Game Design Books

I had to figure out by my self how to compile the codes under linux. The book doesn't go over compiling under Linux, other than using kdevelop.



1 star: Readability. It was easy to read. While I found some typos, it wasn't such a big deal.

2 star: There aren't many books out there on Allegro Library, and that deserves some recognition.

2 star: I own another book written by Jonathan S. Harbor, which was also a good read. Beginning JAVA ... I forget the title but it was a JAVA book. Anyways, the 2 stars are for the author, and his experience in game programming.

It's a nice book to have.

I will never know if this book is worth squat.
You see, it relies on the open-source Allegro game programming library.
The problem is, it's nearly impossible to get it installed and working!
The catch-22 is, I can't return the book because I opened the seal on the packaged CD that supposedly includes all the stuff you need for the book.

the book looks promising, but for now it's a big paper-weight made of paper.

This book is intended for the ABSOLUTE BEGINNER. It assumes the reader has a very basic knowledge of C, and understands the basics of pointers, arrays and structs. No experience with other multimedia library/GUI toolkit/etc required, although it helps.

From that point on, it will get you up and running really fast; in quite a few chapters this book will cover simple 2D game programming, teaching all the basics neededed for programming more complex games. Trough the use of Allegro library, the topics of handling input (keyboard, mice, joystick) and output (sound, graphics, sprites) are covered effectively.

The later chapters, however, did not appeal to me at all; they deal with horizontal scrolling (classic mario-like games) and vertical scrolling (1942-like shoot'em up's), AI, multithreading... which is very cool stuff, but I don't think the approach chosen is very effective.

It is read REALLY fast however, with very big fonts, and clear and neat writing. It dissapointed me a bit because although it seemed very nicely edited, one of the examples was misplaced.

If you plan to work under linux, the code will work (most of the time), but compiling can become somewhat cumbersome. Under windows, it works fine.

To wrap up, I quite liked what the author says about gaming and game design in general, and teaches very effectively what he intends, having the "All In One" covered; but examples are overall too simplistic or superficial.

I'm rating four out of five because I expect a book on the subject to be a little more high-end; however, if you are new to programming in general, this book will prove quite helpful. And, Allegro can take you really far (it even has the bonus of being open source!).

P.S.: as a side note, reading other reviews, the second edition looks better than third.

I tend to shy away from game programming books with the phrase "All in One." And not without good reason. Most of them are utter garbage. They simply try to do too much. Take the 1st edition of GPAIO for example--it was just awful. It had diagrams on the wrong page, tons of errors, etc. And it wastes way too much time going through the technical stuff. Very little on game programming.

Not so with this book.

While there is some technical stuff, the author utilizes it almost instantaneously to form a simple tank game along the way. Towards the end of the book, he covers horizontal scrolling (i.e., Super Mario Bros.) and vertical scrolling (i.e., 1942). While neither example is a complete game, both really explain the mechanics well enough that making a game of either type should be fairly easy.

I was a bit reluctant to buy the book because it uses Allegro, rather than the more mainstream options of DirectX and OpenGL. But I really think Allegro was a great choice. It allows him to focus on the meaty stuff, you know, actual game programming stuff. I have way too many books that waste upwards of 150 pages on setting up a window with DirectX.

My only criticism is that the book is more for hobbyists than professionals, but then again I have never seen nor heard of any such book. Anyone who wants to program games, albeit simple games should definitely check this book out.

As for the reviewer who gave GPAIO one star, I'm really doubtful that s/he is serious. But if so, my advice to you is this: If you can't get Allegro up and running, then you shouldn't be programming games. It's that simple. Really. It's not any harder or easier to set up than DX, OpenGL or even SDL.

This is a truely great book, the best software tutorial book I have come across - and I have read a few. What makes it so great? I am not sure, but it actually got me working in Illustrator, something the Illustrator 8 Bible (amongst others) was unable to do.

This book was priceless to me. Don't be put off in any way by the deceptive simplicity of the lessons: if you are a beginner then this is exactly what you need, and as it covers the core functionality of the software is just as useful if you are using a newer version of Illustrator.

