Customer Reviews

Game Development With LUA (Game Development Series)

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The best thing about this book is that the CD contains an environment where you can script projects -- like the example game -- in Lua. The example game itself is not stellar. In fact, it ran very poorly on my PC, which is a new state-of-the-art game development system. The actual scripting presented in the book is not particularly elegant. That is, the title is written more from a hobbyist's perspective than the POV of a professional developer. In order to really learn Lua, you would be better off purchasing _Programming In Lua_ and talking to other Lua programmers on the Lua forums (http://www.icynorth.com/forums/index.php?c=8).

As a developer new to Lua, this book serves as a great introduction and reference guide. It started with the basics, explaining the history of Lua and what it was originally designed for. I was able to ramp up my Lua Development after reading this book.
For anyone looking to develop games with Lua, this book is a must have. I highly recommend it for everyone from the seasoned developer to the noob with aspirations to build games.

Paul Schuytema and Mark Manyen's Game Development With Lua discusses a program which uses complex artificial intelligence to enhance the game environment. While Game Development With Lua may seem like a guide for only the most advanced programmers, developers will be pleased to note it may be written by practicing Lua game developers for commercial development, but assumes little prior knowledge, providing both a history of Lua and how to blend it into a C++ development project. The focus is a blend of activities and instructions on key game development features which uses the game programmer's C++ basics to explain Lua links and applications.