Essential 3D Game Programming
Ian Millington
ISBN: 978-0-12-375103-4
The structure of the game development process is the same no matter what language or platform you are developing in. This book provides coverage of a number of programming languages, runtime environments and target platforms. It will be be as applicable to an iPhone developer working in Unity as to someone developing their game from scratch in C++. The key factor in making a great game is not the quality of individual technologies, but the whole package that is assembled. The book will discuss technical elements in the context of the game design, and how they can work together. Many of the most famous game development studios started on titles with limited technology used in really smart ways. With this book, students will be able to do the same... [more]
Social Game Design: Monetization Methods and Mechanics
Tim Fields
Brandon Cotton
ISBN: 978-0-240-81766-8
Social Game Design reveals what you need to know in order to add money-making features to your online social games. Using examples from successful social game designs, you'll learn what makes these games compelling, and why people will pay to play them. This book will inspire you to apply these principles in order to meet the challenges of this new space, creating original games that both delight players and generate profit... [more]
3ds Max Modeling for Games, Volume II:
Insider's Guide to Stylized Modeling
Andrew Gahan
ISBN: 978-0-240-81606-7
There's a new trend towards sylized, comic-style art, with the latest wave of 3D movies (a la Pixar ). Max users can do this kind of thing, and they want to learn how. Andy Gahan is building on the success of his Focal book, 3ds Max Modeling for Games (which covers realistic style art) with this new VOLUME II, covering stylized comic-style art. Forum members are asking for this treatment, and we are delivering. We are linking up to original book branding and titling, and offering the same robust portal for both books - the art on the cover will show the distinction of this volume. The book will offer new modeling techniques, specifically cartoon style – think Pixar, offering new challenges to people who bought Volume I (which focused on more realistic art)... [more]
Holistic Game Development With Unity: An All-in-One Guide to Implementing Game Mechanics, Art, Design, and Programming
Penny de Byl
ISBN: 978-0-240-81933-4
The independent developer has ascended, and the new business model demands agility. You have to be able to work on all aspects of game creation, and your team's game will publish directly to platforms like Android, iPhone, and Facebook. You'll use Unity, the hottest game engine out there, to do it. In order to earn your place on the elite development team, you must master both sides of the development coin: art and programming.
Holistic Game Development With Unity is an authoritative guide to creating games in Unity. Taking you through game design, programming, and art, Penny de Byl uses a holistic approach to equip you with the multidisciplinary skills you need for the independent games industry. With this book, you will master essential digital art and design principles while learning the programming skills necessary to build interactivity into your games. The tutorials will put these skills into action. The companion website offers: source code for completed projects from the book, art assets, instructional videos, a forum, author blog and lesson plans and challenge questions for professors... [more]
Creating Games With Unity and Maya:
How to Develop Fun and Marketable 3D Games
Adam Watkins
ISBN: 978-0-240-81881-8
Unity has brings you ever closer to the "author once, deploy anywhere" dream. With its multiplatform capabilities, you can target desktop, web, mobile devices, and consoles using a single development engine. Little wonder that Unity has quickly become the #1 game engine out there.
Mastering Unity is absolutely essential in an increasingly competitive games market where agility is expected, yet until now practical tutorials were nearly impossible to find.
