Preface

If your goal is to make your own three-dimensional (3D) games and simulators, then you are in the right place. Using the Jamagic programming language that comes with this book, you will be designing and building your own 3D games and simulators in no time.

Jamagic is a programming language that was specifically designed for making 3D games. It is very similar to C++, and it has many of the same features, but it is considerably simpler to use ”it is so easy, in fact, that by the time you reach the end of the book, you will have made working jet and ship simulators.

If you have never programmed before, you ll find that working with Jamagic is a great way to learn. If you are a beginner, you ll soon be using loops , conditional statements, functions, and mathematical operators to make 3D games and simulators that can be as good as games you can buy in a store. If you are already an experienced programmer, you will quickly appreciate the power and versatility of Jamagic . Using this book, you will learn to make 3D games and simulators by following step-by-step through 15 programs that become progressively more complex. In the first game, you will make a simple sphere that you can move in three-dimensional space using your keyboard. By the sixth project, the sphere will be subject to gravity and while music and sounds will be playing in the background, you will be trying to land it on a surface. By the ninth game, you will be controlling the sphere motion with your mouse and tracking its remaining fuel. In addition, you will know how to make a pop-up menu for your game, how to detect collisions, and how to edit sounds using the Jamagic sound editor.

By the time you finish this book, you will have made jet and ship simulators that are very realistic. The jet simulator requires you to land the jet on an airport runway using keyboard controls, and the jet s instrument panel will include a working virtual compass and a rate-of-climb indicator. The jet will move as if governed by physical laws ”you will program the computer to increase the jet s speed when it is diving and decrease it when climbing, the jet will move to the side faster as the angle of roll increases , and critical mistakes (such as landing too hard) will be detected .

If artwork is not your strong point, Jamagic comes with many, many 3D objects like aircraft, tanks, ships, trees, bridges, and airports that you can import into your game; this way you can concentrate on programming without having to worry about the considerable problem of making quality 3D artwork.

Here is the bottom line: Jamagic is a highly versatile and easy-to-use tool for making 3D games and simulators, and it is quite a bit of fun to use. If your goal is to make games or simulators that can compete in quality with commercially available software, then Jamagic is for you.