Customer Reviews

Game Coding Complete

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The title of this book suggests two things to me. The first is that it provides a complete guide to game coding. The second is that it fills the same role for game programming that the book Code Complete fills for programming in general, i.e. a journeyman's book that fills in the gaps left in introductory texts and broadens your knowledge to prepare you to move on to more advanced topics. Unfortunately by trying to do the former (which I don't think is possible in a single book), it falls a bit short on the latter, resulting in a (very) good book rather than the great book it could have been given the author's impressive background.

First, the bad.

It seems that the author never really decided what his audience is. Parts of the book (e.g. the introduction to 3D graphics) are written for total beginners, while others (such as the overview of game engines - all of which cost tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to license) are really only relevant to experienced professionals. The author/publisher really should have picked an audience and stuck with it.

Some readers will be annoyed by how platform-specific this book is, which really isn't apparent from the cover copy or even the other reviews. All of the code samples use DirectX, and there is a lot of space dedicated to Windows-specific information. Granted, Windows and DirectX are by far the most popular choices for PC-based game development, so this won't be an issue for most readers.

And now for the good.

The best parts of this book were those covering topics that typically get overlooked in other game programming books, namely things like pointers and memory management, scripting, creating automated build enviroments and code/resource management, debugging, and notably the entire section on production, scheduling and testing. Although some of these topics are covered in other books that are not specific to game development, putting them in a single volume and exposing game developers to them early on is a Good Thing.

Although the sample code was fairly sparse, what he did provide was extremely useful, in particular the resource file implementation, random number generator, and scene graph.

Finally, props to the author for maintaining a website and actively supporting this book. As an author myself, I know how much work is involved in doing so, and I recognize that it reflects the author's desire to really help people and not just sell books.

In conclusion, my overall impression of this book was very positive. It's marred by a few shortcomings, but overall, I think that most new game programmers will benefit from it.

As someone who just has about 3 years of programming experience and is finishing up high school this year, I found this book to very helpful. I got Tricks of the Win Game Programming Gurus one year for Christmas, and although the later chapters such as AI, multithreading, and physics modelling were pretty good primers, all the DirectX material were essentially rehashes of the SDK docs. Just about every other game programming book that focused on DirectX had the same kind of characteristic...most of the DX material could just as easily be found in the SDK docs. But when I came across Game Coding Complete, I saw it had a lot of good, practical information; I couldn't put it down.

I really liked the 2D chapter because it provided some good pointers on surface management (such as when and when not to restore surface data), explained how alpha blending works (and provided a surface-surface copy function that utilizes alpha blending), and lays out some of the basic functionality of a sprite class. For a newcomer to game programming, I really found these practical examples very helpful in at least getting ideas churning in my head as to how I want design my game.

Chapter 7 on the whole initialization, main loop, and shutdown procedures were real insightful in my opinion. Mr. Mike begins by discussing what he thinks is a good initialization process. One of the earlier reviewers might dismiss this as just another opinion of the author, backed up by no fact, but, at least to me, the author has some pretty sound reasoning for suggesting what he suggests. An example would the case he makes for doing initializations of certain objects: instead of relying on a user calling some Init method and using the return value from it to test for success or failure, he suggests doing all initializations from within the constructor and throw an exception if an error occurs. I agree with the author that the resulting code looks cleaner and a bit more elegant than testing the return value for multiple Init method calls (of course, this is also partly a matter of personal preference, but what have you). As with many other chapters, this chapter provides some pretty useful code for you to use, such as a function that will calculate the CPU speed, another example showing how to ensure that only one instance of your game is loaded, and a fairly solid cooperative process manager.

Chapter 8, which covers resource management, was pretty informative and made a convincing argument as to why you ought to use resource files rather than relying on all your images/sounds/what have you as individual files. Even though resource packing may seem a little daunting at first for a beginning game programmer, but in the long haul it's rather rewarding to be able to store all your resources in a few packed resource files. Mr. Mike uses the iPac program as an example for a resource packer, and although it is not freely available (I'm unaware of any free resource packing tool), through images and bit of information the book provides, I've been able to create a resource packing tool that more-or-less models after iPac and that suits my needs.