I am doing some nice stuff in Illustrator and it was all down to this book. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Thank you, Raymond.

This book is truly pathetic and is totally out of place compared to the many other Magic books that are of much better quality. The projects hardly even look like what a child would come up with. I find this so disappointing, none of the images in the book dazzle the eye or would come close to inspire an adjective like magical. In fact the only thing that comes close is the word Magic on the cover of the book (which was made in Photoshop). All the tips are pretty rudimentary except for a small piece that gets into dimension. If you'd like a book that answers all your, question basic or technical, Illustrator 8 Bible is one great book. For those of you not up to reading a 800 some page book - an excellent book is the Adobe Classroom in a Book. CIAB goes through pretty much all the features of Illustrator and will get you in touch with making images that look far more "magical." If you'd like to get a book that gets you into thinking of depth and dimension, then this is a good book for you (especially for the price), otherwise I think you'll be severely disappointed too.

i was really intimidated when trying to learn illustrator on my own and this book was just exactly what i needed. it presents "homework" assignments and you are walked through step by step on how to recreate the "homework". the instructions are really easy to understand, the work gets a little harder and more involved as you work through the book. it was a TREMENDOUS help in becoming more profficient in illustrator and after i graduated from the book i have often reffered back to it and found exactly the information i needed to make my work perfect.

50

I was expecting some more creativity. Ms. Moyes delivers with instructions on lots of basic pocket styles, but I was hoping for some exotic couture stuff. She gives directions on how to make a difficult curved welt pocket, which I've seen in couture, and shaped facings covering a pocket. If you're looking for a gallery with a lot of neat-o ideas: it's not in this book. Otherwise, it gives straightforward advice on straightforward pockets.

This book offers a variety of ways to design pockets. Unlike like the traditional "patch pockets", you need this book especially if you desire new ideals!!

I keep this book always in reach when I sew pockets. It is my favorite reference book as it provides instructions on an amazingly large number of differently styled pockets:

CHAPTER 1: PATCH POCKETS including unlined patch pockets, lined patch pockets, patch pockets in sheer fabrics, patch pockets with foldover flaps and designer patch pockets. CHAPTER 2: IN-SEAM POCKETS including side-seam pockets, slant-front pockets, waistband concealed in a slant-front pocket and designer in-seam pockets. CHAPTER 3: INSET POCKETS including basic inset pockets and variations of the basic inset pocket. CHAPTER 4: HIDDEN POCKETS including constructing a welt/flap, breast pocket, ticket pocket, coin pocket and zippered welt pocket.

This book is very well written (as all the other books I've read from Taunton press). The instructions are clear, the use of diagrams and photos are very useful and I think this book will be of great help whether one is relatively new to sewing or a more advanced sewer. The ideas on each type of pocket at the end of each chapter are a challenge and an inspiration for any sewer looking out to create beautiful garments. I highly recommend it!

This a good book, I always had problems with sewing pockets to my garments. It has good pictures to show you how to place pockets on your garments. It helps you express your creativity with your garments. You can make all kinds of pockets. I use this book whenever I want to do something different with my garments. Very Good book indeed.

This book contains a grand assortment of projects to preserve memories in clever and original ways.

In an hour (ok, it took me a lot longer, but, hey -- that's just me) you can create great mini-gifts that will be mega appreciated for their content and personal touch. The possabilities and combinations are endless. Make It in a Minute will open the door to a new craft you will enjoy for years to come!

This book certainly has lots of photos of beautiful projects, but the instructions were not self-explanatory for me and I ended up having to guess what they meant by looking at the pictures. It's more of a book for people who are experienced scrapbookers (who might be more comfortable working with brads, glue sticks, and ribbon bits) rather than bookbinders who sew their own books.

Wow, what a book! Roxi Phillips has out done herself with this book! The pictures & instructions are clear & easy to follow. I've done several of the books featured & plan to do everyone of them in the near future! Great work Roxi!

I have purchased many idea books in my time and often most of the projects just aren't "do-able." This book is great! Every project is something that I could see myself doing (in fact I've done a couple of them already) and the instructions are step by step. Even if you are an advanced scrapper, there are some cute, original ideas in here for mini albums. I understand it's a new author, but I hope to see more from her! This book is a keeper!!

