Can I submit an article for Game Coder Magazine?

Of course, you can. Game Coder Magazine is open to the external submissions. All that counts when submitting a paper is what you know and how well you explain things to others. Please, read further for more guidelines.

What kind of articles does Game Coder Magazine look for?

The idea of Game Coder Magazine is to give the readers theory through practice. All our articles are written with that in mind, and so should be yours.
If you’re wondering what theory through practice means, try to follow the rules:

• Do not try to write a man page. Man pages are examples of… theory through theory. Have you ever tried to use a completely new application straight by looking at the man page? How long did it take you to reach the information on how to use the tool in practice, going just through various option descriptions? Well, this is not what our readers want.
• Do not try to write a program with comments. Programs with comments (even if they are better than the ones without comments…) are examples of practice through practice. Too little theoretical background is often available in the comments for the user to understand exactly what the program does.
• Our articles can be compared to tutorials or how-to’s. These are examples of theory through practice!

If you’re wondering if your approach is right, feel free to contact us and just ask. We’re here to help you prepare the best article ever.

What subjects are of interest to Game Coder Magazine readers?

Well, the subject scope in general is game development seen from the practical point of view. This encompasses:

• C/C++ and scripting languages (e.g. Lua, Python)
• creating games for mobile devices
• game development tools tutorials
• AI programming (pathfinding, strategy and tactic systems, etc.)
• Network programming
• 3D modelling, animation
• game physics: collision detection, simulated gravity, soft body simulation (fluid, cloth), rigid body dynamics, etc.

What articles we are not interested in:

• articles about games; Game Coder Magazine is not a gamer magazine, we do not and will not publish game reviews, etc.
• articles about techniques that have been already discussed many times in Game Coder Magazine
• articles about things that are obvious; we do remind the readers about obvious things, but it has to be complementary to something new and innovative

What language should the article be submitted in?

Game Coder Magazine is published in English only. Also our staff will be communicating with you in English (unless you know Polish :).
If you’re worried about your English not being good enough, stop worrying. What really matters is that you’re an expert in your field. We have people who will “embellish” your English and make it suitable for all readers. There are many people who know English well, but there are not many people who can write about the things you can write about. Remember that.

Ok, I want to write. How do I start?

Just write us an e-mail at: en@gamecodermag.com

The first step will be to propose a subject you specialize in and you’d like to write about. You don’t have to be the top specialist in the world in this subject (although it’s nice if you are). If you are a student and you have an interesting idea, you can write about it just as well as if you were the top game developer in the world’s largest game development company. What matters is the quality of the article, its completeness, correctness, ease of reading, how interesting and practical it is, etc.
When we agree on the subject (we have to talk first to see whether this subject has been mentioned in the past, whether it’s interesting for our readers, etc.), it is time for the article’s draft. It is to show the article’s structure and the approach to the topic. A good detailed plan is the best way to see what the final article will look like, and a great help for you to write the article afterwards.
When the plan is agreed and accepted, you can start to write the article. When it’s completed, it will be read by our editorial team and you will receive comments and suggestions regarding the possible changes. Then it will also be sent to our beta testing team, which might give you more suggestions how to change or expand the article. Once the paper is beta tested and corrected, it will be published in one of Game Coder Magazine editions.