The Game Maker's Apprentice: Game Development for Beginners (Technology in Action)

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 336 pages
• Published by: Apress June 26, 2006
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 1590596153
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-1590596159
• Book Dimensions: 9.2 x 7 x 0.8 inches
• Weighs: 1.8 pounds

Product Description


The Game Makers Apprentice shows you how to create nine exciting games using the wildly popular Game Maker game creation tool. This book covers a range of genres, including action, adventure, and puzzle gamescomplete with professional quality sound effects and visuals. It discusses game design theory and features practical examples of how this can be applied to making games that are more fun to play.

Game Maker allows games to be created using a simple drag-and-drop interface, so you dont need to have any prior coding experience. It includes an optional programming language for adding advanced features to your games, when you feel ready to do so. You can obtain more information by visiting book.gamemaker.nl.

The authors include the creator of the Game Maker tool and a former professional game programmer, so youll glean understanding from their expertise. The book also includes a CD containing Game Maker software and all of the game projects that are created in the bookplus a host of professional-quality graphics and sound effects that you can use in your own games.

About The Author
Jacob Habgood worked in the UK Games Industry for seven years, writing console games for Gremlin Interactive and Infogrames/Atari. During this time he contributed to a wide range of titles and lead the programming teams on MicroMachines (PS2, X-Box and Game Cube) and Hogs of War (PlayStation). Jacob is now a doctoral student at the University of Nottingham, researching the educational potential of computer games. As part of this research, Jacob runs clubs and workshops teaching children and teenagers how to make their own computer games, providing free activities and resourcesthrough his website: www.gamelearning.net.

Mark Overmars is a full professor in Computer Science at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. Here he heads the center for Advanced Gaming and Simulation. One of his research domains is computer games. He is one of the founders of the Utrecht Platform for Game Education and Research and teaches courses on computer game design at Utrecht University. Mark is the author of many software packages. In particular, he is the author of the Game Maker software package which will be used as development tool in this book.

Reader Reviews
My 12 year old son got interested in how computers work and especially how computer games get written. Being a software developer myself, I however could not explain him well these topics in a language that would be easily understood by a kid. And I am not a game programming expert, so I simply don't know how this stuff is written. When I first saw this book, I was not sure if it would be suitable for a kid. But I decided to take a risk, since the book had a lot of illustrations and language did not seem to be very technical. I gave it to my son two days ago, and I can see alredy now that this was an excellent gift: he used all weekend on reading chapters from the book, trying making his first games, calling his parents all the time to show us his achievement. He even found a forum for game development, asked questions, received answers and made improvements in his first programs based on discussion results! And by the way - English is a foreign language for him. I wish all books for beginners was written in a such entertaining way.