This is one of the best books I've ever read about the OpenGL...

"More OpenGL Game Programming" takes the basic foundation of "OpenGL Game Programming" and takes it to a professional level. I currently am taking advanced graphics courses in college, and this book has managed to match pound-for-pound the amount of graphics techniques covered in advanced courses. This book is definitely designed with the serious programmer aimed at professional-level work in mind, and it delivers generously.

The book is structured as a series of articles of varying lengths addressing a large number of advanced topics in graphics. It starts with giving better methods to store and pass data around than in the previous volume, which can be applied to all of the techniques thereafter. A few small articles about mildly interesting topics serve as appetizers to the main course: shaders. The author clearly recognizes the importance of shaders and spends a fitting amount of time discussing them. The examples start out simple and demonstrate practical uses of shaders, making sure the reader comes out of these large chapters with a working knowledge of what shaders are for and how to use them.

With shaders mastered, the rest of the book dives into a feast of useful graphics techniques and tricks. It effectively covers the various solutions available to common graphical goals and effectively conveys when they can and can't be used, their costs and benefits, and other important information that not only helps implement but also helps the reader decide when to use each technique for the best effect.

Don't underestimate this book; it is massive as well as meaty. If you are passionate about computer graphics you won't be able to skip a page. If you're a professional, this book is full of valuable reference material and details about implementing the latest innovations in graphics. This book doesn't have a place on my bookshelf; it has a place on my desk.

That said, the only thing that is badly lacking is the source code. The book does not come with a CD, but rather allows the reader to download source code from the author's website. The included examples are fairly well-constructed, but the code base is incomplete. Most depressingly, the source code for the shader wrapper - which the author uses in most of the code examples for shaders - is not available currently. While having the interface design is nice, it does require that the reader implement it in order to directly copy the code examples from the book, which might feel tedious when one is anxious to actually start messing around with shaders. However don't think that the source code is totally useless; there's a good deal of useful source on the web site to sift through.

The complaints out of the way I must reiterate that this is the best graphics book I have seen available and was worth not only every penny but more. I strongly recommend "More OpenGL Game Programming" to to student who's looking to take amateur graphics programming to the professional level or the professional looking for a good resource for the latest graphics techniques used in games today.

I'm rating this 2 stars primarily because of the incomplete nature of the project. It's not just that the code samples won't compile, or are so disorganized as to be nearly worthless. Much more irritating are the constant references to code samples that simply don't exist. Time and again the author(s) refer to sample programs that can be 'downloaded from the books web site'. These programs do not exist. The authors lame explanations for the lack of a CD (cost, etc) lose all credibility when one comes to the realization that the likely reason a CD doesn't exist is because the vast majority of the sample programs referred to in the text don't exist, either. Any hope that new code samples my someday appear on the book site seems futile as well - the site hasn't been updated in a year and a half. One is left with the feeling that this is clearly a project that was shipped when only partially completed. I feel ripped off; taken advantage of.

On the plus side, portions of the book are well written and informative. It is, in spite of it's shortcomings, one of the better books I've found for explaining a variety of GL techniques commonly used in games. It's a shame it doesn't live up to it's promise; if the authors had been a little more diligent in completing the project before publishing it, it could have been a world-beater. Instead it's just another slightly below average disappointment.

I also have a real problem with the fact that the author is writing reviews (typically 4 star ratings) for books that his own organisation is involved in publishing. If that isn't a conflict of interest I don't know what is. I feel Amazon compromises their credibility by allowing clearly non-objective 'reviews' to be listed with the books. If the author wants to write a little blurb, thats fine, but don't let them rate products they have a financial interest in.

Some of the stuff in this book is redundant in a sense that language specs and extensions spec are already available online then why put in there.

Second, I found the explanation more like notes+spec form. Not at all for an newbie person and for an expert it does not offer anything new. As it starts with FBO, RenderTarget, PBOs etc. many things have changed over the period, including GLSL specs.

