Game Design Books

This photographer has a GREAT EYE and see's things and men in an interesting way .. you'll enjoy it

By looking at the book cover, I thought that it would have lots of nude pictures, etc. And from the book title, I assumed this is a picture book about those models having fun after dark. But in reality, it is just a book of different male models in different poses. It only has a few nude pictures. Nothing too exciting, I think.

what a disappointment. mostly cliched and contrived images that lack emotional and visual impact. what should be provocative images come across as awkward and rehearsed. for the real thing, check out testino!

Supposedly the photographer shot these men after they had worked by day as models for fashion ads. They are thus apparently supposed to be being themselves, unposed, etc. If George Bernard Shaw were alive today and saw these boys, I'm not sure that he would say that it's a shame that youth is wasted on young people. With a couple of exceptions there's not a single photograph here that I would even think about purchasing and certainly not hanging on a wall. The lighting is garish, the composition is bad and many of the shots are out of focus. (Deliberately I hope.)

Brad Gooch gushes in his foreward. Yes, the photographs remind you of Larry Clark and Nan Goldin; but these two photographers did it much better and got there first. And how Gooch can call Lalli a "gay Helmut Newton" is beyond me. Paul Cadmus in his afterward makes a lot more sense when he says that these are boys he would not want to know, himself. I couldn't agree more.

To quote a line from Robert Browning, suddenly "I feel chilly and grown old" when I view these photographs.

"Fun ? Game: Male Models After Dark is a fascinating blend of the sexual and the silly, the enticing and the amusing: it's a collection of snaps taken by the uni-named fashion photog Lalli while casting for Calvin Klein; the bodies are mostly sheathed in slight briefs or lightly-draped shirts, and it's not a fount of full-frontal. But it is a colorful eyeful of good-looking goofs, a reminder that models have personalities. - review excerpt from RL at A Different Light Books

Game Design: The Art & Business of Creating Games is a wonderful text. I managed to read the entire book in only two days. Bob Bates manages to explain the hectic world of computer game design in a concise and friendly manner. Highly detailed yet written in lay man terms, Game Design offers just the right information to spark new ideas and more importantly, offer hope to aspiring new game designers. Even if you only wish to create games for yourself and your friends, Bob Bates tells you how you could possibly break into the business. He even offers helpful contacts in the form of websites for review. All in all, Game Design is a great book to begin research into this business field.

This book preaches about how to make a clone of an action game without really explaining the principles behind why a good game is good or the art of computer game design.

I found that it often contradicted Game Design Theory & Practice by Richard Rouse which is a much better book as it explains the principles of design with support from many experts rather than just saying that all games should be done a certain way.

Bates' book is quick and easy to read but not inspiring or thought provoking. Most of it was just common sense.

First of all, this book is nice to read to get a general picture of the process of making computer games. But, as others have already mentioned, it is very superficial and most of the content is just common sense. Not much here for anyone not completely new to the business.
But the biggest problem is that while Bob talks about game theory and business in a very shallow way (great for beginners), he support his theories with examples from big game companies (where nobody is a beginner anyway).

Ok, if you have ever designed a game for longer than 6 months, most of the book will be obvious. If you have NEVER done anything with games, the book will let you know of pitfalls to expect and things to do correctly. Overall though, it is STILL a great book for everybody to read. It's well-written, has lots of graphics, pics, and other user-friendly tidbits of knowledge. It does lean heavily on looking at design and management of a few key games and fails to mention ANYTHING about web-based games (i.e. games played strictly through a browser).
A good book nonetheless. Enjoy it and give it to your colleagues to read and learn :>!

Bob Bates has covered all the bases. The book illustrates many facets of the game design business... from descriptions of the different genres, to illustrations of what to do (and NOT do), to an explanation of what the various roles and responsibilities are of the people involved in game production. If you are at all interested in getting into the business of game development at any level, this book is a good read. It is light and understandable for people of all skills and disciplines. Well done, Bob.

We have a new blog setup for support on the book and to provide updated tips and tricks and extras when time permits.

http://inspired3dadvancedrigging.blogspot.com/

We are grateful for all the positive feedback as well as the error catches, I have found our book in many studios over the last few years and it is always a nice surprise.

