(Part 2) Reddit mentions: The best computer & video game strategy guides

Evading the popular (and relatively useless) answer "it depends", let's get down to business: these things have actually been documented since long ago, for AoC at least, and the basics of them haven't really changed. Take a look at this review (not mine, but I ~agree on the content, I added some commentary in parentheses, and brutally crossed over things I did not fully agree with) of Andre's ebook in which there is presented one way of determining raw cost-effectiveness of eco- and military techs alike:
>
> TheAoCPlayer

> 5.0 out of 5 starsThe most detailed AoC book to date

> May 3, 2016

> Oh boy! 3 years since the last AoC Book [referring to Chris Bourque's published book that is not as broad as this one, focusing instead on his own vision of the game], but this one was worth the wait!
>
> Let's get right to it. Client-wise, if you play on Steam and learn everything in this book, you'll be close to the top of the AoHD Ladder. For Voobly, I'd say 1500-1900 players should be able to gain a respectable amount of knowledge [This notion should be of particularly much interest for an NPL-MS transitioner, as there is likely a great deal of conceptually new information in it that would raise one's gameplay considerably]. That is not to say that higher or lower players can not, but I'd say that'd be the average that will benefit the most from this book.
>
> Positives:
> -Great Terminology. By this I mean, you get to understand tactics like "Powering", "Zoning", "Feint Attack" etc, which was really refreshing as they are not used much in discussion but are vastly important to anyone wanting to take the game seriously.
>
> -Very Technical. I'd almost like to say too technical in something parts, but that's being unfair. Let's face it, for years people post the same questions and get the same replies; most of them "depends". The game is 16 years old, there shouldn't be questions about the basic stuff anymore. [And there really isn't, if one wants to do the (easy) math themselves via eg. aoe2stats.net or simply asking around, gathering the information from around the net]
> With this book, there are still some "depends" situations, but many of the basic and advanced eco/army/strat/tactical questions are explored and answered in great depth to explain when, why, how, pros, cons etc. This will be very refreshing for anyone that gets sick of looking through 100's of forum topics.
>
> -Strategy Section. Very well done. The BOs are enough to give you foundation and then guide you on how to play afterwards depending on what you want to do. I think almost every strat/start is in there, (even a persian TC rush) except for Nomad/Land Nomad/Regicide Fortress ones. Someone can quite easily be a solid 1750 Voobly player from the BO section alone.
>
> -Diagrams&Charts. This was absolutely one of the highlights of this book. They were in such detail and had a great way of explaining hard concepts. They were a very nice contrast as they were done with what seemed like bold colours. (the author had the colour-blind in mind!)
>
> notice the word is "critiques" and not "cons" ;)
> Critiques:
>
> -The order of the book. It did have some great flow (especially in the middle) if you understood basic AoC concepts, but I feel like a new/beginner player maybe be lost if reading the first few chapters. I notice this with many books and maybe something at the start to steer newer players to the end of the book (which had more beginner info like hotkeys etc) would have been helpful. Not a big con, but it's worth mentioning considering the word "basic" usually is aimed at beginners.
>
> -Repeating. Now this can be tricky to explain, but I feel like there was noticeable amount of overlapping in some areas. In particular this happened in the BO section, but a few others aswell. I can understand the point of trying to hammer in facts or using memory techniques, but I feel it was unnecessary in some parts; that might just be me.
>
> -Diagrams. There was a lack of them for about 30-40 pages and actually felt myself losing interest a bit.
>
> -Sometimes inconsistent. I noted this happening in the BO section where some strats would have pros/cons(fast castle eagles) and many other would not.
>
> Now, why did I include such fussy critiques? Because I made contact with the author and know he is going to update his book. The same way a player needs to readjust themselves in order to improve, creating a great book follows the same principle and the author knows this.
>
>I'd liked to have given this book 4.5 as I feel some things are missing for it to be called "complete", but all things considered it was just well done and it is worth reading a few times; that's how much you can learn from it. Coupled with the fact the author has actually said he may write more follow up books, I had to slant it to 5 stars because to attempt a book like this takes so much time and effort and this kind of dedication/support for the AoC Community is in low supply.
>~~ [After this time I assume Andre is not interested in a follow-up book, regarding the Expansions-content]

> I don't want to make this a longer review considering I just finished a very long book and you might soon be starting it. If you are information hungry, this is the go-to source of information you should reference; for that alone it is worth the cost. The diagrams and questioning help to put you in the exact situations where most players get confused or lost in - saying "What do I do now". It's remarkable to be able to recreate and transfer that feeling from the game to the book, but the author managed to capture that perfectly and explain how to handle those situations.
>
> Probably bold to say, but this book's contributions to the community will be close to that of UP, small trees and widescreen; it'll be appreciated for a long while. [Having shamelessly referenced this book's information for over a year, whenever I got the urge to do some git-gud helpful posts/comments, I have to agree in sentiment, but not the scale; UP (UserPatch) should stand alone as the greatest community-contribution created to date (especially since it effectively enabled WololoKingdom's creation afaik)]
>
> Usually everyone wants to know about results. I'd say if you think of yourself as a beginner or low level player before reading the book, after understand and then being able to apply some/most of the knowledge, 1800 voobly rating should be a very realistic result; if not higher. I know if the readers put as much effort into learning/practicing as the author has in creating this book, it's entirely possible.
>
> I am going to more than likely have to reread this book and edit my review to make it more specific to better reflect the detail that was given to this book. If you have any questions about my review/the book, feel free to leave a comment here.
>
> Thanks for the great read Andre!

__

I felt it prudent to share this review from the book's Amazon page since I know (as a reader of the ebook) that any reader wouldn't feel necessitated to ask these questions.

___

The way that military upgrades' cost-effectiveness is measured and documented in this work is: "Finally, when I say it’s worth it to research the upgrade at ~X units, that means that after you have X units, it becomes cheaper to increase your combat power by researching the upgrade than spending the same amount of resources on more units.", where combat power is defined as

• Unit combat power = ( Atk * HP ) / FR , and the results are rounded up/down based on whether the upgrade deals in factors not included in the formula (range, defense points)
  
  _____
  
  Alternatively to the above, you can do some normal improving with help of stuff such as this, like everyone else who doesn't like buying stuff based on a random redditor's recommendation.

Game Engine:

Game Engine Architecture by Jason Gregory, best you can get.

Game Coding Complete by Mike McShaffry. The book goes over the whole of making a game from start to finish, so it's a great way to learn the interaction the engine has with the gameplay code. Though, I admit I also am not a particular fan of his coding style, but have found ways around it. The boost library adds some complexity that makes the code more terse. The 4th edition made a point of not using it after many met with some difficulty with it in the 3rd edition. The book also uses DXUT to abstract the DirectX functionality necessary to render things on screen. Although that is one approach, I found that getting DXUT set up properly can be somewhat of a pain, and the abstraction hides really interesting details about the whole task of 3D rendering. You have a strong background in graphics, so you will probably be better served by more direct access to the DirectX API calls. This leads into my suggestion for Introduction to 3D Game Programming with DirectX10 (or DirectX11).



C++:

C++ Pocket Reference by Kyle Loudon
I remember reading that it takes years if not decades to become a master at C++. You have a lot of C++ experience, so you might be better served by a small reference book than a large textbook. I like having this around to reference the features that I use less often. Example:

namespace
{
//code here
}

is an unnamed namespace, which is a preferred method for declaring functions or variables with file scope. You don't see this too often in sample textbook code, but it will crop up from time to time in samples from other programmers on the web. It's $10 or so, and I find it faster and handier than standard online documentation.



Math:

You have a solid graphics background, but just in case you need good references for math:
3D Math Primer
Mathematics for 3D Game Programming

Also, really advanced lighting techniques stretch into the field of Multivariate Calculus. Calculus: Early Transcendentals Chapters >= 11 fall in that field.



Rendering:

Introduction to 3D Game Programming with DirectX10 by Frank. D. Luna.
You should probably get the DirectX11 version when it is available, not because it's newer, not because DirectX10 is obsolete (it's not yet), but because the new DirectX11 book has a chapter on animation. The directX 10 book sorely lacks it. But your solid graphics background may make this obsolete for you.

3D Game Engine Architecture (with Wild Magic) by David H. Eberly is a good book with a lot of parallels to Game Engine Architecture, but focuses much more on the 3D rendering portion of the engine, so you get a better depth of knowledge for rendering in the context of a game engine. I haven't had a chance to read much of this one, so I can't be sure of how useful it is just yet. I also haven't had the pleasure of obtaining its sister book 3D Game Engine Design.

Given your strong graphics background, you will probably want to go past the basics and get to the really nifty stuff. Real-Time Rendering, Third Edition by Tomas Akenine-Moller, Eric Haines, Naty Hoffman is a good book of the more advanced techniques, so you might look there for material to push your graphics knowledge boundaries.



Software Engineering:

I don't have a good book to suggest for this topic, so hopefully another redditor will follow up on this.

If you haven't already, be sure to read about software engineering. It teaches you how to design a process for development, the stages involved, effective methodologies for making and tracking progress, and all sorts of information on things that make programming and software development easier. Not all of it will be useful if you are a one man team, because software engineering is a discipline created around teams, but much of it still applies and will help you stay on track, know when you've been derailed, and help you make decisions that get you back on. Also, patterns. Patterns are great.

Note: I would not suggest Software Engineering for Game Developers. It's an ok book, but I've seen better, the structure doesn't seem to flow well (for me at least), and it seems to be missing some important topics, like user stories, Rational Unified Process, or Feature-Driven Development (I think Mojang does this, but I don't know for sure). Maybe those topics aren't very important for game development directly, but I've always found user stories to be useful.

Software Engineering in general will prove to be a useful field when you are developing your engine, and even more so if you have a team. Take a look at This article to get small taste of what Software Engineering is about.


Why so many books?
Game Engines are a collection of different systems and subsystems used in making games. Each system has its own background, perspective, concepts, and can be referred to from multiple angles. I like Game Engine Architecture's structure for showing an engine as a whole. Luna's DirectX10 book has a better Timer class. The DirectX book also has better explanations of the low-level rendering processes than Coding Complete or Engine Architecture. Engine Architecture and Game Coding Complete touch on Software Engineering, but not in great depth, which is important for team development. So I find that Game Coding Complete and Game Engine Architecture are your go to books, but in some cases only provide a surface layer understanding of some system, which isn't enough to implement your own engine on. The other books are listed here because I feel they provide a valuable supplement and more in depth explanations that will be useful when developing your engine.

tldr: What Valken and SpooderW said.

On the topic of XNA, anyone know a good XNA book? I have XNA Unleashed 3.0, but it's somewhat out of date to the new XNA 4.0. The best looking up-to-date one seems to be Learning XNA 4.0: Game Development for the PC, Xbox 360, and Windows Phone 7 . I have the 3.0 version of this book, and it's well done.

*****
Source: Doing an Independent Study in Game Engine Development. I asked this same question months ago, did my research, got most of the books listed here, and omitted ones that didn't have much usefulness. Thought I would share my research, hope you find it useful.

> I think if I learn how to program with an aim to work as a software developer and make games on the side, is this viable after just turning 20?


There's nothing wrong with the age of 20. I started school at 20, graduated in four years, and found work as a software engineer right out school.


What you have to figure out is how to make the best of your time left in school: should you take a class or two on programming and graduate on time, or (more dramatically) change your field of study to computer science and spend a few more years in school? That's something only you can decide. If you want to finish your architecture program and graduate in a reasonable amount of time, I can assure you that your math and physics background will be enough to get you work as a software engineer, but only if you can actually program.


Part of working as a software engineer means being able to program in multiple languages. That's because it's not really about the language, it's about the logic. All languages follow certain patterns and while syntax or wording may change, they all share ways to implement the same logic.


It also means knowing what data structures to use for what scenarios. The phrase "There's no such thing as a free lunch" comes to mind. All data structures have advantages and weaknesses and no data structure is perfect for every occasion. Know the differences, know the performance impact, and be able to speak to them. This won't just help you write better code, it will help you land a job. Interviewers love to ask questions about data structures.


As a corollary to data structures, you also need to know your algorithms. You need to know the performance impact of different ways to search and sort, traverse graphs, and find the shortest path (particularly relevant for game programming).


You said you're learning Python and that's great. Python is a great way to learn how to program. It's dynamic, it's friendly, and it has a rich library. Learn Python inside and out, then pick another language and figure out how to do the same things. C++, Java, and C# are all pretty popular in the industry, pick one of those. Once you know how to program in a few languages, you focus less on minute implementation details specific to one language and more on high level abstraction shared across multiple languages. By that point, you'll no longer be speaking in code, you'll be speaking in plain English, and that's the goal.


I don't know many good free online resources for learning languages, I learned mostly out of textbooks and lecture slides (along with lots of practice). There are some links in the sidebar to some tutorials that are worth checking out. Beyond that, I can recommend some books you may want to read.

