Game Development With LUA (Game Development Series) (Paperback)

by Paul Schuytema (Author), Mark Manyen (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Lua has gained momentum in the game development world due to its power and easy control of complex GUIs and artificial intelligence. If you’re a developer just starting to use Lua, or you’re considering using it, Game Development with Lua will teach you everything you need to know. And if you’re new to scripting languages altogether, this book will also teach you how they can be used in game development effectively.

Written by practicing Lua game developers, the book teaches how to use Lua for commercial game development. It begins with a brief history of Lua and explains how to incorporate Lua into a C++ project. It details the key features and advantages of Lua and then takes you through the development of a "rapid prototype" game called Take Away. This game provides the context with which to explore the foundational C++ approaches and the Lua scripting approaches to saving and loading game data, building a modular and flexible GUI system, managing a game’s real-time events through Lua scripts, and using Lua to define and control game AI. There are also several smaller games along with a full technology base, so even non-programmers can look under the hood to see what makes a game tick.

If you’re looking for an efficient, affordable, and easy-to-learn language for your games, Lua is the right choice and this book will teach you how to use it effectively.

KEY FEATURES: * Teaches the ins-and-outs of game development with Lua * Explains how to link the Lua API into your C++ application so you can create your own LuaGlue functions that allow Lua to extend your C++ functionality. * Provides the fi rst book dedicated to teaching game programming with Lua * Enables new developers to rapidly prototype ideas, interfaces, and ideas without deep programming knowledge * Includes a CD-ROM with all the source code from the book and all the tools needed to create your own Lua games On the CD! * The Lua console, the Lua manual, and the source code for Lua 5.0 * Lua scripts and executable programs used within each chapter * Microsoft® DirectX® SDK DX9.0c plus the latest runtime distributable package * Figures from the book organized by chapter * Documents for the Take Away design and a Lua scripting style guide * License documents for both Lua and Ogg Vorbis * The OggVorbis music system source code * Complete version of Take Away, the game developed throughout the book * Shareware version of the Zeus program editor used for editing Lua scripts

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS P450 or better processor, Windows 2000/XP, 32MB of RAM. For the demos: DirectX 9 (included on CDROM), DX-compatible 3D video accelerator. DirectX SDK requires: Microsoft Windows® 98, Windows Millennium Edition (Windows Me), or Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, ~65 megabytes (MB) of available space for installation. Lua runs on most any system that can compile standard C code. Ogg Vorbis requires: Microsoft Windows 95, 98, Me, NT, 2000 or XP, a soundcard. Processor: Pentium 200 mhz or more, 32 MB of RAM. Zeus requires: Microsoft Windows 95, 98, Me, NT, 2000 or XP, 4 MB RAM, and 4.5 MB available disk space.

About the Author
Paul Schuytema (Monmouth, IL) has been a professional game developer for over ten years and has spoken at the past ten GDC conferences. He has produced and designed over twenty games and written more than 200 professional articles and authored or co-authored over a dozen books. He teaches college-level creative writing and journalism, and he received the Governor’s 2002 Entrepreneurial Success Award in Illinois. He was also the primary scriptor for Magic Lantern. Mark Manyen (Monmouth, IL) was most recently the technical director for Magic Lantern where he directed the technology on more than 25 games. He incorporated Lua into Magic Lantern’s J5 technology suite and created all "Lua Glue" hooks into the J5 codebase.

Product Details

• Paperback: 380 pages
• Publisher: Charles River Media; 1 edition (August 5, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1584504048
• ISBN-13: 978-1584504047
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #417,035 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

• This item is part of The Charles River Media Game Development Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Hardly Worth the Price, February 25, 2006

By	Psychonaut_1968 (St. Louis, MO) - See all my reviews

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).

8 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A blend of activities and instructions on key game development features , January 2, 2006

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

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.