Stop by the blog and check out the new tips and or comment /email etc. as always we are happy to hear feedback or field questions on the book content.

Brad Clark

I got this book specifically to assist in shoulder/arm rigging difficulties i've had with an animation that needed to be anatomically correct, and i wasn't disappointed. The book quickly asserts the scope of the problem, and makes it clear that a good solution requires a careful study of the model geometry, and supplies you with a realistic and powerful idea for a setup. It doesn't provide you with an ultimate solution, but rather suggests very helpfully approaches to specific problems, often supplying MEL scripts to assist, as well as downloadable example files demonstrating theory in practise.

The writing style is fluid and doesn't take you for a fool, and the included interviews with veteran TD's are all interesting. I wish there were more details on weighting and weighting practises aside from a suggestion to weight "backwards" (reducing weight from 1 instead of increasing from 0). In addition, the book attempts to include 3ds MAX in its teaching process, but largely fails, putting 90% emphasis on Maya (good for me!)

I'll recommend it to any novice/intermediate TD. I'd also recommend it to anyone wanting a better understanding of how a rig works, perhaps a modeller seeking to understand how to mend his geometry to best suit rigging.

This is definitely not a book for beginners. My biggest issue with the book is that it gives you a bunch of step by step instructions without explaining why you're doing what you're doing. The books gives complex rigging examples without giving the main concepts behind them. The instructions are often times unclear and the pictures, which would probably explain things better than the text, are too small to be of any use. I guess since the title specifically says it's "advanced rigging" I shouldn't complain, but it seems like the only people who can follow this book are people who already know how to do this stuff.

I will second doodler's review; the content is in there somewhere, but the presentation is horrible. Pictures are unable to convey any information whatsoever do to their tiny size. Adding to the difficulty in following the instruction are the seemingly endless typos on node names, such as a dropped suffix or a dropped prefix. Whole steps seem to left out of other areas and the errata from the Course Tech website seems to contain only a fraction of the mistakes. This makes actually learning anything in a reasonable amount of time utterly impossible since you will spend most of your time trying to decipher what is a typo and what is not.

The main rigging tutorial in this book is very poorly written. What should be a great learning experience becomes a lesson in silly extra long naming pratices that will obscure all the intellegence of the actual rigging process.....the physical size of the book limits the pictures to a decorative effect. No real information is passed by the pictures and they are not included in any of the download data available. The main structure of his rig gets lost in a series of asides and remarks that make following the authors rigging tutorial into a joke. Bearly 3 steps can be included before a page change. This makes checking your work very hard and tedious. The real content just gets lost as every description includes a joint name that borders on 5 prefixes followed by 5 suffixs. By the time you select the right joint you have lost the process he is trying to teach you. So the first 170 odd pages are an exercise in translating his verbose descriptions into something logical. The content is there, it is just poorly presented.


Luckily, there is more then just the one author on this one!

I have read this book but it got really complicated towards the 300th so page so make sure u know good maths and have a good grip of Flash MX ActionScript.

Otherwise, this book is pretty good.

This is a very interesting book from quite a number of angles. The book is strong on discussing Flash centred technique, good on algortihmic tradeoffs but possible a little limited in in its key example. It will definitely help Falsh developers do better. The author is honest about the limitations of Flash as a game developmnet tool. The bottom line is that Flash is good a tightly defined games where some tradeoff with real-time interaction is allowable, but don't expect tthe full functionality (or speed) of a conventional games engine. There is a wealth of useful information in the book. If you have any handle on programming and Actionscript you will gain a lot more by taking timeover this book. The coding is good, and the algorithms are actually meaningful and useful. The author is clear about strengths and limitations of his approach A very rare characteristic of games books.