• Algorithms in a Nutshell - one of the best quick references on algorithms you can read
  
• C# 5.0 in a Nutshell - excellent language reference, aimed more at advanced programmers, though it's comprehensive in scope, covering everything from language syntax and structure of a program to more complex tasks like threading, multiprocessing, and networking
  
• Learning XNA 4.0 - a great game programming book, teaches 2D and 3D game development using Microsoft's C# and XNA framework
  
• Java in a Nutshell - another great language reference
  
• Starting Out with Java - introductory programming text, has end-of-chapter problems for reinforcement, a little pricey so see if you can find a used older edition
  
• Starting Out with C++ - another good introductory programming text from Tony Gaddis
  
• Python in a Nutshell - I can't speak to this one as I haven't read it, but I have been extremely happy with O'Reilly's "... in a Nutshell" series so I suspect it's as good as the others
  
• Learn Python the Hard Way - free online book about learning Python, begins with simple examples then teaches you how to break it so you know both sides of the story, wasn't as comprehensive as I'd hoped but it taught me the basics of Python
  
• Programming Interviews Exposed - sort an all-in-one book covering lots of different topics and giving an insight into what to expect for that first interview
  
  EDIT: I added Programming Interviews Exposed because it's a good reference for data structures, algorithms, and interview questions

My first thought was that is was a great idea, but then I thought about classifying students as slaves, it might be a bit of an issue.

One of my big things for student engagement was to design and build in game-like structures in class.

I hate, absolutely hated lecturing and if I needed to have a class lecture, I kept it to ten-fifteen minutes. Then students used the information from that to create a game, play a game, have a debate, something within the class. I found that games were the surefire way of holding student engagement.

Here is a good book about building in game structures into the classroom - http://www.amazon.com/The-Multiplayer-Classroom-Designing-Coursework/dp/1435458443. If you are a gamer, think about how games hold your attention, and your students' attention. Typically it's just a bit of work for a big payoff. You play for a while and you level up. If you can build your classroom along those lines. We learn/play for a bit, then we "level up" kids take pride in that.

Simulations are awesome for this as well:

http://www.amazon.com/Short-Role-playing-Simulations-History-Classrooms/dp/0983426732

Here is a good article on game-based classroom learning - http://www.edutopia.org/blog/short-happy-history-of-historia-rick-brennan

I had a lot of fun building and designing simulations and games for my students. Because I was having fun, they fed off of that energy and they had fun as well. Some games we built the rules together.

I think one of the most fun lessons was when we were studying the American West and Populism - High School. Students had to research a particular aspect of that time period and teach it to their classmates by playing a board game. So I had four board games where kids were playing in my room. They had four stations and one person from each team stayed each turn to teach their games to the other group members. At the end, we had board game designer awards. One won for Best Game Design. One won for "I learned the Most". Another won for Best Game Artwork, etc. Each game design team won something and each team learned something. It took about three-four days from start to finish in a one hour - fifteen minute class. Day 1 - Quick mini-lecture on the basics of the time period. Students chose their topics, etc. Day 2 - Build day. Day 3 - Play/Awards day.

When I gave them my end of year evaluation. How did Mr. NameIdeas do this year? Did you learn something? What lesson/activity did you like best/least? How can Mr. NameIdeas improve his teaching, his relationships with students, his music choice, etc? They all remembered the games and, more importantly, the information from the games.

I've been out of town, but I had a chance to ponder your response for a bit. Your classes seem well-developed. Would the students choose their class? Also, would you have set parties that rotate through playing their characters/roles? Since you said you'd play on Fridays, will they know ahead of time and have any particular prep or lead-in assignments as they approach the session?

I teach sophomores. Last year, I had five total classes (two Honors). This year, I'll still have five, but only one Honors. They will read F451 over the summer, and then we'll spend the first two or three weeks on it as a set up for the year. My hope is to continue to leverage that story's focus on the value of thinking as a set up for the tone of the year.

One of the points I've come across in researching game-based thinking is that games give people context for action. I've tried to think about the actions required to be successful at reading, writing, and speaking in terms of the core engine of the game. Right now, this has lead me to the hope of structuring the year around "mission-givers" found within our expanded world of F451.

I don't know enough about DMing to feel confident in running a set session yet; I just played my first and only game of D&D last spring (it was incredibly fun). I'm trying to think of my DM role as more big picture for the class by creating essay assignments given by NPCs for specific purposes or to specific audiences.

I haven't quite found a way to integrate rolling dice yet, but I love that it would set up events that I don't determine. One of the important concepts I try to emphasize is their need to work within boundaries (when reading texts, when writing essays that actually support their thesis statements, when figuring out what to say in a discussion, etc.). The dice rolls are so enticing as a mechanic, and I want to find a way to work them in. Maybe I'll be brave enough this year to try a live session and see how it goes.

Here are some resources that have been inspiring in the intersection of learning and games:

The Multi-Player Classroom (A game designer who taught about game design by using game design)
Reality is Broken (also, I have her book Superbetter, but I haven't read it yet, and her TED Talks are good)

The latest point of interest for me has been the structure and mechanics of story games. They seem like RPGs, except they don't have number crunching. I think I can pull from different ones to help create context as I move throughout the year (Seven Wonders seems particularly interesting).

Also, The Big List of RPG Plots might prove helpful to quickly create trajectories for the story that develops. I'm worried about bogging down once we get a couple months in like I did last year. This might help to keep it fresh.

> In 1996, Richard Bartle published a study of MMO gamers that eventually led to his 2003 book Designing Virtual Worlds, which was at the time the de facto MMO genre's design bible. Of course, this was before World of Warcraft hit the scene, but many of the principles Bartle laid out still hold true. In fact, if you don't believe me, take it yourself: GamerDNA still has an online test based on the Bartle study.
>
> Bartle categorized players based on their interests in the game; I would like to do the same this year as I did last year for Star Wars: The Old Republic since it's a good way to measure the game against the average expectations of certain types of players. Bartle divides us all into Achievers, Socializers, Explorers, and Killers. I'll explain what each of those means as I discuss the different aspects of SWTOR. If you know what that means and so you have a point of reference, my profile is SEAK, which means that I interact with all types of players.
>
> For fun, I've added a grade-card-style of rating system: A, B, C, D, or F. Just remember the information I give about that score counts for more than the score itself.

> ----------------------------
> ###Achiever: A-

> Under Bartle's scenario, an Achiever likes points. These are the people who like to see the numbers go up. I think all MMO players in some fashion are achievers. We like to gain levels or make our armor stats better or fill out little achievement boxes. It might seem as though I'm making light of this type of gameplay, but I'm not. Although I only scored 20% on the Bartle test for Achiever, I do have the drive to fill in some of the Achievement boxes.
>
> Specifically, SWTOR did really well for Achievers when it came to events. Even with my low Bartle Achiever score, I couldn't help but fill in the boxes for the Rakghoul event or the Bounty Hunter event. The conquest system introduced during the Galactic Strongholds expansion was an extension of the base achievement system extended to the guild as a whole. Conquests didn't just introduce the gated guild content; they also rewarded players for their individual accomplishments.
>
> The only reason I couldn't give the achievement system a higher grade is that the game would be better with more varied and dynamic events. The rakghoul event might have been in a different location each time, but the tunnels were exactly the same and so were the quests. It would have been a bit more interesting to change things up a little. I wouldn't turn down more events, either.
>
>----------------------
>### Socializer: B
> Many people who glance at the Bartle study believe that Socializers are roleplayers. It's true that roleplayers are a part of the Socializer sphere, but I don't believe that all Socializers are just roleplayers. I know many people who play MMOs because their friends do and they like to hang out with friends and play the game solely because of the social interaction. I know very few people who play MMOs completely on their own, but even those player are a fringe part of some sort of social circle.
>
> Star Wars: The Old Republic would have likely received a lower grade in the social area if it hadn't been for the Strongholds expansion. Strongholds were an amazing boost to roleplayers and socializers. On my server in particular, there are roleplay events on a regular basis in Strongholds, and most of them couldn't happen the way they do without this expansion.
>
> On the negative side, there is no chance that we will ever see anything like chat bubbles in this game, and the other in-game chat systems are rudimentary at best. And although the group finder pops are now fast because of the tactical flashpoints, it doesn't exactly encourage socialization. My suggestion for next year -- assuming chat bubbles are out of the question -- would be to include more games for players that include social interaction. I know Pazaak and Sabaac have been suggested, and I believe those kinds of games need to be introduced as soon as possible.
>
>---------------
> ###Explorers: C+
> The name Explorer kind of gives away what these players look for in a game: secret, hidden places and exciting points of interest. It's easy to forget in a linear MMO to step off the beaten path. These players will step off the path no matter what kind of MMO the game is.
>
> Because of the narrow, linear story SWTOR presents, it's going to be hard for this game to receive anything but an average grade. However, there are quite a game mechanics that encourage players to step off the narrow road. I'm not a fan of the datacron jumping puzzles, but there are some people who love them. And with each new map, there are similar puzzles. But I think this game improved its standing with conquests and event because they require you to explore the areas we would normally not explore if there hadn't been some sort of event or achievement in that area.
>
>----------------
> ###Killers: D-
> Although Killers in the Bartle papers like to pit themselves against other players, it's not just PvP in the MMO sense that excites the Killer type. Killers also like to measure themselves against other players and show off achievements in that regard. You'll find many Killers checking their status on leaderboards. For them, it's all about the competition.
>
> I can understand the drive to prove that you are better than the next person. Not all that strive for that are looking to lower other people so that they can feel better. Some are just trying to better themselves. I believe there are two keys to making a game work for Killers, and although I might make this sound simplistic, I understand that it's a little more complicated in execution. The first key is pitting players against other players or providing opportunity for players to do so themselves. The second is to allow players to compare themselves against other players, skill to skill. Right now, there are multiple arenas for players to pit themselves against other players in Star Wars: The Old Republic, but the game falls way short on the comparision part.
>
> BioWare has introduced systems like ranked rewards and leaderboards, but those cater only to one type of Killer: the type who favor arena deathmatches. And it's safe to say that not all advanced classes are geared to work in deathmatch. To top it all off, PvPers saw only one new ground map this year, and there have been no additions to Galactic Starfighter since its official launch at the first part of this year. The D- is well deserved.
>
> From achievements in PvE to Roleplay to PvP, Star Wars: The Old Republic doesn't fare too badly for a game that's three years old. Last year, I gave Galactic Starfighter praise, but unfortunately, there just wasn't a lot of follow through. However, the game did turn the tide socially. For me, it's seemed to be in a slump. Heading into 2015, the BioWare team will have to pick up the pace to retain the high rating for Achievers and take on the tremendous job of bolstering the Killer side.
>
> That's my yearly report for the game. What's yours?

I have an easy loaded potato soup (stovetop)
An easy twice baked potato
Scalloped potatoes are pretty simple.


I do a good hot sausage pepper pasta.


Crockpot roasts are a great way to start to use it. Even just a roast coated with Onion soup mix comes out amazingly.


I'd also challenge him with some baking, it takes a bit of practice, but it's so easy to make cookies, pretzels, cobbler, biscuits, there are so many simple ones out there that only seem intimidating.


Since he can cook eggs, learning to make an omelet is an easy way to expand on something he already knows. (Scramble, pour into pan, after it sets, top it with whatever toppings, fold it over, and there you go.)
Pancakes and Waffles are fun.
Whipped cream and Butter both are super simple if you have a mixer or whisk.
Message me if any of those peak your interest!


A good way to experiment and learn are those dinner services, like Hello Fresh, Home chef, plated.
They send the ingredients, instructions, and are super easy to follow and learn at the same time.
If you can afford it, it's got recipes from all over the world and is almost like a guided cooking class.


I'd also recommend:
https://www.amazon.com/Top-Secret-Restaurant-Recipes-Creating/dp/B002EER116/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=top+secret+recipes&qid=1573332058&sr=8-3
This cookbook is a series, and I had a lot of fun with those!


Also, if your son likes a specific show, game, or pop culture thing, there are many fun cookbooks for that, too! literally it seems like there are thousands of them.
IE:
https://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Galaxys-Official-Cookbook/dp/1683837983/ref=sr_1_8?keywords=pop+culture+cookbooks&qid=1573332145&sr=8-8
https://www.amazon.com/Fallout-Vault-Dwellers-Official-Cookbook/dp/168383397X/ref=sr_1_7?keywords=gamer+cookbooks&qid=1573332193&sr=8-7


https://www.amazon.com/Elder-Scrolls-Official-Cookbook/dp/1683833988/ref=sr_1_9?keywords=gamer+cookbooks&qid=1573332193&sr=8-9

I'm not sure if anyone's mentioned this yet. For background on Eve this book is actually pretty great. Since its a reader with individual papers its a bit uneven in terms of quality/value, but the variety of perspectives is pretty great.

https://www.amazon.com/Internet-Spaceships-Are-Serious-Business/dp/0816699089

Also, this recently(ish) published book by journalist /u/AndrewGroen is a great read too. It has some amazing details on some of the intrigues of the earlier days of Eve.

https://www.amazon.com/Empires-EVE-History-Great-Online-ebook/dp/B01DONPR0M

His talk at Fanfest in Reykjavik a few years back is amazing too, in terms of offering some insight into Eve's history, particularly a pretty fascinating story from Eve's history.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-_Hgp6VbFY

Especially if you're looking for a clearer understanding of OPSEC and its history/role in Eve both of these books are pretty great. Mr Groen, if he's still around on Reddit, may have some additional recommendations or resources as well.

note: these amazon links are not affiliate links! they go straight to the books' product pages

I would love to see something like this made. Its funny how i hate reading books in real life, but ive spent so many hours reading skyrims books. I actually went out and bought the hard cover versions. I dont know if you know they exist but you should definitely check them out if not: http://www.amazon.com/The-Elder-Scrolls-Library-Histories/dp/1783293195?ie=UTF8&keywords=skyrim%20books&qid=1459137947&ref_=sr_1_2&sr=8-2

Some things id love to see are some journals from survivors after the bomb fell. Some raider ones would be cool to, i want to know what there up to.

Vault tech books describing the experiments in the vaults. There is a great description on them all on the wiki.

