Beginning Game Programming: A GameDev.net Collection (Course Technology Cengage Learning) [Paperback]

First of all, in the interest of full disclosure, I must mention the fact that I am a contributing author to this book. Hopefully however this will not cloud my review.

Having said that, this book is interesting. Are you going to go out and make the next AAA hit after reading this book? No. You're not even going to be coached from beginning to end on making a single cohesive game through the book unlike many others. This is not a hand-holding book, but a loose guide that hits on the important topics that will set you on your way to developing your own games. Topics range from the ever debated "What language should I use?", several graphics techniques, an introduction on common artificial intelligence methods and many more.

All articles in the books have been updated to reflect technological changes in the years since they were originally written (my original article was written in 2003 for example, so there have been marked changes in that time) and in some cases there are articles that aren't even available on the site. Updated content is only one draw. I, like many other people, prefer hard copy to staring at a screen all day. It's nice to have a bound copy to reference, but this is purely individual taste.

Could you get by with the information on the site to achieve the same goals? Sure. For the most part all of the information is on the site along with the priceless resource that is the [...] (which I highly recommend even if you don't happen to order any of the books). The collection of articles in this series however were handpicked for relevance in the topics and I think it's a great starting point for novices and a good reference for advanced users. Happy reading and good luck in your game development ventures.

This book tells us about some aspects of game programming and gives some tips for good programming. However for some subjects such as Networking, Sockets, Scripting you need to know C / C + +. I recommend this book if you have knowledge of algorithms, networks and at least some programming language, I remind you that this book are articles compiled from Game Dev, if you're a complete beginner and know nothing about programming you will need other books.

The good thing for beginners:

- It gives us good recommendations for a good understandable code (Singlenton, Standards).
- It teaches us to document our code.
- It teaches vectors and matrices to beginner level.
- Articles of exclusive Pathfinding for beginners.
- Articles about pointers and memory.
- Article about the collision Detection.

Too bad for beginners:

- You have to know c / c + + to understand some topics (tcp, Sock, Isometric Height Maps)

I am computer engineer focused on software production, I have been trying to start in the video games industry few years ago; it is the first book I have ever read to start as a beginner looking for some guidance of "How to start?", and when I finished the book I was having the same question; and, as a University Professor, I found out a lot of mistakes I do with my students, like assuming they must know things, or just showing them a lot of knowledge they are not ready for yet, skipping steps to get there.

For me the book is not really a book, it is a bunch of articles put together, some of them well written, but others are useless. The pace is interrupted between chapters since they aren't linked to each other, and even written by different authors. Some chapters request to have some knowledge to continue reading, which I believe goes against the "Beginers" title (I know for some of the topics/chapters could write a book).

The last problem I found is that this book doesn't request any major or basic knowledge (even when they tried to do in some chapters) before to go, it affected the content of the book, some chapters could be removed or some topics could be more reader oriented. The book is made in the way that anyone is open to read it, but maybe, I would say a big percentage, not understanding the content.

Here is my review per chapter:
Chapter 1: What Language Do I Use?
Really good starting for the book, it was a good chapter well explained

Chapter 2: Good Coding Practices
Good chapter, understandable and beginners need it.

Chapter 3: Using PDL for Code Design and Documentation
Very short and in somehow unnecessary.

Chapter 4: Debugging in Visual Studio - Part 1
I hope some day I will find part 2 in "Advanced" book, it is fine, helpful for programmers that never have programmed in VS.net.

Chapter 5: Extended Graphical Templates for Sprite Management
Chapter 6: Isometric And Hexagonal Maps
Chapter 7: Mouse Maps for Isometric Height Maps
Chapter 8: Bezier Curves and Surfaces
I took me a while an read another book to understand these chapters, I was getting crazy because there is no starting point and it is not directly linked to a video game, so, in some moment I was wondering where those sprites had to go in the Video Game, and so on...

Chapter 9: Direct3D vs. OpenGL: Which API to Use When, Where, and Why
EXCELLENT CHAPTER, one of the best, very helpful and whit the necessary information.

Chapter 10: An Introduction to Lua
Very GOOD: It made me understand scripting in video games.

Chapter 11: Introduction to GameMonkey Script
Very Good too: with a lot of information.

Chapter 12: The Internet, TCP/IP and Socket Programming
Excellent: well written, understandable.

Chapter 13: Programming with Asynchronous Sockets
Excellent: well written, understandable.

Chapter 14: Vectors and Matrices: A Primer
I had to read a book about 3D Math for video games to refresh university knowledge, chapter was a "nice" try, but keeps far from what it has to...

Chapter 15: Collision Detection and Response
I got lost with the images/graphs, kind of difficult to understand but it is a good try.

Chapter 16: A* Pathfinding for Beginners
This chapter is good, very well documented with a lot of links and resources to look after.

Chapter 17: Organizing Code Files in C and C++
Useless chapter for Programers.

Chapter 18: An Exceptional Quest
Good chapter, its a pity its too short.

Chapter 19: The One: Singleton Discussion
Good chapter, its a pity its too short.

Chapter 20: Introduction to Pointers, Structures, and Linked Lists
50/50, not all programmers are good with pointers and handling memory.
But for those who doesnt, it would be very good chapter to read and very useful.

Chapter 21: Sound Formats and Their Uses in Games
I did like this chapter a lot, I would have wished to get more info about OpenAL.

Chapter 22: Using XML Technologies for Enhancing Log Files
Useless.

Chapter 23: SQL in 60 Seconds
It impossible to learn SQL even in a week, and understand the full DB concepts and how to design a DB.

Chapter 24: Item Management Systems
I understood the chapter at the end, it was very good, but it needs a better introduction.

Chapter 25: A comparison of Browser and Widget Platforms
It was fine, but I would have taken this space for something more useful

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I did like the fact that the book centered in C/C++ language, since it is the most important in the VG industry.