This is it! Just about any question you could ask about game programming with actionscript in Flash is here. Starting with a design and math primer (for those of us who didn't pay that much attention in math), this book covers gaming physics, tile-based worlds, isometric games, excellent collision detection and pathfinding algorithims like A*, artificial intelligence, creating graphics, playing with sound, multiplayer games (you'll have to decide which server is best for you), and a large number of sample games and tutorials to get you started. I have never read a more thourogh work on this subject in the past 5 years. This book is not really designed for the beginner, as the actionscript is quite advanced and will require knowledge of the basics. Knowing your way around Flash is essential. The sample code is clean and very clearly explained, and Mr. Makar's style of writing is very direct (and occasionally humorous). This book is a must-have for any Flash developer's personal library.

Let me begin by saying that I consider myself an intermediate Actionscript Programmer and have created several games with Flash, anticipating this book would assist me in my ventures.

At first glance this book seems terrific. You get a large collection of games that vary in genres. Even more appealing is the multiplayer game support.

But when you read more into you discover in the first chapters, most of it is understandable (even the physics and trigonometry) but even with your first game, you can run into troubles. I purchased this book interested in the multiplayer games. I had never done anything with this genre and wasn't sure how players could connect with one another. I discovered how its done, but the games are written with the author's program, Electroserver. This didn't bother me except that the demo included on the disk can only support five members at any one time. A little investigation on the site and I became more disappointed. To have the minimum on the license is 50 people for a whopping $299. Also the Tic-Tac-Toe example is a free download off this page. This made me wonder if the author was filling blank pages.

The book has its high points, especially the pinball and platform game. It also has its low points, such as the rapid bombardment of Actionscript (as someone else put it, little fluff), as well as the electroserver problem.

I'm a graphic designer with a little bit of scripting knowledge from director. I've made quite a few simple games in director and was looking to jump into actionscripting because of its web friendliness.

I understood everything for the first couple of chapters but from then on I got more and more confused. This book jumps in the deep end and unless you've got a good head for mathematics/programming I'm guessing that most people will find themselves lost.

If you're looking for books to help you learn actionscripting from the start. I would recommend buying 'Macromedia Flash MX ActionScripting: Advanced Training from the Source' and 'actionscript for flash mx' together, both of which I found to be excellent.

This an outstanding book. It starts with the history of socks/stockings and brings the reader up to today and how they've changed. The photos are wonderful and the writing is easy to understand.

I would recommend this book for anyone who really is interested in sock knitting. The book was not awfully expensive and it covers about anything you might want to know about socks. This will always be current for the who wants a simple sock to a very ornate complicated one.

As a unrepentant sock book collector I found this book to be very well put together and full of fresh new patterns. Another MUST HAVE for any sock knitter! It's got something for everyone from beginner to expert.

This book is self explanatory and additionally has a great section that speaks about the anatomy of a sock. It gives you detailed history of sock making and the biggest names in the sock industry! Impressive! Not only are the sock patterns attractive they are designed and charted out by some of the best designers. You definitely won't be displeased if you add this one to your knitting library!

I purchased the book, "Vogue Knitting-The Ultimate Sock Book" because sock knitting was something that I only tried one time previously and wanted to know more about it. I was very pleased with the book because it touches on many aspects of sock knitting from history to basic technique to patterns. The sock patterns are also very creative and are designed by many well known names in the knitting industry, which is typical of Vogue Knitting. A word of caution, however, for those of you who are interested in sock knitting techniques like working with two circular needles. Although there are patterns that utilize various techniques, the authors seem to assume that you already know these techniques as they are not explained in depth in the basic instructions. This is fine with me personally, because I prefer to knit socks the traditional way with 5 double pointed needles. I feel that this book was worth the cost and the time spent reading it.

I was very impressed with the patterns and instructions in this book. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for more variety of sock patterns.

it was my first time that i bought from amazon , thank you amazon for sending me a new product and good quality and new book .. i gave 5 rates for this product and it is a good resource for learing adobe premiere pro cs3 for everybody who wants to learn it , it will lead you step by step deeply to know the program and to discover the secrets inside it.

Thanks again
D.Tawfeq

I've worked wirth and recommended the past several editions of this book -- and each one has been better than the last. With the Premiere Pro 2 edition, Droblas and Greenberg have raised the bar even further, with even more comprehensive information and valuable insight on workflow, special effects and creating smoothly running, professional looking digital video. The enhanced information on creating animated menus is especially valuable. I'm using this in my own work, as well as recommending it to my students.

