Hello Mr. Mike and Rez,
So I picked up Game Coding Complete 4th edition, fantastic book! As soon as I got it I read the entire book in about a day and a half, and then I read it completely again. Not too many books I do that with.
I want to commend both of you on spreading this information and all the inside secrets you share with your readers. Very few people would ever take the time to write a book and share information like this which is generally kept in very closed circles. And I'm pretty sure you aren't exactly getting rich on this so I would at least like to give you a huge thanks!
I really like your component system instead of using multiple inheritance for everything, glad someone finally said it. Also your event messaging style of implementing communication between objects was very well done and if anyone listens to you will save them hours of coding and make expanding their code extremely simple. These two things in my mind really stick out from the book as incredibly valueable tools; and on top of that they were very well explained.
Tales from the pixel mines were fantastic! I grew up on savage empire, ultima, and everything else from origin. Knowing the stories behind them makes you feel like you were almost there when they were making your favorite games of all time. Also the AI story of the executioner who jumped into the monster pit in the sims made me howl. I would purchase a book that was just entirely tales from the pixel mines.
Now one thing that I found interesting (especially as the book proceeded along) was that the stories of crunch time, publisher dead lines, and so forth really starts to take on a very grim sounding job. In an industry that is very infantile in its business proceedings (crunch time, low pay, release dates and disk pressing dates in stone for a game that is currently crashing hard, etc.) I need to ask why do you still participate in it? With the exact same skill set (in fact ones even significantly less) you could get a job that pays 3-4 times as much and only work a 9-5. So why are you still participating in the industry? In the book neither of you ever gave a very solid, convincing answer.
I'm glad you talked a lot about workflow on a team, using different versioning control systems, branching, and so forth. Very few people talk about those things but they are critical for productivity, and your suggestions really send a person down the right path.
Your book really addressed a gap that no one covers. Most books just talk graphics and discuss usually a very poor engine setup, and maybe a touch of AI. And thats where pretty much every book out there stops, so basically less than 2-3% of what you need to know to code a game yourself or work with a team. Your book really fills in at least 75-80% of what a person needs to know which no other book I have read does. Your book is so ahead of everything out there, but at the same time I don't think the majority of people reading it are going to understand that unless they have ever worked on a professional project.
So once again thank you for covering the real inside details of coding a game (especially as it relates to working on a team), I haven't read anything this good in years.
Thanks,
Craig.
So I picked up Game Coding Complete 4th edition, fantastic book! As soon as I got it I read the entire book in about a day and a half, and then I read it completely again. Not too many books I do that with.
I want to commend both of you on spreading this information and all the inside secrets you share with your readers. Very few people would ever take the time to write a book and share information like this which is generally kept in very closed circles. And I'm pretty sure you aren't exactly getting rich on this so I would at least like to give you a huge thanks!
I really like your component system instead of using multiple inheritance for everything, glad someone finally said it. Also your event messaging style of implementing communication between objects was very well done and if anyone listens to you will save them hours of coding and make expanding their code extremely simple. These two things in my mind really stick out from the book as incredibly valueable tools; and on top of that they were very well explained.
Tales from the pixel mines were fantastic! I grew up on savage empire, ultima, and everything else from origin. Knowing the stories behind them makes you feel like you were almost there when they were making your favorite games of all time. Also the AI story of the executioner who jumped into the monster pit in the sims made me howl. I would purchase a book that was just entirely tales from the pixel mines.
Now one thing that I found interesting (especially as the book proceeded along) was that the stories of crunch time, publisher dead lines, and so forth really starts to take on a very grim sounding job. In an industry that is very infantile in its business proceedings (crunch time, low pay, release dates and disk pressing dates in stone for a game that is currently crashing hard, etc.) I need to ask why do you still participate in it? With the exact same skill set (in fact ones even significantly less) you could get a job that pays 3-4 times as much and only work a 9-5. So why are you still participating in the industry? In the book neither of you ever gave a very solid, convincing answer.
I'm glad you talked a lot about workflow on a team, using different versioning control systems, branching, and so forth. Very few people talk about those things but they are critical for productivity, and your suggestions really send a person down the right path.
Your book really addressed a gap that no one covers. Most books just talk graphics and discuss usually a very poor engine setup, and maybe a touch of AI. And thats where pretty much every book out there stops, so basically less than 2-3% of what you need to know to code a game yourself or work with a team. Your book really fills in at least 75-80% of what a person needs to know which no other book I have read does. Your book is so ahead of everything out there, but at the same time I don't think the majority of people reading it are going to understand that unless they have ever worked on a professional project.
So once again thank you for covering the real inside details of coding a game (especially as it relates to working on a team), I haven't read anything this good in years.
Thanks,
Craig.
The post was edited 1 time, last by Craig L. ().