Creating Games With Unity and Maya gives you with an end-to-end solution for Unity game development with Maya. Written by a twelve-year veteran of the 3D animation and games industry and professor of 3D animation, this book takes you step-by-step through the process of developing an entire game from scratch-including coding, art, production, and deployment... [more]
3ds Max Modeling for Games: Insider's Guide to Game Character, Vehicle, and Environment Modeling, Volume I, 2nd Edition
Andrew Gahan
ISBN: 978-0-240-81582-4
With 18 years under his belt in the game industry, a key contributor to the MotorStorm series, and the creator of the 3ds Max in Minutes video series (at FocalPress.com), Andrew Gahan delivers the expert techniques in 3ds Max Modeling for Games, 2nd edition. This updated edition is packed with new tutorials that will enhance your modeling skills and pump up your portfolio with high-quality work in no time. Along with Anthony O'Donnell and a team of experts, Gahan covers all of the fundamental game modeling techniques, including character and environment modeling, mapping, and texturing. Finally, a bonus section in 3ds Max Modeling for Games offers readers insights and tips on how to get their careers started in the game industry... [more]
Real-World Flash Game Development: How to Follow Best Practices AND Keep Your Sanity, 2nd Edition
Christopher Griffith
ISBN: 978-0-240-81768-2
This book helps bridge the gap for students who may be used to C++, Java, or C# and want to move over to Flash. Griffith covers real-world scenarios pulled from his own experiences developing games for over 10 years in the industry. The associated website offers code from the game examples in the book with fully build-able source files... [more]
Interactive Storytelling for Video Games: A Player-Centered Approach for Creating Memorable Characters and Stories
Josiah Lebowitz
Chris Klug
ISBN: 978-0-240-81717-0
While writing for straight, linear media like films or novels requires certain skills, writing for video games requires a whole new set of skills. Writers need to contend with overlapping stories, different conclusions based on different actions taken by the player. It's challenging to create compelling digital storylines, and writers-especially student writers- need help.
All of these concepts and more are examined, carefully explained, and answered in this definitive book on interactive storytelling for video games. Features include clear and detailed descriptions of all major types of interactive stories as well as in-depth case studies of popular games, including Bioshock, Donkey Kong, Fable, Fallout, Final Fantasy, Grand Theft Auto, Metal Gear Solid, The Sims, and World of Warcraft... [more]
The Game Audio Tutorial:
A Practical Guide to Sound and Music for Interactive Games
Richard Stevens
Dave Raybould
ISBN: 978-0-240-81726-2
Sound can make or break a video game's success, as it elevates the experience of the game. Imagine playing a video game, and pushing a button and not hearing the click or pop (the motivating sound), or consider how much game music becomes just as much a part of the experience as game playing (think Halo). This book shows sound designers and composers how to get their first demo reel done, getting right into the heart of sound design and implementation, providing practical examples to learn from. This hands-on book guides students and professionals through the whole development process of how to create and implement sound and music for games. Stevens and Raybould offer a hugely effective teaching tool to engage students: a complete set of tools and interactive tutorials fully tested and proven to work in a University setting... [more]
Making Great Games: An Insider's Guide to Designing and Developing the World's Greatest Video Games
Michael Thornton Wyman
ISBN: 978-0-240-81285-4
Join videogame industry veteran Michael Thornton Wyman on a series of detailed, behind-the-scenes tours with the teams that have made some of the most popular and critically acclaimed videogames of the modern era. Drawing on insider's perspectives from a wide variety of teams, learn about the creation of a tiny, independent game project (World of Goo), casual game classics (Diner Dash, Bejeweled Twist), the world's most popular social game (FarmVille) as well as the world's most popular MMORPG (World of Warcraft), PC titles (Half Life 2) to AAA console games (Madden NFL 10), and modern-day masterpieces (Little Big Planet, Rock Band, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves). Hear directly from the creators about how these games were made, and learn from their stories from the trenches of videogames production. This book is an excellent resource for those working directly on game design or production, for those aspiring to work in the field, or for anyone who has wondered how the world's greatest videogames get made... [more]
 Game Physics Engine Development: How to Build a Robust Commercial-Grade Physics Engine for Your Game, 2nd Edition
Ian Millington
ISBN: 978-0-12-381976-5
This is the only book in its category to take readers through the process of building a complete game-ready physics engine from scratch. The Cyclone game engine featured in the book was written specifically for this book and has been utilized in iPhone application development and Adobe Flash projects. There is a good deal of master-class level information available, but almost nothing in any format that teaches the basics in a practical way. The second edition includes NEW and/or revised material on collision detection, 2D physics, casual game physics for Flash games, more references, a glossary, and end-of-chapter exercises. The companion website will include the full source code of the Cyclone physics engine, along with example applications that show the physics system in operation. ... [more]
Game Physics, 2nd Edition
David H. Eberly
ISBN: 978-0-12-374903-1
Game Physics is a complete resource to the mathematical and physical concepts necessary for game programmers to understand. The author describes all of the algorithmic foundations, and uses code examples and working source code to show how they are implemented, culminating in a large collection of physical simulations. The new revised and updated second edition provides new information on how to implement a classic rigid-body physics engine, as well as new coverage of ragdoll physics. The CD will contain Wild Magic 5, a large software package for graphics, physics, and related topics. Also, Eberly's associated website will support the book and CD: geometrictools.com... [more]
Casual Game Design: Designing Play for the Gamer in ALL of Us
Gregory Trefry
ISBN: 978-0-12-374953-6
Casual games are changing the face of the game industry. They are bringing new players to games and reinvigorating former gamers. From the puzzle game downloadables that your mom devours to the Rock Band kit drawing a crowd at a party of twenty-somethings, these games share a focused simplicity that brings players of all demographics into the game. Casual games look easy and inviting to the player, but these games are deceivingly difficult to design. They need to cleverly mask their complexity so as not to frighten off players.
