The Game Maker's Apprentice: Game Development for Beginners 1st Corrected ed., Corr. 4th printing Edition

by Jacob Habgood (Author), Mark Overmars (Author), Phil Wilson (Foreword)

248 ratings

ISBN-13: 978-1590596159

ISBN-10: 1590596153

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The Game Makers Apprentice shows you how to create nine exciting games using the wildly popular Game Maker game creation tool. This book covers a range of genres, including action, adventure, and puzzle games complete with professional quality sound effects and visuals. It discusses game design theory and features practical examples of how this can be applied to developing games that are more fun to play.

Game Maker allows games to be created using a simple drag-and-drop interface, so you don’t need to have any prior coding experience. It includes an optional programming language for adding advanced features to your games, when you feel ready to do so. You can obtain more information by visiting book.gamemaker.nl.

The authors include the creator of the Game Maker tool and a former professional game programmer, so you’ll glean understanding from their expertise. The book also includes supplementary materials (on Apress.com) containing Game Maker software and all of the game projects that are created in the book—plus a host of professional-quality graphics and sound effects that you can use in your own games.

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Editorial Reviews

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From the reviews:

"The desire to create computer games attracts many young people to computing. This book meets the needs of this group of readers and students very well. It is also a fine introduction to the making of computer games for the experienced software developer who always wondered how games were made. … There are excellent software development lessons that can be learned using this book … . the book provides a superb introduction to programming as well as to game construction." (Anthony J. Duben, ACM Computing Reviews, Vol. 49 (5), May, 2008)

About the Author

Jacob's career in the games industry spans fourteen years, but he has been programming games as an amateur and professional now for a quarter of a century. During this time he has worked on over a dozen published games for all the major console platforms, including as the lead programmer of the cult British game, Hogs of War. He has programmed, designed and project-managed titles for publishers like Gremlin, Infogrames, Atari, Disney and Konami and he truly knows the meaning of the word "crunch".
Somehow he also found time to study a Ph.D. in the psychology of learning and has a passion for most things that connect video games and learning (including a whole lot of research involving zombies: zombiedivision.co.uk). This passion also extends to teaching game development, which he practices in his position as Senior Lecturer in Game Development at Sheffield Hallam University in the UK.

Start reading The Game Maker's Apprentice: Game Development for Beginners instantly on your Kindle Fire or on the free Kindle apps for iPad, Android tablet, PC or Mac. Don't have a free Kindle app? Get yours here

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Apress; 1st Corrected ed., Corr. 4th printing edition (July 10, 2006)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1590596153
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1590596159
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.94 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7 x 0.71 x 10 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #851,809 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #287 in Computer & Video Game Design
- #605 in Computer Graphics
- #651 in Game Programming

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Top reviews from the United States

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pro_crustes

Great Book, But Needs Updating To GameMaker:Studio

Reviewed in the United States on January 3, 2014

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This book bears a notice, "Copyright 2006-2013," so I assume it came out in 2006, long before GameMaker:Studio's 2012 release. As such, it includes Game Maker 8 on its CD, and the text refers to that version. Which would be fine if the only differences were that GameMaker:Studio includes more features than Game Maker 8 did, but that's not the case. The "Sleep" and "Show High Score" actions no longer exist, but are used in the instructional games and text, nonetheless.

Now, "sleep" functions of one kind or another have probably been used by generations of programmers who needed their continuous-action, real-time games to present a certain pace or timing to the player. Alas, a lot of those programmers were writing single-threaded, sequential-execution code (you know: FOR X=0 TO 359 STEP 5, and so on). In our current era of event-driven, multi-threaded software, "sleep" functions tend simply to muck things up. What we used to do with sleep, we now do with timers (what Game Maker calls "alarms"). That's a big step forward, but it plays havoc with the learning process when the text you are working from expects you to add a "Sleep" action in the middle of a list of actions, and you don't have that action available, nor do you know how you would get around it with Alarms (since those aren't introduced for another 80 pages and, even then, they are used to invoke the "Show High Scores" action, which, again, no longer exists).

So, I hope the authors will update the book to match the current version of the product. That said, let me go on to say that I _really_ hope they will do so, as this is otherwise a very, very good book. If you already know how to program, but find the GM IDE baffling, the examples will help you calm down and get focused. If you already know how to program, but find the immense list of GM functions and the large variety of ways to do things daunting, the examples will help you calm down and feel secure. But, if you don't already know how to program, this book may frustrate you, unless you limit yourself to the GM8 product on the included CD. I wouldn't recommend doing that, however, as you will then be "learning" methods that are already obsolete and simply _will not work_ when you start using GameMaker:Studio.

