It's really common in today's game development scene to approach game development through tools that abstract and guide our efforts, without exposing us to the nitty-gritty details of how things work on low-level and speeding up and easing our development process. This approach is great when things work well, but it can be seriously detrimental when we are facing against issues: we are tied to what the library/framework creators decided was the best (read "applicable in the widest range of problems") approach to solving a problem.
Games normally run at 30fps, more modern games run at 60fps, some even more, leaving us with between 33ms to 16ms or less to process a frame, which includes:
- Process the user input;
- Update the player movement according to the input;
- Update the state of any AI that is used in the level;
- Move the NPCs according to their AI;
- Identify Collisions between all game objects;
- React to said Collisions;
- Update the Camera (if present);
- Update the HUD (if present);
- Draw the scene to the screen.
These are only some basic things that can be subject to change in a game, **every single frame**.
When things don't go well, the game lags, slows down or even locks up. In that case we will be forced to take the matter in our hands and get dirty handling things exactly as we want them (instead of trying to solve a generic problem).
When you are coding a game for any device that doesn't really have "infinite memory", like a mobile phone, consoles or older computers, this "technical low-level know-how" becomes all the more important.
This book wants to open the box that contains everything related to 2D game development, plus some small tips and tricks to make your game more enjoyable. This way, if your game encounters some issues, you won't fear diving into low-level details and fix it yourself.
Or why not, make everything from scratch using some pure-multimedia interfaces (like SDL or SFML) instead of fully fledged game engines (like Unity).
This book aims to be a free (as in price) teaching and reference resource for anyone who wants to learn 2D game development, including the nitty-gritty details.
Available here in python and pseudocode editions.
Get the latest version of this book and help improve it at the GitLab Repository or the GitHub Repository.
It's really common in today's game development scene to approach game development through tools that abstract and guide our efforts, without exposing us to the nitty-gritty details of how things work on low-level and speeding up and easing our development process. This approach is great when things work well, but it can be seriously detrimental when we are facing against issues: we are tied to what the library/framework creators decided was the best (read "applicable in the widest range of problems") approach to solving a problem.
Games normally run at 30fps, more modern games run at 60fps, some even more, leaving us with between 33ms to 16ms or less to process a frame, which includes:
- Process the user input;
- Update the player movement according to the input;
- Update the state of any AI that is used in the level;
- Move the NPCs according to their AI;
- Identify Collisions between all game objects;
- React to said Collisions;
- Update the Camera (if present);
- Update the HUD (if present);
- Draw the scene to the screen.
These are only some basic things that can be subject to change in a game, **every single frame**.
When things don't go well, the game lags, slows down or even locks up. In that case we will be forced to take the matter in our hands and get dirty handling things exactly as we want them (instead of trying to solve a generic problem).
When you are coding a game for any device that doesn't really have "infinite memory", like a mobile phone, consoles or older computers, this "technical low-level know-how" becomes all the more important.
This book wants to open the box that contains everything related to 2D game development, plus some small tips and tricks to make your game more enjoyable. This way, if your game encounters some issues, you won't fear diving into low-level details and fix it yourself.
Or why not, make everything from scratch using some pure-multimedia interfaces (like SDL or SFML) instead of fully fledged game engines (like Unity).
This book aims to be a free (as in price) teaching and reference resource for anyone who wants to learn 2D game development, including the nitty-gritty details.
Available here in python and pseudocode editions.
Get the latest version of this book and help improve it at the GitLab Repository or the GitHub Repository.
It's really common in today's game development scene to approach game development through tools that abstract and guide our efforts, without exposing us to the nitty-gritty details of how things work on low-level and speeding up and easing our development process. This approach is great when things work well, but it can be seriously detrimental when we are facing against issues: we are tied to what the library/framework creators decided was the best (read "applicable in the widest range of problems") approach to solving a problem.
Games normally run at 30fps, more modern games run at 60fps, some even more, leaving us with between 33ms to 16ms or less to process a frame, which includes:
- Process the user input;
- Update the player movement according to the input;
- Update the state of any AI that is used in the level;
- Move the NPCs according to their AI;
- Identify Collisions between all game objects;
- React to said Collisions;
- Update the Camera (if present);
- Update the HUD (if present);
- Draw the scene to the screen.
These are only some basic things that can be subject to change in a game, **every single frame**.
When things don't go well, the game lags, slows down or even locks up. In that case we will be forced to take the matter in our hands and get dirty handling things exactly as we want them (instead of trying to solve a generic problem).
When you are coding a game for any device that doesn't really have "infinite memory", like a mobile phone, consoles or older computers, this "technical low-level know-how" becomes all the more important.
This book wants to open the box that contains everything related to 2D game development, plus some small tips and tricks to make your game more enjoyable. This way, if your game encounters some issues, you won't fear diving into low-level details and fix it yourself.