Book structure is also quite confusing to me, it starts with some concepts of advance OpenGL(!) and then it is more like ShaderXn series with appendix and last chapeters full of GLSL and ARB specs.

Buy this book if you know what you are looking for, check appendix first.

after reading these reviews, I was really excited for my New Maters of Flash vol3 to arrive. I really liked volume 1 when it came out years ago. But I ended up returning this book because I was disappointed. Most of the animation "tricks" here are about character animation - mostly how to use flash's drawing tools to make the characters look 3D, and how to use code to make them move. Being a motion graphics animator, the only things i found which were relevant to me (maybe 3 projects) were frankly somewhat boring and predictable.

If you're an intermediate/advanced flash animator/programmer looking for really clever motion graphics tricks, there may be only 1 or 2 projects of interest here to you.

If you are somewhat of a novice and want to make really cool characters and scenes in flash and become expert with the drawing tools for this type of usage, you will probably get something out of it.

Even if you never plan to use Flash this is an amazing resource to some really cool sites. The book is full of animations, and explanations of cutting edge Flash projects. Unlike most Friends of Ed, you get a CD with the book. The CD has a menu system to highlight each of the Authors in the book. You get bios, info, and direct links to great sites. If you are into Flash, there is lots of information and ideas to help your work be more creative. You will also see a variety of viewpoints on how to use Flash, and some very personal insights. There are four artists whose work alone would be worth the price of this book. Adam Philips provides a great chapter on lighting, and his website shows a real animation master at work. The Jared Tarbell chapter shows a design project from start to finish on pattern making. Anthony Eden's work is very inspirational, but Olga Bergner's chapter provides lots of information on good character design and again provides lots of details on how he makes Flash magic. These are my favorites, but I am sure you will find your own in this Book and CD. What really makes this book work, is each author has concentrated on the part of Flash they enjoy, and show how they have used Flash to further their own creativity.

Well...it's okay but not worth the time I waited for it's release. The first time I heard about Vol. 3 was at the Flash Forward 2004 Conference in San Francisco. I really looked forward to Billy Bussey and Shane's Chapter's but when I read them they did not have the substance I thought it would pack. Shane gave a few nuggets as far as techniques but it was mostly philosophical garbage (as with many other contributors of the book) that could have been left for an autobiography rather than a book that is geared towards actually teaching the customer something. I would say get the book for some decent tidbits but you would probably get more out of the first volume.

If i wasn't better than that, I would keep this book a secret... But i know that the flash world evolves because of the beauty of sharing. I felt that this book was priceless. Each and every author is a living phenomenom. If you are not even interested in flash, this book is still worth your while. The people who wrote this book are truly inspiring and have wonderful insights and theories about design/art/interactiivity... For flash designers: this book is a must. This book describes tricks of the trade as well as must-know actions, animations, drawing techniques. The difference between this book and all the others is that this book is the real deal; meaning, that the world's leading designers are showing you their award winning web sites and take you step by step on how to create them. Not simplistic boxy case studies; but the actual stuff that amazes you when you explore flash kit's winners of the month.-------Priceless

Excellent book on just the topic I needed; arrived on time and in excellent shape.

Well Paint Shop Pro 9 is not the latest Photoshop. But Kay reveals that Paint Shop can do many of the common tasks available in Photoshop. Common image editing, like resizing images, tweaking the colour maps and so on, are just as easy in Paint Shop. As you might expect, there is a layer model of images, that lets you have overlay planes and manipulate objects in each. [You may already be familiar with the idea from Photoshop.]

A reasonable question then is why choose Paint Shop? If your graphics needs are not complex, and Paint Shop is cheaper, perhaps that's the way you should go.

And of course, as befits this series of books, the narrative is very informal, to put you at ease.

This book is a great entry level aide to understanding the workings of Paint Shop. However, it is an all inclusive aide so anyone who is looking to use Paint Shop merely for the purposes of photo editing will not find much of use inside this help. But, it can open your eyes to what is possible with Paint Shop and get your foot in the door to anything new.

