Game Design Books

This book is a must have for your collection. It emphasizes the basics in concept design (2d sketches) and walks you through character modeling step by step. In my opinion the book does more than get you started it gives you a solid foundation from which to build. It includes more than enough screenshots plus the CD contains the MAX files for each step.
I highly suggest it!!!

I was expected more model of the book but the whole book only teached one model

I haven't read the second edition yet but the first edition was KICK ASS. Paul Steed takes you through modeling a charater and teaches you all kinds of tricks that hours of reading technical books never taught me. Basically the diference with this book is that it was written by an artist and not some computer nerd with a math degree.

I purchased this book a couple of months ago. Needless to say, I am deeply disappointed with Steed's approach. I found his methods of modeling to be cumbersome to say the least. It seems as if the book has not been updated since the first edition to reflect the many changes now available in 3ds Max 6 or 7 (I don't mention 8 because the book was written BEFORE 8).

When I initially dived into the modeling portion I thought everything was fine. Then -- and this is why I rated it so low -- Steed begins to divide/turn edges in Part II / Chapter 4 / Step 5, which is titled "Step 5: Add Vertices by Dividing Edges." I suppose this would not have been so bad if Steed had thought to include COLOR screen shots on the books CD-ROM, but since he neglected to do so it becomes frustrating -- to say the least -- to use Steed's method of refining one's mesh.

Considering the fact that the CD-ROM is a whopping 19.5MB, it would have been prudent to include full color reference images. Let me give you some specifics on why I found this book such a bitter waste of TIME and MONEY:

* Firstly, let me tell you friends -- it is most frustrating to try to refine one's mesh based on the author's direction when one can hardly see the edges/vertices that are being discussed.

* Secondly, there are easier methods to refine a mesh than dividing or turning edges if you have 3ds 5 AT LEAST!

* Thirdly, Steed falls flat on his face when explaining the reason for turning edges and which SPECIFIC edges to turn. Suffice it to say, grayscale pictures in a book DO NOT work!

* Fourthly, if one cannot get the edge dividing/turning method down, then you'll get stuck because the rest of the modeling tutorials are so heavily based on this method. The only reason I was able to finish the model is because of my familiarity with 3ds Max, Lightwave, and on a more limited basis, Maya.

* Fifthly, and lastly (I hope), when one is able to look at tutorials for Lightwave or Maya, as I have done, and model more quickly and effectively in 3ds Max than Steed's method, then the book leaves quite a lot to be desired...

I think that's all I will say for now, but let me warn you all -- there are far, far better tutorials available online for free. Don't waste your money on this book unless you plan on using it as fuel for a fire.

I got this book 2 years ago when it was hyped as being top notch for learning 3D modeling. On the postive side it is easy to understand and gives you a good idea of the entire process of making a character rather than just jumping around and trying to explain a hundred different unrelated things like other 3D modeling books. The bad part is that the modeling technics are a bit dated and backwards. A person who posted a previous review mentioned that he uses wierd modeling techniques like booleans and splines instead of regular box modeling, and that is the truth. He also wastes A LOT of time turning edges. If you model in quads (4 sided polys) to begin with, and then teselate (triangulate) then its all done for you automatically. And as mentioned previously not much time was spent on the concepts of uv unwrapping and creating the image map.

This book covers all of the fundamentals for a games designer. The content is mostly theory and doesnt give many examples of design templates, but having worked for both EA and Acclaim I have come to realise that design templates are rarely alike in different companies and learning them is more a case of gaining experience at a particular company. I would certainly say that this book teaches, someone wanting to become a games designer, everything that a book can teach you. I would also recommend buying the following book on manga game characters, if you are serious about becoming a games designer (ISBN: 4766111206).

This book covers all of the fundamentals for a games designer. The content is mostly theory and doesnt give many examples of design templates, but having worked for both EA and Acclaim I have come to realise that design templates are rarely alike in different companies and learning them is more a case of gaining experience at a particular company. I would certainly say that this book teaches, someone wanting to become a games designer, everything that a book can teach you. I would also recommend buying a book on manga or storyboarding, if you are serious about becoming a games designer.

If you dont own this book, you can't become a game programmer. Absolutely one of the best books around. This will tell you about how to design your game, how to chose topics, what you need, and help with publishing. It offers websites with help, and schools for game designers. This is not only for programmers. You want to be a graphic designer(for games)? This tell you the tools used by the big guys. It includes interviews with hundreds of professionals, including the makers of Final Fantasy and Mario Brothers. THIS IS THE BOOK. I reffer to this book before doing anything with games. But, they are coming out with a third edition, so new buyers, you can wait if you would like. This book was much more than I expected. Good job Marc Saltzman!

