Game Dev Resource List

I've compiled a list of resources to get started with game development.  

[SIZE="4"]Websites[/SIZE]

[B]GameDev[/B] - [url]http://www.gamedev.net/[/url]
While communities specific to your toolset will be a bit more helpful when you need help, GameDev is still the best place to go for networking and resources.

[B]Gamasutra[/B] - [url]http://www.gamasutra.com/[/url]
Gamasutra is starting to become more networking friendly, but primarily it is still a place to go to read up on the newest game industry news.  There are plenty of articles geared towards different aspects of development and design (more on the design side though).  All in all a great place to keep an eye or your RSS on.

[B]DevMaster[/B] - [url]http://www.devmaster.net/[/url]
Honestly, I've only used this place for their 3D game engine list.  

[B]Other[/B]
There are communities everywhere.  If you know of one feel free to add to this list in your own posts.  If you happen to be a member of SomethingAwful, contact me if you aren't already following the game development threads there and I'll get you the links.

[SIZE="4"]Events[/SIZE]

[B]Ludum Dare[/B] - [url]http://www.ludumdare.com/[/url]
This is a 48 hour game development competition/jam.  It is held tri-annually with mini compos scattered between.  The last competition was a few weeks ago.  This is a great way to try out new things and just learn something.  The short timeline is meant to force you get past all the small things that delay you finishing and just do it.  If there is [I]any[/I] interest in this I really want to organize gatherings for participating on campus.

[SIZE="4"]C++[/SIZE]

[SIZE="3"]Engines[/SIZE]

[B]Source[/B] - [url]http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/SDK_Installation[/url]
If you own any Valve game (HL2, TF2, L4D(2), etc.) you can download the Source SDK.  Just check the link from that page under Installation.  The SDK comes with Hammer, Valve's level editor, which is a great way to start working with 3D level creation.
[url]http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Your_First_Map[/url]

If you are interested in TF2 mapping, check out the following link.  It provides a map with all the TF2 resources laid out so you can just copy + paste.  It  also has a map full of working entity networks for the different game modes. [url]http://forums.tf2maps.net/showthread.php?t=4674[/url]

[B]Unreal[/B] - [url]http://www.udk.com/[/url]
[url]http://www.udk.com/documentation[/url]
As of last fall, the UDK is now free for non-commercial use and fairly cheap for commercial ($99 one time fee and 25% revenue over $5000).  The documentation is just as good as Source's, if not better (has video tutorials!).  If you want a job as a 3D level designer, you had better spend some time with this and Hammer!

[B]Unity[/B] - [url]http://unity3d.com/[/url]
Modern 3D engine created and licensed for small studios (free for most things you'll use it for).  Has a fully integrated editor, supports scripting in several languages (javascript, boo, c#).  Can deploy to web (plugin), iPhone, Mac and Windows.

[B]Torque[/B] - [url]http://www.garagegames.com[/url] 
[url]http://www.torquepowered.com/documentation[/url]
3D and 2D engines (we own a license to the old TGEA), handles pretty much everything and now has some tutorials for adding a real physics library.

The Torque Developer Netowork is going to be the primary place for documentation.  However in its current state, it is still plenty outdated.  Garage Games is working full time on correcting this (though I haven't seen a great deal of change over the past half year), but for now just be weary of what is old and what isn't.
[url]http://tdn.garagegames.com/wiki/TDN_Home[/url]

[SIZE="3"]General Libraries[/SIZE]

[B]Gosu[/B] - [url]http://www.libgosu.org[/url] 
minimalist 2D library that takes care of window creation, input handling, loading files, rendering, playing audio, etc.  This is what I use for most of my projects.  It is cross platform (Mac and Windows) and soon will be fully compatible with iPhone.
 
[B]SDL[/B] - [url]http://www.libsdl.org[/url] 
great little library that is open ended, does window creation, input collection, etc. but leaves more up to the user than Gosu does (also works well for building 3d on top of with OpenGL) 

[B]SFML[/B] - [url]http://www.sfml-dev.org/[/url]
Similar to SDL with the exception of providing some higher level access to hardware (cleaner function calls).

[SIZE="3"]Graphics[/SIZE] 

[B]Ogre3d[/B] - [url]http://www.ogre3d.org[/url] 
fantastic rendering engine, full pipeline for exporting 3D content and displaying with custom shader support 

[SIZE="3"]Physics[/SIZE] 

[B]Open Dynamics Engine[/B] - [url]http://www.ode.org[/url] 
mature rigid body 3D, known for stability, I haven't played with this much but see it everywhere 

[B]Bullet[/B] - [url]http://www.bulletphysics.com[/url] 
created by an ex Havoc employee, rapidly growing 3D physics library with plenty of documentation 

[B]Box2D[/B] - [url]http://www.box2d.org[/url] 
2D rigid body library, takes many ideas from Bullet. With the latest releases, this is starting to become a fully fledged physics engine (not to mention the only 2D physics I know of).  It has ports to a dozen different languages including Ruby, Flash, and Python.  Plus I've been using it extensively, so you don't have to look very far to find someone to ask questions.

[SIZE="4"]Other languages (Ruby, Python, Lua) [/SIZE]

[SIZE="3"]General[/SIZE] 

[B]Gosu[/B] - [url]http://www.libgosu.org[/url] 
has Ruby bindings, what more needs to be said?  Seriously, I already said everything above.

[B]PyGame[/B] - [url]http://www.pygame.org[/url] 
similar to Gosu, but for Python (not quite as object oriented but still really cool).  This is very mature and very well known.  It makes fewer assumptions than Gosu, and thereby leaves you to do a little bit more work, but this just gives you more control. 

[B]Löve[/B] - [url]http://love2d.org[/url] 
another one, but for Lua.  This leaves the game loop up to you, if you care to control the update loop.