The Game Makers Apprentice shows you how to create nine exciting games using the wildly popular Game Maker game creation tool. This book covers a range of genres, including action, adventure, and puzzle games complete with professional quality sound effects and visuals. It discusses game design theory and features practical examples of how this can be applied to making games that are more fun to play. Game Maker allows games to be created using a simple drag-and-drop interface,…
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5.0 out of 5 stars
5 Stars Is Not Enough!!!!
I have been an educator and professional software developer for over 20 years now and can say that this is the most well crafted instructional book of any kind that I have ever…
My 12 year old son got interested in how computers work and especially how computer games get written. Being a software developer myself, I however could not explain him well these topics in a language that would be easily understood by a kid. And I am not a game programming expert, so I simply don’t know how this stuff is written.
When I first saw this book, I was not sure if it would be suitable for a kid. But I decided to take a risk, since the book had a lot of illustrations and language did not seem to be very technical. I gave it to my son two days ago, and I can see alredy now that this was an excellent gift: he used all weekend on reading chapters from the book, trying making his first games, calling his parents all the time to show us his achievement. He even found a forum for game development, asked questions, received answers and made improvements in his first programs based on discussion results! And by the way – English is a foreign language for him.
I wish all books for beginners was written in a such entertaining way.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great for kids of all ages!
I bought this book for my 9 year-old nephew who is wanting to learn how to do video game programming and he loves it.
The title should be The Game Maker’s Master Teacher! This book is very well written with clear, step by step instructions and visual images for reference. After completing a section, the authors provide a graphic of what your computer screen should look like if you followed directions correctly. My son, 9, and I worked through the first chapter over a 2 day period (about 3 hours total) and created our first game. He was thrilled! He immediately had ideas on how to “tweak” the game to make it even better. The great thing with this book and accompanying software is that you have the freedom to do so! The disc provides many images to use in game development or you can create your own. Each chapter adds new skills and details to make more interesting and complex games. However, even the first game is fun!
I would highly reccommend this book to anyone interested in creating your own video games. It is extremely user friendly and perfect for the beginner. My son is able to read through and understand it on his own, but it’s more fun to work on it together. (Also, he was more apt to use the visuals to take him through the process but not read the supporting information along the way!) By the end of the first chapter he understood the process fairly well and was able to remember (more than me!) most of the steps as he started creating his own new game. The only improvement I could see is having a “quick reference” page outlining the major steps. With it’s user-friendly format, however, it has been pretty easy to flip back through the chapter for reference.
The Game Maker’s Apprentice has to be one of my most eagerly awaited Computer Book purchases for quite sometime. The fabulous presentation and great use of terminology, really makes it a joy to read. Each chapter guides you through gently, in order to achieve more confidence into creating your own game or project. Each page is colourful and the beautiful illustrations brings things to life.
The book is accompanied by a great CD with all of the examples, resources and Game Maker itself, which is really easy to get into. Within no time at all, you’ll get used to it’s interface and workings. The tutorials start you off with the basics and progressively bring you to the wonderfully powerful Game Maker Language (GML). So not only can you create games using a Drag ‘n’ Drop interface, you can also use a powerful programming language as well. All of this is included in the unregistered version, but by paying an ever so reasonable registration fee, you unlock the full potential of Game Maker.
I used Game Maker to create my first ever PC game, Bugsy. The Game Maker Forum helped me out when I came across a problem or a bug I couldn’t resolve. There a lots of games and projects created with this wonderful program. You will also find many other sites across the Internet that provide helpful advice and tutorials. Not forgetting the official Game Maker site run and hosted by Mark Overmars.
The books co-writer, Jacob Habgood, has made a marvellous job along side Mark, to make this a very interesting book indeed.
You might also be interested to know, that another book covering the Game Maker theme, Basic Game Design and Creation by Namu Swamy is available as well. This also brings you to the Game Maker stable to learn some very easy steps into the basics of game design without it appearing too boring or tiresome.
Your gaming ideas and projects start here !
4.0 out of 5 stars
Easy read but tough concept to master….
After purchasing this book I was a bit suprised how easy it was to create my first game. As I read on I really got into the concept of Drag & Drop programming. But…
5.0 out of 5 stars
EXCELENT INTRODUCTION TO PROGRAMMING FOR KIDS AND BEGINNERS THROUGH VIDEOGAMES APPROACH
This book and samples in the CD, are an incredible good introduction to programming computers via videogames, for beginners.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great for young, wanna-be, gamemakers
I purchased this to use with my 5th grade home-schooled son who expressed an interest in learning to program games.
4.0 out of 5 stars
For the library
I bought this book for my teens at the library. I gave a class on online game making and this book was a great supplement to what is already on their website.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Wanted More
Some friends and I decided to make a game for our senior project, and Game Maker was the recommended program to used.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great. Easy. Fun.
Really good book. Simple, easy to learn. You can make several games and you can then use this knowledge to create new games of your own.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great gift for computer addicts!
My eleven year old son is enjoying creating his own games using this book as a guide. I bought it for him because he has always said he’d like to make computer games for a living…
5.0 out of 5 stars
Awesome idea for a beginning gamer!
I haven’t used this product personally- I bought it for my little brother who wants to create video games for a living. I’m sure he’s gonna love it when he opens it this Christmas!