Introduction to Game Development, Second Edition

出版者:Charles River Media

作者:Steve Rabin

页数:1016

出版时间:2009-06-26

价格:USD 69.99

装帧:Hardcover

isbn号码:9781584506799

具体描述

Welcome to Introduction to Game Development, Second Edition, the new edition of the book that combines the wisdom and expertise of more than twenty game industry professionals to give you a unique introduction to all aspects of game development, from design to programming to business and production. Organized around the curriculum guidelines of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), the book is divided into seven independent sections, each featuring articles written by the experts on those topics. Suitable for both an introductory game development course or as a reference for game developers and designers, the book offers coverage of all the key concepts and ideas that encompass game development, while providing real-life examples and practical insight. Fully revised for today?s technology, this second edition features an expanded section on game design, a new chapter on game writing and interactive storytelling, and much more. And the accompanying CD-ROM contains all the source code, demos, art files, and other materials referenced throughout the book. Introduction to Game Development, Second Edition is a must-have resource for anyone who wants to understand the entire game development process.

作者简介

Steve Rabin is a Principal Software Engineer at Nintendo of America, where he researches new techniques for Nintendo's next generation systems, develops tools, and supports Nintendo developers. Before Nintendo, Steve worked primarily as an AI engineer at several Seattle start-ups including Gas Powered Games,WizBang Software Productions, and Surreal Software. He managed and edited the AI Game Programming Wisdom series of books, as well as the book Introduction to Game Development, and has over a dozen articles published in the Game Programming Gems series. He's spoken at the Game Developers Conference and moderates the AI roundtables. Steve teaches artificial intelligence at both the University of Washington Extension and at the DigiPen Institute of Technology. He earned a B.S. in Computer Engineering and an M.S. in Computer Science, both from the University of Washington

目录信息

Part 1 - Critical Game studies: This is an overview of the whole history and concept behind games. It covers the historic of games (where we came from, and to where are we going), social issues, and (my personal favorite) ludology for game development. This is a whole chapter dedicated to discuss what is fun, and how to achieve it. This chapter really made me think about a couple of things :).
Part 2 - Game Design: Expanding on the last chapter of part 1, here is explained HOW to make games fun. Issues like multiple choices, types of fun, characterization of games and such are all presented here.
Part 3 - Game programming: Languages and architecture: To me, this part didn't bring much new stuff (then again, i'm doing a PhD in computer science, so i have experience in programming). But i recognize some VERY interesting points, and possibilities shown in the first chapters. In special, the chapter that talks about Flash and Action script really got my attention.
The latter chapters about debugging, game architecture and memory I/O, are VERY interesting and offered me many insights about the game development process and needed technology.
Part 4 - Game programming: Math, Collision detection and Physics: Despite the title this part will not teach you how to implement these things in your game (well... not directly). This chapters will give a "brief" introduction about each of the topics mentioned. But be aware, while "introductory", some parts can get really complicated (like the physics part).
Part 5 - Game programming: Graphics, animation, AI, Audio and Networking: Again, lots of interesting stuff here. The chapter about graphics and animation really got me confused at some parts :)
The AI chapters are REALLY cool, and give you some interesting concepts. The only part of the book i think that lacks something is that chapter about networking: it just talks about architecture, no much about programming (but then again, i was already well versed in this topic).
Part 6 - Audio visual design and production: Ok, so we have programmers, but what about the rest?
This part describes lots of technics and areas of expertise that i didn't even know that existed :)
Musicians, composers, modelers, texturers... everything is described here.
Part 7 - Game production and the business of game: Another VERY interesting part. With tons of infos from the people already familiar with the industry. What is publisher, how to get one, why do your game costs 50 bucks when it goes to the shelves, what is Intellectual Property, how to assures yours, how to sell your game... everything is described here.
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用户评价

作为一个对艺术和叙事表达有较高要求的读者，我非常关注技术实现如何服务于创意表达。我希望这本书不仅仅停留在教会我“如何写代码”的层面，更应该深入探讨“如何用代码讲故事”。例如，当我们在谈论角色动画和物理模拟时，它能否提供一些关于如何让角色动作看起来“自然”而不是僵硬的技巧？或者在涉及到AI设计时，它是否会探讨如何设计出既有挑战性又符合游戏世界观的敌人行为逻辑，而不是简单的状态机堆砌？我尤其关注关卡设计与程序化生成之间的关系。现代游戏越来越依赖程序化内容来增加游戏的可重玩性，我希望这本书能提供一些前沿的思路，比如如何用算法来生成既独特又符合设计规范的地图结构，而不仅仅是教我如何拖拽预设资源。如果它能在章节中穿插一些关于“设计哲学”的思考，讨论不同开发人员在面对同一个技术难题时，是如何权衡性能、美观和开发效率的，那么这本书的价值将远远超出技术手册的范畴，成为一本启发创意的工具书。