The Bible series are such a great study aid! This must be my fourth Bible book for software study aids. Did I mention Amazon merchants had the very best price for a new (used) book in perfect shape?

This book started out great. After some explanation, it guided me through a simple video editing project in the first chapter that worked and communicated some basic ideas. It got me excited about learning more and then it disappointed me bitterly.

The rest of the book does not teach the way the first chapter does. It does do a systematic and fairly thorough job of explaining things in the interface but the usable examples are few and far between. This works well for some people but not for me. I learn better by doing along with the reading. This guide is woefully inadequate for that. Still, it is a handy reference. It's too bad I will have to further my training elsewhere.

Like most of the "Bible" series, this is the place you can go when you are unsure of your next step, or want to know how to do "it". This is worth shelf space, but keep it close.

This is the third book I've read regarding breaking into the industry. I am a Career Advisor for Westwood College and am always looking for resources to share with my students. Ernest definitely knows what he is talking about and has numerous good ideas for anyone who wants to work in the game industry. The book can be a little dry at times, but the positives inside out weigh that negative aspect.

This book is a perfect edition for anyone who wants to know how a game industry works, inside and out. Between talking about game design docs in depth, going through each job and what you need for it, and the indexes in the back that give you links to get you on your way, I reccommend it to everyone who wants to be in the business.

This book is an excellent resource for those looking to learn about the business of making video games. Ernest Adams succeeds in becoming your trusted mentor. By the time you have finished reading this you will feel as if you can just drop by his cubicle and fire off a bunch of new questions and listen to some more war stories. The title is a bit misleading as the actual "how-to-get-a-job-in-the-industry" content is withheld until near the end. When finally delivered it seems a bit thin. Get the book anyway because the war stories, inside info, and comprehensive overviews of the numerous roles within the industry make it completely worthwhile.

My quick review of Break Into the Game Industry - How to get a job making video games by Ernest Adams.

This book is a very light read and aimed specifically at real neophytes who enjoy games and are giving a passing thought at doing something in games for a living without much knowledge of the industry. If you've grown up with the industry and are doing the indie or trying to break in thing, this isn't for you. Book can be pretty much read in one night, and for a lot of people there's a lot you can skim.

However, I would recommend this book VERY STRONGLY as a purchase for high school or even primary school children researching this as a possible career path. It pretty much covers a lot of things you need to get started *early*. Don't wait till you hit "working age" to start like I did. It's the only book out there that really targets kids and not working professionals trying to get in. It spends an entire chapter (and more) on how you should plan your education, what to look for, courses that will help etc. This stuff is good stuff, not the usual BS from "How to choose a college" guides.

There is also a very good summary of publishing contracts in there, that might be unfamiliar territory for a lot of people. Even though it wasn't new to me, I'm still photocopying it for something I can refer to if anything as a very good summary reference (I borrowed the book ).

Some of the best stuff is at the end in the appendices. There are huge lists of game companies and schools for anybody that is looking to apply at either. Book mentions that they are available at gamasutra as well but it doesn't hurt to have a hard copy. There is also the IGDA curriculum framework in there too, something which I wish my current school would have spent more time taking to heart instead of just looking at buzzwords.

Bottom line is, this is still a loaner for the most part. If you've been highly specialised in one area, this book can help catch you up from a more generalist perspective. There are some great war stories in there as well, but I can't recommend buying the book just for them. For anyone at primary school level, or looking at college this book should merit serious consideration as a purchase.

Video Game design is a highly demanding, tireless, thankless, competative, ruthless, cuthroat profession, whose sucess stories wade in the sea of design hopefuls crushed by the neverending relentless expectations of this occupation. For those still interested, keep reading.
If you think you are ready to give this a shot, then buy this book. While nothing will prepare you for video game design like your first week of work, ( so called " Hell Week" in the industry) Adams begins to lay the foundation for the tough road ahead. If only this book had been around before, for instance when I was a gopher over at EA Sports in the early 1990's, the heyday of NHL hockey and FIFA Soccer, the so called glory days when maverick designers created their own rules, coded at the seat of their pants and got paid the big bucks. I saw it all, saw the craziness, saw the mayhem, and then saw it get even worse. I would have been better off with this book, and so would anyone.