Love to see some throw backs, to the mojave. Maybe some tall tales like series about the legion.

I personally would love to see books for weapons mods. Make them all locked until you find the book that teaches you how to actually create them. I really miss blueprints from NV. It made scavaging rewarding, when you finally came across that mod you were looking for.

Either way i would be all for a mod like this. You could probably get help from the community for short stories too. Im sure /r/falloutlore would love to write some up for you.

I find myself attracted to CG part. Not only the Unity part but whole science behind it intrigues me a lot. Here are some resources that helped me a lot for a better understanding on the topic:

• For shader writing i can suggest Alex Telford's tutorials on UnityCookie channel
  
• CatlikeCoding have some sweet sweet tutorials on unity.(also has pretty clean coding and good practices in my opinion).
  
• For fundemantals on CG i can suggest UC Davis online courses and Fundementals of Computer Graphics by Peter Shirley if you are up for a good read :)
  
  Here are some tutorials on various topics that may interest you:
  
  
• How to Create 2D Lightnings
  
• A great post that you may have missed on low poly sea generation
  
  These are the ones that i remember right now :) hope you will find them useful

I know a good bit about this... engine programming specifically.

I have a physics degree and a standing offer to work at Naughty Dog. A good friend of mine from undergrad also has a physics degree, and is an engine developer at Naughty Dog. He is currently rewriting the companion AI for The Last of Us 2. And because it is only 7pm on a Saturday, I do mean currently. He is cited in the definitive text Game Engine Architecture. We talk often, and he even comes to me for help with especially tricky problems. I also have a copy of the 100+ pages of notes he used to study for the Naughty Dog interview... PM me your email for a copy.

This is what I suggest:

Step 1: Read Game Engine Architecture.

Step 2: Read Game Engine Architecture again, but slower this time.

Step 3: Learn 3D math. (There are other resources too, but one way or another you should know literally all the content in that book, because you will be asked 3d math questions during the interview, and if you're not you should keep interviewing.)

Learn how your computer works, from the ground up. Learn how to write extremely performant C++. This includes bitbashing, SIMD, caches, concurrency, etc. Not theory; real world experience. Learn how the GPU works. Learn computer graphics. Learn computer graphics for real. Learn collision detection.

Make a large number of small demos quickly. Decreasing development time is extremely important in the games industry. Make A*, a raytracer, a fibers threading engine, a shadow mapper, a FSM engine, etc.

Here is a recent question my friend asked me (as a brain teaser; he had already solved it):

> quickly check whether a uint64_t x is equal to any of 16 unique other uint64_ts

> bool f(uint64_t x, uint64_t a[16]);

> it will be called with the same a[16] every time, but varying x

Hint: you expect >99% of calls to this function to return false. Post your answer and I'll tell you what's wrong with it. The obvious solution is incorrect. Same is true for anyone else, by the way.

He recently came to me with a different problem: using all the time and compute in the world, encode a unit quaternion into 32 bits such that decode on the GPU is extremely fast, and minimize the max error possible. We managed to improve on the state of the art in both respects. No hints here, but I know some people you should talk to if you can show me a better solution. :)

Study games. Play games. Critique games. Love and breathe games. Because that industry will eat you up and chew you out, so you better be prepared to love every single second of crunch time. If you love it, you can do it, but it will torture you if you don't.

It is hard, but if you love it, and not just the idea of it, you can do it. However, as you can probably guess by my breakdown engine developers tend to be very experienced. My friend is an extreme anomaly at being as young as he is and an engine developer. It is more the type of thing you start trying to interview for with ~decade of experience.

Hey man,

If you're truly interested in Warcraft lore, I HIGHLY recommend that you look into reading the Warcraft books. It really is the greatest story I've ever had the pleasure to hear. These books are absolutely incredible man, thinking of it now gives me goosebumps. I'll give you a link to two books to start out with.

https://www.amazon.com/World-Warcraft-Chronicles-Christie-Golden/dp/1439172722/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1496848271&sr=8-1&keywords=chronicles+of+war+warcraft I have no fucking clue why this is so expensive, I suggest looking around to get a better price. I got mine for like 20 USD a few years ago. This book is SO AMAZING, BY THE LIGHT! If your going to get any book, get this. This is the first one you want to read because they all go in order which helps you gain a deep understanding for the chain of events.

https://www.amazon.com/WarCraft-Archive-WARCRAFT-Blizzard-Entertainment/dp/1416525823/ref=pd_sim_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1416525823&pd_rd_r=AZECSF70JK8PY7RWJ99N&pd_rd_w=MuXiq&pd_rd_wg=nqJsx&psc=1&refRID=AZECSF70JK8PY7RWJ99N


After Chronicles of War, this is the book you want to read. Super, super interesting stuff in this one. Please man, do yourself a favor and get these two books. I promise you, you will be so hooked into WoW after you read these haha.

I have a copy of the cards; they're not super helpful and are pretty massively overpriced imo. The book doesn't handle player psychology in a very rigorous way (and there's only one chapter on it) but I'm probably a lot more picky about that than most people.

I haven't read it yet but Glued to Games looks pretty good coming from authors with a bit more experience in psychology. Their work is on the motivational aspect of game playing: why people play games and how some games satisfy their intrinsic needs better than others. The basic argument is that "fun" or "engagement" are outcomes of need satisfaction.

Other than that though I think there's not much work applying psychology to game design directly. A Theory of Fun is based on pop-psych and (in my opinion) a questionable understanding of cognitive science, but it's a fun read at least.

In terms of blogs this one is good:www.psychologyofgames.com although it's mostly focused on phenomena around games (sales, reception, player attitudes) rather than the act of playing itself. This blog reviews recent academic literature in psychology (and a few other fields) related to games.

If you're really interested you'd probably be best served picking up an introductory psych textbook (I like Gleitman's) and picking out the sections that are most relevant to what you're interested in. I could give you more specific topics or books to look into if you have a particular part of player psychology you're interested in.

(These are all (non-fiction) books. If you want research papers I can give you a bibliography of things you might find a few interesting things within.)

Virtual Reality by Howard Rheingold is a very good place to start for a founding in the history of VR (right back to the invention of the HMD by Ivan Sutherland in the 1960's) but was written before the current reignited interest in VR that Oculus has triggered;

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Virtual-Reality-Revolutionary-Computer-Generated-Worlds--And/dp/0671778978/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1396019470&sr=8-1&keywords=virtual+reality+howard

If you like Rheingold's writing style then The Virtual Community might be of interest to you. Not directly related to VR, but as VR becomes more mainstream (& especially with players such as Facebook expressing interest) it is only a matter of time until VR becomes a popular interface to virtual communities;

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0262681218/ref=oh_details_o08_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

If such sociological aspects of computers/VR interest you, then Sherry Turkle's books are fascinating;

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0262701111/ref=oh_details_o09_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0684833484/ref=oh_details_o04_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0262012707/ref=oh_details_o08_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

As somebody else already mentioned, Infinite Reality is a nice read, but is very 'light' on science/technical detail;

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0061809500/ref=oh_details_o05_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

If you like your cyberpunk fiction then Cyberspace: First Steps is great - it even has a foreword written by William Gibson;

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0262521776/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

For more of a brain-fuck read, take a look at The Cyborg Experiments;

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/082645903X/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

For basic virtual environment/virtual world background I can recommend these two (Richard Bartle is the guy who invented MUD1);

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0131018167/ref=oh_details_o03_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0631182144/ref=oh_details_o07_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

And if by 'the VR experience' you mean 'immersion' or 'the sense of presence' then the first section of Virtual Space is a good start before diving into back issues of MIT Presence;

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Virtual-Space-Spatiality-Inhabited-Worlds/dp/1447111001/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1396019722&sr=8-1&keywords=virtual+space+spatiality

Really depends on your goals. All of those books are good but have different purposes.

• Raph's "Theory of Fun" has some good deep background -- though I don't agree with his all of his "theory"
  
• Jesse's "Book of Lenses" might be the most useful as a reference. I know various intro game design courses have used it, and it has a lot of great info in it, but it's also not a step-by-step book. Oh, and a second edition is out or coming out soon, so I'd wait for that.
  
• Rules of Play is a great book, but definitely on the heavy academic side.
  
• Tracy's Game Design Workshop book is used by a lot of game design classes and may be the most accessible of these.
  
  I'd also recommend Jeremy Gibson's Introduction to Game Design ... with Unity and C#. It's a huge book that will teach you Unity step-by-step along with a ton of solid game design techniques.
  
  Disclaimer: I'm friends and colleagues with most of the authors of these books. They're all useful; it just depends on what you're looking for.

You can find a lot of art and music for free, just need to do some checking into the attribution requirements. My favorite site for this is opengameart.org.
That plus a Unity3D free (unity3d.com) and you should be ready to go.
Make sure to learn the C# way of doing things for the games, since most of the good plugins will be written in C#
I taught myself the programming aspects of it through youtube, google, and the scripting api.
I've only put out one minor game so far, and got some help on the art, but it wasn't too hard.
The hard part comes in when you want to have servers or interact with other APIs, then you are looking at a longer commitment and much more tweeking, since you have more than one debug point.
Start early on the habit of using state machines (http://jessewarden.com/2012/07/finite-state-machines-in-game-development.html). The first game you make will probably be a lot of spaghetti, but making a few really quickly, then starting over will help you understand a lot more about it.
for design i'd recommend Level Up! (http://www.amazon.com/Level-Up-Guide-Great-Design/dp/047068867X) as it is really good at explaining the why of game design as well as the mechanics.
Lastly, don't be afraid of copying something at first, there is always a game like the one you are making. Put something together that you, and your friends, enjoy then try something a bit more novel next time. You won't make the next great thing on your first try.

I'd say it's a pretty complex set of conditions that need to be met, ranging from game DNA, the technical scope, cost of the project, and the market viability/RoI (unless you have a grant or are making an art game).

Recently, I've really gotten into Scott Rigby's work because he seems to be on to a testable idea surrounding the DNA, but I also pull from Jesse Schell and others--I just prefer Rigby because he's testing the ideas, not just arguing for them. Using his framework, I can place features into different categories before writing up actual design specs, so before the feature's nuts and bolts even exist, I know where it fits into the machine ("This aids in the competency part", "This aids in the autonomy part", etc.)

The technical scope and cost go roughly hand-in-hand after you've got the DNA and design specs going on, but you can do things in stages. Make a prototype with programmer art, the most essential features, and test it. If that does well, pull from the plan and add more based on cost. Test again, etc. Build up the team as you need. If something isn't playtesting well, figure out if its worth it to double down or scrap. And if you're scrapping something central to the DNA, then figure out if you can replace it with a functionally similar feature or scrap the game.

The market viability and RoI can be more or less important depending on the type of game. If it's something like Jason Rohrer's Gravitation, then your scope and technical cost is smaller, and you might have a grant, so there's less risk to sell. If you're making a F2P mobile game, you're at the exact opposite--business is much more at the forefront and really has to be for a financially successful game. AAA are less extreme vs. F2P, although there's high investment which certainly puts the pressure on, but the business model isn't there as much. An Indie PC, crowd-funded darling focuses much more on the developer/community relations and how the community, when treated as investors, have a voice in development, like any other investors would. So there's complex constraints there too (the public may not understand a decision at first or might disagree with you, do you explain and try to win them over or listen to the sway of the crowd?)

As you mentioned, there's also platform concerns that will change the design. A mobile phone experience is different than a tablet experience. The market's on those platforms react differently to different products. I wouldn't make a game with features that indie PC gamers would love on mobile because the market just isn't there. Likewise, I wouldn't make a console game on mobile phones, because that mistakes what people want out of mobile phone experiences over a long period of time. Other features, like VR, come with huge unknowns because we're just starting to work in that space.

Finally, I would say, "Make something you would like." and "Make something you can sleep with at night." If you want to make something like Smash, do it, but put your own spin, since you can't make Smash (unless you work at Nintendo). If you work in F2P, make something you would like to play, not just something you think will make money. And, paradoxically, realize that sometimes you aren't the consumer (AAA and mobile F2P come to mind), and in those cases, playtest and listen to the people more than your gut.

Not really related to mobile development, but he should still really enjoy these if he hasn't read them already:

• Clean Code (http://www.amazon.com/Clean-Code-Handbook-Software-Craftsmanship/dp/0132350882) anything by Uncle Bob tends to be easy to learn and extremely useful
  
  
• Seven Languages in Seven Weeks (http://www.amazon.com/Seven-Languages-Weeks-Programming-Programmers/dp/193435659X) really fun read and a good way to quickly learn a little about a lot. Great for a jack of all trades
  
  
• The C Programming Language (http://www.amazon.com/The-Programming-Language-2nd-Edition/dp/0131103628) a book every dev, no matter the domain, should read
  
  
• Land of Lisp (http://www.amazon.com/Land-Lisp-Learn-Program-Game/dp/1593272812) because learning functional programming makes you a better programmer
  
  
• The Pragmatic Programmer (http://www.amazon.com/The-Pragmatic-Programmer-Journeyman-Master/dp/020161622X) I actually just started this one last night so I can't say much about it. Including it anyway because really smart people recommended it
  
  
• Eloquent JavaScript (http://www.amazon.com/Eloquent-JavaScript-Modern-Introduction-Programming/dp/1593272820) really good "intro" to JavaScript. Even if he's already familiar with the language, there maybe be a lot more to it than he know about (closures, prototype, "this", functional programming, etc.)

Dumbing Us Down by John Taylor Gatto

The opening essay of this short read is a condemnation of traditional schooling techniques---and it's also the speech he delivered when he (again) won the NY Teacher of the Year award. Gatto gets at the heart of why public schools consistently produce pencil pushers, not leaders. Every teacher should read this book.