这本书的装帧和排版给我的第一印象是相当专业且注重细节的。纸张的质感摸起来很舒服，不像有些技术书籍那样粗糙，这使得长时间阅读的体验得到了保证。字体和行距的设置非常合理，即便是涉及大段代码示例或者复杂的流程图时，视觉上也不会感到拥挤和疲劳。我特别欣赏它在章节结构上的安排，每一章似乎都有一个清晰的逻辑起点和终点，就像精心设计的游戏关卡一样，稳步推进，层层递进。我注意到它似乎非常强调“实践出真知”的理念，因为在很多理论讲解的旁边，都有附带的“动手做”小节，这对于我们这些渴望快速上手的人来说简直是福音。我很想知道它在介绍引擎和工具集（比如Unity或Unreal的基础概念）时，是如何平衡不同平台的考量，是选择深入讲解一个主流工具，还是提供一个更宏观的、适用于任何工具的通用知识框架。如果它能在关键概念后提供自测题或者小项目建议，那就完美了，这样我就能随时检验自己是否真正吸收了知识，而不是仅仅“读完”了而已。

这本书的篇幅看起来相当可观，这让我对内容的深度抱有很高的期望。我最担心的是，很多入门级的书籍为了追求“简单易懂”而过度简化了复杂的技术概念，导致读者在遇到实际问题时依然束手无策。因此，我非常期待它在数据结构和算法在游戏开发中的应用部分能展现出真正的功力。比如，它如何解释碰撞检测的优化策略，或者在处理大规模场景下的寻路算法时，是如何选择和实现特定的数据结构（如四叉树或八叉树）的。如果它能深入剖析内存管理在资源密集型游戏中的重要性，以及如何避免常见的性能陷阱，那将是非常宝贵的。我希望它不会回避那些真正棘手的问题，例如如何处理并发和多线程，这在现代游戏引擎中是不可避免的挑战。换句话说，我希望这本书能成为一本“进阶的起点”，而不是“浅尝辄止的开端”。如果它能指出哪些领域需要进一步深入学习，并推荐后续的专业书籍或资源，那就体现了作者的责任心和对读者成长的真正关怀。

我对技术书籍有一个独特的偏好，那就是希望作者的“声音”能够清晰地传达出来，而不是那种冰冷、面无表情的教科书式叙述。我希望这本书的作者在讲解复杂的系统时，能像一个老朋友一样，坦诚地分享自己过去在项目中犯过的错误和学到的惨痛教训。这种“过来人”的经验往往比纯粹的理论陈述更有力量，也更容易让人记住。例如，在讲解版本控制或项目管理时，作者能否描述一下当团队成员同时修改同一文件导致灾难性后果的经历，并借此引出Git等工具的必要性？这种带有故事性的教学方式，能够更好地将抽象的“最佳实践”固化为直观的经验法则。此外，我希望这本书对行业未来的趋势有所洞察。鉴于游戏开发技术日新月异，一个优秀的教程不应该只关注当下，还应该为读者描绘出未来几年的技术走向，比如WebAssembly在游戏中的潜在应用，或者云游戏对客户端开发提出的新要求。如果能在这方面提供一些前瞻性的思考，这本书就不仅仅是“介绍”了，它更像是一个能指引方向的灯塔。

这本书的书名听起来很吸引人，因为它直指“游戏开发”这个我一直非常好奇的领域。我一直对电子游戏背后的技术和艺术结合充满了敬畏，想象着如何将一个抽象的概念变成一个可以互动的世界，这本身就是一种魔法。我期待这本书能像一个经验丰富的向导，带领我这个完全的新手，安全地踏入这个充满可能性的领域。我希望它能从最基础的概念开始讲起，比如什么是游戏循环，不同类型的游戏（如RPG、策略、平台跳跃）在技术实现上有哪些本质的区别，以及如何用最直观的方式理解编程在游戏中的应用。理想情况下，它应该能用清晰的语言解释那些听起来很“硬核”的术语，而不是直接抛出一堆我需要花大量时间去谷歌搜索的定义。如果它能结合一些历史上的经典案例，比如某个开创性游戏的开发趣闻或者技术突破，那就更棒了，这样既能增加趣味性，也能帮助理解行业的发展脉络。我希望能看到一些关于资源管理、用户界面设计这些虽然不是核心编程，但对最终产品质量至关重要方面的探讨。总而言之，我期望它是一扇通往游戏世界的大门，而不是一堵高墙。