Review
PART I: GAME PROGRAMMING FUNDAMENTALS. 1. What is Game Programming Really Like?. 2. What's in a Game?. 3. Coding Tidbits and Style That Will Save You. 4. Building Your Game. PART II: GET YOUR GAME RUNNING. 5. Game Initialization and Shutdown. 6. Controlling the Main Loop. 7. Loading and Caching Game Data. 8. Programming Input Devices. 9. User Interface Programming. PART III: CORE GAME TECHNIQUES. 10. Game Event Management. 11. Scripting with Lua. 12. Game Audio. 13. 3D Basics. 14. 3D Scenes. 15. Collision and Simple Physics. 16. Network Programming Primer. PART IV: ADVANCED TOPICS AND BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER. 17. An Introduction to Game AI. 18. Introduction to Multiprogramming. 19. A Game of Teapot Wars!. 20. A Simple Game Editor in C#. 21. Debugging Your Game. 22. Driving to the Finish.
About the Author
Mike McShaffry, aka "Mr. Mike," began programming games as soon as he could tap a keyboard. After graduating from the University of Houston, he worked for Warren Spector and Richard Garriott, aka "Lord British," at Origin Systems on Martian Dreams, Ultima VII: The Black Gate, Ultima VIII: Pagan, Ultima IX: Ascension, and Ultima Online. Seven years later he formed his first company, Tornado Alley. Mike later accepted a position at Glass Eye Entertainment, working for his friend Monty Kerr, where he produced Microsoft Casino. Ten months later, Monty asked Mike and his newly assembled team to start their own company, called Compulsive Development, which would work exclusively with Microsoft on casual casino and card games. Mike served as the Head of Studio, and together with the rest of the Compulsive folks, produced three more casual titles for Microsoft until August 2002. Compulsive was acquired by Glass Eye Entertainment to continue work on Glass Eye's growing online casual games business. Mike was later recruited to start an Austin studio for Maryland-based Breakaway Games. Mike is currently self-employed, helping teams build a positive, creative and energetic environment so they can do what they do best--make great games.
David "Rez" Graham is a self-taught programmer who has been writing games in his basement since 1996. In 2005, he landed a programming job at Super-Ego Games where he worked on mini-games and AI for Barbie Diaries: High School Mystery for the PC. He also worked on a comedy adventure game called RatRace for the PlayStation 3. In 2008, Rez went to work for Planet Moon and worked on Brain Quest for the Game Boy DS and Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter for the Wii. Rez went to PlayFirst in 2010 where he worked on Diner Dash: Grillin' Green for the iPad and was the lead engineer for Wedding Dash for the iPhone 4. Rez currently works at Electronic Arts as an AI programmer for the Sims division. He has shipped two titles there, which include The Sims Medieval and the Pirates & Nobles Adventure Pack. He is currently the lead AI programmer for an upcoming Sims title.
