I'm looking at starting to write some games and am curios what kind of
resources I should start looking at before diving in. I'm not sure I know
enough about the subject to ask intelligent questions, so I was hoping for
some pointers to some good resources somewhere.

Some preliminary questions I have.

What is the best way to make sprited images for my objects? For instance,
in the xna platformer example, the indiana jones character. How do I know
at what interval to make his legs move, etc. Is there a tool that exists to
make figuring that out easier?

Another question, in Joel's talk about creating Angry Birds, he talked
about matrix transforms and how those are all over angry birds. What are
some use cases for using matrix math within games, where is that
appropriate?

Thanks,
Jeff

Hi Jeff,

In sprite games I think things like leg movement intervals are just
provided by artists / magic variables. In other words, there's no mapping
between the sprite and how far the character actually moves. There are some
tools for sprited objects, but for someone just getting started, photoshop
or the gimp should work well. I think a good resource for a super simple
example of this is the peas physics sample.

Matrix transformations are used heavily in engineering and graphics to
transform coordinates. Basically, when you apply the elementary physics
equations to 2d objects, you end up using matrices and vectors. They are
used heavily in the box2d physics calculations in angry birds, in addition
to the graphics in the PlayN layer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transformation_matrix /
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotation_matrix

Philip

Thanks Philip!

Any recommendations for some good reading material on game development?