In the past decade, things have changed. Its a travesty that there has been a "brain drain" from the video game design sector in the past couple of years. We need the best and the brightest to design the future placaters of the masses. Now they are no longer interested in the field because of the crazy hacks that have taken over, rescinded the protocol and the bucked the accountability. Buy this book now.

I enjoy making woodworking projects and in particular like the Arts & Crafts style. I own his book and quite a few more on the subject.

I decided to make one of the Morris chairs from the book. The plans are very inadequate. There are many missing measurments. You can calculate almost all of them but you have to take the time to do so and then take even more time to make sure they are right and even more time to make sure that they fit in with other parts of the plan.

For example, the drawings do not give the width of the back but do give you the distance between the back posts. Well that is simple to calculate, just add the width of the posts. But if you add the thickness of the washers to the back, the width of the back plus the washers is greater than the opening and so the back won't fit. In addition, the directions are not clear whether or not the arm overhangs the legs. If the arm overhangs the leg, the width of the back needs to be less and the width of the washers needs to be thicker.

The end result is that it takes a lot longer to make the piece than if the drawings were better because you have to not only figgure how to make the piece you are working on, you have to think through the following steps to make sure everything else will fit. The really sad thing is that the plans would only need to be 10% better to be a huge amount better.

I am currently working on the bookcase that the previous reviewer had so much trouble with. I couldn't agree more--the "top back" piece is missing entirely from the cut list and the description, with no indication on how it was joined. The drawing is inconsistent with the cut list. Nothing wrong with this, so long as you treat the book as a guide and inspiration rather than a detailed step-by-step manual. Problem is, it pretends to be the latter rather than the former. You wind up having to double-check the author's work and thinking out the design before making any cuts.

I've built several other pieces from the book with no trouble--it may be that the defects in this book are limited to the bookcase. It's too bad--the bookcase is the best looking project in the book.

This book was a gift for Christmas...I'd been looking for Morris Chair plans for a while and this one offers four (one base unit and variations on the plans.) The materials list for the Panel Side Morris chair were good, however, on the "leg pieces" I think the dimensions are switched. It states 28" x 1 1/4" x 2 1/4"...I think it should be 28" x 2 1/4" x 1 1/4". Otherwise the directions and dimensions are great.

The photos are are really nice and I can't wait to start on the settle piece.

For some inexplicable reason my mind sees a parallel between Japanese furniture craftsmanship of the past 1000 years or so and the work coming out of the Arts & Crafts Movement the flourished between 1870 and 1920 in Europe and the USA. Despite the fact that I know full well that they differ in many core esthetic principles. Perhaps it is the preference for simple, geometric lines and grace, or the emphasis on workmanship rather than decoration, or the desire to create beauty in the simplest of things. But there is a connection, and as someone who has become focused on redesigning a home, that connection is all that is needed.

Paul Kemner and Peggy Zdila have written a book designs to satisfy both those interested in the Movement itself, and those who would just as soon be a-building. The first half of this beautifully made paperback discusses the influences of William Morris and Gustav Stickley, both as philosophers, designers, and craftsmen. Full of photographs of some fine representative pieces and quotes. From that point the discussion shifts to the means - tools, techniques, and materials. Last is some 25 projects, large and small, that are opportunities to discover what it is all about first hand.

The writing style is patient and clear. Unfortunately, neither writer is the sort to spellbind a reader. While I found the discussion useful and worthwhile, Kemner and Zdila never quite breathe life into the more esoteric parts of the discussion. As another review has pointed out, the plans are well done, but one must read them thoroughly in order to avoid discovering too late that something got left out of the bill of materials. For the most part, though, all the information needed is present.

