Customer Reviews

3D Game Programming for Teens

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

 

 

Don't let the run down of this book fool you. Despite what the read-up states, this book appears to concentrate on coding in Blitz3D - a fantastic 2D and 3D program, capable of producing excellent results very quickly.

This book appears to cover all the basics required to get you up and running and creating your very own 3D games using the tools available on the included CD (demo versions of Blitz3D, 3ds Max8 and CorelDRAW). Following the easy to read prose, you will discover how to create a real 3D game from the foundations up, including game design, graphics, sound, modelling and gameplay techniques, hints and tips.

Whilst this book is about programming computer games, it also deals with the history of gaming - although this limited to videogame consoles and ignores home computers completely - something which I find very odd, seeing as home computers such as the ZX Spectrum, C64, Amstrad CPC, Commodore Amiga and Atari ST and even PCs etc. allow(ed) people to actually create their own games at home - something no consoles ever did.

However, the information contained within the first sections are accurate, up-to-date, but very brief. The author does rightly state that to cover gaming achievements and machines etc. would take a book in itself, but still omitting home computers is strange in a book based on programming.

The book is easy to read, and is squarely aimed at beginners to programming 3D games - whether a teenager or not.

Whilst this book shows you how to code a game in Blitz3D, it does not attempt to actually teach 3D programming, rather it just uses the 3D commands etc. within Blitz3D - you will not be able to create your very own FPS or other 3D game in a different programming lanaguage.

The book contains numerous photos and diagrams which help to describe what you should be seeing whilst working through the book and clearly explains the tools that you will be working with.

Overall, a great book for anyone that is new to programming and/or interested in creating their very own 3D games, no matter what your age. Ideal for beginners.

In my opinion, this book is very out of order. The author teaches you concepts about 3D programming, before he acually tells you the basics about programming. So throughout the whole book, you don't understand why or what you are typeing. I was able to understand the book very well, only because I have been programming for a bit already. If you'd like to learn basic 3D programming, this is a very good book. Just read a few other books about programming before you read this. It will make understanding this book much easier. I'd recommend "Game Programming For Teens 2E", it's the first programming book I read. And that book is very well put together, unlike this one.

The intended audience for this book is someone with an interest in Video Game programming with possibly a bit of previous programming experience in any language.

I would imagine that the series title "for teens" is a marketers idea of a synonym for "for dummies" or such. In any case the book does deliver in that the style is light, the learning curve very reasonable, and a substantial amount of material is covered. The author does a very good job of isolating the concept being discussed at each point in the text and in the related code examle presented.

On the downside, there are a small number of problems with the example code (about 5), and I also thought that the start of each example project that started in the middle of a chapter could have been hilited better. These points are a little picky so I only dinged it one star.

While the author could have gone into more depth topics, there is really nothing that could have been cut from the book without harm so more depth would have meant a larger and most likely costlier book. As it is, the book provides a solid enough foundation for an interested reader to extend the concepts to more complex projects.

While C++ or C# might be a great destination for someone with aspirations of being a professional game programmer, the learning curve on those languages is far steeper than the Blitz Basic used here, and the game design concepts one would aquire using this framework will come much faster and be quite transferrable.

For someone at the level of "a little bit of programming experience or ready for a small challenge", this is a fine selection.

If you feel you are beyond this and are looking to jump into a C flavor game environment, I would check out the just released: Microsoft® XNA® Game Studio 3.0: Learn Programming Now! (Pro - Developer) by Rob Miles.
The author also has a free downloadable C# tutorial pdf book that can be accessed through his website verysillygames.com which is outstanding.

If you want to start at a more introductory level I would suggest: The Game Maker's Apprentice: Game Development for Beginners (Technology in Action) by Jacob Habgood, Mark Overmars, and Phil Wilson - a book that is, in my opinion, simply the most well crafted instructional book of any kind I have ever read.

Bruce Kirkpatrick
MCSE, MCSD, MCDBA, MCT, OCP, iNet+, Network+, Security +, A+ ... and so on

This book was easy to read and understand. Lives up to it's intended purpose, which is to teach the basics of 3D game programming. I liked the fact that the CD contains a demo copy of Blitz3D, which, does not time out. It also contained lots of demo code, that you can study, and other useful software for creating graphics and 3D models. Buy this book along with Maneesh Sethi's "Game Programming For Teens" and you will have a solid foundation to build on.

For a long time i've been looking for a book that offers a good, easy-learning hands-on approach on Blitz 3D programming, and this is it! The book is very versatile since it is not only focusing specificly on coding, but also what's the essence of a good game. It gives a brief history of gaming history, telling you what it takes to make you a successful game programmer and how to bring your own ideas to life. After reading this book there is one thing that i feel that i would like to see, a follow-up! This book left me craving for the learning of some more advanced programming techniques since it tend to be overexplicit to some extent (which actually is a good thing if you are REALLY new to programming!). Nonetheless, if you want to learn how to be a successful programmer, regardless of your present programmings kills, this book is definitely a good start. Every game-programmer can read this book and learn something new, and they will have a enjoyable time doing so!

I have been trying to get a hold of a great step-by-step book on 3D programming that goes in great detail. If that's the kind of book that you're looking for, then this is for you. After thoroughly reading this book, I finally defeated the first obstacle of 3D computer programming and learned a bit of history, too.

I initially approached this book with much enthusiasm. The author is a very engaging writer, intermingling an otherwise boring subject with much humor.

However, this book is not really all it is cracked up to be. For starters, the book deals with a little known 3D game engine based in BASIC known as Blitz3D. For those interested in pursuing a career in game design, C++ is the standard, not this obscure programming language which few know about.

The book contains a fair amount of typos, some even in the programming code itself. In the section on audio, the author forgets to add quotation marks around an audio file name. I wondered why my program didn't start, as I copied his code line-for-line, and had to gruel for four hours before I finally discovered the result. A beginner to programming languages shouldn't be forced to figure things out on his own, as the user is often left to do. This may not be the author's fault, but his copy-editor should have been fired.

The book delves a little bit into 3ds Max and Corel PhotoDraw which actually are industry standards. It should be commended for this (hence the reason I gave it two stars). However, it touches on them only briefly. The section on 3ds Max is incredibly vague. 3ds Max has a very detailed and thorough GUI (graphical user interface) and it can be fairly difficult to find things without more detailed instructions (preferably with pictures, as there are few in this section). Likewise, the author often copy-and-pastes information from previous exercises in Corel PhotoDraw. What you actually get is a rehash of what you already just read, down to the same file names, instead of focusing on what the section should ACTUALLY be about.

This book had the potential to be better, but a large part of it was sloppy editing. However, I think the name "3D Game Programming for Teens" is a misnomer. Perhaps a better title would be "Blitz3D For Teens" (you could even drop the "For Teens" part and call it "How To Program in Blitz3D"). If people want to learn how to program real 3D games, I'd suggest learning C++. It is not that difficult if you put in the time and effort.

However, if you are fine with making sub par games, then I'm sure there's a better reference. In fact, the free package of Blitz3D comes packed-in with programming tips and examples to practice with. But be prepared to spend $100 to make larger projects. The free package only allows files up to a certain size; another reason to consider C++ because it is virtually free if you get the correct compiler.