This book covers all of the fundamentals for a games designer. The content is mostly theory and doesnt give many examples of design templates, but having worked for both EA and Acclaim I have come to realise that design templates are rarely alike in different companies and learning them is more a case of gaining experience at a particular company. I would certainly say that this book teaches, someone wanting to become a games designer, everything that a book can teach you.

The newest edition of this book (the 5th) is for some reason published under a different name. The first four editions were published under this title (1st edition was copyrighted in 1999). The newer version of this book can be found on Amazon's website also, under the title "Game Creation and Careers: Insider Secrets from Industry Experts", published June 2003 with a 2004 copyright (1st edition), so be sure you get the newest copy (if you don't believe me just check the table of contents of both books - they are 95% identical and published by the same author).

I just bought this book, and although It seems like it's going to be great, my major problem is finding either Maya PLE 5.0's registration number, or Maya 7.0 PLE and its registration number.
the Autodesk site only has Maya PLE 8.5 to download and there are only plug-ins for Unreal for Maya 5.0 PLE and Maya 7.0 PLE (note: there is no version for the regular Maya)
So it kind of leaves you stuck with nothing to use. There is also nothing on the net about it either.

Bad quality figures, bad quality of press, but, these are the smaller defects.
It is the most useless book you can buy.
In Internet Unreal fans communities you can find more useful tutorials and, surely, more easier to read. Sincerely, I don't understand how it is possible publish a book as this. I haven't intention to denigrate the author, I think he will be able to write better, in future. Only, I'sorry to throw my monies.

This book like many others I've tried to learn from comes with useless tutorials because it uses Maya 5.0 which also requires you to obtain a key for it. You cannot get a key so you cannot install it and Maya only lets you download 8.5 now so the plugins you need that the book CD comes with are useless.
Its as useless as "Game Programming All in One third edition". Never again will I buy any book on programming that was written over a year ago because the software updates so fast that the resources you need that the books come with are always useless.

I am a Game Art Development student, and this book has been indespensible in aiding in my understanding of the Unreal Editor. Without this book, I'm sure that it would've taken me waaaaayyy longer to get things done than the limited time that I had. Even though the book is more expensive than the game itself, it is a must have for any aspiring modder or game creator.

Wow, it Big, It heavy and yes my Friends it is a red Brick, But it well worth ever cent and every page. Packed full of Useful Information and Helpful Tutorials it writen with the Lamen in mind. and take you into the Skills needed to make almost a full game. The one thing it lacks is the swcripting language section. But this is forgivable as it would make the book way bigger and much more complex to read if you a new guy trying to make a few little Deathmatch levels.

This book covers most of the physics problems that a game developer may face. From the basic laws of motion to car and aircraft simulation. It includes clear examples and formulas that can be implemented right away. On the more complex subjects, it also includes source code listings.

I read this book expecting to get an insight into game and simulation physics and was disappointed. On most cases, the book gives quick introduction to the problem and then jumps straight to the equations. Therefore, if you just want to implement physics for your game without learning all the principles involved, this is the book for you. On the other hand, if you want to get a feeling of physics and go a little deeper, it is not.

Furthermore there are some details that you may want to consider. First, the book works mainly with the imperial system of units which I find confusing. Second, all the source code is for Windows. Third, there are lot of places where statements are made without a hint of an explanation or a reference, which is annoying if you want to understand what is happening.

Overall, the book is clear and concise. It gives a good set of equations that you may need for your game programming, and is good to have around for quick reference. But if you are serious about physics I recommend getting a more advanced book.

It gives a decent coverage on 2D and math vectors before it jumps right into kinetics, rigid bodies, momentum, torque, etc. Other people complain about the junk C code used to explain things here, but I just care about the concepts and understanding them and the book meets that goal. So buy it if you are like me?

If it wasn't for the poor code examples, I would have rated this book four stars.

The problem is, instead of building new examples on previous ones, author has decided to repeat same code over and over again with only minor tweaks. This lack of generalization unfortunately obfuscates the point of the examples and (besides other instances of bad programming practice like abundant use of global variables or excessive copy/paste programming) makes me grind my teeth.

However, the text portion of the book is written well. It's great introductory material to the subject.

I would have rated this book as great, but:

1 - Why in the name of everything that is good and wholesome would anyone use imperial units when writing about physics?

2 - The code in the examples is appallingly bad. There are abundant global variables, poor comments etc...