A designer with a sense of humor once remarked that more people are interesting in movement Arts & Crafts since its revival than ever were during its heyday. I like to think that this has as much to do with the values expressed by the movement as much as it does with the satisfactions of its beauty. Whatever the reason, this is a fine volume to start up a lasting interest.

If you're competent to read and follow instructions, I think you'll enjoy using this book! I don't think anyone should be using sharp tools if they can't follow instructions! I have successfully completed several projects in this book and read through the rest of them.

On the bookcase plan that the previous reviewer was commenting about, it looks to me like the piece called Top Back got left off of the materials list. But it is clearly shown in the photos, and dimensions are given in the drawings. It is also mentioned in the text directions. I regard a materials list as a "shopping list." It is a guide, not a final check before I cut my wood! Also, I have another comment about a previous review. I know someone with an antique Stickley bookcase just like the one in the plan in this book. It's obvious it never had a partition between the 2 halves.

Many woodworking books have errors, even the touted Bavarro and Mossman one has a serious problem with the grandfather clock plan. I like the way this one is written, though, and I'm looking forward to building more projects from Building Arts and Crafts Furniture, including that bookcase.

Don't get this hoping to learn high quality character animation, but if you want to learn quick animation where time & budget is first concern then this good book. Contrary to what some have said its not all about 3rd party apps. He does cover modeling, Expresso scripting & dynamics - I believe Expresso comes with the basic CD4 and dynamics comes with the complete CD4. Even though the book is far from complete he does cover subjects no one else has the nerve to touch.

This was book was extremely helpful and easy to follow. It was used in class to help my students and they found the animation and dynamics information invaluable. I'm always impressed when someone can successfully communicate difficult technical information.

The book really should be called "how to cheat with animating C4d by buying lots of expensive addons". The tutorials are interesting, but what is missing is basic animating in C4D with the tools already available. For example, there is no section on animating facial expressions. That is so much used in games and movies that it's omission is curious. Many of the human animations are done with using the BodyStudio plugin to import animations done in Poser. Poser's animation tools are moderately good for things like walking, but lack the sophistication of tools available in C4D. If you like premade animations, his technique is good. There is no mention of the InterPoser plugin which is a stronger way of importing Poser objects in C4D.

Also missing is any section of web based animation: rotating 3D objects in response to user input. But there is a section on modeling with IModeller 3D that really doesn't have anything to do with animation.

This book would be useful to someone who already knows how to animate in C4D but wishes to understand various addins that are useful in importing Poser animations, making games, adding keyed video (like the section on Ultra), etc. So it really a book on how to cheat in C4D and save time by buying other programs.

After working with Maya for about 3yrs now I would say this book has opened up another way for me to look at animation. It should be about the creative side to get fantastic results not about computer programming (MEL). C4D helps you get great results in no time and my man Larry has demonstrated that very nicely. Maya is so completed and confusing that you really have to be way experience to get a good enough results. I would highly recommend this book to any beginner who is wants to Learn 3D animation (so those people like me out there get, grab this book and make your first big step into the animation world). Larry Mitchell awesome book, no doubt about it, experience users of Cinema 4D you just have to wait for next book perhaps!!

This book has provided me with a hands on guid that I have search for many years. I am new to animation, and I think Mr. Mitchell did a fantastic job of explaining and making his real world application easy to follow. This book has taught me more about professional animation than any other books in my library. To me the CD is an added bonus. I would highly recommend this book to any beginner who is trying Learn 3D animation production. The only negative thing I have to say is, why it took you so long to publish a book that gave someone like me the confidence in learning 3D animation. I was able to create my first animated characters by using this book, by adding this book to your library, you will be gaining a wealth of knowledge. By the way, when is your next book coming out? Simply, this book is GREAT.

In conversation and on GDNet I have been condescending of this book and for that I must apologize - It is a great book for learning the Simple Direct-Media Library.

I would definitely recommend this book if it makes you feel better to own a hard copy guide to SDL. However, I learned more through trial-and-error using only the online documentation.

