Customer Reviews

The Blender Gamekit: Interactive 3D for Artists

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book will not teach you how the Blender Game Engine works. It just goes through some example games and shows some specific details on how features in those games work. This book is a major step backward from the original Blender Gamekit book as that book did teach how to make games from scratch (unfortunately the version of Blender used in that book is hopelessly out of date). The graphical layout of the book is very well done though. Consult the Blender Wiki if you want to learn how the BGE works.

Of all the books on computer graphics and game programming I've read, this is my favorite. I'm not exactly sure why. One reason, though, is that this book impressed me as practical poetry - or do I mean practically poetic? - compared to most of the others. The book is targeted towards blender artists and to some extent uses that as an excuse to take a non-technical approach to the subject. Unfortunately this means that the book doesn't goes as deep into the subject as most readers would like. Fortunately it also means that the book doesn't go into dreadful detail on subjects that in the long run you are going to have to figure out on your own anyway.

For such a short book, it covers a lot of material. Sometimes as I was reading it I felt like I was being cheated, that it wasn't even answering my most basic questions on the subject. Then I would myself pose a question on a topic that I felt hadn't been addressed and look into the book for an answer. Sure enough, in most cases it was there.

Quite a variety of games are presented in the text and if you want to write your own in any of the genres presented you should be able to use the sample programs as a guide to realize your idea. Expect to do a bit or even a lot of reverse engineering from the examples provided on the disk before you can make use of the techniques presented. The book's text alone will not be enough as most of the games are not presented in complete tutorial format. More often the book's text will just highlight a technique or two from a game so that you will know where to look on the disk for the examples you will need to follow.

The book omits anything significant on the ways of using character animation other than references to the fairly sophisticated blender open game project Yo! Frankie. Chapters in another book, Tony Mullen's Mastering Blender, fill some of the gaps in this area.

Despite the word Kit in the title, the games are not really kits in the same sense as say the Aurora Expansion Toolkit was for Neverwinter Knights. You can modify the games if you want - Yo! Frankie in particular is quite open to additional levels - but in most cases the games serve more like open source software programs that you can cannibalize for parts to your own game.

The book is inexpensive and fun and despite a few faults is still actually a pretty good introduction to creating games with blender. Recommended.

First off... thank you Blender Foundation for creating such awesome software!

That said...

(I am only half way through this book...but....)

Pros so far...
-The demos on the cd are nice in that they are editable and you can pack the files onto your HD so you don't need the disk anymore...that's cool
- I forsee the reference section as becoming useful in the future as my experience grows
- Screen shots are in color and clear
-The pumpkin 'game' and tube cleaner game are very nice walk-throughs... I had no problems completing them, and I am a beginner to blender.

Cons so far...
- There are so many typos and so much incorrect grammar that it is sometimes difficult to understand sentences...I don't think they proof-read this book at all. Side note - the authors of each chapter differ, so the verbiage is varied. Makes for inconsistency in readability.
- Many things are not explained at all... for example, the 'Empties' for the guns and engines on the sub in the sub demo... What are empties? It doesn't tell you.
- I was very disappointed that the sub game and yo frankie game are not walk throughs, but merely disjointed discussions on the development of the game (It borders on being self-congratulatory at times :/ )

My recommendation...
Do not buy this book. Get it from the library! Like I mentioned, the reference section seems thorough, and I am learning from this book...somewhat.
This book needs to be at least twice it's length, walking through every aspect of every game mentioned. I found myself often saying "That's nice. Now how do you do it?!"

Lynda.com has an extensive tutorial on Blender but is expensive. Check it out if you have the cash.

This book isn't what it seems to be, it's called a game kit so you tend to gravitate towards development kit, but it's more like a simple introduction for the artsy types. If your a beginner enjoy, all others stay away

Many people know that Blender is a free and open source 3D creation suite that has grown over the years to become one of the most powerful tools for 3D.
What many people may not know is that Blender includes a game creation kit. You don't need to program to create games with Blender, just this book and some time playing with the CD that comes included with it.
To create games, you just need to build your 3D objects with Blender, and then use the game engine of Blender to make your 3D game. This is done by clicks and pull-down menus, with no coding at all.
The Blender Gamekit is a book published by "No starch press" and written by several authors. When you have the book in your hands, you can see the neat design of the cover and the quality of impression. It has lots of illustrations and reading it is like following a series of tutorials, where you see what you must do in every step.
blender gamekit1
The way you should read it is just like you follow a tutorial: from the beginning to the end, following all the steps. That way you will soon be creating games with Blender. Of course, you can always go to Blender forums and wikis, to widen your knowledge.
The CD contains lots of examples that are referenced in the book, and also the game "Yo Frankie!", a huge project of game based on the Blender game kit. You can copy all these games to your hard drive and alter them to learn how to do games, and create games based on them.
The games in the CD are playable. Pay special attention to "Yo Frankie!" that was developed since 2008 by many people from the Blender community. In chapter 12, the book explains how many effects of this game are done, including things like dual-player split screen, physics, animations, and all kind of things that will show you how Blender has a real gaming engine.
On chapter 9 the book even tells you the basics on doing network games, multiuser games with Blender and Python. This needs some code but the author of this chapter tells you how it works and what you must do, being the only part in the book that shows code.
Other interesting chapter are, for example, chapter 10, where you are told how to create bones and animate your 3D meshes, and 11, where you can see that with Blender you can not only create arcade games but also intelligence games in 3D like the memory game that illustrates this chapter.
blender gamekit2
Chapter 13 is a reference to the Blender Game Engine, containing things like multi-texture materials, GLSL shaders, sensors for time, keyboard, mouse... This chapter is very extensive. You will appreciate it once you have mastered all the previous chapters.

"The Blender GameKit" is the book for you if you want to go beyond modeling and turn yourself or your team into game developers at no cost.

Game artists interested in the interactive 3D opportunities of Blender will appreciate the 2nd updated edition of THE BLENDER GAMEKIT, reviewing the options for a fast, powerful open source 3D creation suite offering advanced modeling, character animation, and rendering - all the features of expensive private programs. It's reviewed here for its interest to any involved in online gaming and comes with a CD with playable, editable Blender game demos and the Blender 2.48 for all systems. Any online game programmer will welcome this fine survey, packed with color photo examples and screenshots throughout.

I read this book over the Christmas holiday. It was an enjoyable read. All the examples worked, and I found the game kit's methodology to be intuitive. I highly recommend this book for the home enthusiast who wants to learn more on a limited budget. Download and install Blender. Buy this book, and have some fun!

I graduated about a year ago with a BS in Game Software Development but unfortunately jobs are not plentiful. I keep myself busy with indy projects and this book has been a lifesaver to breakdown the basics of blender and give me some examples to play with.

It's a good book for your kids, and plainly explains how to start making 3D games right away, glossing over some more abstract concepts. More experienced developers will be shocked by it's lack of words and surplus of pretty pictures, but teenage artists and computer nerds will love it.

The pages of the book are in full color with an excelent material.
The focus of the book is in the tutorials games that are in the CD.
This is the book if you are interest in Developing 3D Games with Blender.