Game Development Essentials: An Introduction

This book creates a good foundation for learning about the modern game development process. Overall, I am happy with the book, and would recommend it to a beginner or as a quick read to fill in the gaps of an intermediate developer. I do have three complaints, however.First off, it reads like a textbook. Take a few minutes to read the sample chapter. I thought the nature of that chapter forced the dryness of the reading, but the entire book reads this way. Be prepared for this, and structure your reading time accordingly.Second, the author frequently includes quotes from various people in the field. I think this is excellent, and I wish more authors would do this. However, the author also includes a paragraphs with the person's credentials in-line with the text before the quote. The completely destroys the flow of the content, and severely distracts from the subject matter being presented.Lastly, the frequent references to other books in the series makes this book feel like a marketing pamphlet. I understand this Introduction book is limited in scope, but a single page at the beginning of the book that references the other in-depth books would be more helpful. The in-line self-advertisements were irritating, and just make it harder to find them later if I actually want to dig up that book.As I said previously, I would recommend this book. It's a solid intro to the topics at hand. If you go into it prepared for the above distractions, and with the understanding that this book is an overview and not a deep-dive, you should be able to maximize what you get from this book.

Game Development Essentials (3rd Ed.) - Lays out the groundwork to help readers develop the foundational knowledge and common language required to get into the game industry, or brush up on their existing knowledge. Straight to the point, factual and comprehensive, the third edition of the book brings readers up to speed on everything they would need to know about game development. From its humble beginnings, all the way up to the most current trends, this book covers it all. Since it is impossible to go too in-depth on any one topic, this book is an excellent stepping stone to the author's other game development books, of which are numerous. My favorite sections are the interviews with industry professionals, which offer a glimpse of what is going on in the real world, as opposed to topics you may find only in purely academic textbooks.The author is knowledgeable and accomplished in her field, and I would highly recommend this book as a must read to anyone interested in game development.

I am a programmer, and I bought this book in a hope to learn some principles in game design and game play. In reality, the book is probably written for some other target audience. The paper quality is very good, the book contains lots of screenshots (which make pages colorful, but are often irrelevant), lots of meaningless interviews with some people in game industry. All in all, quite a lot of material, but most of it seems too general or well-known for a technical guy like me. There are, however, some very basic advices or best practices of the game development and publishing business process, and DVD contains some document templates and checklists which may be used by a project/product manager of a game (which is again not me). These templates, however, so generic that any experienced manager either already has them from past projects, or create his/her own in no time. The book is also not for kids/teens, as they already learned a lot more from their actual game experience. So, the question is: who is the target audience of this book? Honestly, I have no idea. Probably it may be of interest to someone who has spent last 30 years in a cave and now wants to quickly understand what these video games are and what is the business around them. With all respect to the author and the obviously enormous work which was dedicated to this book, I am still in search of something more relevant to the game development and design.

This is a really great book that gives an in-depth view into the gaming industry. It goes through the history, gamer types, game genres, sub-genres, gamer generations, etc. This book also has insight from industry professionals, and is pretty well laid out from what I could remember (bought it a while ago). Overall this a great book for those starting out in the game industry, and is one of the better college books I've purchased.

For people new to development, this book is a goos first start. If you know anything about development, then this book isn't for you.I am a newbie and helped out a lot.

Great condition, mostly history of computerised gaming and less on game creation. Was required for class but didn't use it much.

Product was brand new and even came with the CD access, Arrived a few days early.

it nearly matches our text book. it is simple to be used. it can be refered just like learning inside the classroom.

Professor mandou fazer o GDD? Esse livro fala tudo o que precisa antes de chegar no GDD. É um guia abrangente sobre o processo de desenvolvimento de games, com comentários de profissionais da área, pertinentes ao assunto. Um investimento necessário para quem quer saber mais sobre o assunto e atuar na área.

Good book!

Book was cheap and was near mint condition