How to Survive in Your Native Land by James Herndon

If Dumbing Us Down is the manifesto in favor of a more liberal pedagogy, Herdon's book is a memoir of someone trying to put that pedagogy in action. It's also a simple, beautiful easy to read book, the kind that is so good it reminds us just how good a book can be. I've read the teaching memoir that made Jonahton Kozol famous, this one is better.

The Montessori Method by Maria Montessori

In the early 1900s, Maria Montessori taught literacy to children that society had otherwise assumed were unreachable. She did this by using the scientific method to study each child's learning style. Some of what she introduced has been widely incorporated (like child-sized furniture) and some of it seems great but unworkable in overcrowded schools. The bottom line is that the Montessori method was one of the first pedagogical techniques that was backed by real results: both in test scores and in growing kids that thrive on learning and participation.

"Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?": A Psychologist Explains the Development of Racial Identity by Beverly Daniel Tatum

While not precisely a book on how to teach, this book is incredibly helpful to any teacher working with a diverse student population, or one where the race they are teaching differs from their own. It explains the process that white, black, and children of other races go through in identifying themselves as part of a particular race. In the US, race is possibly the most taboo subject, so it is rare to find a book this honest and straightforward on a subject most educators try not to talk about at all. I highly recommend this book.

If there is any chance you will be teaching history, definitely read:

Lies My Teacher Told Me and A People's History of the United States (the latter book is a classic and, personally, changed my life).

Also recommend: The Multi-player Classroom by Lee Sheldon and Teach Like a Champion by Doug Lemov

Finally, anyone who plans to teach math should read this essay, "Lockhart's Lament" [PDF at the bottom of the page].

PS, I was tempted to use Amazon affiliate links, but my conscious wouldn't let me.

I'll start off with some titles that might not be so apparent:

Unexpected Fundamentals

These 2 books provide much needed information about making reusable patterns and objects. These are life saving things! They are not language dependent. You need to know how to do these patterns, and it shouldn't be too hard to figure out how to implement them in your chosen language.

• Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software
  
  
• Game Programming Paterns
  
   
  
  Good General book
  
  
• Effective C++: 55 Specific Ways to Improve Your Programs and Designs
  
   
  
  This book is great if you're going to make a browser based game
  
  
• HTML5 Canvas Cookbook
  
   
  
  General Knowledge books
  
  
• Pro HTML5 Games (Expert's Voice in Web Development)
  
   
  
  Provide a working moveable 3D model with C++ and DirectX, Very cool.
  
  
• Character Animation With Direct3D
  
   
  
  More general game base building
  
  
• Game Engine Architecture, Second Edition
  
  
• Programming Game AI By Example
  
   
  
  Working product results books, little if any modification needed
  
  Releasing in a couple months (hopefully) 2 Very good books using C++ to develop by.
  
  
• Introduction to 3D Game Programming with DirectX 12
  
  
• Introduction to 3D Game Programming with DirectX 11
  
   
  
  Not presented in the best manner but still noteworthy:
  
  
• DirectX 11.1 Game Programming
  
   
  
  I used to love XNA...but now it's not feasible for commercial development. If you're a beginner to game design...starting out with XNA might actually be useful. It's easy to pickup and put out a working product. XNA is C#
  
   
  
  
• Learning XNA 4.0: Game Development for the PC, Xbox 360, and Windows Phone 7
  
  
• XNA Game Studio 4.0 Programming: Developing for Windows Phone 7 and Xbox 360
  
  
• XNA 4.0 Game Development by Example: Beginners Guide
  
  
• Beginning XNA 3.0 Game Programming: From Novice to Professional (Expert's Voice in XNA)
  
  
• XNA 3.0 Game Programming Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach (Expert's Voice in XNA)
  
  
• Building XNA 2.0 Games: A Practical Guide for Independent Game Development (Books for Professionals by Professionals)
  
   
  
  Working product books, modification needed to make run on current systems
  
  
  Provides a working FPS game in C++ on DirectX 9. Good for some starting out knowledge for an FPS
  
  
• Programming Mutliplayer FPS Direct X
  
   
  
  Good for 3D Terrain rendering in DX9...however much of this is outdated...some concepts still apply, and it's not the worst idea to see a working example.
  
  
• Real-Time 3D Terrain Engines Using C++ and DirectX9 (Charles River Media Game Development)
  
   
  
  TLDR: Click links starting at top, buy, read, profit

> Can you give me any more info on what types of things you simulate

There are so many different things. One example that involves physical simulation is rendering. Rendering, turning a 3d description of a scene into a 2d image, is all about simulating the pysics of light transport. Given a set of lights and surfaces you simulate how light bounces around and what a virtual observer placed somewhere in the scene would see. Another example is explosions. Cool/realistic looking explosions for movies involve simulating burning materials, fluid/gas movement, sound propagation, fracture, plastic/non-plastic deformation, the list goes on and on.

Here are some books that might get you started in the right direction

• Fundamentals of Computer Graphics: This is an entry level book that surveys a number of different areas of computer graphics. It covers a lot of different topics but it doesn't really treat anything in depth. It's good to look through to get a hold of the basics.
  
  
• Mathematics for 3D Game Programming and Computer Graphics: Pretty decent book that surveys a lot of the different math topics you'll need.
  
  
• Fluid Simulation for Computer Graphics: Really, really awesome book on fluid simulation.
  
  
• Do a google/youtube search for Siggraph. You'll find a lot of really awesome demonstration videos, technical papers, and introductory courses.
  
  As for programming languages, you're definitely going to need to learn C/C++. Graphics applications are very resource initensive, so it's important to use a fast language. You'll probably also want to learn a couple of scripting languages like python or perl. You'll also need to learn some graphics API's like OpenGL or DirectX if you're on Windows.
  
  I hope this helped!
  

I'm not a professional graphics programmer, but I am a CS grad and a senior developer for about 10 years. I haven't yet had the time to dive into fully committing myself, however, here was my personal plan for when that moment came.

This gave some great advice and was my starting point:

https://interplayoflight.wordpress.com/2018/07/08/how-to-start-learn-graphics-programming/

​

Then I was going to read this to learn about game engine architecture:

https://www.amazon.com/Engine-Architecture-Third-Jason-Gregory/dp/1138035459/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1539093840&sr=1-3&keywords=game+engine

​

I have heard that this book is the actual implementation of a game engine and a good follow up to reading game engine architecture:

https://www.amazon.com/SFML-Development-Example-Raimondas-Pupius/dp/1785287346/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1539093789&sr=1-1&keywords=SFML

https://www.amazon.com/Mastering-SFML-Development-Raimondas-Pupius/dp/178646988X/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1539093813&sr=1-2&keywords=SFML

​

Then I was going to start diving into the 3D and mathematics

Read first:

https://www.amazon.com/Math-Primer-Graphics-Game-Development/dp/1568817231/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1539094027&sr=8-1&keywords=3d+math

Read next:

https://learnopengl.com/

Then I was just going to try and build my own 3D engine and figure it out as I went along.

I've also heard that implementing actual siggraph papers is super helpful and once you're at that point, you've kind of arrived as far as graphics programming is concerned.

I think what you're experiencing with the analysis paralysis is very normal. I'm going to say that you have this fear because you're thinking about all the things you're going to have to do and it freaks you out. Don't think about all the books and all the work you're going to have to do to reach your destination. Simply sit down each day and work on something. Just improve upon what you did the day before and have a weekly goal or something in mind. This breaks up what you're trying to accomplish into smaller steps and isn't nearly as intimidating. Don't look at everything on the horizon. Just start writing code.

John Carmack said it best when he gave someone advice on becoming a programmer "You should write hundreds of programs".

Link: http://d3dvortex.blogspot.com/2005/07/programming-advice-from-john-carmack-i.html

​

​

​

​

​

To add to that... you're definitely going to want to make sure your math skills are up to par. Linear Algebra, calculas, stats... The first is probably the absolute most important (everything about display, rendering, etc... is derived from concepts in Linear Algebra really), and the other two help in making things more efficient, faster, or emulating complex objects/systems.

The book Fundamentals of Computer Graphics by Peter Shirley is, in my opinion, an absolutely fantastic book on the subject. It does a fantastic job of building your fundamentals before diving into deeper and more interesting topics. It's basically what I used to do things like learning how to make a raytracer, renderer, etc... from scratch. Lots of fun :)

Looking at the course posted by jbos, it looks very similar to one I did in University myself. So it'd probably be a great start.

There are many game series and developers that I've fallen in love with, that I thought would always be on my instant-buy list. Most of those have either fallen in quality or my tastes have changed, but Rockstar is still a developer that I'll snatch up every new game.

GTA 1 and 2 I remember playing hours of on the PC. They were a blast to play, but were fucking hard! So mostly I spent time just causing chaos.

What I remember most in GTA 2 is that I'd drive around, find a bunch of big vehicles like buses and cluster them together. Then get out and blow one up, causing a nice chain reaction. I don't think I ever got very far in either of the games due to the difficulty.

So when I first saw the commercials for GTA 3 I was excited. I remember seeing the cars driving around to a classical music sound track, but not really expecting it to be as revolutionary as it was. I had played the Driver game on PS1, and figured it was going to be very similar.

Boy was I wrong. GTA 3 amazed me at just how open a video game world could be. I could clearly see why it was called a sandbox game. Sure, the missions were there, and I played through them, but the open world with all that you could see and do was something new to me.

I clearly remember messing around between missions, hitting jumps, blowing cars up, jumping and jumping until I got over a short wall, or grabbing a large truck and jumping up onto it in order to reach an otherwise unreachable area.

Everything about it at the time was amazing: the graphics, the game world, the driving mechanics, the radio stations with their wacky commercials and talk radio station. Even the mission structure, where you had some choice over which story line you wanted to contiue next. Or the ability to just ignore the missions for a while and just fuck around.

As some have pointed out, it wasn't the first "sandbox" game, but it really defined it. Much as DOOM wasn't the first FPS, but it really kicked off the genre.

I've bought GTA 3 on pretty much every platform imaginable, and I'm now finishing it once again on Android. Even though it's aged the poorest of the three PS2-era games, with it's lack of motorcycles, true flying vehicles (sorry Dodo) and some of the other advances made in the sequels, it's still enjoyable for me to jump into and explore.

edit:

By the way, I HIGHLY recommend this book to any fellow GTA nuts:

http://www.amazon.com/Jacked-Outlaw-Story-Grand-Theft/dp/0470936371

It goes through the time period of Rockstar when they were still DMA Designs, up through GTA IV. It also includes some of the controversy the series has gone through, including good ol' Jack Thompson. Everyone seems to praise the author's other book "Masters of Doom" about id software, but I found Jacked to be much more interesting.

1. This AC:NL Guide, Legend of Zelda: OoT, Harvest Moon, and these wheels for my husband, add up to $102.
   
   
2. My husband is the love of my life. He's my best friend and my enemy. He has a horrible and demented sense of humor like me which is awesome cause it would suck if he didnt get any of my gross jokes. I honestly think he's my soul mate. We've been through drug addictions, sickness, 4 kids and pretty much anything else you can think, but we're still going strong. We've been married for almost 4 years, together for 6 and we still love each other just like the beginning. I <3 him even though he's a punk.
   
   3)I am NOT an artist. I am so sorry for this. I really tried.......
   
   
3. 128
   
   
4. I've had a really good day today! :D
   
   Thanks for the contest!

Some other people here can probably give you a better answer...But anyways...

Honestly you aren't "new" to computer programming if you've done some Java. I think the best route will be to learn about computer graphics by playing around with OpenGl and all the minor details of C++ you can pick up as you go. (OpenGL is written in C).

As a source this book is a standard university textbook on computer graphics. Don't get the newer edition just get the older edition(linked in previous sentence). You won't learn C++ or OpenGL but the theory behind computer graphics. If you want to get a deeper understanding of OpenGL and have a very good reference by you then consider getting "OpenGL Programming Guide". You could borrow it form a library and return it if you decide it is not for you.

Here is a course taught by Stanford on computer graphics. They are probably one of the top universities when it comes to research in computer graphics and they are involved heavily with some of the largest animation companies such as Pixar. In this course they also cover basic OpenGL.

Here is another course which is more theory and less biased when it comes to a graphics library such as OpenGL (meaning expect to not learn OpenGL but the theory behind computer graphics in this course).

I am assuming by "MechE" you mean mechanical engineer. If so I think you be well positioned because a lot of the mathematics (differential equations, linear algebra, calculus, etc...) you will have a very good understand of which will be really helpful.

Good luck!

EDIT: Correction the lecture series above is from UCBerkley

EDIT: OpenGL is written in C

I'm interested in doing this too (getting an undergrad degree in game design right now). I feel like it has a lot of potential when implemented well. I don't believe the Extra Credits video does a super good job of explaining the concept, because it focuses too heavily on reward systems (more on that in my comment to u/notjawn), which should not be the core of a gamification experience.

Have you heard about ClassRealm? From what I've seen/read, its creator has had a lot of success with it. However, don't be fooled - it might seem easy, but gamification can be very difficult to implement correctly.

I've read some good books on the subject that I highly recommend: The Gamification of Learning and Instruction and The Multiplayer Classroom.

Additionally, I don't know where you are in your schooling right now, but NYU has a great graduate program in this vein.

EDIT: For anyone looking for an overview of true gamification, here's a quick and simple slideset. It is much more than just giving out points.

