Physics and Maths are a very integral part of game development cyle. Not that you have to be a guru in maths and physics, but you have to at least know the basics ! That said , how does one go about learning the basics long forgotten by most of us :) ?

For a head start try the following books, they are well organized and act like bridge course for most beginners:

1. Beginning Math and Physics for Game Programmers ( link)
2. Physics Modeling for Game Programmers ( link ) - a bit advanced , but real good if you have some experience with physics engines.

Thats for the physics and maths, now for the physics engines that are available in the market. The following are a few well know physics engines tried and tested :) :

• AGEIA - Now owned by Nvidia Corp, provides a very detailed and comprehensive list of methods/API’s that you will ever need to create a full fledged game running on close to real world physics ( supports both rigidbody and softbody dynamics ). Games like Unreal Tournament 3 and Gears Of War make use of Ageia’s physics engine ( if you have doubts on how good this engine can be )
• HAVOK - Havok is another physics engine which is equally good in comparison to Ageia. Havok was recently bought by Intel Corp. and rumors are that they will make Havok SDK freely available for developers ( a welcome news for all ). Games that make use of havok are huge in list, to name a few , games like Halo sequel and Company of Heroes use Havok.
• Some of the opensource physics engine are also available ( list taken for Wikipedia ):
  • * Box2D
    * Bullet
    * Chipmunk
    * JigLib
    * Open Dynamics Engine
    * OPAL
    * OpenTissue
    * PAL
    * Tokamak physics engine
    * Farseer Physics Engine - 2D physics engine for Microsoft XNA and Silverlight
    * Physics2D.Net A 2 dimensional rigid body physics engine written in C#. That can be used with any Renderer including XNA, OpenGL, and SilverLight.
    * Glaze

Now that you have some info on physics engine. Dig through them and find out more. Meanwhile ill try and develop a workflow diagram that involves the breakup in developing a game :). Till then ….