Or why not, make everything from scratch using some pure-multimedia interfaces (like SDL or SFML) instead of fully fledged game engines (like Unity).
This book aims to be a free (as in price) teaching and reference resource for anyone who wants to learn 2D game development, including the nitty-gritty details.
Available here in python and pseudocode editions.
Get the latest version of this book and help improve it at the GitLab Repository or the GitHub Repository.
It's really common in today's game development scene to approach game development through tools that abstract and guide our efforts, without exposing us to the nitty-gritty details of how things work on low-level and speeding up and easing our development process. This approach is great when things work well, but it can be seriously detrimental when we are facing against issues: we are tied to what the library/framework creators decided was the best (read "applicable in the widest range of problems") approach to solving a problem.
Games normally run at 30fps, more modern games run at 60fps, some even more, leaving us with between 33ms to 16ms or less to process a frame, which includes:
- Process the user input;
- Update the player movement according to the input;
- Update the state of any AI that is used in the level;
- Move the NPCs according to their AI;
- Identify Collisions between all game objects;
- React to said Collisions;
- Update the Camera (if present);
- Update the HUD (if present);
- Draw the scene to the screen.
These are only some basic things that can be subject to change in a game, **every single frame**.
When things don't go well, the game lags, slows down or even locks up. In that case we will be forced to take the matter in our hands and get dirty handling things exactly as we want them (instead of trying to solve a generic problem).
When you are coding a game for any device that doesn't really have "infinite memory", like a mobile phone, consoles or older computers, this "technical low-level know-how" becomes all the more important.
This book wants to open the box that contains everything related to 2D game development, plus some small tips and tricks to make your game more enjoyable. This way, if your game encounters some issues, you won't fear diving into low-level details and fix it yourself.
Or why not, make everything from scratch using some pure-multimedia interfaces (like SDL or SFML) instead of fully fledged game engines (like Unity).
This book aims to be a free (as in price) teaching and reference resource for anyone who wants to learn 2D game development, including the nitty-gritty details.
Available here in python and pseudocode editions.
Get the latest version of this book and help improve it at the GitLab Repository or the GitHub Repository.
Civil society has become an indispensable part of the global discourses on democratization, good governance, sustainable development, and security. Differing perspectives view civil society as a legitimizing actor, a critical partner, and even a serious challenger in these discourses. This paper examines the ways in which civil society actions contribute to Security Sector Governance and Reform (SSG/R) and Sustainable Development Goal-16 (SDG-16). It argues that civil society’s ability to make significant contributions to SSG/R and SDG-16 rests on the interplay between endogenous factors such as its plurality, robustness, and civility and exogenous variables such as the regime type, state capacity, and relations with security providers. The differing combinations of these factors enable civil society to perform three major roles: (1) an agent of democratic accountability and civilian oversight; (2) a space for new discourses on security and development; and (3) an alternative provider of people-oriented security. This paper uses case studies of the Philippines, Tunisia, and Somalia, among others, to show the variation in the performance of these roles, the gains achieved by civil society organizations (CSOs), and the limitations and challenges posed by their involvement. It argues that efforts of civil society to improve SSG help meet some of the targets of SDG-16 that relate to improving accountability, transparency, and participation. This paper concludes by examining the implications of civil society’s participation in the future sustainability of SSG/R as a framework and the progress toward the realization of SDG-16 and providing viable policy recommendations for actors at the international, state, and societal levels.
Civil society has become an indispensable part of the global discourses on democratization, good governance, sustainable development, and security. Differing perspectives view civil society as a legitimizing actor, a critical partner, and even a serious challenger in these discourses. This paper examines the ways in which civil society actions contribute to Security Sector Governance and Reform (SSG/R) and Sustainable Development Goal-16 (SDG-16). It argues that civil society’s ability to make significant contributions to SSG/R and SDG-16 rests on the interplay between endogenous factors such as its plurality, robustness, and civility and exogenous variables such as the regime type, state capacity, and relations with security providers. The differing combinations of these factors enable civil society to perform three major roles: (1) an agent of democratic accountability and civilian oversight; (2) a space for new discourses on security and development; and (3) an alternative provider of people-oriented security. This paper uses case studies of the Philippines, Tunisia, and Somalia, among others, to show the variation in the performance of these roles, the gains achieved by civil society organizations (CSOs), and the limitations and challenges posed by their involvement. It argues that efforts of civil society to improve SSG help meet some of the targets of SDG-16 that relate to improving accountability, transparency, and participation. This paper concludes by examining the implications of civil society’s participation in the future sustainability of SSG/R as a framework and the progress toward the realization of SDG-16 and providing viable policy recommendations for actors at the international, state, and societal levels.
