The latest gamepoetry article is up: An Entity Framework for Games.

Entity management code is something that I think we all end up rewriting every time we start a new game. There really isn't much need to, as the core functionality is always the same. I've found in my own experience that the temptation to simplify the implementation by moving game-specific logic into the Entity management code ended up making it difficult to reuse the code on future projects.

My approach here was to design a solution which would force me to never be in that situation again. I believe that what I present here has succeeded in that manner. This Entity framework could form the basis of a simple platformer, a sprawling multiplayer game, or a puzzle game. If you disagree, I'd love to hear why.

For those less interested in coding and more interested in design, you can also check out last week's article on control schemes: Striving for an invisible control scheme