Product Description

The Game Maker's Apprentice shows you 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. Game Maker allows games to be created using a simple drag-and-drop interface, so you don't need to have any prior coding experience. It includes an optional programming language for adding advanced features to your games, when you feel ready to do so. You can obtain more information by visiting book.gamemaker.nl. The authors include the creator of the Game Maker tool and a former professional game programmer, so you'll glean understanding from their expertise. 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18396 in Books
• Published on: 2006-07-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

From the Author
Visit the book's website: book.gamemaker.nl

About the Author
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 lead the programming teams on MicroMachines (PS2, X-Box and Game Cube) and Hogs of War (PlayStation). Jacob is now a doctoral student at the University of Nottingham, researching the educational potential of computer games.Mark Overmars is a full professor in Computer Science at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. Here 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 will be used as development tool in this book.

Customer Reviews

An excellent introduction to Computer Games design and programming.
The Game Maker's apprentice is an engaging and accessible introduction to the fascinating world of Computer Game design.
Each chapter uses a hands on approach, creating example games in the free Gamemaker software, that allows the reader to build up a broad toolkit of games design skills. New programming structures are introduced in a clear and simple way, always accompanied by examples.

I have used this book to teach Games design to secondary pupils and they have found it very entertaining as well as technically challenging.

I would not hesitate to recommend this book to anybody who would like to try designing their own games or would like to teach Games Design to a group of students. The methodologies and design approaches used are transferable to any other programming environment that the reader may wish to progress to at a later stage.

Makes learning fun!
Together with the Gamemaker software, The Game Maker's Apprentice provides an excellent introduction to world of digital game making!

Contained in the book are several clear, step-by-step examples of of game construction, from simple shooter games to those with more sophisticated concepts. The examples are written to be accessible to anyone and no programming knowledge or skills are required to build interesting and fun digital games! Best of all, the text encourages game makers to experiment with concepts and build their own games!

Thoroughly recommended for any novice wishing to quickly and simply make their own games or to learn the basics of computer game programming!

a good book and tool!
I think it's a good book not only for beginners but also for the designers who have no programming background to boarden their knowlege of programming. As game development is an iterative process,I suppose the Game Makers is also a good tools to build a prototype to test design ideas.The book teach
you step by step which will significantly facilitate learning.