This book offers insider tips and strategies on how to design casual games that appeal to all sorts of audiences (moms and grandparents alike!) The book focuses on how to create elegant games that draw in a wide variety of players, even ones skeptical of games. Students will take away valuable insights and practical advice so that they can get started right away on designing—interviews with top game designers who have learned through experience offer pearls of advice for designers eager to break into this hot new field of gaming... [more]
Artificial Intelligence for Games,
2nd Edition
Ian Millington
John Funge
ISBN: 978-0-12-374731-0
Creating robust artificial intelligence is one of the greatest challenges for game developers, yet the commercial success of a game is often dependent upon the quality of the AI. In this book, Ian Millington brings extensive professional experience to the problem of improving the quality of AI in games. He describes numerous examples from real games and explores the underlying ideas through detailed case studies. He goes further to introduce many techniques little used by developers today. The book's associated website contains a library of C++ source code and demonstration programs, and a complete commercial source code library of AI algorithms and techniques... [more]
Pervasive Games:
Theory and Design
Markus Montola
Jaakko Stenros
Annika Waern
ISBN: 978-0-12-374853-9
Quickly emerging from the fast-paced growth of mobile communications and wireless technologies, pervasive games take gaming away from the computer screen and back to the three-dimensional world. Now games can be designed to be played in public spaces like shopping malls, conferences, museums and other non-traditional game venues. Student game designers need to understand how to use the world as a gamespace—and both the challenges and advantages of doing so... [more]
The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses
Jesse Schell
ISBN: 978-0-12-369496-6
Jesse Schell breaks down the three methods of game design: understanding the psychology of gameplay, using techniques from traditional disciplines in the game design, and processes for inventing new experiences that will fully engage the player. Through the use of 100 lenses which are scattered throught the book - Schell shows different ways of seeing a game that helps inspire the creative process…[more]
Game Design Workshop
A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games,
2nd Edition
Tracy Fullerton
ISBN: 978-0-240-80974-8
This novice-level game design
book is the ideal guide to teaching aspiring game designers the essential
skills with a hand's-on methodology. No programming or artwork skills
are required. Classical and contemporary principles of game play
and game mechanics are analyzed thoroughly. Design skills are demonstrated
with workshop exercises that put the readers to work in prototyping,
playtesting and redesigning their own games. Theory and practice
meld together with a process that has been rigorously road-tested
in schools and professional environments.
This design methodology is currently used in the USC Interactive
Media program—a cutting edge program partially funded by Electronic
Arts... [more]
Better Game Characters by Design: A Psychological Approach
Katherine Isbister
ISBN: 978-1-55860-921-1
Games are poised for a major
evolution, driven by growth in technical sophistication and audience
reach. Characters that create powerful social and emotional connections
with players throughout the game-play itself (not just in cut
scenes) will be essential to next-generation games. However,
the principles of sophisticated character design and interaction
are not widely understood within the game development community.
Further complicating the situation are powerful gender and cultural
issues that can influence perception of characters. Katherine
Isbister has spent the last 10 years examining what makes interactions
with computer characters useful and engaging to different audiences... [more]
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