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Software Engineering and Computer Games: Learn Software Engineering by Computer Game Design with Windows MFC and OpenGL [Paperback]

Prof Rudy Rucker (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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Book Description

Publication Date: 12 Nov 2002 | ISBN-10: 0201767910 | ISBN-13: 978-0201767919 | Edition: 1
"This book should be a requirement of anyone that wants to write games – period"
André Lamothe, author and CEO of Xtreme Games

There are many books on the art of games programming but now acclaimed author Rudy Rucker has gone a step beyond and transformed it into a science.

Software Engineering and Computer Games uses an object-oriented (OO) approach throughout, incorporating UML for OO analysis and design and discussing software patterns and how to incorporate them into the design process.

The book covers nine topics:
1) Basic software engineering principles and techniques.
2) How to organize and complete a substantial software project
3) Practical examples of object-oriented design and programming.
4) The design of computer games.
5) Simulating physics inside our computer-generated worlds.
6) Artificial life, or how to simulate live creatures inside a computer program.
7) How to use two and three-dimensional computer graphics.
8) Windows programming with the Microsoft Foundation Classes, or MFC.
9) How to develop a project using Microsoft Visual Studio(Either Version 6.0 or .NET)

The game engine accompanying the book is an open source C++ framework (the POP Framework), available together with other accompanying material from the website.
The book can be used for self-study, with readers encouraged to use the POP Framework as a starting point for creating their own games.

Software Engineering and Computer Games was developed as the primary textbook for an undergraduate software engineering course and can also be the main book for courses on software projects or computer game design and programming.

 

Product details

  • Paperback: 648 pages
  • Publisher: Addison Wesley; 1 edition (12 Nov 2002)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0201767910
  • ISBN-13: 978-0201767919
  • Product Dimensions: 15.6 x 3.2 x 23.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 240,727 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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  • See Complete Table of Contents

More About the Author

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Product Description

Review

"This book should be a requirement of anyone that wants to write games - period" Andre Lamothe, author and CEO of Xtreme Games

About the Author

Rudy Rucker is Professor in the Department of Computer Science at San José State University, California. He is the author of more than 20 books ranging through popular science and historical novels to science fiction, twice winning the Philip K Dick Award for best paperback SF novel of the year. Software projects he has contributed to include Rudy Rucker’s Cellular Automata Laboratory, James Gleick’s CHAOS: The Software and BOPPERS: Artificial Life Laboratory.
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Customer Reviews

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Wished we used this book for our software engineering class 1 May 2003
By rwj severijns
Format:Paperback
I followed a course of software engineering which was very boring and I used this book for myself as a supplement. Especially because I'm interested in writing games, which need a high end of programming level in order to obtain speed with all the nice features.
Fortunately, Rudy Rucker understands that writing games is not only fun to do (motivate students), but it also includes almost everything you need in other applications (at least the ones I wrote in our boring class :-).
The book describes an open source program, which can be downloaded from the author's site. With the biggest advantage: the code works !! whereas code printed in books can have typos keeping you busy for ages. The program is Object Oriented and offers a way to derive your own classes to build your games rather easy.
For me the main reason to be enthusiastic, is the open source with the book as an explaining aid, gives me the chance to see how to implement things like timers, listeners, collision detectors, graphical interface, etc.
One minor point I came up with so far, is the very brief description of converting the information matrices into graphical information.
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3.0 out of 5 stars very useful in it's own niche 14 May 2012
By Mr. J. A. Smith
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
If you know what you want from this book, it delivers, it teaches the basics of software engineering using a fairly basic game engine as an example. It will show you practical examples of UML and introduces to you the kind of thinking that you will do as a software engineer. It isn't a book that will teach you how to write a high-end game engine, but that would be impossible, that would be like asking a book to teach you how to make a hollywood blockbuster... there are a few details missing and you really need to know basic C++ and be willing to read the source code for a complete understanding of how the included framework works, as some of it is not covered in the book. So it has its strengths and weaknesses but it's the only book out there providing the learning step that it does, something that is not a trivial project, that needs engineering practice, but it not overwhelming for an individual, and it is entertaining and fun too.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com: 3.0 out of 5 stars  2 reviews
12 of 24 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Software Engineering and Computer Games 14 Feb 2003
By daman - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
This is the guy who taught LaMothe at California State University, San Jose.
The book is about 608 pages thick (small size). For beginners, this is the perfect introduction.The author published the source code utilized in the book as Open Source.
So anyone can download it from his website for free.
Getting back to the book:
Negatives: Code is sprinkled with small bits of MFC and OpenGL.(instead of the industry standard Direct X).
Positives: Rudy Rucker does a better job of teaching game programming inside of the c/c++ framework.
Read a good c++ book first,then read (SE&CG).
After that you can read LaMothe: Game Programming for dummies.
This book covers object oriented programming,2d,3d techniques,UML,physics.
This is cgp101: computer game programming(intro to game programming).
All of the programs run inside of a MFC created window(frameset). But if you read the book,cover to cover, you will have the skills-set to "break out of this window".
I couldn't get the picture out of my mind during the whole time I was reviewing this book of thinking back to a past Star Wars episode when Luke was fighting Darth Vader with the "lightening swords". And Luke is trying his best to kick Darth arse. And Darth looks at Luke and says: "Give up Luke, you are but a learner, but I am the Masta".
If you really want to "get it", buy the book.
6 of 18 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars Outdated, not relevant and Padded up 18 Feb 2004
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
This book is written by a person who has no idea in which direction the game industry has been heading in the last 8 to 10 years. It is a ridiculous attempt at writing a book on a subject the author is singularly inept.

The traditional practices of Software Engineering are usefull in game development but you should take a look at some articles at [...] written by REAL game developers to understand the amazing amount of misinformation in this book.

In my opinion it is impossible today (with current technology in mind) to write a book about game development without considering the usage of DirectX which is the most fequently used development platform. The author has based his work on MFC (when was the last time you saw that in a game???) and a miniscule amount of work on OpenGL, which is impossible to understand.

I believe the author should do a lot more reading about game development before he writes about it and actually learn what on earth is going on today in the world!!

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