Hi all

I have just started exploring game development, mainly because I have had an idea for a sport management type game running around in my head for some time now. My question is can anyone recommend a book or website about game meth? Preferably with some examples relevant to the type of game I'm planning.

Thanks for your help

You'd need to be more specific about the kinds of things you're planning. "Sport management" doesn't sound math heavy to me compared to most games. It seems like it would be more about record keeping.

Game development uses many branches of mathematics depending on the context. Some books like the Game Programming Gems series contain a lot of general formulae and math techniques specific to games, but that's still heavily dependent on the genre/style of the specific game you're going for.

Otherwise, you're best off narrowing which maths you need to better understand and research them specifically. For example, Khan Academy is great for math in general, and has strong sections for both physics and linear algebra:

https://www.khanacademy.org/science/physics

https://www.khanacademy.org/math/linear-algebra

It sounds like you may want to dive into stochastics, for a better understanding of probabilities

Thank you for your replies so far.

I have been thinking about this overnight and the best way I can explain is using a Boxing Promoter sim as an example. You have you're in game boxers and they have a list of stats that determine the outcome of different events in game e.g. A fight, Promo event and contract negotiations. As well as calculating attendance. With that in mind the math I'm looking for is most likely probabilities.

This is one of my go-to books for mathematics; Essential Mathematics for Games and Interactive Applications. A Programmer's Guide.

Thank you for your replies so far.

I have been thinking about this overnight and the best way I can explain is using a Boxing Promoter sim as an example. You have you're in game boxers and they have a list of stats that determine the outcome of different events in game e.g. A fight, Promo event and contract negotiations. As well as calculating attendance. With that in mind the math I'm looking for is most likely probabilities.

Yea you're gonna want to look into probability and stat for that. Unless there's some 3D graphics aspect to it (I'm not too sure from your post) in which case, there may be more that you need to know depending on what it is and what you are using to build the game.

There is also math for 2d graphics, but again, if all you're doing is menus, then you probably don't need much math for that.

I had a look at the book. Interesting but out of my price range. For my first attempt at this I plan to do it as text based. I may add graphics later.

I had a look at the book. Interesting but out of my price range. For my first attempt at this I plan to do it as text based. I may add graphics later.

Yea so you definitely don't need to worry about any graphics math. Focus on statistics then. You'll probably need to learn the basic statistics (variance, mean, etc.) and then go onto probability. Things like discrete probability and continuous probability are what you are looking for.

I would just pick up a book on statistics and probability and start from there.

If you are text only, you will have very little requirement for most game math, although you could still require some finite math for odds, probability, statistics, etc.

For basic 2D gamedev math, I did a tutorial covering/demoing several popular requirements ( http://www.gamefromscratch.com/page/Game-Development-Math-Recipes.aspx ) such as shooting, turning, aiming, collisions, etc.