Game Programming Books - Page 3

Processing: Creative Coding and Computational Art (Foundation)

Ira Greenberg

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Editorial Review:

• Create code art, visualizations, and interactive applications with this powerful yet simple computer language and programming environment
• Learn how to code 2D and 3D animation, pixel-level imaging, motion effects, and physics simulations
• Take a creative and fun approach to learning creative computer programming

If you're interested in creating cutting-edge code-based art and animations, you've come to the right place! Processing (available at www.processing.org) is a revolutionary open source programming language and environment designed to bridge the gap between programming and art, allowing non-programmers to learn programming fundamentals as easily as possible, and empowering anyone to produce beautiful creations using math patterns. With the software freely available, Processing provides an accessible alternative to using Flash for creative coding and computational artboth on and off the Web. This book is written especially for artists, designers, and other creative professionals and students exploring code art, graphics programming, and computational aesthetics. The book provides a solid and comprehensive foundation in programming, including object-oriented principles, and introduces you to the easy-to-grasp Processing language, so no previous coding experience is necessary. The book then goes through using Processing to code lines, curves, shapes, and motion, continuing to the point where you'll have mastered Processing and can really start to unleash your creativity with realistic physics, interactivity, and 3D! In the final chapter, you'll even learn how to extend your Processing skills by working directly with the powerful Java programming languagethe language Processing itself is built with.

You'll learn:

• The fundamentals of creative computer programming—from procedural programming, to object-oriented programming, to pure Java programming
• How to virtually draw, paint, and sculpt using computer code and clearly explained mathematical concepts
• 2D and 3D programming techniques, motion design, and cool graphics effects
• How to code your own pixel-level imaging effects, such as image contrast, color saturation, custom gradients and more
• Advanced animation techniques, including realistic physics and artificial life simulation

Summary of Contents

• PART ONE: THEORY OF PROCESSING AND COMPUTATIONAL ART
  • Chapter 1: Code Art
  • Chapter 2: Creative Coding
  • Chapter 3: Code Grammar 101
  • Chapter 4: Computer Graphics, the Fun, Easy Way
  • Chapter 5: The Processing Environment
• PART TWO: PUTTING THEORY INTO PRACTICE
  • Chapter 6: Lines
  • Chapter 7: Curves
  • Chapter 8: Object-Oriented Programming
  • Chapter 9: Shapes
  • Chapter 10: Color and Imaging
  • Chapter 11: Motion
  • Chapter 12: Interactivity
  • Chapter 13: 3D
  • Chapter 14: 3D Rendering in Java Mode
• PART THREE: REFERENCE
  • Appendix A: Processing Language API
  • Appendix B: Math Reference
  • Appendix C: Integrating Processing within Java

Learning Autodesk Maya 2008, (Official Autodesk Training Guide, includes DVD): The Modeling & Animation Handbook

Autodesk Maya Press

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Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Great Resource 4 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

This is a really cool learning guide. It is geared a little more towards people who have a basic understanding of the Maya universe. If you have never used maya at all, it may be a little confusing. I suggest playing with the interface and going through the "Getting Started" lessons included with the Maya software before getting into this book.. The dvd contains support files for the lessons in the book. It would have been nice if it had some video reference. The pictures in the book aren't the best guides, so unless you understand the text, you may find yourself using more creative freedom to complete the models than actual tutoring. Still, it is a great reference and gives you all you need to create some complete models to practice building and animating. Hope this helps.

Editorial Review:

Develop out of this world modeling and animation skills with Learning Autodesk Maya 2008 I The Modeling & Animation Handbook. Follow clear, step-by-step tutorials to understand the modeling and animation stages of production using artwork from the LAIKA short film Moongirl. Learn to build models with a variety of surface types and then make them move with a wide range of animation techniques directly from the makers of Autodesk Maya. You'll learn to make sound decisions from the beginning, to save yourself unnecessary challenges further down the pipeline. You'll learn how to model with polygons, NURBS and Subdivision Surfaces; understand skeletons and joint orientation; work with inverse kinematics, skin your characters; animate a complete scene including props, constraints, and characters; and much more. The bonus DVD includes free models from Turbo Squid, Autodesk Maya reference guides, and scene files to help you breathe life into your creations.

