Ever since I got my first 8-bit computer (a Dragon 32), I've always found coding to be something akin to magic. With the right combination of numbers and letters, a coder can appear, like pulling a rabbit from the proverbial hat, to conjure images and sounds from the very ether itself - or at least, in my case, from the 9 inch portable black and white television I was allowed in my bedroom. Nevertheless, I found that with a little imagination, epic stories could be told. Combine that with a little diligence, and whole new worlds can be brought into existence by the power of code and will alone. Then again, it could just be a buggy mess with lots of flashing colours plips and plops... and whilst the coder as magician may be a romantic image, it's not an entirely inaccurate one when it comes to the ones who know what they're doing. It would not be inappropriate to think of an accomplished game creator as a kind of spellcaster - the spell in this case being the means by whic...