Narratives that derive from game mechanics, in my opinion, exemplify what makes games great. There is nothing better than creating your own story within a game's playground.

Games like Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, where you develop a grudge with that one random Orc that keeps killing you and eventually becomes a warlord. Or games like EVE, which has it's own book on the wars purely created by the playerbase, not by game plot. Or games like Darkest Dungeon where the game creates stories for your heroes, and XCOM: Enemy Unknown where you create stories for your heroes. Even loot games like Diablo or Borderlands, where you can talk about how you got that one epic sword or gun. The plot of these games doesn't make them great - the gameplay narrative does.

Don't get me wrong - some amazing story-driven adventures have come out of video games. We have The Last of Us, Bioshock, Mass Effect, The Witcher, Spec Ops: The Line, Baldur's Gate, KOTOR, and more. They definitely have their place in gaming. But when I'm capable of creating my own story that I can tell my friends about, that was derived from game mechanics and not game writers? That's satisfying. That's what makes games great. And those are the games I can play over and over again.

I've seen the finished book now and its truly beautiful. A great holiday present for yourself or anyone else that loves programming and pretty pretty drawings: http://www.amazon.com/Land-Lisp-Learn-Program-Game/dp/1593272812/

Great review of it on slashdot too: http://books.slashdot.org/story/10/11/03/1238213/Land-of-Lisp

Edit: I should clarify that I'm in no way affiliated to the book/profit from its sales. I just think that it's awesome.

I hope these are what you're looking for.

If I find any additional stuff, I'll edit the post - also if anyone else finds stuff similar to what I linked, feel free to drop info, i'd love to read more of this stuff!

Obligatory Subreddit Plug

/r/TheMakingOfGames - A subreddit featuring a lot of behind the scenes stuff.

Books

Masters of Doom is a book that follows the lives of John Carmack and John Romero, the creation of what became iD Software, and some of the most memorable games of our generation. (Daikatana's failure, Doom, The super mario clone that eventually became Commander Keen, Quake, etc.)

Jacked is a book that follows the creation of what became a memorable game studio (Rockstar Games) and one of the most memorable franchises of our lifetimes. (Grand Theft Auto)

Stay Awhile and Listen is a book that tells the story of the company known as Blizzard and the difficulty of creating Warcraft as well as the fight to create Diablo.

[Hourences] (http://www.hourences.com/product/the-hows-and-whys-of-the-games-industry/) is a book written by someone who's worked freelance / contract for quite some time now. The basic questions this book will attempt to answer are: Why would one want to work in the games industry? Or why not? And, if the decision has already been made, then: What would one look for or expect? How can one pick a good mod (modification) team or a development studio that will fit one’s personality and meet one’s expectations?

Minecraft: The Story of Notch A story about Notch before, during, and after the rise of Minecraft - talks about his family, his life, etc.

Rise of the Dungeon Master the story of Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, one of the most influential games ever made. Like the game itself, the narrative casts the reader into the adventure from a first person point of view, taking on the roles of the different characters in the story.

Documentaries / Movies

Double Fine Adventure - A game following the conception and delivery of what would become "Broken Age"

Indie Game: The Movie - Follows the trials and tribulations of indie developers trying to "make it big" and/or "continue to succeed".

Minecraft: The Story of Mojang - Follows how Minecraft was formed, Notch, and the impact the game has made on generations.

Amneisa Fortnight 2012 A documentary that follows various groups doing a "game jam" that eventually became published games.

[Amneisa Fornight 2014] (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIhLvue17Sd7Y5qXNqV1wDPtdNPjZ-tw0) Same as the 2012, just a documentary following the game jam.

GDC Post Mortems A good variety of games, the ups and downs, from indie to AAA.

Dont listen to the people that comment about not making your engine. Making one is a great learning excersise and highly recomended to become a better developer.

I recomend you make sure your C++ is on point, and check this books:

• Game Engine Architecture Link : Overview of more or less anything about how a entire game engine works. Written by a lead at Naughty Dog and highly educational.
  
• Opengl Superbible Link : The best way to learn OpenGL (a graphics API). You can follow this book to learn how to draw stuff in 3d.
  
• Real Time Rendering Link : Amazing book about GPU graphics. Its API agnostic, and very in-depth. Explains techniques and effects.
  
  If you dont want to do the 3d route, you can just do 2d games using the libraries SFML or SDL. SFML is easier to use, for C++, while SDL is a lot more C oriented and runs literally anywhere (including things like nintendo DS or PS4). With those you can try to make some simple games like Snake, which is a great learning project.
  
  If you are inexperienced, try to avoid OOP designs (do not use inheritance). It will just make things more complicated than they should.

I think in general it is recommended to keep your day job while you're getting started. I was in your shoes too (though much older), I wanted to quit my job and just make games. I still do, but not having an income would suck. So I ended up deciding I'll keep my full time job and work hard in my free time, and so far it has been satisfying. With that said, I'm still working on my first game. It's good to have dreams, but don't do anything reckless I guess.

I got started by reading a book on game design and prototyping. To be more precise, it was this book. I learned a ton by reading it, though some of the later chapters are getting a bit dated and don't translate to Unity 5 so well. Despite that, I feel like I have a pretty solid foundation to work with and I've been pleased with my progress.

I can give you a link to a nice talk that gives a lot of insights on this topic:

http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1020570/

It's not about "how to win" it is "what to think about".

You need a problem space that players understand and that is still complex. Chess with its perfect information is also a good example.

And regarding "what is fun?"

Yeah sure, most of the stuff I'm talking about is the fun that emerges from having a game that proves the players strategic and tactical skills with a system he can learn and improve to interact with. This fulfills two big desires why we play games: Growth and agency.

See: https://www.amazon.com/Glued-Games-Video-Spellbound-Directions/dp/0313362246/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1511216242&sr=8-1&keywords=glued+to+games

I know this isn't an Internet resource, but if you're interested in learning Unity and game design at all, this book by Jeremy Gibson is really helpful. He actually used to be one of my professors in college, and he was an amazing instructor. This book is a great resource to get started. I know it's a bit of an investment, but definitely something you won't regret.

You might consider getting The Prima Strategy Guide.

It provides a lot of guidance / information that can smooth over some of the less intuitive aspects of the game.

The guide also maintains some of the same aesthetic of the game, by which I mean that it is very colorful, bright, and friendly in its layout and style. She might just enjoy thumbing through the item catalog to see all the neat things she could obtain.

If you do not want to spend money, point her to thonky.com guides. The guides might be kinda overwhelming, though.

The cute / happy tone of the game might be something she appreciates. I think it's a good idea to offer this.

Games, like movies, have examples of both great and terrible stories. It should be made clear that i'm not talking about any sort of arcade style multiplayer games here. You probably have no investment in your multiplayer COD character. You don't collapse emotionally when he is obliterated by a grenade from across the map. If you want to judge games based on their stories, then you need to recognize which games are actually narratives, and which games are simply entertaining echo chambers. A game is an interactive algorithm which a user derives entertainment from. A narrative tells a cohesive and engaging story.

I think one thing that makes games stand out is their ability to establish agency with the gamer. Agency is basically what makes you give a shit about what's happening. It means the person experiencing the game has actual emotional investment in the characters. It is the degree to which the gamer associates themselves with the character they are manipulating. Agency takes time and effort to establish. Movies can do a good job of making characters likable and establishing attachments with the audience, but the audience has no real investment beyond that. They haven't done anything besides just watching.

In a game, however, the character is a reflection of the gamer. When a player is properly engaged, there is mentally no difference between himself and his character. When the player's character dies in a game, the player says "I died." not "My character died." This indicates a kind of agency not seen in movies. Some of the best games are good because they are great at maintaining agency. They avoid things that break agency, like allowing the main character to die, or having him do something completely unbelievable. Breaking agency not only degrades the story being conveyed, but also makes players less invested and less likely to want to continue playing. When do you usually stop playing an intense single player game? Odds are it's right after you die in the game. This is because the agency is broken. But some games can at least partially mitigate this effect. In Bioshock Infinite, when Booker's health is depleted, he doesn't just die and pop up again at an earlier time. He goes unconscious as Elizabeth presumably drags him off to a safe place and revives him. Additionally, time is not interrupted. Enemies who were slain moments before are still dead. The creators have not only maintained agency, but they have strengthened the player's emotional attachment to Elizabeth as a character.

The difficulty in telling a narrative within the context of an interactive game lies in the free will of the agent, the player. This is where narratives in games fail. The trademark of games is that they allow the player to write some portions of the narrative themselves. Unfortunately, players are, for the most part, pretty shitty writers, so they need some help. When a game relinquishes control of the narrative to the player, it has to make sure the narrative is not ruined. But this sometimes means compromising agency. Going back to Bioshock Infinite, if the player meets Elizabeth and decides he just wants to kill her, then the narrative would be pretty much derailed. There might be a compelling narrative that involves Booker killing Elizabeth right when he sees her, but it's certainly not one that the creators want to tell or are prepared to tell. The game instead opts to break agency to preserve the narrative. Elizabeth doesn't bat an eye when you unload a shotgun in her direction.

So while games are not inherently better or worse at telling a story than film, they do possess tools which are not available in film, and have potential to be much, much better. But games as a storytelling device are new and immature, as were movies in their infancy. At first people were entertained simply by moving pictures, only later did people discover their potential to tell a story. Videogames are currently in the same boat. People have been so engrossed with what videogames are that they are only just discovering what videogames can do, which is convey a story that engages the player far more effectively than a movie ever could. A "bad" videogame is simply a case of wasted potential.


Edit: A great read on the subject is called Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter.

I don't know enough about the first book on the list to comment on that hahah, sorry! The book "The Art of Game Design: A book of lenses" is supposed to be pretty good according to the reviews on Amazon along with the editorial reviews.

I would also look more into "The Ultimate Guide to Video Game Writing and Design" up there on the list. I only just checked these books our briefly (except for the first three and the Masters of Doom) so I don't know a lot.

I'm also adding this one to the list: Level Up!: The Guide to Great Video Game Design. It looks pretty promising and I've seen it suggested before!

Good luck!

Every recipe was taken from the Official Elder Scrolls cook book:

• Imperial Mulled Wine - sweetened white wine with herbal spices. We used fresh picked herbs and it was incredibly flavorful.
  
• Meadow Rye Bread - super fast and easy soda bread, and amazingly tasty. Chopped for dipping into our:
  
• Elsweyr Fondue - Gruyere, nutmeg, white wine. Amazing
  
• And of course the main attraction: Thin Mints...
  
  ​
  
  Ok, but actually the Sweet Rolls really lived up the the hype. Yeasty, bready pastry with a nice cream cheese icing. Also, fittingly my dog Opalstole 3 sweet rolls off the cooling rack while I ran to the liquor store...

part of being a scientist is reviewing a wide range of references - you might be expecting a bit much from one online source. let me suggest this one and this one, and especially this one are going to have the general graphics pipeline explanation chapters that you're looking for. if $$$ is a problem (and it is for most of us with these texts), perhaps you can insist that your local library gets them?
you can also pick up some good ideas by visiting course pages for some of the more well-known university graphics programmes - some of them have slides online, otherwise check out their reading lists - these guys are the best in the world at teaching graphics. read what they read.

http://www.cs.cornell.edu/Courses/cs465/2007fa/
http://graphics.stanford.edu/courses/
http://www.cs.utah.edu/research/areas/graphics/
http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~badler/courses/cis560.html

but i suspect, your best bet for this sort of stuff is actually Eric Haines' online course, which has a free version. it uses webgl but the main concepts are exactly the same as desktop gl and it's really very good https://www.udacity.com/course/cs291

also, interesting side note - Myers-Briggs has been widely discredited. it's actually based on Jung's germanic mysticism, which comes from ancient European magic. earth/air/wind/fire, alchemy, the four humours, the four personality components etc. etc. not a drop of science in it, but employers insist on you doing it.

In case you're interested, there's a really great "History" of Eve published: "Empires of Eve: A History of the Great Wars of Eve Online." I've never even touched Eve but I found the book really fascinating - well written and full of exactly the kind of political and technical intrigue that I love reading about.

This post has the order of the stories:

https://www.reddit.com/r/wow/comments/3h4lgb/the_complete_wow_book_reading_order_lore_timeline/

It's long, as it includes comics, short stories, etc.

Book wise, if you're looking at WoW specific lore, there's a few that are what I consider the essentials. I recommend you start with picking up Rise of the Horde, it gives a great background on how the Original Horde came to be. Then get the Warcraft Archive it has four books that all relate events to after WC3/before WoW. After that, get The War of the Ancient. At that point, you've read all the essentials of the pre-WoW/current WoW material. All the books past there can really be connected to specific events in the game (in which case, see the list on the thread I linked earlier.

> Firstly, do I NEED and IDE,

No.

> do I WANT one?

Meh. I guess maybe they're like, easy or something. Supposedly. You should start out with a plain old text editor and learn to call your compiler from the command line. That won't be any hassle for your first programs, and you can try out an IDE in a couple months to see if you like it. Then you'll have some experience with both.

> Should I stick with Java for my goal of simple gaming?

Programming languages aren't things you "stick with". You should always be looking to broaden your language experience. But we all have limits; don't overwhelm yourself. Java is a fine choice for what you're planning to do, although unless you're prepared to market like a madman, aiming at mobiles won't be more fruitful than releasing for PC.

> If so would it be better to learn one then the other?

Everybody will just tell you their favorite. My opinion: it's never a bad time to start learning Common Lisp.

Like seriously. Two people have written two separate books which contain loads of stuff, well presented, critique checked and they charge 10$ only for it.