I agree with most of the other reviews about this book. It does a good job of covering the basics of SDL, without tons of fluff. While I wish it had been a little bit longer, it included exactly what it said: an overview of SDL. The first two sections of the book, covering the core SDL library and some of the extra related libraries, were just the right amount of detail and explanation for someone who likes to peruse the material in book form. The author does a good job of talking to people who know how to write software, but who haven't had much experience with SDL.

The last third of the book was also basically filler, with a brief and relatively useless explanation of the author's preferred infrastructure for writing SDL games and apps.

Overall, I highly recommend this book, particularly if you can purchase it at it's relatively low cost used price. The quality was much higher than many of the other Premier Press/Prima Tech books.

It's a pretty good introduction to SDL I think. A bit misleading though being part of the 'Game Development Series' but it doesn't teach how to make a game at all. By the end of the book you'll be able to put a bmp on the screen and play a sound file.

Also, the back cover says "This book teaches you how to write code and then distribute it to various platforms." Which is kind of a lie!

It never explained how to distribute or even set up Mac OS X or Linux or anything besides setting it up in VC++. I mainly got this book because I want to create a game for Linux and Mac OS X and MS Windows. I had to search online and do a lot of trial and error to eventually get all the samples to compile on Linux and OS X. It never even mentions how to set up SDL on anything other than VC++.

I think this might've been frustrating if you didn't know how to use VC++ and C++ pretty well and wanted to do truly cross-platform SDL code.
After this book I read a couple online tutorials on SDL and am also now reading Programming Linux Games (which has to do with SDL too) and the official SDL documentation and after all that I think I'll have a decent grasp on SDL.

For somebody with pretty good C++ knowledge and at least some VC++ IDE knowledge though it isn't a bad intro to SDL especially for its size. It's a very small book I read it in two days and then spent a day making sense of it all in Linux and Mac OS X besides just VC++ but I don't regret reading it.

Most books on game development today simply rehash material that is already available in countless other books. The Focus On series is a refreshing change. Though considerably thinner than the fullsize counterparts, the Focus On books dive right into the material you want to learn. This was certainly true in the case of Focus On SDL.

The book gets you going immediately, setting up your compiler and getting a window on the screen. From there, you build on what has already been covered to show off various features of SDL.

My biggest complaint about this book, much like one of the other reviewers, was that the book did not give much information about setting SDL up with OpenGL. The information available on the internet is very good and will allow you to fill in any missing pieces of the book, but if you're like me and would like a physical book to thumb through rather than a web reference, this book is perfect.

I am a sophmore in college studying computer engineering, and I bought this book in the hopes that it would help me with a programming project for school. The main thing that this book has going for it is the fact that it is actually writing about SDL... not many other books go into this subject and it is refreshing to see a book that doesn't limit itself to the Windows/DirectX world.

The book is written in easy to understand language and is very helpful in showing what SDL is capable of. It proceeds to show readers how to set up most of SDL's different subsystems.

The main problem with this book is that it does not go into detail about any of the topics it covers. If you're curious about how to use SDL's video/graphics capablity, for instance, you will learn how to initialize the system and draw some circles on the screen. The book has smaller pages than most, and the 54 pages long chapter on the video subsystem doesn't take long to get through. It leaves you wanting to know more.

In short, this book will skim over different topics in SDL and teach you enough to get started. You will need to look elsewhere for details. I recommend purchasing this book to get you on the right track, but just know that you will need to search the internet for tutorials and example applications before you can seriously write games. This book is only a beginning.

Since you are looking at a book on SDL, I assume you are trying either to learn how to program games/graphical applications for Linux, or are trying to make it so that the code you write can have multi-platform support. If this is the case, I would recommend looking at "Linux Game Programming" by Mark Collins (in the same series as this book) and "Programming Linux Games" by Loki Software/John Hall as well. Of these three books, I like "Programming Linux Games" best since it goes into greater detail and walks you through the creation of a basic, but complete game for Linux. Even though it has Linux in the title, most of the APIs it touches on (SDL, OpenGL, OpenAL, etc.) are cross-platform, so what you learn is not limited to Linux alone. For the project I was working on, I found myself jumping amoung the aforementioned books and online tutorials such as those at NeHe.