Category: General

One of the best things about programming is you get to create your own games. Game development can be extremely profitable these days, especially when you make titles for Android or iPhone. Even with a $0.99 sale per download, game developers with good products can make sizable returns. Apart from the revenues from downloads, games also get profits from brands that are willing to pay via advertisement partnerships.

If you already have the “framework” for a particular game, you can often reuse it and make revisions that fit a company’s requirements. Take for example casino games. These games aren’t very difficult to develop given the fact that most of them function in similar ways. There are thousands of different slot titles available online but for the most part they only differ by design – all slot games are usually controlled by using one button.

The same goes for card games such as Blackjack. No matter what the brand or type, all variations of Blackjack use a deck of cards and a dealer. Even Live Blackjack, which was popularized by digital portal Betfair uses a code similar to the ones offered by other online games. The only addition that is present in Live Blackjack is that players get to interact with actual live dealers during games. Once you know how to code a simple Blackjack game, you’ll be able to make hundreds of variations of the game depending on what you want to create.

That being said, coding a Blackjack game is quite simple.

In this article, let’s build a text-based Blackjack engine that allows players to play with a dealer. The logic behind the coding will be a bit complex but you’ll be able to gain valuable experience on how to design card-based casino games once you get the hang of it.

Continue reading “How to Code a Simple Blackjack Game in Python”

We saw a lot of great material roll out in September. Aside from many detailed hours of brand new video training, we also got our blog in place where we will be releasing cool articles on gaming and game development. Our big Steam Greenlight Celebration Sale also came to an close and we welcome all of the new members who joined our community in recent days!

Definitely make sure to check out the more detailed list below to see what you might have missed. Also be sure to check out the October announcements at the end.

Continue reading “October 2016 Newsletter”

As the price of education rises, students are always looking to find a variety of sources to help make their dreams a reality. There are many educational scholarships offered from organizations like the ESA Foundation, Penny Arcade, and the IGDA. The AIAS Foundation is happy to announce that their new WomenIn Scholarships (http://www.aiasfoundation.org/programs/women_in.asp) are now open!

These scholarships support women who are students pursuing careers specializing in the development or business of interactive entertainment.

Winners will receive $2,500 and an opportunity for a year-long mentoring experience with an industry veteran. Applications are accepted now until October 31, 2016.

Hey guys, we were actually emailing everyone about this sale, but figured it might be a good idea to also post here in case anyone is interested and missed the email…

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We recently submitted our first commercial game to Valve’s Greenlight program. The way the program works is the community votes on what upcoming indie games will be added to the Steam Store.

We submitted GI Racing 2.0 for voting in order to understand the Steam experience for a new video tutorial series we’re creating about the game.

Then something totally unexpected happened.

Continue reading “GI Racing 2.0 Greenlight Celebration Sale”

Thanks for visiting our new blog!

We’re really looking forward to adding lots of cool and interesting new content in the coming days, so be sure to bookmark the page and/or add us to your preferred RSS reader via blog.gameinstitute.com/rss

Moving forward we’ll be discussing games, game development, and whatever else catches our eye at the time.

If you’re interested in writing articles for us, we are always looking for new talent. Please drop me a line at joe@gameinstitute.com and provide a sample of your writing.

Also don’t forget to follow us on Twitter at @gameinstitute and on Facebook (https://facebook.com/gameinstitute) as well. We’ll be sharing many (not necessarily all) of these posts via social media, so you can also stay informed that way too.

Once again, thanks for checking things out and we hope you enjoy it!