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: #71303 in Books
• Published on: 2006-07-24
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Synopsis
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.

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 games programming
If you are new to games programming then this is a book for you.

Each chapter has a different games to create or try-out (with the complete code on the enclosed CD just in case).

As you would expect each game is more complex to create than the last one, but the book contains very detailed explanations on why certain keys are used or objects included.

Those who are more familiar with the basics of game programming will still probably find the "game maker" engine extremely useful and perhaps better than some others on the market.

Only downside is that the enclosed game maker engine is not a registered version, and costs around £10 to convert it to the latest version.

Overall the book is a very good guide to games programming.

Game Making Simplicity and Strength at its Best !
The Game Maker's Apprentice has to be one of my most eagerly awaited Computer Book purchases for quite sometime. The fabulous presentation and great use of terminology, really makes it a joy to read. Each chapter guides you through gently, in order to achieve more confidence into creating your own game or project. Each page is colourful and the beautiful illustrations brings things to life.

The book is accompanied by a great CD with all of the examples, resources and Game Maker itself, which is really easy to get into. Within no time at all, you'll get used to it's interface and workings. The tutorials start you off with the basics and progressively bring you to the wonderfully powerful Game Maker Language (GML). So not only can you create games using a Drag 'n' Drop interface, you can also use a powerful programming language as well. All of this is included in the unregistered version, but by paying an ever so reasonable registration fee, you unlock the full potential of Game Maker.

I used Game Maker to create my first ever PC game, Bugsy. The Game Maker Forum helped me out when I came across a problem or a bug I couldn't resolve. There a lots of games and projects created with this wonderful program. You will also find many other sites across the Internet that provide helpful advice and tutorials. Not forgetting the official Game Maker site run and hosted by Mark Overmars.

The books co-writer, Jacob Habgood, has made a marvellous job along side Mark, to make this a very interesting book indeed.

You might also be interested to know, that another book covering the Game Maker theme, Basic Game Design and Creation by Namu Swamy is available as well. This also brings you to the Game Maker stable to learn some very easy steps into the basics of game design without it appearing too boring or tiresome.

Your gaming ideas and projects start here !

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.