If you wish to add more realistic environment interaction or object behavior to your games, you will benefit from this book. This book is much better for beginners than more recent books on the subject that maybe talk in more detail about game physics, but do so from the standpoint of some specific physics engine that the author has put together. I have personally lifted several pieces of code from this book, adapted them to Java, and placed them in a multimedia application I have been writing with no trouble. The book goes over the basics of adapting Newtonian physics to games, and then uses these ideas to set up the motion of simple projectiles, cars, hovercraft, and ships. 3D issues are also discussed at length.
To be sure, you do not need to be a physics expert to learn something from this book, but it is assumed that you have a basic level of understanding of classical physics. Anyone who has taken high school or college level physics should have no trouble understanding the material. You should also be proficient in trigonometry and vector and matrix mathematics. Certain topics in calculus are also discussed, so some degree of familiarity would be useful, but is not required. However, a strong C++ programming background is required if you are to tackle integration of a physics system into your existing game engine. This book is a great starting point for readers who aspire to understand "Game Physics" by Eberly, which is far more advanced and academic in tone.
I shall talk about the details of the book in the context of its table of contents:
PART 1 - MECHANICS PRIMER
This consists of chapters 1 through 5 and starts out with simple concepts such as Newton's laws and builds up until you get to rigid body dynamics. If you are already are up to speed on mechanics, you can skip these chapters.
PART 2 - REAL-WORLD EXAMPLES
Chapters 6 through 10 focus on modeling so that you have a solid understanding of the nature of certain physical systems. The craft selected were chosen because they best illustrate the specific physical phenomenon and concepts that are relevant to a wide variety of problems. The systems modeled are projectiles, aircraft, ships, hovercraft, and automobiles.
PART 3 - REAL-TIME SIMULATION
This field is discussed as it applies to games in chapters 11 through 17. These chapters focus on the fundamentals by walking through the development of the 2D simulation of hovercraft, a 3D flight simulation, a generic multibody simulation in 3D with collision response, and a simulation of cloth using particles and springs.
The appendices show implementations in C++ of classes for vector operations, matrix operations, and quaternion operations. The book's bibliography provides information sources for mechanics, mathematics, and specific technical subjects such as aerodynamics. All of the code for the book can be downloaded from the book's website at O'Reilly and Associates. I highly recommend this fun and comprehensive book for anyone getting started in adding physics to game programs.

This is a nice book. Period.
Hopefully a new book update for 2007 is coming this year.

While this book doesn't include anything made in the past several years, it does have detailed descriptions of how the older Macs came to be. It's a large book and full of photographs as well as detailed text explanations. I got mine in September 2001 and regularly study it from time to time. Every time I read it I learn something new.

This book isn't for the Apple novice, nor is it for someone who simply uses computers. The ones who appreciate this book are those who have used Macs for years (I've used them since April 1989) and appreciate them not just as machines but as a little more. As a computer technician since 1992, I have come across nearly every model in this book and have liked many of them (in particular the Macintosh 512K and Macintosh Classic) so much that I've acquired some. With this book it shows how each computer came to be. Mac IIsi owners, past and present, may be surprised to know that the name IIsi was on a few other concepts before being applied to the pizza box 20Mhz machine that it grew into when it came out in October 1990. This is just one example of what this book is like.

Supposedly this one's hard to find. True Apple enthusiasts will look for one.

Although this book reads a bit "dry", it is the best source for the information contained therein.

mmm... great book.

Sure, there are typos and misnamed images, but, the quality is (overall) excellent.

Apple's design is not the only thing that should be commended- I should know, as my family made the switch after my father's PC caught fire and had to be ditched out a window. Never has an Mac done that to me, and I've used them my entire life.

But, I digress.

The images are excellent, although the text is rather long and dull.

I picked up my copy at a closeout sale for 12 bucks last year, but it is definitly worth the price if you want an homage to mac for your coffeetable.

This book offers a comprehensive look at Apple's design, to be sure - and it's a story worth telling. However, the presentation is fundamentally flawed in that it reads like propaganda from the Jobs machine. The fact of the matter is that Jobs had very little to do with design at Apple, or with anything else that Apple did well, for that matter. The myth of Jobs is a nothing more than a fraud - an incredibly successful fraud.

Very detailed and well written descriptions. The book is funny and an enjoyable read. The book is also easy to use as a reference as the major topics of each paragraph are listed in the margins.

I bought this book for my Intro to Digital Circuits course. So, far, I have found this book highly useful. Its contents are easy to understand and it has a lot of examples to explain any particular content in detail. This book is self-explanatory. Even if I miss my class one day, I don't have much trouble catching up as long as I have this book.