Here you come and you want to charge for a fast castle build order. 11

Edit:

• Basics of Age of Empires 2: On a Journey to be Great or Simply to Win Your Friends by André Ferreira
  
  I would recommend this book to beginner/intermediate level players. Well presented ideas in great detail.
  
  
• Keys To 1vs1 Age of Empires 2: The Conquerors World Domination by Chris Bourque (a top 1v1 player, great rivalry with Daut)
  
  This book was written by Chris quite long back. Those who don't know, Chris is a top player from Canada and had a great rivalry with Daut during their most active days (2005-10). Some of the build orders and meta might be outdated now but most of it is still very relevant.

Etsy have some beautiful gaming prints. I can understand a non gaming wife not wanting an obvious gaming print on the wall. Have you had any luck finding him a gift? If you are still stuck you could take a punt on a Skyrim game guide and hope he hasn't already got it, or have a look at this:
https://www.amazon.com/Elder-Scrolls-Skyrim-Library-Histories/dp/1783293195/ref=pd_sbs_14_t_0?
_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=S0PB9C75904MF0ZDF4JA
I thought it sounded like a nice thing to have on the book shelf. It's a complilation of all of the little books that you find in Skyrim. You should definitely get youself that print.

If you are just learning game programming using a Timer for a game is OK. Here are the timer periods to use for various FPS:

• 12 fps -- 83 ms
  
• 15 fps -- 66 ms
  
• 24 fps -- 41 ms
  
• 60 fps -- 17 ms
  
  However, for any serious game you really need to use active rendering. There is a book called Killer Game Programming in Java which has a great chapter on an animation framework. He walks you through how to create the animation framework and why things are done a certain way. He actually warns against using a Timer. An earlier edition of this chapter is available online with source code (some editions of the book has this chapter as chapter 1, some have it chapter 2, don't be confused by the different chapter numbers). The book was released in 2005, but is still quite relevant.
  
  
• http://fivedots.coe.psu.ac.th/~ad/jg/ch1/ch1.pdf
  
• Source code (downloads a zip): http://fivedots.coe.psu.ac.th/~ad/jg/code/ch2Code.zip
  
• The book: https://www.amazon.com/Killer-Game-Programming-Andrew-Davison/dp/0596007302/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1495722403&sr=8-1&keywords=killer+game+programming+in+java
  
  Now, saying all of that if you were really serious about creating a game you hope to release some day you would use a gaming framework, arguably the most popular Java gaming framework is libgdx. You write your code in Java then it can create a Desktop, iOS, Android, and HTML5 version:
  
  https://libgdx.badlogicgames.com
  
  It is very well documented in the wiki and there are books available for it too:
  
  https://github.com/libgdx/libgdx/wiki
  

The AppHub tutorials are very helpful. As many suggest, starting simple is usually best. I probably should have stuck to a single screen game for my first try but instead I spent a lot of time learning how to use a third party library to help be import a level.

http://create.msdn.com/en-US/


Also, if you are looking for a book, I just got this book as suggested by many and its great.
http://www.amazon.com/Learning-XNA-4-0-Development-Windows/dp/1449394620

I'm basically in the same boat as you. I recently got Killer Game Programming and am slowly working through it. It extends upon what most people would know from normal java concepts, so it's a little advanced for me but it's making more sense as time goes on.

Also there's JMonkey which is a java based engine, so it might be good for a top down game like that. I'm still experimenting with that myself but there are some helpful tutorials there too.

Curious to hear of more suggestions myself though

"Principles and Practices" is ancient, though as defrost says, the basics haven't changed much. But anything to do with interactive graphics has changed massively, so it's useless for that. The good news is that they're working on a new edition (I reviewed two chapters for Spike Hughes), but its release won't be for a good long while, I think.

I definitely wouldn't recommend the Schneider and Eberly book (not sure why people forget Schneider, Phil's a good guy) - that's really a reference.

Here's our own recommended book list for computer graphics. Our focus is on interactive graphics, so something like Angel's book works for that area. For a more general text, which sounds like what you want, I'd consider Fundamentals of Computer Graphics.

From the other thread, I should check out Frank Luna's book, but again that one's focused on interactive computer graphics and so won't include ray tracing or other global illumination techniques.

Oh, I also don't recommend our book, as it's meant as a second book on interactive graphics, not a first.

I am totally having a contest to gift someone this book, but I don't even have it and realllly want it haha. Here Lol the IRONYYY

happy birthday!

There might be some edge cases where this is possible/happens.

But honestly it isn't even significant enough to be worth mentioning for actually driving content and the shenanigans that people pull off.

The people interested in rmt are bottling.

The people capable of pulling off big heists are typically far too invested in the game to even consider rmt which will easily get them permabanned etc.

-----

The motivation for people doing things like backstabbing, long cons, espionage, and convoluted plans of bumfuckery comes from how the mechanics of the sandbox allow people to benefit in game from these actions regardless of their "morality". Again, maybe it is a motivator in some edge cases, but rmt is not at all a significant driving force behind what makes eve stand out in this regard

For anyone interested in learning anything about the games history, I highly recommend empires of eve by Andrew Groen (ebook, audio etc.)

IF you need tutorials, remember that XNA applies a swell and it doesn't matter if it's 10 years old. But if you have been doing this for awhile then focus on general game dev information. A lot of good resources are written in c++ and are not about monogame. One of my favorite resources is http://gameprogrammingpatterns.com/ . It has a free web version.

​

Keep in mind that monogame is a frame work and it handles all of the low level stuff but you still are creating an engine. I really enjoy https://www.amazon.com/Engine-Architecture-Third-Jason-Gregory-dp-1138035459/dp/1138035459/ref=mt_hardcover?_encoding=UTF8&me=&qid=1557547565

​

This is my current favorite

https://www.amazon.com/Game-Development-Patterns-Best-Practices-ebook/dp/B01MRP7SPA/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Game+Development+Patterns+and+Best+Practices&qid=1557547682&s=books&sr=1-1

​

But in the end, it comes down to any job. You reach a problem and search for a way to solve it.

Not 100% on topic, but I absolutely loved the book Extra Lives. It talks about gamers as well as game devs, and the writing has a very unique and honest style.

Two books (and you can google talks by the authors).

Jesse Schelle - a book explicitly based on pattern languages (from Alexander's A Pattern Language)
https://www.amazon.com/Art-Game-Design-Book-Lenses/dp/0123694965

Richard Bartle - how do design virtual worlds / types of players / motivations / etc.
https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Virtual-Worlds-Richard-Bartle/dp/0131018167/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=bartle+designing+online+worlds&qid=1554913435&s=books&sr=1-1-spell

Both have given talks, etc. etc. etc. that are online, but both books are superb.

I can provide lots more to look at but those pretty much bracket what you are asking for and both authors are VERY knowledgeable.

Bartle was the co-author of the first shared world game, for example.

If you want to be a good writer, you have to read.

If you want to be a good game designer, you have to play.

But if you are gonna play... then learn to make them too:

Good book on Game Design: Level Up by Scott Rogers

Design your own games easy: GameMaker and I suggest the book The Game Maker's Apprentice or Stencyl or even App Inventor for Android

this is where i'd start. They're more dated than some things (predating WoW), but they're very good stories that capture of a lot of the events that built up to the world we have today. Of blood and honor and The Last guardian are particularly good.

The e-book "Basics of Age Empires 2" is a good source of every aspect of that game for competitive play. So if he likes to play aoe2 then it's definitely worth considering. Even if he doesn't play this game in particular, the thought processes described could still be relevant to other rts games.

I produce a talk show about gaming culture from a retrospective, analytical focus that covers different subcultures, collections, and play history each episode. (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpnBpHVI5tHdXvlSVlVqO6ggUWCrU4ICQ). There's a lot of reminiscing about game culture before today's current state and I made it to fill the missing hole you're asking for. I definitely want to see more content that treats gaming culture with a broader respect instead of hyper-topical news stories and marketing that will be completely irrelevant within weeks. All my interviews are meant to be evergreen. If you're interested, check out the Heather or Rocco episode.

Outside my own work, the only great Games Literature I've read is Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307474313?keywords=Extra%20Lives&qid=1449403420&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1

A huge water slide funnel looking thing, it was pretty terrifying since I was backwards, but I still loved it! time to end boredom This is awesome because well it's animal crossing. 'nuff said

They're receiving updates to implement what XNA already has (plus a little extra). Books like this exist for XNA and the knowledge is 95% transferable to Monogame. Beginning out, books like these help a lot and will help drive success.

"A Theory of Fun" is literally based on my readings in psychology and cog sci, including a dose of evo psych. Bear in mind many of the claims of evo psych aren't really well validated or are overblown (but the same is true for most of psych these days!).

You might also like the Scott Rigby book based on SDT:

https://www.amazon.com/Glued-Games-Video-Spellbound-Directions/dp/0313362246

Scott has several articles out there for free, and some presentations as well.

Game designer Jason VandenBerghe has been doing presentations for years on applying the OCEAN model of personality to game mechanics and game system preferences. Google for his name or The DarkLorde.

Nicole Lazzaro is another source of psych-based stuff.

Game Design by Bob Bates covers a bird's-eye view of general game theory and the process of game development from beginning to end. It's very "readable" and gives you context to help you understand how your development process can help aid your particular design paradigm that you decide upon. If I recall correctly, it also goes over a lot of the different type of design documents that are often used in the industry.

Depending on how much textbook you can stomach, Software Engineering for Game Developers by John Flynt and Omar Salem is an interesting take on the whole game design angle by delving entirely into the source code development. It follows an actual game created by the authors and the entire process used from beginning to end in designing the engine. The game itself was shitty, but the code was immaculate and the process certainly gave me a lot to mull over and cherry pick for my own projects. Be warned, however, this book is as dry as a road trip in the Sahara and twice as long.

Besides these two, I can also definitely recommend Level Up! and The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses as previously recommended elsewhere in this topic.

A couple of years ago a journalist wrote a book about Eve Online's community and how it's evolved over the years. Honestly, it's a good introduction into how Eve is played and a great read:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01DONPR0M/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i0

would highly recommend the Warcraft Archive which includes all of the original novels that were published before WoW and I feel are superior to anything that came out after. The Archive includes Day of the Dragon, Lord of the Clans, The Last Guardian, and Of Blood and Honor.

I'm currently working on my first game, and got this book and I cannot recommend it enough. It has a full template and example of a GDD and walks you through how to do it, and what you need to consider. Don't worry you don't need to buy it, I just flicked through the preview copy amazon puts online and it's available, obviously a few pages are missing here and there, but it gives you a good idea, it starts at page 68. Give it a quick read, I hope it helps!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Level-Up-Guide-Great-Design/dp/047068867X

One of the most important aspects of game design is that the story should always be written first, with the design and technology then being informed by the story. What you need to do is come up with the game you want to make (which hopefully is also a game you think other people will have fun playing), after which you can create a design plan / feature list / implementation plan from that.

I suggest you read The Art of Game Design for general game design information and Richard Bartle's Designing Virtual Worlds for MUD-specific information. That's probably a good first step for getting you into serious MUD development.

Edit: link formatting

Almost definitely not

Back in the day game development almost never paid royalties, it was usually an up-front and milestone payments, or a lump sum upon completion. Many game devs were using the payment from the publisher for their last game to pay salaries to develop their next game

If you're interested, "Stay Awhile and Listen" is a pretty great book covering the origins of Blizzard North, including their history of developing shovelware on contract to afford to develop later games

Level up!: The Guide to Great Video Game Design I see this in B&N every time I go there but i never have money to buy it, I've looked through it and it looks pretty nice.

I used Shirley's classic Tiger book in my first CG class: https://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Computer-Graphics-Peter-Shirley/dp/1568814690

But it's definitely there to teach theory, not really provide code. it was more of a side resource alongside custom C++ projects my professor made.

Are your students not expected to know C++ (or at least C) before coming into your class? If not that may make finding resources hard since so many CG books use c++ code and throw OpenGL right at you. Assuming they don't, it may be best to try and follow the approach the Udactiy course does: prepare some boilerplate demos in JS (possibly using a framework like Three.js like the course does) or another language/framework of choice, use the textbook more for optional mathematical/theory references outside of class, and have the projects be based around implementing features within your boilerplate. Even in my OpenGL course the professor provided a bit of structure so we weren't bogged down setting up buffers and other handles.

You can never go wrong with the strategy guide.

I have to say that I think one of my favorite things is visiting the island. I could spend hours alone on there, hunting for those bugs I don't have yet and going on the tours. My favorite tour so far has to be the maze one. Even if I get lost, haha.

New Leaf: The Game Everyone Should Get. xD

These are leaning towards the design and development side, but I would recommend The Art of Game Design and Designing Virtual Worlds. The former is a reference of patterns and questions for game design (including board and tabletop games), while the latter is focused on the design of MMOs and MUDs but the concepts can apply to other things like your typical shooter multiplayer.

I've been very impressed with Introduction to Game Design, Prototyping, and Development by Jeremy Gibson. The first half of the book talks about game design in general, then goes into a basic overview of C#. The rest of the book consists of a series of tutorials that get increasingly more complex. I'm not sure how helpful the tutorials and programming info would be laying in bed but the game design stuff is definitely fun to read by itself without a computer.

This is probably the most comprehensive and complete tutorial on making a platformer that you will find but you will need to pay a subscription to watch. Check out the first video anyway and you might get an idea if its worth while.

This book has a pretty decent platformer tutorial as well. Also goes through making a tile based editor for your levels.

