Game Maker's Apprentice [new book]

[Tami]

PRESS RELEASE
An Excellent First Step Into Game Development

Title: The Game Maker's Apprentice: Game Development for Beginners
Authors: Jacob Habgood and Mark Overmars
Publisher: Apress
Publishes: 26 June 2006
ISBN: 1-59059-615-3
Price: $39.99 US

Berkeley, CA—19 June 2006—Game Maker allows the creation of PC games almost immediately, using a simple drag-and-drop system that makes learning to program much easier than traditional programming languages. This book brings together the expertise of Game Maker’s creator and a professional game developer to present a complete guide to designing and programming games that are fun to play.

The Game Maker’s Apprentice shows 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 games—complete 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.

The book also includes a CD containing Game Maker software and all of the game projects that are created in the book—plus a host of professional-quality graphics and sound effects that you can use in your own games. Authors Jacob Habgood and Mark Overmars are both seasoned game programmers who aim to pass on their expertise on both the theory and practicalities of creating engaging and entertaining games.

To read more about The Game Maker's Apprentice or its authors, or to view a table of contents and sample chapter, please visit [url=\"http://book.gamemaker.nl\"]http://book.gamemaker.nl[/url]

What others say:
“Clearly written and illustrated—a superb introduction to interactive entertainment for our future generation of game creators.”
—Ricki Martin, World Art Lead, Electronic Arts

“Provides an excellent first step into game development; teaching game concepts, terminology, and logic.”
—Mark Swinhoe, Senior Programmer, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe

About the Authors:
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 led the programming teams on MicroMachines (PlayStation 2, Xbox, and GameCube) 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 resources through his web site, www.gamelearning.net.

Mark Overmars is a full professor in Computer Science at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, where 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 is used as the development tool in this book.

About Apress:
All Apress titles are available at bookstores nationwide, from online booksellers, and from Springer New York, Inc. at 800-777-4643; fax 201.348.4505. Contact us for more information at sales@apress.com.

Apress Inc., based in Berkeley, California, is a fast-growing publisher of technical books devoted to meeting the needs of information technology professionals. Apress is dedicated to publishing titles of the highest quality and has compiled a team of authors that reads like a veritable “Who’s Who” of the computing industry.

[Jim]

ohhh, neatness...might have to check this one out

[Josh]

I honestly think drag&drop software (when it comes to programming) is not the way to learn. Sure, you can make games fast and easy, but you honestly need to learn how to do things yourself and not have a program writing out code for you to make 'things easier'. Although I do believe it is great for beginners but eventually you will need to understand how a lot of the things are being done. [/ramble]