Article on Coordinate Unit Movement

This article provides an in-depth writeup on the various issues, solutions and options relating to multiple units moving in a coordinated way in a game: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/131721/implementing_coordinated_movement.php?print=1

Issues covered include formation movement, and difficult problems such as the "stacked canyon" problem.

Converting from Screen to Map Coordinates in Isometric 2D Games

This article here provides a great explanation on this.

Formulae in summary:

From screen coordinates to tile x,y

map.x = screen.x / TILE_WIDTH + screen.y / TILE_HEIGHT; map.y = screen.y / TILE_HEIGHT - screen.x / TILE_WIDTH;

From tile x,y to screen coordinates

screen.x = (map.x - map.y) * TILE_WIDTH_HALF; screen.y = (map.x + map.y) * TILE_HEIGHT_HALF;

Note: these only work if the iso map is skewed at 45 degrees. If it's skewed in 30 degrees or 60 degrees, trigonometry will be needed.

Article on 10 Game Design Pitfalls

Article: www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4017/10_game_design_process_pitfalls.php 

They are:

1. Not structuring time for game playing
2. Placing too much emphasis on paper designs
3. Peer review not taken seriously
4. Decision maker picked for his producer skills
5. Not taking advantage of placeholders
6. Allowing the story to control the game design
7. Not giving designers enough tools
8. Entering production without something fun
9. Not keeping design documents up to date
10. Not making outside playtests a part of the process

Article on "Data Baking" on Gamasutra

This article discusses the concept of "baking game assets", specifically, baking them into a memory image that can be loaded from disk to memory and used immediately.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3984/delicious_data_baking.php?print=1