If you are interested in learning more about the development of Diablo I highly recommend the book Stay Awhile and Listen. Lots of great interviews and gets really in depth on how a games was made back then.

And if you're worried about getting noobed into oblivion just pick one or two good build orders (probably the two most useful ones are one of feudal rush and getting to castle in ~15-16min.), and you're ahead of at least half of the players (on steam at least!).
There's also a book out there, Basics of Age of Empires 2, which is pretty good as a learning source.

To be honest not much (in OpenGL). I've just got this book, hoping to change that.

EDIT: I didn't get it yet, luckily. I'm looking at the date. 2005. A bit outdated probably. Suggestions, I'm still searching.

>I love java and have not really needed to learn another language, but I think I need to diversify myself more so I need to learn another one.

That's a great mindset. Diversify as much as you can. C# is probably too close to Java to get you out of your comfort zone. If your goal is to experience new things, you could try old fashioned C with the SDL library, or go crazy with Lisp.

The article in that link's also by Tom Bissell, whose book, Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter, is an excellent (if sometimes pretentious) book that definitely talks about games the way truegaming thinks about them. At the very least, it'll help us defend our hobby from the General Population.

(It also includes the CliffyB piece as a chapter somewhere in there.)

1. Laying on my sofa and browsing the internet, which I'll be doing for the next couple hours.
   
   
2. It's what I do every morning, more or less. I'm lazy and dislike doing... things.
   
   
3. Either go to volunteer, or be depressed that I'm not volunteering. Depends on my energy level. I may also go in to get my tattoo checked out for touch-up.
   
   
4. I really don't have any viable long-term goals.
   
   
5. I don't actually have a desk... I have kind of a table in between me and the TV which I use for that though. Currently it holds an Xbox controller, a travel mug, a bowl, and a sharpie.
   
   
6. "San Lorenzo was fifty miles long and twenty miles wide, I learned from the supplement to the New York Sunday Times."
   
   
7. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut.
   
   
8. Oatmeal last night.
   
   
9. The last book I finished? Oh god. I'm in the middle of a couple right now... uh I think the last one I finished might've been A Clash of Kings. Good god, that's been a while. But yes, I liked it!
   
   
10. I'm not actually sure I've finished a book since the beginning of 2013 :(. I'm not as big a reader as I used to be, now I have a Kindle I really need to work on getting back into the groove. But read not finished, I've been working on "Star Wars: Choices of One", and it's good! Not super amazing, but I enjoy it for what it's worth.
    
    
11. ANIMAL CROSSING GUIDE. Omg I need this bad.
    
    Zweihander!

if your talking about game programming, i just got Killer Game Programming in Java from O'Reilly, it's a pretty good start.

However, if you're talking about game development, as in how to actually think of a game, i suggest The Art of Game Design by Jesse Schell. Very good book IMO.

First we have to agree on our definition of Presence.
This is how I learned about it.
I listened to this talk: (Jesse Schell The Pleasure Revolution)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PkUgCiHuH8

Here he mentions a book called Glued to Games:
http://www.amazon.com/Glued-Games-Video-Spellbound-Directions/dp/0313362246
My definition is going to come from this book.

Presence:
Being able to ask yourself, "Do you feel the world around you, is that world interacting with you? Is it affecting your decisions?"
IE. Demo recommendation:
CyberSpace, turn that demo on while standing up and tell me you don't lose your balance.
Ask yourself while your in the demo, Do I have to force myself to believe that it isn't real. If you do, you are experiencing presence. If your being affected by the experience and falling over then you are experience presence. Either way, I think that's a pretty simple way to prove it to yourself.

You're gonna want to start with reading this book followed by "the war of the ancients" trilogy. Afterward, play Warcraft 3! Not only does it provide some amazing lore, it's a great game.

Afterward, just read books. Any of the books. And if you're still invested, pick up the chronicle books and read those. They are the most up to date, comprehensive overview of WoW's lore to date, but they read like a history book, so they're a bit dull to people who haven't been previously invested.

Have fun!

I had a little luck on this wiki page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_balance

Namely, there is a reference in this article to this book, which sounds interesting:
http://www.amazon.com/Designing-Virtual-Worlds-Richard-Bartle/dp/0131018167

I suggest you take a look through that book and check it's list of references for more publications like what you want. To study this stuff seriously, though, you are going to want to be up on your calculus and statistics.

I'm reading this right now. It starts with "analog" prototyping for games, to test basic games like card games. How you can design games and what you need to consider. Learn C# in unity while developing games, and you learn development processes like agile or scrum. For me, this book is great because it starts with the basics and over each chapter you learn another part of developing games like how to test your initial Idea or how to balance weapons etc. until you reach the second half of the book were you learn the unity development with projects.

Besides C, you can also try dabbling in Java and use Netbeans IDE since they are beginner friendly and explain the functions of syntax that you type in
(if you downloaded the 200MB++ help files)

(Try read this one!)[http://www.amazon.com/Killer-Game-Programming-Andrew-Davison/dp/0596007302]

or you can dabble in Flash n post your simple games to flash portal like kongregate/underground. Many indie developer also start from there.

My colleague (suburban high school) does this and it seems really fun and successful. She mainly relies on this book.

Extra Lives by Tom Bissell is pretty good. I'd recommend checking it out.

I wholeheartedly recommend Introduction to Game Design, Prototyping, and Development by Jeremy Gibson.

It's a really hands-on book and focuses a lot on the iterative cycle of design -> prototype -> test -> redesign.

It also gives a really good intro to Unity development so you can get stuff moving right away.


Disclaimer: I was Jeremy's TA for several years while he taught at USC, so I'm a little biased. But I saw him take students with no design or programming experience at all and - over the course of a semester - get them to create some pretty compelling games.

Guy in the picture here: Got her some DnD Setting Candles with a whisky/fireplace Tavern scent and a citrus/fig Farmland scent. We'll use it for more scenery in our games and we love candles. Also a preorder of The Elder Scrolls Cookbook so we'll be making a ton of fantasy food in the future. Lastly, a date to a nearby fancy medieval inspired restaurant

You should mention if you are interested in 2D or 3D.

Introductory Sites___

http://www.riemers.net/eng/Tutorials/xnacsharp.php

http://rbwhitaker.wikidot.com/xna-tutorials


Books_

http://www.amazon.com/XNA-Game-Programming-Recipes-Problem-Solution/dp/143021855X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1303535910&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/Learning-XNA-4-0-Development-Windows/dp/1449394620/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1303535939&sr=1-2

Also I know XNA/C# pretty well so feel free to send me a PM if you have any direct questions.

> I'd LOVE for someone to write a book about all the dirt from inside that place.

It's your lucky day!

I read it a couple years ago so I don't remember the exact details, but it was a good read.

Disclaimer, I haven't personally built a full functioning game engine from scratch but I've been interested in game engine architecture. I recommend two books I'm currently reading, Game Engine Architecture and Game Coding Complete.

This one is more just baked goods, but Magnus does have a Nordic Cookbook that's also worth a look through.

If you're a gamer at all, the book that brought me to this sub to learn more about mead was The Elder Scrolls Cookbook. Fun recipes, even if you're not trying to recreate something from the game world.

Divided Kingdoms

I've been very busy at work, so development time was limited this week:

• Added health bars above NPCs with their level
  
  
• Containers are now working; it is possible to add and remove items.
  
  
• More work on the item generation algorithm; items now have levels, prefixes and suffixes with stat modifiers working. I still have a ton of work ahead as I only have a few modifiers in my data files and they don't really make sense yet.
  
  
• Inventory list view now only displays categories that have at least one item
  
  
• Fixed blood particle animations after migrating to party system
  
  After reading a book on AI (Behavioral Mathematics for Game AI) and a book on emergence (Emergence in Games), I started reading Game Design Workshop; it's a great book so far. I want to read Designing Virtual Worlds next.
  
  See you next week!

I'd actually recommend this book if you're interested - I've never played but found the overall history of it fascinating.

Whatever order you choose to do, I definitely recommend picking up The WarCraft Archive as it contains 4 books: Day of the Dragon, Lord of the Clans, The Last Guardian, and Of Blood and Honor. Saves you a little bit of money as opposed to buying them individually.

Edit: It looks like there's a second WarCraft Archive for the War of the Ancients Trilogy as well.

[Andre's Book] (https://www.amazon.com/Basics-Age-Empires-Journey-Friends-ebook/dp/B01F12NJDQ/ref=pd_sim_351_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=8PCWYFBN3BSGQFTA50YV)

And I agree that Andre's book is much more helpful for any HD player 1400-2000 rating. Very well organized and all information is all cited.

The usual cycle is an entity takes a large amount of space, then grows stagnant as they have nothing they need from anyone else. Eventually the good FCs leave or go inactive, and the group's concerns are dominated by money. Eventually their greed outreaches their grasp and they get their shit kicked in by (usually smaller) active, experienced, motivated groups who suddenly find themselves in possession of a large amount of space...

​

Some groups deal better than others with this "affluenza", and take active steps to keep their 'content creators' active and happy in an effort to stave of the decay. But to date, every large spaceholding entity in EVE's history have been through this cycle. In the last few years we have seen the fall of:

​

(Currently) NC/PL/PH, aka "PanFam"

​

Last year: The "Drone Russians" - a combine of Russian groups that held the drone regions for almost a decade

​

2017: Stainwagon: Another russian-led group based in the regions around Stain

​

2016: the CFC/Imperium: the coalition led by goons which held most of the North (from Cloud Ring to Geminate) - mighty as the Imperium appears now, it's less than three years since it was perceived to be equally mighty, but in only a few months every sov system was lost and many of the previous members left and/or disbanded.

​

I very highly recommend The Empires Of EVE for a detailed account of the history of the game up to just before the start of the fall of the Imperium. My understanding is that Mr Groen is working on a sequel

i Have started programing with basic to program games on the MSX using a book, that what have sparked things for me.

Skipping to these days, my bro have showed interest into programing, so I've tried to tech him a couple languages by giving him books, but it seams he was not comfortable with the complex way of them.

So, I thought of days I had the MSX and programing games from a book, finding something similar was the key.

I've found Land of Lisp, I gave it to him and hes happy with it.

I guess you can try Lisp with Land of Lisp, and see how it goes before going for C++, Java or other languages.

They aren't based on novels like the Witcher. That said, there's a new lore series that I'm in love with.

Here's the first book link:
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - The Skyrim Library, Vol. I: The Histories

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1783293195/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_h6evxbDD2ZP71

Level Up! by Scott Rogers - a great look at adventure game design.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/047068867X?pc_redir=1410179486&robot_redir=1

Yup! Official Nintendo seal and everything. Although some people say they find the internet more useful (and cheaper, of course). For example, fake vs real painting comparisons aren't in the book. It just tells you to compare with the catalog for yourself. But it does have the entire catalog and this version actually has slots for check marks if you have the item! (last game guides didn't; it looked ugly if you wrote in it). So if you like physical copies, I recommend it.

Yes, for their physical items. Try adding a digital Kindle book to the cart, and it won't let you: https://www.amazon.com/Stay-Awhile-Listen-Legendary-Video-Game-ebook/dp/B00G8UL474

https://i.imgur.com/f5LA5hq.png

Or a digital movie: https://i.imgur.com/T3u4HAT.png

Digitals play by different rules. Guess which one EGS sells? Even iTunes and Google Play will do the same

Suprised no-one mentioned this yet (or i just didnt see it) here you go: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/047068867X?pc_redir=1405307632&robot_redir=1 We refer to this as the games bible. It covers almost all aspects of preproduction and provides very good examples. You can probably get the pdf for free somewhere around the net.

You might like to read Jacked: The Outlaw Story of GTA as it talks about Rockstar's struggle with content development and the censorship battle they faced. And it's a pretty fun book. :-)

I have been in the exact same boat as you. I'm about to start actually coding a game finally after a year of letting the idea stew. I have been reading a book on XNA 4.0 which does a great job of describing object-oriented approaches to constructing some basic components. Even if you don't want to code for XNA the structure of the code can be used in just about any language.

The author of the book hosts all of the source code for his tutorials on his website, so you could always look through those as well.

Here's a link to the book: http://www.amazon.com/Learning-XNA-4-0-Development-Windows/dp/1449394620

It's only recently been released. I don't know if Reddit auto blocks links, but here is the link to the Amazon page for the cookbook. I hope you get it and try it out! https://www.amazon.com/Elder-Scrolls-Official-Cookbook/dp/1683833988/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=2OA29GTT0DPJ5&keywords=elder+scrolls+cookbook&qid=1556507736&s=gateway&sprefix=elder+scrol%2Caps%2C149&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1

My local library had this book. I'm using it, its pretty good.

This one for basic C# and OOP.

Beginning Visual C# 2010

O'Reilly has great reference books.

C# 4.0 in a Nutshell: The Definitive Reference

From there you can learn Mono for Android (and iOS)

Professional Android Programming with Mono for Android and .NET/C#

While learning XNA game development by example,

XNA 4.0 Game Development by Example: Beginner's Guide

And by detail...

Learning XNA 4.0: Game Development for the PC, Xbox 360, and Windows Phone 7

"Glued to Games" was recommended at the last GDC I attended (2014). Amazon Link. It's still on my list of books to read though. Also, as mentioned in another post, "The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses" is a great read.

I am working through this

Game Design Prototyping and Development

I am enjoying it so far. I have done some coding before but the pace in the book is nice and slow

I think /u/dcrypter is referring to Torchlight, by Runic Games, founded by Max and Eric Schaefer, co-founders of Blizzard North.

Stay Awhile and Listen is a good read if you're interested in their early days!

