gamedev

Advanced Game Programming: A GameDev.net Collection
$44.99
Welcome to Advanced Game Programming: A GameDev.net Collection, the fourth in a series of books published in collaboration with GameDev.net, the online community where game developers worldwide can network and freely exchange information and ideas. Assembled in print for the first time, and comprised of the best advanced programming articles that have appeared on GameDev.net over the past decade, this volume features invaluable information and ideas for anyone looking to build on the foundation of their game programming knowledge. The articles in the book explore the latest and greatest techniques in game programming, as well as traditional concepts that provide the basis for much of the game technology you see today. Truly dedicated to the challenges faced by game programmers, you¡Çll find information, advice, and techniques on optimization, physics and collision detection, scene management, multiplayer gaming, advanced C++ topics, the latest graphics rendering techniques, artificial intelligence, and more. All articles have been updated to comply with the latest technology, and as a bonus, this volume also features exclusive, new content that cannot be found anywhere else. Continuing in their tradition of excellence, Advanced Game Programming: A GameDev.net Collection captures the best of GameDev.net and is an invaluable resource in your pursuit of game development success.

Design and Content Creation: A GameDev.net Collection (Course Technology Ptr)
$49.99
This second in a series of books published in collaboration with [...] where game developers worldwide network and exchange information, offers game designers the best in content creation articles. Any who wishes to produce a functioning, superior and fun game will benefit from the mechanics discussed here, which adds new content not to be found online and is a key pick for any library catering to game programmers.

Beginning Game Programming: A GameDev.net Collection (Course Technology Cengage Learning)
$39.99

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)

Game Coding Complete
$59.99
I bought this book a little bit early, and had to go review my C++ before i could fully use it, and when I did, I came to realize that I was holding THE book on game coding.

This book covers nearly everything, in that what the author doesn't cover (or one of the other guest authors) he gives you the next path you should go down in order to achieve your goals in that certain area of coding.

He also offers tons of tips and inside stories on what it's like working as a game developer in a recurring section called 'tales from the pixel mines' which are all very informative, and i enjoyed reading all of them.

Do not think, however, that this book will hold your hand throughout the process. In some parts of the example code the author literally says some thing like: "//type your own code here". this opens the readers' eyes to the fact that learning to make games is not a process of just being taught, but is mostly about discovering it for yourself (didn't Galileo say something like that?). Rest assured, when something has to be taught, the author teaches it, after all, at some point it wastes time to 're-invent the wheel' and that is where the true magic of this book comes into play. It leaves enough for YOU to do on your own, instead of just showing one way and expecting you to copy it. really is like having a teacher that you can open and learn from whenever you want.

in short, this is the best book on game programming I have ever had the pleasure to read, and once you have a good basis in Direct3D and can understand some advanced C++ concepts, you need to pick up this book. You NEED to.