Civil society has become an indispensable part of the global discourses on democratization, good governance, sustainable development, and security. Differing perspectives view civil society as a legitimizing actor, a critical partner, and even a serious challenger in these discourses. This paper examines the ways in which civil society actions contribute to Security Sector Governance and Reform (SSG/R) and Sustainable Development Goal-16 (SDG-16). It argues that civil society’s ability to make significant contributions to SSG/R and SDG-16 rests on the interplay between endogenous factors such as its plurality, robustness, and civility and exogenous variables such as the regime type, state capacity, and relations with security providers. The differing combinations of these factors enable civil society to perform three major roles: (1) an agent of democratic accountability and civilian oversight; (2) a space for new discourses on security and development; and (3) an alternative provider of people-oriented security. This paper uses case studies of the Philippines, Tunisia, and Somalia, among others, to show the variation in the performance of these roles, the gains achieved by civil society organizations (CSOs), and the limitations and challenges posed by their involvement. It argues that efforts of civil society to improve SSG help meet some of the targets of SDG-16 that relate to improving accountability, transparency, and participation. This paper concludes by examining the implications of civil society’s participation in the future sustainability of SSG/R as a framework and the progress toward the realization of SDG-16 and providing viable policy recommendations for actors at the international, state, and societal levels.
Civil society has become an indispensable part of the global discourses on democratization, good governance, sustainable development, and security. Differing perspectives view civil society as a legitimizing actor, a critical partner, and even a serious challenger in these discourses. This paper examines the ways in which civil society actions contribute to Security Sector Governance and Reform (SSG/R) and Sustainable Development Goal-16 (SDG-16). It argues that civil society’s ability to make significant contributions to SSG/R and SDG-16 rests on the interplay between endogenous factors such as its plurality, robustness, and civility and exogenous variables such as the regime type, state capacity, and relations with security providers. The differing combinations of these factors enable civil society to perform three major roles: (1) an agent of democratic accountability and civilian oversight; (2) a space for new discourses on security and development; and (3) an alternative provider of people-oriented security. This paper uses case studies of the Philippines, Tunisia, and Somalia, among others, to show the variation in the performance of these roles, the gains achieved by civil society organizations (CSOs), and the limitations and challenges posed by their involvement. It argues that efforts of civil society to improve SSG help meet some of the targets of SDG-16 that relate to improving accountability, transparency, and participation. This paper concludes by examining the implications of civil society’s participation in the future sustainability of SSG/R as a framework and the progress toward the realization of SDG-16 and providing viable policy recommendations for actors at the international, state, and societal levels.
Civil society has become an indispensable part of the global discourses on democratization, good governance, sustainable development, and security. Differing perspectives view civil society as a legitimizing actor, a critical partner, and even a serious challenger in these discourses. This paper examines the ways in which civil society actions contribute to Security Sector Governance and Reform (SSG/R) and Sustainable Development Goal-16 (SDG-16). It argues that civil society’s ability to make significant contributions to SSG/R and SDG-16 rests on the interplay between endogenous factors such as its plurality, robustness, and civility and exogenous variables such as the regime type, state capacity, and relations with security providers. The differing combinations of these factors enable civil society to perform three major roles: (1) an agent of democratic accountability and civilian oversight; (2) a space for new discourses on security and development; and (3) an alternative provider of people-oriented security. This paper uses case studies of the Philippines, Tunisia, and Somalia, among others, to show the variation in the performance of these roles, the gains achieved by civil society organizations (CSOs), and the limitations and challenges posed by their involvement. It argues that efforts of civil society to improve SSG help meet some of the targets of SDG-16 that relate to improving accountability, transparency, and participation. This paper concludes by examining the implications of civil society’s participation in the future sustainability of SSG/R as a framework and the progress toward the realization of SDG-16 and providing viable policy recommendations for actors at the international, state, and societal levels.
Civil society has become an indispensable part of the global discourses on democratization, good governance, sustainable development, and security. Differing perspectives view civil society as a legitimizing actor, a critical partner, and even a serious challenger in these discourses. This paper examines the ways in which civil society actions contribute to Security Sector Governance and Reform (SSG/R) and Sustainable Development Goal-16 (SDG-16). It argues that civil society’s ability to make significant contributions to SSG/R and SDG-16 rests on the interplay between endogenous factors such as its plurality, robustness, and civility and exogenous variables such as the regime type, state capacity, and relations with security providers. The differing combinations of these factors enable civil society to perform three major roles: (1) an agent of democratic accountability and civilian oversight; (2) a space for new discourses on security and development; and (3) an alternative provider of people-oriented security. This paper uses case studies of the Philippines, Tunisia, and Somalia, among others, to show the variation in the performance of these roles, the gains achieved by civil society organizations (CSOs), and the limitations and challenges posed by their involvement. It argues that efforts of civil society to improve SSG help meet some of the targets of SDG-16 that relate to improving accountability, transparency, and participation. This paper concludes by examining the implications of civil society’s participation in the future sustainability of SSG/R as a framework and the progress toward the realization of SDG-16 and providing viable policy recommendations for actors at the international, state, and societal levels.