[aaron1178]

Hey great post, as a developer are always looking for new ways to improve my code, and after reading this, its made my day a hole lot easier Thanks.
Also as i love 3D i just want to say this! You can use programs like blender or Maya( which i found really good foe cinematics) to create cinematics for your game, just like the trailers for games or the little pre movies before you start e.g on assasins creed 2

[n_yanev]

This article was very useful for me. Thank you man.

[richmund12]

I think I'll try and get started.

Thank you JB.

[JDKeller]

I want to address the issue of cron jobs on a server. If you are running a Linux environment or using a web host like Amazon, there is support for cronning tasks, however with Yahoo, there is no option. Here is how I do it using the UNIX timestamp and simple math.

This is a function used to update energy based on time.

function updateEnergy($userid){
 	// setup your db conection

	$lastUpdatedQuery = sprintf("SELECT last_updated FROM energy WHERE userid = '%s'",
		mysql_real_escape_string($userid));
        // last_updated is stored as an integer based on UNIX_Timestamp
	$lastUpdatedResult = mysql_query($lastUpdatedQuery);
    $lastUpdatedRow = mysql_fetch_row($lastUpdatedResult);
	$lastUpdated = $lastUpdatedRow[0];
	$getCurrentEnergyQuery = sprintf("SELECT energy FROM energy WHERE userid = '%s'",
		mysql_real_escape_string($userid));
	$getCurrentEnergyResult = mysql_query($getCurrentEnergyQuery);
    $getCurrentEnergyRow = mysql_fetch_row($getCurrentEnergyResult);
	$currentEnergy = $getCurrentEnergyRow[0];
	
	$ticks = (time() - $lastUpdated);
        // In PHP, time() returns the current time in seconds since the epoch.
	// Ticks are the amount of time that has passed since the last update in seconds.
	if ($ticks > 3600) {
        // 3600 seconds = 1 hour
		if (intval($currentEnergy) >= 10){
                // Since 10 is the maximum energy value, this just sets the update time to when it should have last updated.
			$newUpdate = ($lastUpdated + (intval($ticks / 3600)*3600));
			//mysql_query($updateEnergyQuery);
			$updateLastUpdatedQuery = sprintf("UPDATE energy SET last_updated = " . $newUpdate . " WHERE userid = '%s'",
				mysql_real_escape_string($userid));
			mysql_query($updateLastUpdatedQuery);
		} else {
			$intNumberOfUpdates = (intval($ticks / 3600) + $currentEnergy);
				if ($intNumberOfUpdates > 10) {
					$updateEnergyQuery = sprintf("UPDATE energy SET energy = '10' WHERE userid = '%s'",
						mysql_real_escape_string($userid));
					mysql_query($updateEnergyQuery);
				} else {
					// how many times to update the table, or how much energy to update the table with.
					$newUpdate = ($lastUpdated + (intval($ticks / 3600)*3600));
					$updateEnergyQuery = sprintf("UPDATE energy SET energy = " . $intNumberOfUpdates . " WHERE userid = '%s'",
						mysql_real_escape_string($userid));
					mysql_query($updateEnergyQuery);
				}
			$updateLastUpdatedQuery = sprintf("UPDATE energy SET last_updated = " . $newUpdate . " WHERE userid = '%s'",
				mysql_real_escape_string($userid));
			mysql_query($updateLastUpdatedQuery);		
			}
		
	} else {
		// do nothing ...
	}
}

What this does is update the table for energy value and last_updated time so that there will be a consistent record. I am sure this is lacking, but this is a good start.

[WotCGM]

This tutorial was over 2 years old when I found it today.
And you know what? It is still just a useful as the day
it was 1st written.

The over-view of game development was very well written and
both fun and easy to read.

Kudos!!

Larry

[mintzkie009]

Nice tutorial. I liked to ask if PHP can be used in programming the graphics on HTML5 Canvas? All I know for now is than Javascript is the language used in HTML5 Canvas. Can PHP do the same thing as Javascript did in HTML5 Canvas?

[annaharris]

This information was really fruitful. Anyone who is interested in developing a game should read this as it provides all the fundamental details for game development.