Game Design Books

The beauty and simplicity of these angels in this collection are wonderful. The pages however are very thin, while they are intended to look like stained glass, they do not hold up to the heavy hands of a small child. Supervision would be needed.
I have been using coloring books for years as a guide to formulate patterns for needlework. Taking bits and pieces and sewing quilts for myself and my family. Quite a treasure of ideas to stimulate the sewer as well.

I was not as impressed with this book. The art work was shoddy and out of proportion. The pictures were cute, though. This would be a better book for children than adults. Though I realize that it was not in a specific "adult" labeled sectioin, I recommend this for children or maybe Sunday School teachers of young children. The pictures,though not artsie are very sweet.

This coloring book, as well as other stained-glass coloring books from Dover, is suitable for all ages, including adults. In fact, the books would be wasted on young children. All of them are especially beautiful when colored with the deepest shades of markers, and particularly when viewed from the back.

All the tips are great for beginners. I am a professional and found only 5% of the book helpful. Not worth the money for only learning 5%. Most of the tips I already knew. For sure it's a beginners book. I have to say after reading through it ONLY once......the book binder fell completely apart! The glue on the binder did not hold up at all. Now all the pages are falling out. TERRIBLE!

I'd say as a Production Coordinator I'm an intermediate user of Adobe Illustrator CS2. So I didn't need a book w/ too much basic training, although this book is pretty good ad providing you with the exact step-by-step procedures for carrying out certain "Killer Tips." This is a very good all-around book for Illustrator CS2. Above all, there are so many CS2 shortcuts in this book that the average CS2 user wouldn't know. I'd recommend this book to anyone that is looking to extend their knowledge of Illustrator. It's smart and succinct. It's comfortable to carry around - won't way you down, and best of all it's really inexpensive!

Straight-to-the-point, clear & practical. Something useful for any user of Illustrator.

This is a wonderful book on the history of kites, with photos and stories you won't find in any other place. Modern kites are surveyed in color photos and plans. He also includes detailed diagrams of some great kite reels and other kite equipment. No, it's not a How-To book with any step-by-step insctructions. But if I were stuck on a desert island with one kite book, this would be it. It's a slim, large format paperback, with much more content than you'd think by looking at the outside.

This book is a joke! I bought a book to learn how to make kites; I wasn't interested 110 pages of the history of kites. He does not include any photos of kites that he has directions for, and his directions are cheesy one or two page diagrams that are not helpful at all.

Pelham's Book of Kites is the most essential reference for any person who is interested in the history, construction and flying of kites. It shows a large variety of designs and ideas for kites of all sorts. The actual construction techniques are sometimes left up to the reader to figure out but there is enough information to work from. Well worth the search for a copy. There is no way I let go of mine!!!!

Until today I had never heard of Norma Gregory, But like a lot of pyro artist pyrography came way after being an artist.In my 40's I decided to learn pyrography,I've done it for ten years now and as much as I love doing this type of art I found it harder to find new subjects Until I picked up this book. Page after page the Author lets the reader see so many Designs and Ideas. I'm not a writer,and I've never done a review. But I do know enough that this is a great book for beginers or Pyrographers who have been at it awhile. William Hough

The book offers a good overview of the subject of woodburning. The types of tools needed are discussed; however, it was short on explanation here. The author should have spent more time examining the different types of tools and the qualities of each type. The book discusses the best types of wood for pyrographic efforts and this was useful. The book has a wide variety of designs from birds to seashore items. All are well drawn. The disigns are complex, and they are printed in the book very lightly. The problem in reproducing them comes from the lightness of the picture and the complex design. They do not reproduce as well as disigns I have found in other books.

Overall I found the book informative and the designs excellent.

Although I was excited to purchase this book, my excitement didn't last when I looked at the sketches / pictures in the book. I call them pictures because that is what they truly are, not actual patterns. Norma Gregory's talent shows up well in her designs but due to their complicated rendering they are very difficult to transfer.

This book is not for beginners - but more seasoned artisans.

