Awesome 3d Game Development: No Programming Required (Charles River Media Game Development) [Paperback]

Clayton E Crooks II (Author)

Book Description

Series: Charles River Media Game Development | Publication Date: July 2004

Awesome 3D Game Development: No Programming Required teaches aspiring game developers how to create their own computer games without programming skills and provides an in-depth understanding of how the game design process works. Using hands-on tutorials and "drag-anddrop" game engines, readers learn to make and modify their own interactive 3D computer games, create models, and select game assets. The CD-ROM has most of the demos of the development tools used in the book, including 3D GameMaker, Reality Factory, Multimedia Fusion, MilkShape 3D Modeler, and Paint Shop Pro. This is a great way to learn the fundamentals of game design and game creation - no programming skills required!

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Clayton E. Crooks II is a partner in Advanced Information Systems, a consulting company specializing in custom hardware and software solutions. His articles have appeared in Dr. Dobbs, and he has authored many game development titles, including the 2D edition of this book, Awesome Game Development: No Programming Required, Second Edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 431 pages
• Publisher: Charles River Media; 1 edition (July 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1584503254
• ISBN-13: 978-1584503255
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,145,709 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Worthwhile for the absolute beginner, January 31, 2007

By 

Peter Louw (Cape Town, South Africa) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Awesome 3d Game Development: No Programming Required (Charles River Media Game Development) (Paperback)

A very useful book for the absolute beginner interested in click-together 3D game making tools. An easy style and nice short chapters make it a quick read, with helpful introductions to rapid game-making software together with sound and graphics packages such as Acid, Adobe Audition, Milkshape 3D and Paint Shop Pro.

I particularly enjoyed the sections on creating, recording and editing music and sound effects, as many books underemphasise this important side of game making.

Many people are hoity-toity about click-together game making tools, arguing that doing it the hard way - first learning a (usually demanding and complex) programming language - is the only way to make high-end computer games. Though that may be so, not everybody wants to create the next blockbuster game. Many of us are happy to click together a relatively simple game of their own making with minimal effort, for their own or their kids' enjoyment or for the pleasure of learning a new and creative skill, finding a few sound effects and creating simple game graphics. This book is the 3D version of an earlier 2D "Awesome" series (Awesome Game Creation) which I found very helpful.

Awesome 3D Game Development admittedly does labour under a few limitations. Even accepting that the reader is probably a complete beginner, the author occasionally goes overboard in explaining the obvious, such as how to set up the various demos on the CD. I also feel that "Duck Blast", the 3D game which is created over various chapters and merely involves shooting yellow ducks with your mouse, is not inspiring and doesn't seem worth the significant effort to make the game.

There is, of course, a cost implication if you really intend to buy the various supporting software on the CD after the 30-day trial versions have expired. Eg. the full version of Adobe's Audition 2.0, which according to the author is ideal for creating sound effects for your games, will put you back a good sum of money. It would have been helpful to also include discussions of various cost-conscious alternative options, eg. the free or cheap music generators (obtainable on the internet for downloading) for automatically composing background music for your games.

Computer books unfortunately age quickly. A new edition of this 2004 book will hopefully also include newer products such as FPS Creator (from the makers of DarkBasic and 3D Gamemaker) and Game Maker (the Dutch product created by Mark Overmars).

In spite of the above comments I found the book very instructive and good value for money.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Kinda terriable., August 13, 2008

By 

William A. Mcdonald (Sequim, WA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Awesome 3d Game Development: No Programming Required (Charles River Media Game Development) (Paperback)

Not very good. Anti-science I would call it.

To be honest I've read previous version of this book using GCSW (a program I already was quite familiar with), this is the "updated version". Yeah. Well it's obsolete, inaccurate when it comes to game testers and industry standards. The entire thing feel EXTREMLY dated. The software he includes it pretty terrible as well, 3Dgamemaker should be avoided at all costs. Reality Factory is FREE and open sources, you can download an e-book from the website with complete instructions, that goes more in-depth and more useful. Really, I'm quite disappointed in the quality of the book, the lack of modeling info in Milkshape (really once again free eBooks available containing MORE info that actually EXPLAINS HOW TO USE IT.) Multimedia Fusion reminds me of Click and Play, seriously get Game Maker instead, plus there is actual books explaining how to use that one! Charles River Media, seems to print 90% worthlessness. I swear if it wasn't for the... Fudge monkeys why am I giving it 2 stars? I guess because I'm nice and this has basic info that is KINDA useful. Buy it for an 8 year old.

2.0 out of 5 stars Basic Basic, October 3, 2008

By 

Paul C. Defenbaugh (Champaign, Illinois USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Awesome 3d Game Development: No Programming Required (Charles River Media Game Development) (Paperback)

Mostly this is a "Duh" level book, about how to install programs that you will need to use in order to make games. The first half of the book talks about anything but making games, but rather the structures of a game company, tools needed and the likes of which anyone looking for information of entry level game making, is already going to know about. I found it very un-informative and there was little to nothing in the context of the book that helped me understand starting basic ground level game production in 3d. (of which this book ALSO covers about 50% on 2-d Gaming)

Would not recommend to anyone with any gaming knowledge. Its THAT level of basic knowledge.