Learning XNA 3.0: XNA 3.0 Game Development for the PC, Xbox 360, and Zune

Aaron Reed

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Editorial Review:

Do you have what it takes to become a game developer? With this hands-on book, you'll learn quickly and easily how to develop computer games with Microsoft's XNA 3.0 framework-not just for your PC, but for Xbox 360 and the Microsoft Zune as well.

Written by an experienced university-level game development instructor, Learning XNA 3.0 walks you through the framework in a clear and understandable step-by-step format. Each chapter offers a self-contained lesson with lots of illustrations and annotated examples to help you master key concepts. Once you finish the book, you'll know how to develop sophisticated games from start to finish.

• Learn game development concepts from 2D animation to 3D cameras and effects
• Delve into high-level shader language (HLSL) and introductory artificial intelligence concepts
• Develop three complete and exciting games using 2D,3D and multiplayer concepts
• Develop and deploy games to the Xbox 360 and the Microsoft Zune

While teaching XNA to beginning game developers, author Aaron Reed noticed that several key concepts were difficult for students to grasp. Learning XNA 3.0 was written specifically to address those issues. With this book, you can test your understanding and practice new skills as you go with unique "Test Your Knowledge" exercises and review questions in each chapter.

Why wait? Amaze your family and friends by building your own games for the PC, Xbox 360, and Zune-with Learning XNA 3.0.

"An outstanding book! Teaches you XNA development in a smart way, starting from 2D basics and going into 3D and shader development. What I really like is the 'peeling the onion' approach the author takes, which builds up knowledge from previous chapters." --David "LetsKillDave" Weller, CEO, Cogito Ergonomics, LLC, and former XNA program manager

3D Game Textures: Create Professional Game Art Using Photoshop

Luke Ahearn

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Total reviews: 28 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Game artists, architects, simulation developers, web designers and enthusiasts alike can learn to create everything from bricks to books in Photoshop with this step-by-step instructional guide. Because texture is 99% of what a gamer sees when playing, this topic deserves considerable coverage but has gotten little attention. Unlike anything on the market, this book is the first of its kind to provide an in-depth guide to game texturing with hundreds of high-quality examples. This guide teaches everything a game artist will need to know--from researching textures, basic artistic principles, tools and techniques, to specific step-by-step tutorials that explain how to create textures for a myriad of environments. The goal of this book is to give the reader a guide that will actually help them secure a job as a developer/artist-even providing them with images created using the tutorials that can be used in a portfolio.

* Learn everything you need to create stunning, professional textures from one easy to follow guide which features tutorials and over 500 high-quality images
* Follow the step-by-step tutorials to learn how to create suitable images which you can add to your portfolio and WOW prospective employers
* Companion CD includes sample textures and electronic versions of images you saw in the book-all the tools you need in one place!
* Hit the ground running or get a leg up on the competition with the tips, tricks, and real world examples featured in this comprehensive guide

Adobe InDesign CS4 One-on-One (One-On-One)

Deke McClelland, David Futato

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Editorial Review:

Master the fundamentals of Adobe InDesign with One-on-One, Deke McClelland's unique and effective learning system. Adobe InDesign CS4 One-on-One includes step-by-step tutorials, more than four hours of DVD-video demonstrations, and hands-on projects to help you improve your knowledge and hone your skills. Once you read about a particular technique, you can see how it's done first-hand in the video. The combination is uniquely effective.

Whether you're new to InDesign or a creative professional interested in the groundbreaking features of CS4, Deke's conversational style and carefully structured lessons guide you easily through the program's fundamental and advanced concepts and techniques. More than 900 full-color photos, diagrams, and screen shots illustrate every key step. With this book, you will:

• Learn at your own speed with 12 self-paced tutorials
• Create professional-looking documents with InDesign's powerful text and graphic tools
• Discover how to create, import, and modify artwork
• Apply a sequence of style sheets to format an entire document in one operation
• Compose a fully interactive document with bookmarks, hyperlinks, buttons, sounds, and movies
• Test your knowledge with multiple-choice quizzes in each chapter

And more. Written and produced by a Photoshop expert with well over 20 years of experience, Adobe InDesign CS4 One-on-One simulates a classroom environment that provides one-on-one attention as you proceed from lesson to lesson. You'll learn to use InDesign faster, more creatively, and more efficiently than you thought possible.

Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals

Katie Salen, Eric Zimmerman

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Total reviews: 29 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

As pop culture, games are as important as film or television--but game design has yet to develop a theoretical framework or critical vocabulary. In Rules of Play Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman present a much-needed primer for this emerging field. They offer a unified model for looking at all kinds of games, from board games and sports to computer and video games. As active participants in game culture, the authors have written Rules of Play as a catalyst for innovation, filled with new concepts, strategies, and methodologies for creating and understanding games.. Building an aesthetics of interactive systems, Salen and Zimmerman define core concepts like "play," "design," and "interactivity." They look at games through a series of eighteen "game design schemas," or conceptual frameworks, including games as systems of emergence and information, as contexts for social play, as a storytelling medium, and as sites of cultural resistance. Written for game scholars, game developers, and interactive designers, Rules of Play is a textbook, reference book, and theoretical guide. It is the first comprehensive attempt to establish a solid theoretical framework for the emerging discipline of game design.

Adobe Creative Suite 2 All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies(r)

Jennifer Smith, Christopher Smith

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Editorial Review:

Adobe software has always been highly respected for creative design and development. Its programs allow you to produce amazing designs and creations with ease, and with the release of the Adobe Creative Suite 2, you can design a wide range of productions ranging from illustrations and Web sites to professional documents and photographic manipulations.

Adobe Creative Suite 2 All-In-One Desk Reference For Dummies is your one-stop guide to creating great graphics with all the cool CS2 tools. Written in a thorough, fun way to show you the basics on how to use each of the programs, you’ll find out just how easy it is to start designing brilliant images and graphics. This guide gives you the tools you need to:

• Draw with InDesign
• Understand page layout and color
• Create colorful images with Illustrator C2
• Use the pen tool, type, and image placing
• Choose the correct Photoshop mode for your creation
• Create images on PhotoShop CS2 for print
• Paint and retouch images
• Create and secure PDF files with Acrobat 7.0
• Edit and extract text and graphics
• Build and publish a Web site with GoLive CS2
• Work with multimedia

Packed with easy-to-follow steps and guidance, you’ll be up to speed with all the features in no time. With these six great reference guides rolled into one, this is the ultimate book for becoming a CS2 pro!

XNA 2.0 Game Programming Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach (Books for Professionals by Professionals)

Riemer Grootjans

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Editorial Review:

Join the game development revolution today! XNA greatly simplifies the development of your own games, lowering the barrier for programmers to get into game development. In XNA, you can start coding your games from the very start, a true revelation compared to other game programming environments. XNA doesn't sacrifice power for this ease of use - it is built entirely on DirectX technology.

XNA expert Riemer Grootjans brings together a selection of the hottest recipes in XNA programming for the Windows PC and Xbox360 console. Advanced XNA programmers, experienced coders new to games development, and even complete beginners will find XNA 2.0 Game Programming Recipes an invaluable companion when building games for fun or as commercial products.

What you’ll learn

XNA 2.0 Game Programming Recipes covers virtually every feature of the XNA 2.0 framework. It focuses primarily on 2D and 3D graphics programming, but other game programming features such as Audio playback and Networking are also discussed in detail.

These are some of the topics that are being covered in-depth:

• How to create 2D graphics
• 3D rendering techniques at various levels of difficulty
• Loading, rendering and animating 3D Models
• To read input devices: Keyboard, Mouse, Xbox360 Controller
• Use Audio to spice up your game
• Add Networking to your game to challenge your friends
• Learn about the architectural XNA features, such as GameComponents
• The Content pipeline: one of the 3 major components in XNA Game Development
• A whole list of HLSL techniques!

Who is this book for?