Being slightly famillar with a older versiion of Paint Shop I felt I still needed the basic instructions that Dummies gives.
I was not disappointed. I am also using "Paint Shop Pro 9 Photographers Guide" and with the two I am becoming well on my way to a Pro at Paint Shop Pro

The layout is nice, but content is outdated in comparison to case mods you can find surfing the net.

This book rocks. It guides you through each part and really gives you an idea of what kind of work goes into a unique mod.

Not to mention my case is on the cover :-)

I think the last review is a bit harsh, but a one line review? I guess the reason why there isn't any "real" data in it is because the person hasn't actually read the book. this book was written by the guy at gideontech.com, 1 person from pcmods.com and 2 other people. They all have their own case mod website so they are pros at this. A lot of the things in the book are not elsewhere on the net and were written just for this book as far as I can tell. The book covers all sorts of mods including how to build your own case out of a metal gas can, developing your own electronic gadgets (mansfield), lighting mods you never thought about, and mini ITX goodness from Ed. There is a ton of mini-mods. Really its a very thorough book and you can't just "surf the web" and get as much good information so quickly or in such a nice "gift" package. If you already build competition level case mods then yes I wouldn't recommend it to you, but if you think modding is fun then its a good book for you.

The collaborative effort of Edward Chen, Carl Mixon, Philip Mansfield, and Grace Punska, PC Mod Projects: Cool It! Light It! Morph It! amounts to a compilation of four complete, do-it-yourself PC mod projects under one cover! From a water-cooling aquarium; to a neon light show; to an outrageous casing; to a functional one-touch LED screen, each of these instructional projects show, in a step-by-step progression, exactly how to transform an ordinary computer into an extraordinary one.

Unless you are a beginner, this book is not worth buying. Most of the tutorials are just far too simple. And some of them you wonder why would anyone care. I currently have a subscribtion to the design graphics magazine on which this book is based. The tutorials in the magazine are just crap. Needless to say I do not buy the magazine for its tutorials.

Do you have Photoshop and can't figure out how to repair a digital photo? Have you scanned some old pictures that have been distorted by dust and scratches and would like to restore them to their original state? Or maybe you need to add some special effects to your project. If so, then "Photoshop Studio Skills" would be a good addition to your library.

Design Graphics "Photoshop Studio Skills" is a reference book for Adobe Photoshop 7 and Adobe Photoshop Creative Suite (CS). "Photoshop Studio Skills" is collection of tips and tricks from Design Graphics magazine and was published by Wiley, Publishing Inc.

There are seven different chapters that cover everything from color correction to creating your own textures. Each chapter contains many tips and tricks that are labeled for ease of use. The tutorials range from "easy" to "power user." I found it very easy to follow along. The authors jammed packed the book with screenshots and photographs which come in real handy if you're not familiar with the vast number of tools and platelet's that Photoshop comes with.

Photoshop is an amazing piece of software. I have used Photoshop for almost three years now and feel like I have only scratched the surface of the program. A book like "Photoshop Studio Skills" is great to cruise through and see how the professional do things. I found myself saying, "oh, that's how you do that," or "I always wondered what that tool was for."

I would mention "Photoshop Studio Skills" to anyone who is new to Photoshop, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it, due to its steep price tag of $35 dollars. You may be better off downloading tutorials from Adobes website. I would also suspect that all professional users and power users would already now most of the tips and trick contained in this book as well.

If you are a fan of Design Graphics magazine then you already know that it is one of the best magazines for digital publishing and the Studio Skills series from the magazine covers a wide range of techniques. Now, you can find the best of these useful and cutting edge techniques compiled in a new book that every Photoshop professional will want to keep close at hand.

What makes this book such a good choice for your reference shelf? The techniques are organized into topic areas and each technique is fully illustrated and updated for Photoshop CS. Although many of the techniques are for working with photographs, the digital artists will also find some useful information. There are techniques for every skill level and the step-by-step instructions are easy to follow.

The first section is Palettes and Tools. Some of the techniques you will find in this section are how to create special effects with the Art History Brush, ways to use the Crop tool and Photoshop's automation features. Photographers will find the technique for automating and customizing Photoshop's Picture Package feature a time saver. Digital artists will enjoy the techniques for using Photoshop's natural media brushes and for making custom brushes.

