| As the title suggests, this book is organized into 24 lessons that are intended to take about an hour each to digest. Don't worry, there are no penalties if you take more than an hour to finish a given lesson, and no financial rewards if you speed through them faster! The lessons themselves are organized into seven parts , each of which tackles a different facet of game programming: -
Part I, "Getting Started" ” In this part, you learn the basics of video game development, and what goes into creating a game. You learn about the fundamentals of Windows programming, and how to create an engine for games . You also find out how to draw basic graphics, including bitmapped images. -
Part II, "Interacting with Game Players" ” In this part, you learn how to interact with players through input devices such as the keyboard, mouse, and joysticks. This part of the book also guides you through the development of your first complete game, which is a tile matching memory game called Brainiac. -
Part III, "Animating Games with Sprites " ” In this part, you learn the ropes of sprite animation, which is the cornerstone of two-dimensional game programming. You uncover the basics of game animation, and then build classes to support animation in games. You also develop your second complete game in this part of the book, which is a game called Henway that is somewhat of a takeoff on the classic Frogger arcade game. -
Part IV, "Making Noise with Sound and Music" ” In this part, you get acquainted with music and sound effects as they apply to games. More specifically , you find out how to create wave sound effects and then play them in games, as well as how to play MIDI music. With a solid foundation in sound under your belt, you move on to create Battle Office, which is your third complete game. -
Part V, "Taking Animation to the Next Level" ” In this part, you go beyond the basics of sprite animation to learn some advanced animation techniques that are valuable in action games. You learn how to animate the appearance of sprites, as well as how to create animated backgrounds. You then put this new knowledge to work in another complete game called Meteor Defense, which is roughly similar to the Missile Command arcade game. -
Part VI, "Adding Brains to Your Games" ” In this part, you learn the fundamentals of artificial intelligence (AI), and why it is important to games. AI can be a daunting topic, so I focus on some basic AI techniques that are easy to understand and apply in your own games. This part of the book also includes the development of another complete game, Space Out, which is a space shoot-em-up that incorporates virtually everything you've learned throughout the book. -
Part VII, "Spicing Up Your Games" ” In this part, you explore some interesting game programming techniques that allow you to add a professional touch to your games. You learn how to create a splash screen, a demo mode, and a high score list that is stored to disk. Along the way, you spice up the Space Out game with each new technique so that it ends up being the most comprehensive game example in the book. This provides you with a good game to use as a starting point for your own game programming projects.  |
