This must-have resource introduces a new world of software, and a new way of developing games for the 21st Century.

隨著遊戲開發成本的不斷增加，遊戲公司正在尋找創新的方法來降低預算，同時又不損害品質。與此同時，開發者正在尋求更複雜和可定制的軟體、工具和庫，以建立真正的下一代遊戲。這些目標傳統上是互相矛盾的，但開源軟體可以通過為遊戲開發者提供免費的高質量工具和庫來解決這兩個問題。圖形、音頻、物理、網絡和電影播放代碼都可以隨時使用，已經開發、編寫、測試並準備好使用。這些軟體還配備了各種給程序員和藝術家使用的最終用戶工具，包括圖形編輯器、集成開發環境、MIDI序列器和3D編輯器。

《遊戲開發者的開源手冊》揭示了這個開源軟體的世界，並教導管理人員和遊戲開發者可以獲得哪些代碼，從哪裡獲取它，如何將其納入現有流程，以及最重要的是如何遵守重新分發的許可協議。這本書適合所有遊戲開發者，特別是那些希望在自己的遊戲中使用豐富的免費軟體來增加技術範圍並減輕財務負擔的「獨立開發者」。Linux社群的成員也會發現這是一個有用的洞察力，了解這些庫如何應用於遊戲構建中的方法。此外，這本書對於遊戲公司的製片人和系統分析師來說也是必讀之物，他們希望看到整體情況。這本必備資源介紹了一個新的軟體世界，以及一種21世紀遊戲開發的新方式。