There are other chapters, especially the 3D math and 3D graphics chapters, which are pretty helpful, but again, as someone with no knowledge in 3D graphics, it kind of confusing. But I attribute that to my ignorance.

This book is not without its shortcomings though. Some of the source code won't work if type straight from the book. Fortunately enough, many typos have been pointed out on the book's website, and the source code appears to be in working order. Also the GUI and user-input chapter didn't seem to have the same caliber as some of the other chapters had. The author did mention it would've been much longer, but just seems like it's lacking a bit in its current state. It's better than nothing though. Also, there isn't any mention to audio really (aside from his choice of Miles Sound System in the beginning of the book).

In all fairness to Mr. Mike though, he does state in his introduction that he has a bit of a bias to Win32 and DirectX throughout the book. As such, you can't necessarily assume that ALL the concepts are applicable to every type of game programming (PC or console). I do think he makes a valiant effort in trying to cover certain topics relevant to console development. He does a very nice job of trying to cover a lot of material in a rather short book. Coupled with the source code that is available online, I found this to be one of the best books I've read on game programming. It's chock full of very useful information, much of which can be insightful for both the beginning and the professional game programmer. Has my definite recommendation.

I say Incomplete because there is still a lot that could have been covered in a book called Game Coding Complete. At the same time I would not have picked it up off of the shelf if it didn't have such a catchy title, and learn as much about Game Coding as I did reading this book. Even though I think the title is incomplete, I still learned a great deal and I frequently reread chapters to catch things I missed the first time round.

IMHO this book is geared toward those who want to make a professional career in making games, but have no idea how, while at the same time teaching concrete principles of game programming to those like me who are currently hobby coders. Many times had I tried and failed to start developing a game, but I am now building my game intelligently and efficiently, knowing exactly what I need to do to get things done. I have to say it is all because of this book.
This is also one of the few books that has managed to grip my attention for as long as it did because of the clever way that Mike writes. His writing style is such that it is easy to read because of its almost informal nature. The text thankfully lacks rigid structure, and welcomed breaks in the lessons of "how and why" are made up of "I remember the day" stories that are both amusing and filled with helpful hints on what NOT to do OR how the approached a problem and fixed it :) (Which is the point BTW)
The code in the book is sparse, and it initially bugged me, but I came to realize that it really is not about giving the reader chunks of code. This is not a step by step guide on how to make a game, but a collection of ideas on how to cleverly write and manage your game. Mike frequently comments on the potential problems one might have compiling his code, and he rightfully tells the reader to fix it as an exercise. After all that is the kind of industry Game Development is if I am not mistaken: Fixing broken code and solving problems???

Anyways, this book is not for know it alls already in the industry. This is a book for people like me who are passionate about games but don't have a clue on where and how to start. To me working in the industry is an impossible endeavor, but this book is not only filled with concepts on game programming, but it is filled with motivational stories and tips on how to GET IN. This is a booster in the right direction, and to actually get the opinions of someone already in the business, and not just straight HOW TO LOAD A BITMAP crap, (which is also in the book I might add...) has left me pleasantly surprised and content. If McShaffry wrote another book, hopefully something that covers topics he didn't cover in the original, I would be all over it like a Fat Kid on a Smarty.

I highly recommend it!!

I just wanted to weigh in with my thoughts on this book. I really enjoyed it, no I loved it.

I have an addiction that involves buying every darn programming book released on Amazon. Many (most?) of those books sit on my over-stuffed shelf barely dog eared. I tend to browse the books I own or just mark useful chapters.

Not so with this book! I read it cover to cover. I loved the real world advice, the conversational style, the war stories and the pragmatic advice on non coding aspects of game development like estimates, scheduling, QA etc...

I got the same feeling of enlightenment when reading this one that I did a all those years ago when I read the classic book "Code Complete".

Great job Mike. I hope it is selling well so we can hear from you again especially on topics like AI and Sound.

Quite frankly, this book kept me going in game programming when I was about to give up in frustration.

I've bought many game programming books over the years, and two authors stand out... Mike McShaffry and Andre LaMothe. This book is incredibly valuable as a reference and as a guide. Quite honestly, I wonder who paid the guy who wrote the "Spotlight Review" to dis it so badly, or who he paid to get his opinion in the spotlight.

