Acknowledgements

When the first copy of “Game Programming Patterns” sold, I guess I had the right to call myself an author. But it took time to feel comfortable with that label. Thank you to everyone who bought copies of my first book, and to the publishers and translators who brought it to other languages. You gave me the confidence to believe I could tackle a project of this scope. Well, that, and massively underestimating what I was getting myself into, but that’s on me.

A fear particular to technical writing is getting stuff wrong. Tests and static analysis only get you so far. Once the code and prose is in ink on paper, there’s no fixing it. I am deeply grateful to the many people who filed issues and pull requests on the open source repo for the book. Special thanks go to cm1776, who filed 145 tactfully worded issues pointing out hundreds of code errors, typos, and unclear sentences. The book is more accurate and readable because of you all.

I’m grateful to my copy editor Kari Somerton who braved a heap of computer science jargon and an unfamilar workflow in order to fix my many grammar errors and stylistic inconsistencies.

When the pandemic turned everyone’s life upside down, a number of people reached out to tell me that my book provided a helpful distraction. This book that I spent six years writing forms a chapter in my own life’s story and I’m grateful to the readers who contacted me and made that chapter more meaningful.

Finally, the deepest thanks go to my wife Megan and my daughters Lily and Gretchen. You patiently endured the time I had to sink into the book, and my stress while writing it. There’s no one I’d rather be stuck at home with.