The book came to me severly damaged before it was even packaged. The first 313 pages were severly gouged out of the bottom pages about 1/4" deep x 1/2" x 1/2" (inches), close to the spine. I did not have time to return it because my course started Jan. 10, 2006 and the Delivery estimate was: January 6, 2006 - January 10, 2006.

I am very disappointed with this product and purchase.

First and foremost, this book is definitely not a good introductory course book. It is a reference book because of how it covers the conceptual material.

This book provides an extreme amount of detail in the many aspects of the field. If you have basic knowledge of circuitry, you should be fine in understanding this book. If you do not have any experience at all, however, this book will be difficult to manage.

On the positive side, as a reference, this book is superior. The book starts with introductory concepts such as working with number systems and how to perform arithmetic (simple and complex) in binary. I was confused by the placement of Chapter 3. Immediately following number systems, the author jumps to electrical behavior and layout of transistors to comprise CMOS logic. While a necessary topic, I felt that it could have been delayed to a future chapter.

Afterward, standard topics are covered amidst advanced topics. I felt it would have been easier for the reader to master the simple, ideal designs before having to worry about timing characteristics and other non-ideal concepts.

The book discusses simple logic gates all the way through sequential logic design, which is a nice touch. It is good to have all of the material in this book in one place and definitely recommend the book to anyone in logic design. While not the most advanced book, its wide array of topics and coverage will help to fill in the gaps that other books create.

This book was the reason i enjoyed my undergrad logic design class (which used another [bad] textbook): this is a strong book with strong explanations, thinking reasonings, nice examples, thorough VHDL and Verilog sections, lots of 'real-world' information. The author is precise, logical, goes deep but very straightforward, and funny (!). Where our textbook had gabs, where my professor's lectures were vague, where all other explanations seemed cheesy to me - Wakerly just filled me up.

I felt like I had bought a book that my friends had written when I got this in the mail. As an avid reader of a lot of these crafter's blogs I thoroughly enjoyed getting a peak into their process. The instructions for most projects are very detailed and easy to follow and so appealing!

This book is for people who enjoy making things. Contributors are from the craft blogging community. The first section is about the crafters and contains an entry from each of them entitled "Why I create", "Inspiration", and "Workspace". The second section contains 17 projects (one from each of them) for you to try. Inspirational and highly recommended.

When I purchased this book I thought it would be helpful in my crafting, but what it is, are stories about a bunch of different crafters and how they became crafters. At the end of each story is a pattern and not that great of patterns at all. This book is not what I thought Crafter's Companion would be.

I thought that this book would be great by the cover and the reviews that I read. I was more than disappointed. There were really nothing worth making in it. It was mostly profiles of other crafters. They had great pictures of the things that they made, but the projects that they submitted were less than exciting. I keep looking through this book for something to make. As I flip through I'd get excited to see something cute only to find that it is not one of the projects, but and example of the highlighted artist's other work. I would save my money.

This was not a bad book by any means, just not what I wanted it to be (which is not its fault!). It is a bit inspirational, but the patterns/ideas that each author presented for me to do were not inspirational at all, and in fact most were things that I would NEVER make, and often strange and a bit ugly. Nothing like the pictures of the author's "real" stuff. They all seemed to be holding out. Like "Here are some pictures of beautiful things I make and sell, here is a pattern that is perfect for you because it is plain, uninspirational, and something I won't mind giving to you because I could never sell anything like it!" I felt quite insulted.

Buy this to be inspired, but not as a craft book with real ideas. You will be disappointed.

This is absolutely necessary if u want to stay in 3.5. The text is clear and able to solve all your doubts of the 3.5 rules. The information is well organized and the flavor texts explain how the autors think the rules. The illustrations came for all other 3.5 books, so i'll find good and bad ones. If u don't care about the 4ed. or simply prefer the 3.5 rules, this is a must have item on your table, it helps a lot, with quick reference guide and clear explains about some problematics of the game.

The Rules Compendium adds little new material apart from the design notes from some D&D writers. I found that commentary interesting and worthwhile. The meat of the book itself, however, is a compilation of several years of rules development stretched out over dozens of products. The Rules Compendium condenses and organizes the rules of the game into a useful format. As an in-game reference, it is nearly complete, incorporating not only the material from the PHB and DMG but also rules such as swift and immediate actions added by later products.

The only warning I would make is that there is essentially nothing new in this book. It is useful whether someone has just a few books and would like all the rules in one place or they have lots of books and do not want to hunt through them to find something specific. If you are running an active D&D game, I can strongly recommend it, but it is not going to offer much to the casual player or someone looking for inspiration.

