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Game development: list of books

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Started by Lorenzo Musso March 05, 2013 02:34 PM

11 comments, last by Lorenzo Musso 11 years, 1 month ago

Lorenzo Musso

110

Author

March 05, 2013 02:34 PM

Hi all,

I'm a software engineer in automation field and I'm new in this forum.

My dream is always been to become a game developer but after the high school I started to work immediatly because I been hired from an automation company.

Now I regret not having gone to the university also if in my country there are no bachelor degrees for game development.

I'm considering the opportunity to register me to the bachelor degree in game development of Baker University Online.

Online, cause I can't stop working at the moment.

Waiting my decision I want to start to study for my objective and I want to buy some books that I want to share them with you using this link to an Amazon's wish list:

http://www.amazon.it/registry/wishlist/2CJT2JLLULRL9

The questions that I would like you answer me are:

Can you give me an advise about Baker University Online?

Can you say me which of these books I should read before, and which books after?

I have a good knowledge of C++ and a basic knowledge of JAVA

Thanks for your time

Crusable77

594

March 05, 2013 04:26 PM

If you already know c++ I wouldent reccomend beginning c++ through game programming. That book is for beginners. Thats allI got.

KnolanCross

1,974

March 05, 2013 04:32 PM

I believe it depends on what is your objective. Do you want to work for a game or an engine company as a developer? Then having a bachelor will help you a lot. If you just want to be an indie developer, you should probably focus on learning a good engine, design your game and code it.

No matter what your objective is I would tell you to code some very simple game such as a snake or tic tac toe using some "harder" SDK (such as SDL) to learn about the very basics of game development (such as camera positioning and movement interpolation ).

Currently working on a scene editor for ORX (http://orx-project.org), using kivy (http://kivy.org).

Capoeirista

3,266

March 05, 2013 04:44 PM

If you already know c++ I wouldent reccomend beginning c++ through game programming. That book is for beginners.

Absolutely. If you already know c++ I don't think that book will help you much. If you want to improve you skills though, I'd recommend Effective C++ by Scott Meyers.

Also, you probably aren't going to find anything in those XNA books that you can't get for free online. There are so many tutorials and examples out there (http://www.riemers.net/)

-- Olly
http://toronto.ubisoft.com/

http://farcry.ubi.com

http://tomclancy-thedivision.ubi.com

Lorenzo Musso

110

Author

March 05, 2013 05:11 PM

many thanks guys for all your answers.

I believe it depends on what is your objective. Do you want to work for a game or an engine company as a developer? Then having a bachelor will help you a lot. If you just want to be an indie developer, you should probably focus on learning a good engine, design your game and code it.

No matter what your objective is I would tell you to code some very simple game such as a snake or tic tac toe using some "harder" SDK (such as SDL) to learn about the very basics of game development (such as camera positioning and movement interpolation ).

yes my dream is to work for a software house like Ubisoft or Blizzard.

I know that bachelor degree is recommended but I would like to know if an online degree is the same that all others degrees in campus?

there are some manuals for SDL or camera positiong and movement interpolation?

If you already know c++ I wouldent reccomend beginning c++ through game programming. That book is for beginners.

Absolutely. If you already know c++ I don't think that book will help you much. If you want to improve you skills though, I'd recommend Effective C++ by Scott Meyers.

Also, you probably aren't going to find anything in those XNA books that you can't get for free online. There are so many tutorials and examples out there (http://www.riemers.net/)

ok Accelerated C++ and Effective C++ are not specific for game programming isn't it?

what about Artificial Intelligence for Games and Game Coding Complete? Could I take these after Effective C++?

Thanks

KnolanCross

1,974

March 05, 2013 05:59 PM

In my country you can see if a course is worth it if you can use it to enter in a public university master's degree or PHD. Also, you can see if good universities of other countries recognize the university that gives this online course.

Asking people from the HR area or contractors on likedin can be useful, but a lot of times they will lie and tell you that the degree is worth something so they won't hurt anyone's feelings.

Currently working on a scene editor for ORX (http://orx-project.org), using kivy (http://kivy.org).

Uberwulu

185

March 05, 2013 06:03 PM

The game-specific books sitting on my shelf include the following:

Game Engine Architecture

Game Coding Complete 4th Edition

Real-Time Collision Detection

Artificial Intelligence for Games

Programming Game AI by Example

Introduction to 3D Game Programming with DirectX 9.0c (for graphics programming)

Introduction to 3D Game Programming with DirectX 11

OpenGL SuperBible 6th Edition

Programming 2D Games

Programming a Multiplayer FPS in DirectX

Creating Games with Unity and Maya

OpenGL 4.0 Shading Language Cookbook

Real-Time Rendering 3rd Edition

Character Animation with Direct3D

OpenGL Programming Guide 7th Edition

Game Physics Engine Development

Cross Platform Game Development

Mathematics and Physics for Programmers

AI Techniques for Game Programming

The non-game-specific books include:

Effective C++

Effective STL

Data Structures and Algorithms Made Easy

Data Structures for Game Programmers

Design Patterns

Pattern Oriented Software Architecture (5 volumes)

Introduction to the Boost C++ Libraries

The Boost C++ Libraries

SAMS Teach Yourself UML, XML, C#, SQL, some other basic stuff here.

Cross-Platform development in C++

C++ GUI Programming with Qt 4 2nd Edition

Advanced Qt Programming

Component Software

Debugging

Advanced Windows Debugging

C++ Template Metaprogramming

Advanced C++ Metaprogramming

TCP/IP Illustrated, V1: The Protocols

The C++ Standard Library

API Design for C++

C++ Concurrency in Action

That's all I can think of at the moment.

Rakilonn

421

March 05, 2013 06:45 PM

Uberwulu, could you please tell me if Game Coding Complete 4th Edition is a very good book ?

Its summary/source code are really attractive ( architecture of the code for a game, event system/sub system, scripting with lua ... ) but I just wanted to have a comment from a reader.

Capoeirista

3,266

March 05, 2013 07:39 PM

ok Accelerated C++ and Effective C++ are not specific for game programming isn't it?

No they're not game programming specific, but they are programming specific :)

One of the key things you need as a programmer is the ability to learn new APIs/SDKs and programming methodologies quickly... and it really helps to have a solid understanding of the language.

-- Olly
http://toronto.ubisoft.com/

http://farcry.ubi.com

http://tomclancy-thedivision.ubi.com

bubbaray97

217

March 05, 2013 08:40 PM

could you please tell me if Game Coding Complete 4th Edition is a very good book ?

I have read both the 2nd edition and 3rd edition. I found them both to be great books. Haven't read the 4th addtion, but I would assume its pretty good.

Honestly I was just looking through all the game dev books on my shelf and thats probably the one I would recommend the most (of the ones I have).

Also the "Introduction to <xxx> Game Programming with xxx>" books are usually pretty good, although you have to look through them first. Sometimes they spend half the book covering really basic C++ stuff that you probably already know.

Bear in mind, I'm not a professional game developer...just a hobbiest....

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