No, because a lot of people have said so ranging from countless writers, critics, and developers. Did you even read the story below the Sessler sound bite? There's nothing to prove about it being satire. If you're offended by Grand Theft Auto, which you clearly are, you should be. It's intentional.

A much better source of information will be Jacked: The Outlaw Story of Grand Theft Auto, by the author of Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture, which comes out next month

The website recommends "Practical Common Lisp," which is fine, but I found Land of Lisp! Game Programming to be an easier read.

I'm actually kind of liking that Empires of Eve book.

Never played the game myself, and it only covers the period from the alpha/beta through 2009, but it's been a neat look into "The Great Wars" that happened early on.

If you plan on reading them chronologically then /u/Cereon-EU 's link is 100% accurate, I can personally recommend reading them this way as it is nice to read chronologically.

If you plan on buying them online, buy whichever ones you think might enjoy. If you are going to buy them in store, try to get the Warcraft Archive Amazon Link
and the Chronicles of War Amazon Link
These are good because you get a total of 7 books(Last Guardian repeats) for the price of 4, AND they are all chronological to each other (no books missing in between)

I started with the warcraft archives and was happy. Its 4 books in one and each is pretty solid. Not really linear but each book is good in its own right. Richard knaack and christie golden are both in it. I like knaacks writing style.

https://www.amazon.com/WarCraft-Archive-WARCRAFT-Blizzard-Entertainment/dp/1416525823

Reading the war of the ancients trilogy now.

So far there's a review here, and the two reviews from Feage and dogao.

Thank you for your opinion :)

10 or under

I'd love to have the Animal Crossing Guide!

I would ask for their the Warcraft archive or War of the Ancients Trilogy.

That ends up being 7 books for around $10-15 total, so it wouldn't eat up the whole budget, and all of them are great.

In the book Stay Awhile and Listen: How Two Blizzards Unleashed Diablo and Forged a Video-Game Empire , one of the chapters mentions how with Warcraft 1, they made the game, and then they worked on the story (both with Warcraft & Diablo). And with Warcraft at least, there was a section where it said they just threw one of the employees into a recording booth and told him to make up the story on the spot, which would later be used for the cut scenes. In my opinion, even the greatest authors would need to take a bit of time to make sure it was a coherent story. By improvising it, you're just asking for the need to retcon later on.

Tutorials

• GameDev Java Game Programming 1
  
• GameDev Java Game Programming 2
  
• GameDev Java Game Programming 3
  
• Keyboard and Mouse Input
  
• Active Rendering
  
• Stone Paper Scissor
  
• Open GL tutorials
  
• Double Buffering, Movement, Collision Detection
  
• Advanced Vectors
  
• Regular Expressions
  
• Pong
  
• 2D Java Game Video Tutorials
  
• A few small game tutorials
  
• NewBoston Game tutorials : source
  
• BlackJack
  
• Poker
  
• ApexJava Youtube tutorials
  
• ThousandCodes Java Tutorials
  
• Dice Game
  
• Turk4n's game tutorials
  
• A few Java Game tutorials
  
• MrJavaHelp Tutorials
  
• Mouse Acceleration
  
• Java 2s Tutorials
  
  ---
  
  Libgdx Specific
  
  
• BadlogicGames
  
• libgdx wiki intro tutorial
  
• Updated tutorial based on above
  
  ---
  LWGJL Specific
  
  
• Accelerated Java Game Tutorials
  
• LWJGL Ninja Cave Tutorials
  
• SHMUP with source
  
• NeHe Tutorials
  
  ---
  Engines, Frameworks, Libraries
  
  
• Slick2d
  
• Java Monkey Engine
  
• LWJGL
  
• PulpCore
  
• JGame
  
• Golden T Game Engine
  
• Espresso
  
• Xith3d
  
• jPCT
  
• Ardor3d
  
  ---
  Source
  
  
• Ultima Clone
  
• First part of a Link to the Past in java
  
  ---
  Books
  
  
• Killer Game Programming in Java
  
• Developing Games in Java
  
• Beginning Java Game Programming
  
• Advanced Java Game Programming
  
• Pro Java 3D Game Development
  
• AI Algorithms for a Prototype Game Software in Java 1.6
  
• Introductory Programming with Simple Games: Using Java and the Freely Available Networked Game Engine

One thing that helped me a lot with that "staring at the screen" problem was getting into game development from scratch.

This book was the one that got me out of that phase and onto creating my own projects and coming up with new ideas to improve what I've written, so I always had new work to do:
http://www.amazon.com/Killer-Game-Programming-Andrew-Davison/dp/0596007302

It's a bit dated now as it was published in 2005 but I think it will still help you.

In my opinion, this is the best XNA book out there: http://amzn.com/1849690669

Walks you through 4 complete games and all of the code is in the book, none of that, "here is a snippet of code, download the rest from my site to keep working" stuff.

A great book in my opinion
https://www.amazon.com/Basics-Age-Empires-Journey-Friends-ebook/dp/B01F12NJDQ
or Chris book https://www.amazon.com/Keys-1vs1-Age-Empires-Conquerors-ebook/dp/B00AM34QCI/ref=pd_sim_351_1/157-8259578-5648625?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=PJ4KPQ3KQQEWWY3FQH1C

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Empires-EVE-History-Great-Online-ebook/dp/B01DONPR0M

This is the book I think you're referring to.

Andrew Groen is great, and his second volume covering closer to the present is being written as we speak (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sciencegroen/empires-of-eve-volume-ii)

In terms of looking at map flows, https://sov.space might be what you're after?

It's originally from this book.

http://www.amazon.com/Extra-Lives-Video-Games-Matter/dp/0307474313/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420850831&sr=8-1&keywords=extra+lives

It's a collection of essays written by Tom Bissell that tries to explain what makes video games so captivating. I read a few years back an remembering enjoying it. The chapter on Resident Evil really captured what made that special. He also writes a chapter about how he did a bunch of coke and played GTAIV for 40 hours straight.

If you ever get a chance to, I suggest reading Jacked: The Outlaw Story of Grand Theft Auto, in the book they talk about how they use marketing tactics from Def Jam Records and put stickers around all around New York to get the logo and name known.

Thanks getting this and decided to get this as well.

/u/knightangel12 was nice enough to inform us that there is actually a book about the creation of Diablo: [Stay Awhile and Listen: How Two Blizzards Unleashed Diablo and Forged a Video-Game Empire - Book I]
(http://www.amazon.com/Stay-Awhile-Listen-Blizzards-Video-Game-ebook/dp/B00G8UL474/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1458522951&sr=8-1&keywords=stay+awhile+and+listen)

I just bought this, this, and this last week and am anxiously awaiting their arrival. TES lore is awesome.

My favourite XNA book was this one but the book only goes up to XNA 3 https://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-XNA-Game-Studio-Unleashed/dp/0672330229 (source was updated for XNA4/MonoGame here http://chadcarter.net/xna-game-studio-3-0-unleashed-book-source-code-updated-to-work-with-monogame-and-windows-10/)

For XNA 4.0 I liked this one https://www.amazon.com/Learning-XNA-4-0-Development-Windows/dp/1449394620

Are there even any specific MonoGame books?

Peter Shirley's Fundamentals of Computer Graphics is excellent. Steve Marschner's course notes follow the book fairly closely.

Bethesda sells it directly from their website, Amazon are the 2 most obvious places I can think of.

https://gear.bethesda.net/products/the-elder-scrolls-the-official-cookbook

The Elder Scrolls: The Official Cookbook https://www.amazon.com/dp/1683833988/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_UP8zDbAEN2BZT

Edit: Barnes and Noble
https://m.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-elder-scrolls-chelsea-monroe-cassel/1128959748?ean=9781683833987

Find something that interests you. So what kind of a person are you, do you want to see your end results or do you want to solve hard problems that never look pretty but are fun to solve? What are the projects that you thought of. You say you want to make games, did you familiarize yourself with a graphics API? Multimedia API? If you're doing 3D graphics unless you're a guru in matrices you'll find hard intersting problems. Try doing things incrementally. Decide on something basic you want to do and add features as you like. I don't know how many large projects you've worked on but the devil is really in the details.

Can't vouch for the quality but maybe books like this, this and this.

Or buy it second hand? Tried ebay?

http://www.amazon.com/WarCraft-Archive-WORLD-OF-WARCRAFT/dp/1416525823

"Of Blood and Honor" is available in the WarCraft Archive.

https://www.amazon.com/WarCraft-Archive-WARCRAFT-Blizzard-Entertainment/dp/1416525823/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=warcraft+archive&qid=1554300081&s=gateway&sr=8-1

>There must be some rule or perhaps some kind of formula that enhance the enjoyability of a stage.

No single rule or formula, but several rules of thumb, and different approaches.

Some books on game design include Rules of Play, which breaks down games into a very fundamental perspective (imagine understanding an apple by analyzing its atoms), and Introduction to Game Design, Prototyping, and Development, which is much more functional, discussing the procedures involved with testing and tweaking your levels to be what you want it to be.

More specific to your case though (and easier to read), there's this guide for Mario Maker level design

How about a book covering 2007-2009 :)
Empires of EVE: A History of the Great Wars of EVE Online https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01DONPR0M/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_0QmRCbCG276RX

Try these sites:
Riemers,
XNAResources,
RBWhitaker.
As for books I've found this one to be the most helpful.

Designing Visual Worlds by Bartle

Theory of Fun for Game Design by Koster is a classic and still largely valid

All I learned about game design started with this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Game-Design-Prototyping-Development/dp/0321933168

Read this cover to cover and you can pretty much make any basic game. The next step is, of course, making more complex games and learning as you go.

First off, I'm operating under the assumption that you're looking into English classes at the secondary school level.

Second, it might be helpful note the type of class(es) that could incorporate PnPRPG elements.
Specifically, are you interested in writing about teaching - Literature, Grammar, ESL, Critical Theory, all of the above, or something else entirely?

Finally, here are a couple links to get you started:
The Multiplayer Classroom

Classrealm Start Guide

Analysis of Gamification in Education

XNA 4.0 Game Development by Example - One such example in the book takes you step by step in making a scrolling 2d tank shooting game.

It's in C# using (obviously) the XNA framework, so it's real easy to pick up.

Well, this book explains a lot.

EDIT: Before the rush to downvote, remember that you can be constructively critical of a beloved company. Be it Apple or Valve or Rockstar.

> I don't have to read critical reviews since I played the game myself.

Clearly you do. You want to know why people like it? Read positive reviews. That makes logical sense. And simply playing something isn't always enough to form your entire opinion on it, sometimes other people can illuminate aspects of the game or ways of viewing it that you previously hadn't.

That's why I told you to do some reading.

> Dark Souls isn't really a survival game, so I don't know why you put it in the same category as the other games.

If you paid attention to my post you'd notice that Far Cry 2 is more than just survival, it's about the unforgiving difficulty level and obtuse instructions, which is where it's comparable to Dark Souls.

> Anyway, difficult games where the objective is to survive have been around a long time. Silent Hill is a survival game.

So have roguelikes. That doesn't mean that roguelikes didn't become trendy over the past few years. Because they did, regardless of how long the genre has been around.

These are the series of texts I have been pointing students to, in addition to the online tutorials available.

Unreal Blueprints Book: http://www.amazon.com/Blueprints-Visual-Scripting-Unreal-Engine/dp/1785286013

Unreal C++ Book:
http://www.amazon.com/Learning-C-Creating-Games-UE4/dp/1784396575/ref=pd_bxgy_14_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0HFNGR8P5ZFQ95SRHQRH

My Favorite Unity3D book:
http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Game-Design-Prototyping-Development/dp/0321933168

The Art of Game Design - Jesse Schell

very few illistrations (if thats what your into). All theory, it's the go to book for game design


http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Game-Design-lenses/dp/0123694965

Level Up - Scott Rogers.

My personal favourite. Easy to read.


http://www.amazon.com/Level-Up-Guide-Great-Design/dp/047068867X

I found this book to be good for beginners:
http://www.amazon.ca/Learning-XNA-4-0-Development-Windows/dp/1449394620/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333982472&sr=8-1

Covers 2D and 3D development in XNA.

Land of Lisp. It's that good.

They have art in them too, a good reason to buy even if you already have an ebook version.

https://www.amazon.com/Elder-Scrolls-Skyrim-Library-Histories/dp/1783293195

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00G8UL474/?tag=codofhon-20

Also Patrick Wyatt's blog is a good read too -

https://www.codeofhonor.com/blog/

It's so political someone wrote a book on some of the biggest wars and the politics and events that lead up to them. https://www.amazon.com/Empires-EVE-History-Great-Online-ebook/dp/B01DONPR0M/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1493555914&sr=1-3&keywords=Eve+online

EVE is nuts and I love the tales that come from it but I've bounced off of it like 3 or 4 times at this point.

There's a nice book detailing the early years of Blizzard, Stay Awhile and Listen

You may also like...

Stay a While and Listen.

A book that details the early days of Blizzard Entertainment and how the world's biggest game company came to start up.

Immensely popular book, however a little outdated: https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Virtual-Worlds-Richard-Bartle/dp/0131018167

Check out this baby. It collects a lot of books from the single player games and pairs them with nice artwork. There's an ESO version, too.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Elder-Scrolls-Library-Histories/dp/1783293195

He writes about video games too. I highly recommend Extra Lives.

PDF.

Amazon

I also highly recommend this book.

how about something fun? Plenty of good game books that might be interesting...

Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python

Learning XNA 4.0: Game Development for the PC, Xbox 360, and Windows Phone 7

Programming Video Games for the Evil Genius