Ignoring the technical details, the book's methodological approach to game programming is very enlightening. I've written, oh, maybe a billion ( 8-) ) lines of code for computer graphics applications of one kind or another. Gaming is something I'm new at, however, and I've only been doing object-oriented programming for about four years now. So, when one example showed how to animate a character on the screen so it smoothly moves from one position to the next by replacing it with an instance of a different object, having that object's position remain unchanged, but animating its graphic appearance to make it look like it was moving, then replacing it with an instance of the original object but in the new location, well... that was an "aha!" moment for me.

Overall, a fine book. I will definitely be buying the sequel soon. But, until it is updated to reflect the actions available in the current version of GameMaker:Studio, I have to say it should be used only by people who already know how to program basic event-driven code, and who at least know what multi-threading is.

4 people found this helpful

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L. Figueroa

Remains an excellent introduction to creating games

Reviewed in the United States on March 3, 2012

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I decided to take a break from creating my own game engine and check out what more automated tools had to offer. This book provided me with many ideas on things I should be able to do with my own engine. It offers an excellent way to start creating professional looking 2D games. You can pick up a the latest copy of Game Maker Lite for free online. The graphics and sounds available on the books CD are excellent. I found myself creating levels and playing for some time (and cussing up a bit since even my own levels were challenging). Game Maker is an excellent prototyping tool and you may want to consider it for you plan on joining those 48-hour game jams. The book presents easy to follow instructions and the results are delightful games you can show off to your friends and family. The books also has chapters on general game design concepts (what makes a game fun to play). This book is still useful today for any future game designers and developers to get started.

2 people found this helpful

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N00basaurus

It's pretty awesome, though I would not recommend this book ...

Reviewed in the United States on September 19, 2014

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It's pretty awesome, though I would not recommend this book outside of a course of game design. Game Maker Studio has out paced this book as the book is based on an outdated version and calls for features/functions that are no longer in use. (so far the items that are no longer available are things like the "Display High Score Table" and "Sleep" events).

But for learning the basics, this book is pretty well done.

Also note: If you are buying it used (through Amazon or wherever else), you can download the resource CD at the publisher's website.

One person found this helpful

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kingspud

Easy read but tough concept to master....

Reviewed in the United States on May 10, 2009

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After purchasing this book I was a bit suprised how easy it was to create my first game. As I read on I really got into the concept of Drag & Drop programming. But... then as I got to the end I realized GML is the real power behind Gamemaker! D&D is great and works for simple games but GML is what you really need to learn. This is where the book goes a little down hill. I had so many ideas for what I wanted to program in my games and this book just didn't cover them. This book is for the beginner who wants to program some simple games but if you really want to learn to program games you will have to go to Google or the Gamemaker community forum to get the real help in GML programming! All in all this is a great read and it gets you started right off th bat but you will soon find yourself wanting more and that is when you will put this book down and look for other resouces!
Have fun!

2 people found this helpful

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TatsuSaisei

If you have, or can get, GM:S 1.4.X then you MUST get this book also!

Reviewed in the United States on September 28, 2018

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Been using this book for years to teach a class in video game design. I am going to miss this book as I transition my class to using the latest version of GM:S (2018). Really wish/hope I can find something equivalent, and more relevant, to the newest iteration of GameMaker!

If you have, or can get, GM:S 1.4.X then you MUST get this book also!

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wowgamer

How to use more than programming.

Reviewed in the United States on January 30, 2011

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This book has a lot of great information in it, however if you are looking for just straight programming for games, then this will just give you a little scratch of it. It's more of a "how-to-use" their program the game maker, than it is about programming.

However, it is a fun chance to create your own games from beginning to end.

Great layout, and excellent detail on how to program a game using their system.

They also have a link to their website that has a forum and a whole community of gamemaker programmers.

So if you are strictly looking for game programming, then just get this one as a supplement to your library, however dont get this is you are just starting out and want to strictly learn programming.

3 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

⭐️Nez⭐️

Great Intro to Game Dev for kids - and adults!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 6, 2019

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First of all, let me make this clear that I’m reviewing this based on my experience of having the version with the CD and the correct version of Gamemaker. I understand that this book no longer comes with the CD and Gamemaker has progressed to great new heights since this book came out.