The second section is Paths, Selections, Channels and Masks. In this section there is a very good technique for removing the background from a photograph and replacing it with another. A technique everyone will find useful is manipulating selections with the Transform command.

There is a section devoted to Layers which has some interesting techniques for controlling how layers interact. You can get some great special effects with Photoshop's Pass Through blend mode.

Colour Effects and Correction is the fourth topic area. There are techniques for creating a digital master, removing color casts from a photograph and adding sepia tints to a photograph.

Section five, Light and Shadow Effects, has techniques for creating realistic shadows. You will also learn how to use Photoshop's Lighting Effects filter.

The Helpful Hints section has a useful technique for scanning line drawings. There is also a great technique for removing the moiré pattern that occurs during scanning and in certain photographs. Those who work with web graphics will find the technique for removing artifacts from a JPEG image very useful.

The last section is Special F/X. Among the techniques you will learn is how to distort text and how to use the Clouds filter to create textures such as woven fabric and rust.

Twelve Photoshop professionals contributed their techniques to this book. They are Rita Amladi, Daniel Brown, Russell Preston Brown, Katrin Eismann, Bill Fleming, Julieanne Kost, Brian P Lawler, Michael Ninness, Carl Stevens, Daniel Wade, Ben Willmore, and Colin Wood.

Of all the Photoshop books out there (and I own a lot of them), this has got to be the most beautiful, and certainly one of the most useful. I've subscribed to Design Graphics for years -- mostly for its monthly Studio Skills feature. To have years' worth of the best, updated techniques in this one package is incredibly valuable for me. I'm partial to the Carl Stevens material, but there are also excellent examples from the likes of Ben Willmore, Russell Brown and others.

I am a fan of Kim Hargreaves because of her simple clean designs. Her patterns in this book not only showcase the beautiful new wools and colors of Rowan this season but the sweaters are fashionable. The sweaters mirror the boxy clean lines of todays fashions. I look forward to making every one of them. The book itself is also very well done and beautiful to look at. I only wish there were more books by Kim to collect.

Nicely done but too many repeats from their Fall/Winter book.

I can't ever say that I've looked through a knitting book and wished that the photographer had paid more attention to the scenery that to the sweaters. I felt that way with this book. I think the location was Scotland, which could have been fun to see, but unfortunately most of the location is blurred or cramped by the shot. This is unfortunate because the sweaters were, for the most part, so disappointing that if the landscapes were better, the book might have made me a lot happier. Hargreaves published a fantastic book many years ago, with very stylish, sometimes intricate, but truly beautiful sweaters. For many years she's been one of Rowan Yarns' lead designers, especially favored by those of us who weren't Kaffe Fassett fans. Her sweaters are normally innovative but not way-out, striking and easy to make, feminine without being silly or childish -- in summary, truly wonderful. She's had a flair with Rowan yarns, coming up with designs for every walk of life or moment of your life, from casual to formal, outdoors to party chic. But in this book, she seems to have lost her inspiration. The intent of the sweaters is to present styles for the return of the old Rowanspun line of yarn (I'd prefer they returned their lightweight and DK weight lambswools!). The yarn aside, too many of the sweaters have a clumsy look to them, and too many are commonplace -- cropped crew neck cardigans or cropped sleeveless pullovers, things you could knit yourself without even thinking. I did like two of the sweaters, but not enough to purchase the yarn and make the effort at knitting them. I'm glad that I purchased the book, because like with Rowan magazines, it is a quality product, nicely printed and a good collector's item, but you may be as disappointed as I was in the dullness of these ordinary sweaters.

This book contains some glorious patterns--the cropped diagonal aran knit is especially inspiring. I've only had time to briefly run through the patterns but many appear to be fairly easily adaptable to larger sizes and/or the use of different yarns. Someone mentioned earlier that some of the designs are "ordinary" and basic. I personally don't own a lot of patterns so it's nice to have a book that has inspirational designs I may never make as well as others I can use as a template for my own designs.