This is s great book to have if you want all the rules in one place!
It it also a must if you do not want to switch to 4th Edition D&D.

The only problem is sometimes the rule you are looking for is not where you would expect it, but that is overcome with use.

All in all a solid book that will see lots of use by any 3.5 D&D gamer.

This book is nicely priced at Amazon,but it ends up being another book you will carry-especially for an already heavy laden DM.It is a useful tool for the game table and it explains many rules quite efficiently,and even adds some usable twist to existing rules.
I would recommend this book more for a helpful player character at the gaming table,it is useful-but for a Dm it is just another book because it doesn't eliminate the need for any others.

Although 4.0 is still not too far away, its good to have this guide on hand. Just recently as the DM in my campaign, I had to look up rules for spell resistance, grappling, movement impairments and cover for a single fight, and try and figure out how the hell those all affected one player's turn. Having this guide made it a quick, easy process. In addition, the rules are alphabetized and marked in an easy to use table of contents. A good buy, at least for me or DMs

The editorial review is kinda deceiving, so I'll just write what's missing on it: The book tries to balance between theory, practical examples and interviews.

Which may be great to some, but not that great to others.

The book is basicaly structured in this way:
30-50 pages of Theory
5-15 pages of a practical example (something about the theory on an actual game)
15-40 pages of Interview (with some famous game designer... which might be good if the reader knows their games, and might be bad if the reader doesn't, since not much of it is exactly "game designer" content).

That structure is repeated through over and over the book's 677 pages.
But don't get me wrong, the content is still very good. Cover lots of stuff from developing the game concept, to more technical stuff like AI, Multi-playing, Level design and playtesting.

So, a good book that covers lots of stuff on game design without going too deep in specific stuff.

I am currently using this as my Game Design textbook. As a student, it provides not only mere theory, but valuable interviews with upstanding designers. It is clear, and a joy to read.

I got this book to help in a class since it was a course requirement. It has alot of good info and intangibles about game design that is very helpful to anybody that would want to know.

This is a great walk through for a beginner. I would recommend it for its overview and insight into games and making games. I played a few more games because of it and was able to hone my eye to know why I enjoy and what I look for in games. Great first book; if only for the interviews.

Being an avid gamer, and dreaming of working in the video game industry, I pretty much knew everyhing there was in this book. However, if you're not like me, then I think you will find this book useful.
The book goes from the beginning stages of video game design up to the completion of a video game. It gives really good information about what makes a game good and not tired and done before.
The interviews of the game designers are kinda helpful; it really depends on if you already know the designers work and are familiar with it.
This is a non-technical book though, so it won't tell you how to code a game or make models. It basically tells you all of the intangibles you can't learn in a class or really anywhere.

It's worth the read.

Cuando adquiri este libro pense en que solo me ayudaria en comprender mejor al Photoshop con el After Fx pero fue mejor que eso...
En realidad entendi el como y el porque de hacer muchos procesos desde Photoshop pàra agilizar y darle mas realismo a las composiciones.
Adventencia: No es un libro facil de leer para principiantes, es mejor leer cada capitulo y repetir ejercicios al menos 2 veces. Eso incrementa el tiempo de terminarlo de leer.
Si yo fuera tu, si lo compraria.
he dado asesoria de postproduccion por 3 años y es bastante didactico.
Puede bajar cientos de tutoriales de internet, pero no podras entender el como realizar desde cero proyectos de mayor alcance sin la ayuda de libros como este.

I have to say that you MUST need a solid undertanding or at least the basics of After Effects before getting this book. Also, there are not many figures to ilustrate the projects in an easy way.
Get the book if you have good knoledge of After Effects.

This book seemed to cover all the topics I wanted to get me in to being able to doing some of the things that I wanted to do right away with 3-D photo montages and working in 3-D space with AE and Photoshop but the book skips far too many steps and assumes you can read minds and know the "in-between" steps to get from one set of instructions to the next. I would not recommend this book to any one who does not have a very good grasp of AE. If you know AE very well then this may be the book for you. As for me I guess I'll just have to go back to my Total Training DVD's but I was hoping to get up and running a little quicker.

have bought many books on after effect and photoshop.
This is so far the best ever. Easy to use, easy to understand.

Tired of the usual "Blah, Blah, Blah" in computer books? FINALLY - somone is listening to the needs of graphics professionals and students wanting to learn tips and tricks for doing these effects and animations! Foster not only shows you HOW to do these techniques, but more importantly, WHY! I have found this book indespensible in my advancement way beyond the basic tools and functional training of other After Effects books. If you want to learn animation or do any kind of special effects on your own, then get this book NOW!