Saying that, this book gave my son and I hours and hours of fun back in the day. He diligently worked his way through the book creating the games in there - and what wonderful little games they are. The book gives an enthusiastic tone into creating the games which made it so much easier to work through and the writing is clear and fun.

I would say that this book is excellent for an intro to game development as we had a complete blast with this book. I’m not sure whether the new version of Gamemaker has the same commands in so I’m not sure how relevant the book is anymore, but if you can get the old version working then I highly recommend this book.

One person found this helpful

S Thomas

Excellent beginner's book - still relevant with GM:Studio

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 20, 2014

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Been wanting to get into game development as a part time hobby for well over a decade! I bought Game Maker Studio Professional edition as an entry point but quickly found the built-in tutorials to be lacklustre and youtube videos were too disjointed and assumed different levels of base knowledge.

For the best A to Z of beginner game design pickup The Game Maker's Apprentice: Game Development for Beginners.

Pros:
- Comes with a CD full of art and sound assets to help build the demo games
- Lots of different style games to make including brick-break, puzzle, top-down explorer
- Very finely tuned difficulty progression throughout the book
- The English is well-explained with almost no errors and lots of clarifications and FYI's to enhance your knowledge of why we are doing something
- Well illustrated and layout is great
- Good introduction to scripting
- Introduces you to best practices which you often won't get when self-teaching.

Cons:
- Slightly out of date as based on an older version of Game Maker. I was able to complete the entire book however without problems. Some features mentioned in the book are no longer available or have been superseded including built-in High Score table and the sleep function amongst others.
- Lots of little projects which is great but nothing to really sink your teeth into. However, the book will take you a while to get through and the sequel "The Game Maker's Companion" offers more in depth projects.
- Sometimes a little elementary and there are a lot of repetitive tasks for each project such as creating sprites, sounds, objects etc before getting into the game design.

Overall, I am very satisfied with the book which is just what I was looking for and highly recommend it for Game Maker beginners and others who have watched a few YouTube videos but want a more academic step-by-step guide. On to the sequel!

5 people found this helpful

Venton

Excellent Introduction to Game Making

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 23, 2009

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This book is an absolute delight.
There is such enthusiasm flowing from the authors you get swept along on a fantastic adventure.
The step by step guide to creating games (using the included software) simply couldn't be any clearer. If you have any aptitude at all for making games you will find this book a revelation. By the end of the book (if not long before) you will not only be sparkling with ideas, but you will have the tools to bring them to life. I think this book will definitely be the starting point for many young game makers of the future.
I would like to meet the authors and shake them by the hand, this really is one of the best tutorial books I have come across on any subject.
If you have a kid who plays games, why not turn their enthusiasm into something more creative. Not only will they learn about making games, they will start to learn about programming computers and object oriented design - useful tools in the I.T. job market.
I used to be a game designer a long time ago, and I got this book for my ten year old son. He is downstairs now making another game and calling me to see his work - so much better than simply watching the TV. We really enjoyed working through the examples together.
If I had had this book when I was younger I would have thought I had died and gone to heaven. In my day I typed in buggy listings into a computer line by line and spent days trying to make it work. With game maker it is so much easier with a really friendly interface to click and drag objects around with. Plus, the games you make are really pretty good. You can even publish your games to the authors own web site (YoYo games) and get feedback from other players.

5 people found this helpful

Sue Reynolds

Excellent introduction to the hows and whys of game development

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 10, 2011

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My eldest son (now 9) has always wanted to learn to program games and I struggled for a place to start for him (learning programming by keying in listings from C&VG is no longer a suitable launchpad!). I discovered GameMaker and it looked just the ticket and he had fun playing with the example programs from the web but seemed to struggle with his own creations.

However, since he got this book his knowledge has come on leaps and bounds. Not only are the games he's creating using the book fun to play but he seems to have really understood how they work and I'm impressed at the speed he is adding features to the samples. Equally as impressive is the knowledge of how and why some games work and some don't (what might be called the psychology of game development) that the book delivers. The real world examples cited in the book are entertaining and really convey the intended messages well.

I just need to get it out of his mitts more often so that I can have a go!

Highly recommended.

One person found this helpful

Rocky Sokolov

Inspiring and didactic

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 11, 2017

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This books is well written and gives you step by step guides to create certain types of games, you can easily get inspired to make your own games just a few chapters in which is great, the only cons in my opinion is that it is a bit outdated and some of the steps have to be worked around as they're missing in the newer versions. However I feel like this book is really well written and one of the best choices to go for if you want to start with gamemaker studio

2 people found this helpful

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