CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO GAME DEVELOPMENT

After a discussion of minimum computer requirements and optional equipment like digital cameras, this chapter presents tips for buying equipment.

CHAPTER 2: GRAPHICS: THE BASIC BUILDING BLOCKS OF A GAME

Discusses the types of graphics used in a typical game: splash screen, menu screens, credit screen, logos, the user interface, and in-game graphics. Defines terms like pixel, screen resolution, and aspect ratios. Explains color palettes. Details simple image manipulations (e.g., rotate, skew, crop) and complex ones (e.g., masking, opacity, and anti-aliasing.

CHAPTER 3: SOUND AND MUSIC

Sounds are important not only because they give cues but also because they make games more immersive. Game sounds range from score music to sampled sounds. You don’t necessarily have to create your own sounds---you can get them from royalty-free collections akin to graphic clip art. Details how to be a "foley artist" by making your own sound effects. Outlines how to use Cool Edit to manipulate sounds and ACID to crete royaly-free music scores.

CHAPTER 4: THE HISTORY OF GAME DEVELOPMENT

In the beginning, there was "Spacewar", programmed in Assembly language and played on mainframe computers. Then "I, Robot" was the first game to use polygons. Early game machines like the Atari 2600 and the first Nintendo machine caused digital games to really take off.

Game Genres

• Maze games
• Board Games
• Card Games
• Battle Card Games
• Quiz Games
• Puzzle Games
• Shoot ‘Em Ups
• Side Scrollers
• Fighting Games
• Racing Games
• Flight Sims
• Turn-Based Strategy Games
• Real-Time Strategy Games
• Sims
• First-Person 3D Shooters
• First-Person Vehicle-Based Games
• Third-Person 3D Games
• RPGs (Role-Playing Games)
• Adventure Games
• Full-Motion Video Games
• Educational Games
• Sports Games
• Desktop Toys

CHAPTER 5: ELEMENTS OF DESIGNING A GAME

It’s a mistake to jump straight into development. Professional game designers do quite a bit of pre-development analysis:

Game Elements: genre, game idea, game treatment, technology, audience, team members, a design document, and a game proposal.

Things to Include:

• Storyline
• Levels
• Heroes and Enemies
• Menu Navigation
• User Interface
• Music and Sound Effects
• Single or multiplayer

CHAPTER 6: INTRODUCTION TO GAME MAKER

Game Maker is a free drag-and-drop program used to make 2D games. It’s interface includes Resource Explorer, Menus, and Toolbars.

CHAPTER 7: YOUR FIRST GAME MAKER PROJECT

Game Maker Basics: sprites and events.

The rest of this chapter walks you through each step of creating an "asteroid shooter" game.

CHAPTER 8: 2D SPACE SHOOTER

This chapter builds upon the simple asteroid shooter by giving it fancier graphics, a movable ship, collision handling, sounds, a background, and a scoring system. It also explains how Game Maker uses "rooms" for the screen areas in a game.

CHAPTER 9: INTRODUCTION TO THE GAMES FACTORY

The Games Factory can make slide shows, screen savers, interactive tests, and games and is available from www.clickteam.com.

Parts of the Games Factory

• The Storyboard Editor
• The Level Editor
• The Event Editor

CHAPTER 10: BEHIND THE SCENES OF THE GAMES FACTORY

This chapter details the parts of "Space Defiler", a game similar to Space Invaders. You use the Storyboard Editor to build levels that you then edit using the Level Editor. Lastly, you use the Event Editor to assign events to keyboard and/or mouse actions.

CHAPTER 11: MAKING A GAME YOURSELF WITH THE GAMES FACTORY

This chapter shows you how to actually create "Space Defiler" using the Games Factory, from creating the game file, to placing the backdrop, to placing objects on the screen, to assigning movements to objects, to making events and actions. Then things get even deeper as we create groups of events, comment lines, event lines, and add actions to event lines. The game gets fancier when we add sounds, move objects, test object positions, detail how to destroy aliens, and add a scorekeeping function.

CHAPTER 12: MAKING ANOTHER GAME WITH THE GAMES FACTORY

This chapter walks you through the creation of "Ghost Hunter", a Deer-Hunter like game. This game is more complex, and includes:

• New Objects: Masks, Crosshairs, Text, Ammo, and score objects.
• New events: e.g., an "Always" event
• Music
• Lives
• A Timer
• Conditions for the Timer
• Comments
• Changing Animation Sequences
• Deducting A Life
• Testing (e.g., keyboard and mouse actions, seeing if all ghosts have been shot)

CHAPTER 13: MAKING A MORE ADVANCED GAME WITH THE GAMES FACTORY

As if the last Games Factory game wasn’t advanced enough, this chapter details how to create "Dragon Flight", a 2D Side Scrolling game where a dragon tries to dodge cave walls and firetraps. You learn how to launch and accelerate fireballs, make destructible and indestructible walls, collect fireball energy, and more.

CHAPTER 14: ADVANCED CONTROL OF ACTIVE OBJECTS

The preceding few chapters have given you more and more control over active objects. This chapter breaks down mouse-controlled, joystick and platform movements; computer-controlled movements like bouncing balls; path movements; backdrop objects; Obstacles; and Text Objects.

CHAPTER 15: WORKING WITH PICTURES AND ANIMATION IN TGF

The Games Factory includes an Animation Editor. You can control the animation’s speed and direction; use animation icons to manipulate animation frames; import graphics; resize, rotate, and morph graphics; select "hot spots" on objects; and set action points.

The Picture Editor allows you to zoom icons, set color palettes, draw with various tools, and manipulate images.

Well, hopefully that's enough to give you the flavor of this excellent book.  Here's the rest of the Table of Contents.

CHAPTER 16: INTRODUCTION TO GCS

CHAPTER 17: RUNNING THE GCS GAME ENGINE

CHAPTER 18: LOOKING DEEPER INTO THE 3D EDITOR

CHAPTER 19: MAKING A 3D LEVEL

CHAPTER 20: USING GCSPAINT AND ARTWORK IN YOUR GAME

CHAPTER 21: THE EXTRA FEATURES EDITOR

CHAPTER 22: ASSEMBLING THE GCS GAME

CHAPTER 23: INTRODUCTION TO THE 3D GAMEMAKER

CHAPTER 24: CREATING A GAME WITH THE 3D GAMEMAKER

CHAPTER 25: INTRODUCTION TO GMAX

CHAPTER 26: USING GMAX FOR FLIGHT SIMULATOR 2002 PROFESSIONAL

CHAPTER 27: MODELING AN AIRPLANE WITH GMAX

CHAPTER 28: INTRODUCTION TO MILKSHAPE 3D

CHAPTER 29: INTRODUCTION TO PAINT SHOP PRO

CHAPTER 30: CREATING LOW POLYGON MODELS WITH MILKSHAPE 3D

CHAPTER 31: HALF-LIFE MODEL

APPENDIX A: FIRST PERSON SHOOTER

APPENDIX B: THE KEY POSITIONS IN A DEVELOPMENT TEAM

APPENDIX C: LINKS TO GAME PROGRAMMING WEB SITES AND NEWSGROUPS

APPENDIX D: WHAT’S ON THE CD-ROM