But here's a test you can take for yourself... go to http://www.mcshaffry.com/GameCode and see how Mike McShaffry is *still* helping folks who've read his book, (or anyone who post on the site for that matter). He's still giving *free* advice on his book's forum, when most other authors won't even respond to an email.

In response to those who objected to the author's "coding opinions":
Yes, the guy has an opinon - he's entitled to. What do you expect from a book? "well, this is probably wrong, and I don't really know what I'm talking about, but the publisher paid me a lot of money so I have to say something." Give me a freaking break! OF COURSE the book is full of opinions - that's what books are!

Just one caveat - it doesn't teach you C++. It assumes some experience, meaning you can take the coding advice and apply it to suit your own style. It does assume a basic level of professional ability in other words.

His book is targeted towards people who know C++ who want to know where they go from where they currently are to be able to make games (college students, for example). Essentially, this book supplements your C++ abilities as well as adding to the 'game' part of your 'game programmer' education. It covers specific concepts ranging from the various game components that programmers will need to understand such as 2D/3D graphics, Interface/Input Code, the main loop, resource management, and DirectX/Win32 programming. There is a lot of specific technical information in the book, but it also covers some broad concepts such as scheduling, testing, and an introduction to some advanced programming concepts such as smart pointers and scripting languages. The basis of the book is from an angle of professional experience as opposed to the mere hobby game developer. I would recommend this book to any programmer who wants to supplement their education towards game development as a serious career.

I'm old enough to remember awful books with titles like "Graphics Tips from Game Gurus". From the cover I was worried that this was that type of book. But there is wisdom in the saying "don't judge a book by it's cover". This is a very serious book about both the technical aspects of the job, and the serious non-technical process aspects of the job. As the author says in the first chapter "game programming is freaking hard."

There are well written sections on 2D and 3D programming, including an excellent section on basic trigonometry. There is also some good timely material on working within the Windows framework. I would have liked some more material on 3D engines, but that's a minor flaw.

There are two very solid chapters on process and testing. And a very good chapter on techniques that you can use to survive the death march.

Game programming sounds fun and sexy but it's a very tough gig where the odds are stacked against you. Schedules are necessarily tight. Performance concerns are paramount. And the requirements are prone to change as the game play is refined. This means that all three points of the software project (quality, schedule, requirements) are in play. To survive you need knowledge, tools, wisdom, and a little luck. This book provides you with at least three of those four.

I've read many books on game development. Frankly, most are poorly written collections of obsolete information. Game Coding Complete offers a wealth of current day to day useful information for coders and development managers alike. The title suggests it is just for coders, but all members of a development team could benefit from it. The sections on realistic scheduling and forecasting are some of the most honest I've ever seen. I've shown it to our director at our company and he has purchased several copies for general dissemination.

An excellent and incredibly informative book. My copy appeared two days ago and I've already finished it (although I will certainly be going through the whole thing again to make some notes for my game project design). This covers a lot of the things that other texts refer to but never go into detail about such as scene graphs, effective debugging, resource loading and caching, and initialization technique. A must for those who want to make large professional games.

Good:
Overall I am very impressed with this book. It is written in a clear and fun to read style with interesting real-life anecdotes injected throughout the text. I found the architecture presented to work very well in a multitude of applications (games, tools, game servers). I disagree with the reviewer that was upset with the level of technology presented. This book is about tying all those technologies together in a concise, functional system. Mr. Mike has done that very well. The specific render technology is up to the end user and with this architecture they can be used without a problem. I would actually preferred he drop the chapters on rendering and put more in on multithreading.

Bad:
I really can't complain too much about this book. I've been professionally developing software for quite some time and still learned a lot from it. My few complaints: I found the chapter on resource management to be weak. Not only are there better ways to do this (visitor pattern), but it glosses over streaming large files.

I give this book 4 stars because I think for a novice to intermediate game programmer, you just can't get much better. But as a more seasoned programmer, you might find yourself wanting more information about threading, patterns, and resource management.

Edit: Source Code is now available (http://www.mcshaffry.com/GameCode/)