Customer Reviews

Beginning C++ Game Programming (Game Development Series)

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you're a beginner and want a place to start programming games then this is the book for you. But be sure of one thing, no book can teach you everything, but with help from books like this one written by Michael Dawson it will help you get your foot into the door and then some. I recommend this book to anyone that wants to get into game programming and knows the basics of C++. Here is a little more info about each chapter for those of you that need it.

Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1 - Types, Variables, and Standard I/O: Lost Fortune
Chapter 2 - Truth, Branching, and The Game Loop: Guess My Number
Chapter 3 - For Loops, Strings, and Arrays: Word Jumble
Chapter 4 - The Standard Template Library: Hangman
Chapter 5 - Functions: Mad-Lib
Chapter 6 - References: Tic-Tac-Toe
Chapter 7 - Pointers: Tic-Tac-Toe 2.0
Chapter 8 - Classes: Critter Caretaker
Chapter 9 - Advanced Classes and Dynamic Memory: Game Lobby
Chapter 10 - Inheritance and Polymorphism: Blackjack

I hope this helps you out.

Up to now, there were few decent books that taught C++ and the Standard Template Library (STL) and how to use these within a game. This book fills the void. It is a very good book that covers the required material, but it does require that you have more knowledge than an absolute beginner.
The book covers the major aspects of C++ such as inheritance and encapsulation in a very easy to understand and accessible way. The examples for the games are clear, concise, well documented, and very carefully explained. It uses nothing other than the STL to demonstrate how to implement the code, which means that anyone with a recent rev of a C++ compiler can use the book.
I subtracted a single star out of five because the chapter on pointers is insufficient, in my opinion. While the explanations and diagrams make the chapter easier to understand than many books, pointers are still made more complex than is really necessary. There is also no form of exception handling when "new" is used, which is a fundamental flaw with no real excuse given in the book for why is it not handled. It is too easy for new students of the language to get in the habit of letting memory handling go unchecked. Other than these flaws, I do recommend the book, especially to students who want to learn C++ for the purpose of getting into game programming.

As I went through this book, I thought that it was very similar to the "[programming language X] for Absolute Beginners" series. It turns out that the author did, in fact, also write "Python for Absolute Beginners", so there you go.

The code snippet that is supposed to prevent the console from automatically closing upon program completion doesn't always work as intended. I wrote a method that handled this better, so no biggie.

Other than that, I think this is a good introduction for someone new to C/C++ and to programming in general.

It might be disappointing for people who want to program graphics, DirectX, OpenGL, and the like --- the programs here are strictly console. You have to start somewhere, though, and if you want to program games in C/C++, you first have to understand C/C++. This book teaches the basics of C/C++ well.

If you want to make pretty pictures and don't care what language you're doing it in, though, then Michael Dawson's "Python for Absolute Beginners" will give you more satisfaction because Python is both a serious language (several commercially successful games like "Freedom Force" have been written in Python), and easier to learn and deal with than C/C++.

It's your choice: if you want to start learning C/C++, this is a good introduction; if you want to learn game programming with graphics, start with "Python for Absolute Beginners" and then go on to a book like "Game Programming with Python".

I am not going to bash the book. I haven't read enough to make that kind of judgement (I don't think I intend to read much more). I have glanced over the material, and let me warn anyone planning on buying this book: This book is for the absolute beginner to programming, not game programming, programming in general. The most complicated program outputs to the console. So don't expect to develop any windowed applciations or anything practical. In summary, this is a book that teaches C++ that orients the examples towards elementary text-based games. If you are like me, trying to get a niche in 3D game programming and already have programming experience, buy something else. If you are absolutely beginning, this book could introduce you to programming, but I would recommend a book specifically geared toward teaching C++. I find Premier books to be riddled with careless mistakes, so it is best to buy a book from a publisher like Addison Wesley, Wiley, Pearson, Wrox or O'rielly. This way you will be formally introduced to a language like C++ and you can learn about genuine game programming from the perspective of a experienced programmer. I recommend baby steps - learn the language first, then games. I hope this is helpful. Just looking out for other weathered programmers like myself.

This has to be the best book I have so far. Very easily to understand. He is in-depth about every line of code (you will never say "what does that code do?" All of the code on the disk works 100%. I recommend this to anyone wanting to learn C++, even if you have never used it. And a very big plus, if you need questions you can contact the author and he will help you out.

I've been a programmer (vb, asp, perl) for years and have always wanted to get into the higher leveled language of C++ but could never find a book that I enjoyed that could teach me the basics. This book was my savior and the perfect intro to C++, better than any other book I've been able to find.
The title is misleading because it's gaming aspect is just for reference. Each program is given a background in a game environment just so the problem at hand makes sense.
This book teaches good practice, preplanning and it's code examples and explanations are excellent and thorough without getting too involved in everything. Read a chapter, go back and do the examples and it all starts to make sense, I'd recommend this book as a great starting point to anyone that wants to learn C++.

This book does an excellent job of teaching the basic and not-so-basic fundamentals of C++ in a game programming context (which makes all the difference). The lessons are clear and well organized and the author explains concepts extremely well IMO. There are numerous examples in the book that illustrate the concepts perfectly, and larger programs that tie everything together. This book is intended for those with no programming skills but if you know the basics and are a little rusty, this book's perspective could be very beneficial.

No doubt one of the the finest C++ primers I've ever encountered, because C++, as a language, is not presented so much as a language as it is a means to teaching the reader GAME programming! Author Michael Dawson's approach to C++ is lean and meaningful. The reader learns C++ in bite-sized pieces as he/she is coding examples. The book outlines different ways of achieving the same result in it's quest to teach game and, incidentally, C++ programming! As Bill Cosby used to quip, "If you're not careful, you just might learn something!" Just as surely as the logic of the program cycles and iterations are absorbed, so are solid C++ programming fundamentals! The accompanying CD-ROM contains valuable coding examples and tools. The programming lessons migrate from the bare essentials (data types, variables and standard I/O) through decision-making to object oriented approaches and advanced use of classes. Great for the would-be beginning C++ programmer!

This book is perfect for anyone who has both either knowledge or for someone who has never program a single program (in C++ of course) in their life. This book comes with a free software to program in C++, along with a lot of great examples. In fact this book is all about example code. I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone.

Michael Dawson has such a great programming style that i've come to mimic his style. It's clear, simple, and complex. This IS A GREAT C++ BOOK!!!

This is a reasonable introduction to C++ and lays a lot of ground work for moving into more complicated aspects of game programming. What it doesn't do is teach you anything about displaying graphics: all of the programing is text only DOS-type games. You will need to learn win32 API or some other image display stuff before writhing even simple graphic programs.

That said, I found the game-oriented presentation to be helpful. It makes the various functions a lot easier to understand when they are presented in a familiar context (gaming), with practical uses. A failing of many other programming books is that they take a rather abstract approach, leaving you unsure what you would ever use something for.