Game Programming Golden Rules (Game Development Series) by Martin Brownlow

Writing computer games is hard. Games today are complex projects that involve large teams of specialized artists and programmers. These teams are perpetually pushing technology beyond its boundaries and stretching their skills to the max. To alleviate these problems, Game Programming Golden Rules presents a series of nine "Golden Rules" that help define a methodology for creating a modern game. Each rule is written as a simple principle and covered from the perspective of how it works in the overall structure of a game project. The rules cover a variety of topics from embracing C++ and scripting, to the resource pipeline, finite state machines, and optimization.

The order in which the rules are presented was carefully chosen, so that each rule presents a topic that is then put to use in later rules. Many of the rules involve empowering the designers and artists to put their own content directly into the game, bypassing the need for a programmers involvement beyond the initial setup. This frees up the programmers time to concentrate on creating the systems that make the game, rather than focusing on the output of these systems. By the end of the book, you will have deeper confidence and a more profound understanding of the essential techniques of game programming and how the theory of these techniques interlocks. This is an excellent resource for the entire development team.