About the Book
This unique programming kit provides everything you need to create your own cool games. 3D GameStudio Standard 5.12 combines a programming language with a high-end 3D engine, a 2D engine, a C++ interface, a map and model editor and huge libraries of 3D objects, artwork and pre-made games. MicrosoftA (R) Visual C++ 6.0 Introductory Edition includes a debugger and resource editor for easy editing of your code. MicrosoftA (R) DirectXA (R) 8.0 SDK provides the industry standard two-dimensional and 3D graphical development API libraries to enhance your game project.
Table of Contents:
Overview. Introduction. So, You Wanna Make Games for a Living, Huh? I. PRE-PRODUCTION. 1. Game Genres and Playing Perspectives. 2. General Game Design: Action and Strategy Games. 3. General Game Design: Sports, Simulations, Adventure Games, and Puzzles. 4. General Game Design: Role-Playing Games and Persistent Online Worlds (RPGs). 5. Creating Characters, Storyboarding, and Design Documents. 6. Master Design Document Template. 7. Level Design. 8. Puzzle Design. 9. Mission Design. II. PRODUCTION. 10. Programming Theory. 11. Sample Game: Marcelo Camelo's Brickout. 12. Artificial Intelligence (AI). 13. Game Art and Animation. 14. The All-Important User Interface (UI) and Game Control. 15. Sound Engineering. 16. Music and Games. III. POST-PRODUCTION. 17. Proper Game Testing. 18. Technical Support and Customer Service. 19. Public Relations and Marketing. IV. HOW TO MAKE IT HAPPEN. 20. Doing It Yourself and the Shareware Revolution. 21. Breaking Into the Industry. 22. Game Agents and Headhunters. 23. Design Schools and Courses. 24. Game Design Resources on the Internet. 25. Key Conventions, Organizations, and Awards. Appendix. Biographies. Index.
About the Author :
Marc Saltzman has reported on the bourgeoning high-tech industry for the past five years as a freelance journalist, author, lecturer, consultant, and radio and TV personality. His specialties are video gaming, computers, the Internet, telecommunications, digital music initiatives, and consumer electronics. Along with his weekly syndicated columns with Gannett News Service, Marc currently contributes to more than two dozen prominent publications, reaching millions of readers each month: USA Today, USAToday.com, the Los Angeles Times, Playboy, Playboy.com, Maxim, c|Net, Modern Maturity, Yahoo! Internet Life, Electronic Gaming Monthly, PC Gamer, Famous magazine, Electronic Playground, Gamesmania, and many more. Gannett News Service is the USA's largest newspaper group in terms of circulation. The company's 99 daily newspapers in the U.S. have a combined daily paid circulation of 7.8 million. For a complete list of Gannett daily newspapers, visit www.gannett.com/map/propmap.htm. Marc Saltzman was one of the first journalists in the world to break open the MP3 phenomenon in late 1997 on CNN Interactive (CNN.com). He correctly predicted that this controversial audio file format would revolutionize the recording industry. His books/CDs with Macmillan USA/Pearson are Internet Games Directory (1996), Gamer's Web Directory: Sites, Cheats and Secrets (1997), Quake II Strategy Master (1998), Game Design: Secrets of the Sages (1999), Game Design: Secrets of the Sages, Second Edition (2000), and Marc Saltzman's 200 Best Palm Games Collection (2001). Macmillan USA is a unit of Pearson Technology Group, the world's largest provider of consumer and professional computer, information technology, engineering, and reference content. Marc has also contributed to Supercade, Van Burnham's book chronicling the visual history of the video game industry (MIT press) and has written popular in-game manuals for Quake II (id Software/Activision) and Sin (Ritual Entertainment/Activision). Beginning in May of 2001, Marc became a freelance technology correspondent for CNN, the Cable News Network. He reports on a wide array of high-tech issues, including video games, the Internet, computers, and consumer electronics. He can be seen on the show CNNdotCOM, which airs Saturdays at 2 p.m. (EST) and 4:30 p.m. (EST) each Sunday. CNNdotCOM won first place in the News Magazine category of the National Headliner Awards, announced Friday, March 16, 2001, by the Press Club of Atlantic City. Marc also appears regularly on many national TV shows in Canada as a gaming guru, World Wide Web pioneer, and computer specialist. Some of his regular appearances include the popular Canada AM (CTV), Prime Business (Global/Prime), Bynon (Global/Prime), GuysTV (TSN), Web Mania (CTV News), Global TV News (Global), More to Life (TV Ontario), Open Mike with Mike Bullard (CTV/Comedy Network), and others. Marc Saltzman writes for and hosts two radio shows. "Tech Talk with Marc Saltzman" is aired on Canada's largest talk station, CFRB (1010AM in Toronto). The hour-long program airs live on Saturday afternoons alongside Erica Ehm, famed TV and radio personality. CFRB's parent company is Standard Radio. Now in its fifth year, the prerecorded segment "Cyber Escapes with Marc Saltzman" airs twice a day exclusively on Canada's largest new rock/alternative station, Edge 102 (102.1 in Toronto). Edge 102's parent company is Corus Entertainment. Marc enjoys delivering seminars on the ever-changing world of high-tech (including lectures as far away as Hong Kong!) on how to best break into the interactive entertainment industry. He also moderated a panel at the 2001 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) on this topic. Speaking of E3, Marc has also been an official "Best of E3" judge for the past three years, nominating the best computer and console games and the most promising hardware for the