If you are looking for patterns, like I was, you will be disappointed in this book.

Sadly this thing only really covers Map making,with the title it has I would cry foul and demand your money back,unless you are focusing on maping.

While this book does primarily cover mapping for Quake 4 (which is a form of modding), it also covers other aspects of modding (although in lesser detail). However, if you want to make a new level for the game, this book rocks. It comes with complete examples on making maps from start to finish. It shows you how to make custom textures for your maps and characters. Then it shows you how to package and release your map to the world.

[...]

Definitely worth the price. You'll be making your own maps for your friends or clan by the end of the weekend.

The title is Quake 4 Mods for Dummies. The tag line is "Ever wonder what Quake 4 would be like if it included that especially cool weapon you dreamed up? Here's the fun and easy way® to find out." But here's the deal: it will show you how to INCLUDE that fancy new weapon, but not how to make it. Nor will it tell you how to change the gameplay mechanics of the game.
What you get instead is 200+ pages of how to make maps. At the end of that is a small section on how to make a GUI, reskin models, and package them for putting into the game.
I'm giving it 3 stars because it seems like a pretty nice map tutorial, but this is NOT a book on how to make mods. If you wanted to learn how to make that machine-gun-shotgun, you're out of luck here. If you wanted to find out how to make new power-ups, you're out of luck here.
Summary, the book would be better named Quake 4 Mapping for Dummies.

If you are an experienced seamstress, this is a really nice book. There are many beautiful scarves in it, some with a lot of detail work.

For the rest of us, (who take the machine out occasionally to mend with) the directions are rather confusing. Also, there are only a few scarves that aren't too dressy to wear with jeans for a walk in the park, so you are going to be spending some $$$$ to make most of these designs.

I wanted to give this book three-and-a-half stars. Not for a beginner, but someone who really enjoys sewing would like this book, especially if they like to dress up--see if you can understand the directions first!

I was excited with the idea of creating my own scarves to accompany the clothes I make. Well this book helped me immensely to experiment with different embellishment techniques and ideas. Linda Lee has selected 13 artists (among them Marcy Tilton, Jane Conlon and Stephanie Valley whose books are among my favorite) each one presenting one or more scarves they made with a different style and a new approach to traditional techniques and materials. The scarves are very beautiful and stylish (!!) and the photographs are so good that many times I just go over them admiring Linda Lee's work.

But this is not just a book full of pictures of beautiful scarves. It is a well organized book comprising six parts each one concentrating on a different traditional approach to embellishing. Each part includes 5-6 different scarves with a list of materials, fabric notes, cutting instructions and full of clear and detailed instructions and illustrations on construction.

The first part of the book is focused on ribbon fantasy including "delicately hazy sheers, iridescent ribbons and open-weave lattices''. The second part of the book is focused on traditional arts including "the art of piecing, applique, cutwork and shadow work". The third part of the book is focused on contemporary interpretations to make interesting scarves by slashing, washing, shrinking etch. The fourth part of the book is focused on beads and baubles. The fifth part of the book is focused on senciled, stamped and stitched techniques to create very beautiful and original scarves. The last part of the book is focused on architectural shapes that are truly fun to make and wear !!

I highly recommend this book to any (beginner, intermediate or advanced) sewer that takes pleasure in creating special accessory pieces!!

This books has lots of pictures of beautiful, well photographed scarves; but I was very disappointed in the lack of technical instructions. Even as a moderately experienced semestress, I thought the "instructions" glossed over the difficult parts. I found very little help given in this book on how to make a professional looking scarf.

If you are expecting a book on "how to" then this book is probably not going to fulfill your needs. However, this book does provide the viewer with a pethora visual inspiration. Many of the images in this book are innovative, provocative, and a great resource for make-up artistry. The colors are bright and vivid and the make-up artistry is boundless. I certainly have enjoyed sharing this material with my fellow make-up artists.

Excellent book to have for inspiration for creative makeup artistry. This book is not for the beginning makeup artist nor does it provide step by step instructions. I highly recommend it for the visual appeal.

