Book excerpt: "Software Engineering for Game Developers" is a unique guide—a toolbox for effectively building a computer game using practices that are fostered by software engineering. Examine each major phase of the software engineering lifecycle of an actual game and its developers and gather the tools you need to organize your programming into proper engineering patterns. This book documents a comprehensive development process that started from a set of requirements. This process guided the development team to consistently design and implement a game according to these requirements, staying within budget and delivering the game on time. The tools provided within this book are a valuable resource for software developers in any area—game software development professionals, game producers and designers, testers, writers, artists, and educators.