This book is for everyone! Whatever your experience, you will find a recipe to suit your need and skill. Great care has been taken to ensure the easier recipes provide a great deal of detail so they can be followed by readers without a great deal of programming experience. Each chapter gradually builds in difficulty so you will be able to progress through it as your XNA coding improves and you want to move on to more sophisticated techniques.

A brief look at the table of contents

Chapter 1: Getting Started with XNA 2.0 (24 pages) Installing XNA 2.0 Game Studio and starting a new XNA 2.0 Project. Timing, GameComponents, GameServices and the StorageDevice.

Chapter 2: Setting Up Different Camera Modes in Your 3D World (120 pages) Setting up a first-person and a Quaternion camera. Smooth camera fly-bys, octree and quadtree culling, setting up a HLSL post-processing framework.

Chapter 3: Working with 2D Images/Textures in XNA 2.0 (102 pages) How to use the SpriteBatch to render 2D images. 2D-in-3D techniques such as billboarding, explosion particle systems and mirroring.

Chapter 4: Working with Models (108 pages) Loading, rendering and animating 3D Models. Combining World matrices, multiple kinds of collision detection. Defining your own TypeWriters and TypeReaders.

Chapter 5: Getting the Most Out of Vertices (144 pages) Rendering lines and triangles, storing them on the graphics card. Bilinear interpolation, pointer-to-terrain picking and bump mapping. 3D ocean and racing track generation.

Chapter 6: Adding Light to Your Scene in XNA 2.0 (60 pages) Lighting basics, shadowing and deferred rendering for multiple lights.

Chapter 7: Adding Sounds to Your XNA 2.0 Project (12 pages) Adding sounds to your XNA 2.0 game, both for 2D and 3D games.

Chapter 8: Networking in XNA 2.0 (28 pages) Adding networking to your XNA 2.0 game.

Development environment costs

The software you need to develop your own games in XNA 2.0 is completely free. You'll need both the Visual Studio Express C# edition and XNA 2.0 Game Studio, which you can download for free from Microsoft's website.

The only cost incurred will be if you want to upload your finished game to your XBox360 console, when an annual subscription is payable to Microsoft. If you're just targeting the PC development environment, you won't have to pay anything.

Adobe Premiere Pro 2 Bible, with DVD (Bible)

Adele Droblas, Seth Greenberg

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Whether you're a beginning video editor or a professional producer, now you can master the world's leading digital video software application. In this comprehensive guide to the latest release of Adobe Premiere Pro, it's all here - the basics of capturing, editing, and outputting digital video, as well as advanced techniques for professionally integrating music, narration, and special effects. Full of step-by-step instructions, tips, and tricks of the trade, this definitive reference belongs on your desktop or in your editing suite.

Inside, you'll find complete coverage of Adobe Premiere Pro 2

• Build a video project clip by clip in the Timeline
• Mix sound while viewing video with the Audio Mixer
• Punch up your video production with Adobe(r) After Effects(r) and your audio with Adobe Audition(r)
• Create precision edits using the Source, Program, and Trim Monitors
• Create rolling, scrolling, or drop-shadow titles
• Integrate Illustrator(r), Photoshop(r), and other files
• Create interactive DVDs using Premiere Pro's new DVD templates or Adobe(r) Encore DVD
• Export video to DVD, the Web, CD, and videotape
• Edit multi-camera shoots using the Multi-Camera Monitor

Game Development Essentials: An Introduction

Jeannie Novak

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Total reviews: 19 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Game Development Essentials: An Introduction, 2nd Edition offers a thorough and insightful introduction to the game development industry, with industry updates that will keep readers current and well-prepared for a career in the field. The book begins with a highly informative chapter on the evolution of game development, providing a historical context for later chapters, and moves on to examine content creation and the concepts behind the development of story, character, environment, level design, user interface, and sound. With the same engaging writing style and examples that made the first edition so popular, this new edition features expanded coverage of today's hottest topics - such as next-generation platforms (Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii), level design, interface design, project management, serious games, game accessibility, and online social networks. New game-related technology, development techniques, and the latest research in the field make this an invaluable resource for anyone entering the exciting, competitive, ever-changing world of game development.