The book's dimensions are smaller than one would expect for a photography style book (shame on me for not paying closer attention). If you are looking for "inspiration" in styling this might be your book, but it contains no information on how effects were achieved and there are a good portion of the images that are obviously digitally manipulated to get additional effects. This is not the semi-educational guide to extremely creative make-up artistry that I was looking for.

I just got the book. It is one of the most fascinating books I have ever seen. It's beautiful, mysterious, fun, challenging, thought-provoking and revolutionary.
A mind-bending and playful puzzle exploring our language, symbols and mind. I was so impressed by it that I'm buying several copies for my friends. Highly recommended!

this is not a book about a font, this is a book about playing with your mind, letting your mind play, and minding about the play. As many genious ideas, the principle is simple and clean: transporting something known into something yet to discover by shifting views 360 degrees, opening a 2D planar text into a 3D full and round context.
As you might have noticed, I ADORE this book, I find it inspiring, playful, joyful and thrilling - basically all I expect of life...very comforting to know it's in a book at least ;). Thanks!

"Univers Revealed" is the "story" of how a designer named Ji Lee created a new typeface. That's right, it's a story about a font. Not multiple fonts or the history of the font, but a single font.

Ji Lee created his font by modifying the traditional font Univers, by spinning each capital letter 360 degrees around a vertical axis. That's it. There's everything that the book contains right there, sans the pictures of the font, which take up the majority of the book at a whopping 64 pages long.

"Univers Revealed" would be better fitted for a 1 page article than an entire book.

The price of vintage ties is all over the board,...has been since the mid 1990s and continues to be even now (2007). The fact is, vintage ties, the desirable ones and the not-so desirable ones can be easily had for $1-20 dollars. Its not fiction, its fact, unless you're impatient and/or well-off in the world of greenbacks, then maybe you and your well earned pocket full of dough might part ways as it burns inside of your trousers. I personally own a collection of over 200 vintage ties from the 1930s to the late 1940s, all in wonderful condition and 99% have been purchased for under $20 dollars....all worn by myself and not just tucked away for no one to see and appreciate.

It was meant to be worn!

Roseann Ettinger does a good job in her book, and has quite the collection to boot!
Some photographs better than others, some other books better than hers in some ways, and vice versa. The revival is based on historical attire and dress repeating itself, with little to do with the resurgence that we've seen in the mid 1990s of modern day swing bands, though most if not all did no justice to the originatiors in the craft of that music such as the instrumental magic of Artie Shaw, the vocal stylings of Ella Mae Morse, and so on. Those who have been true to the style and swank of the 1940s have been and will continue to be far beyond any musical fads that pop up on the horizon from before the 1990s and well after!

I say Kudos to Roseann Ettinger and Kudos to many other authors who have written on the subject and can be found on Amazon, etc.

As a price guide the quotes may have been relevant five years ago or reflect the rural Pennsylvania market,but they are not an accurate reflection of the hot demand on both coasts.The current revival is based on the resurgence of the retro tie and swing band culture. The author spends too many pages on the first forty years of neckwear, which few current tie collectors are interested in. Frankly, these ties are boring.The most unfortunate overriding failure of the book is the dismal photography which makes the few exciting ties muted and restrained in their presentation.Another shortfall is the paucity of any of the human interest stories associated with either the tie creators or wearers.The only real bright spot is the great forties advertising, which is a direct lift from much better books.

Adobe Illustrator for Fashion Design is a necessary tool for anyone studying fashion design. I am currently working in the Fashion Industry for a major designer, and use all of the Illustrator techniques I've learned in this book on a daily basis. All of the concepts are well organized with easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions. I love this book!

I found that this book has so much information its difficult to follow in a structured fashion. The pros are the fact that it has lots of content, the cons are the fact that it seems to try to throw everything at the reader at once. Also, I find the sketches very amateurish and juvenile compared to other illustrator books for fashion. As someone working in the fashion industry for more than 20 years I would demand more professional sketches for flats and on the figure.