The Game Maker's Apprentice: Game Development for Beginners

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 !

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 read. Taking a reader from zero to being able to create interesting games while understanding the logic, design considerations, and even programming syntax needed in one 300 page book with an easy to master learning rate/curve is an amazing feat. The authors deserve congratulations and they certainly have mine. The book starts with very basic logical programming constructs and builds an initial simple tutorial from these. Through each subsequent tutorial project in the book, additional concepts are introduced while previous concepts are reinforced. The tutorials are carefully crafted such that new material is presented in very step by step detail while previously introduced concepts are referred to in an increasingly shorthand way. This is a great teaching technique and one that doesn't happen without great effort. Along the way, most modern programming concepts and are introduced and explored in an amazingly non-frightening manner. In occasional chapters through the book the authors take a break from the GUI coding and talk about game design in more general terms and through examples from the tutorials and modified versions of the tutorials showing how game design and game player experience can be improved. The final chapters of the book deal with coding games and game features in the programming language that is "behind" the Game Maker graphic user interface. While some have complained that this language is not C++, it is certainly close enough in design and syntax that any concept learned here will be readily transferable to another more common language. The book ends with a discussion of other low and no cost tools that can be used to create graphics and sound files for games or any other software environment, and a discussion of the game design community available at the YOYO Games website. I can also attest to the fact that all example projects in the book work as advertised. That in itself is an amazing feat. Bruce Kirkpatrick MCSE, MCSD, MCDBA, MCT, OCP, iNet+, Network+, Security +, A+ ... and so on

This book bears a notice, "Copyright 2006-2013," so I assume it came out in 2006, long before GameMaker:Studio's 2012 release. As such, it includes Game Maker 8 on its CD, and the text refers to that version. Which would be fine if the only differences were that GameMaker:Studio includes more features than Game Maker 8 did, but that's not the case. The "Sleep" and "Show High Score" actions no longer exist, but are used in the instructional games and text, nonetheless. Now, "sleep" functions of one kind or another have probably been used by generations of programmers who needed their continuous-action, real-time games to present a certain pace or timing to the player. Alas, a lot of those programmers were writing single-threaded, sequential-execution code (you know: FOR X=0 TO 359 STEP 5, and so on). In our current era of event-driven, multi-threaded software, "sleep" functions tend simply to muck things up. What we used to do with sleep, we now do with timers (what Game Maker calls "alarms"). That's a big step forward, but it plays havoc with the learning process when the text you are working from expects you to add a "Sleep" action in the middle of a list of actions, and you don't have that action available, nor do you know how you would get around it with Alarms (since those aren't introduced for another 80 pages and, even then, they are used to invoke the "Show High Scores" action, which, again, no longer exists). So, I hope the authors will update the book to match the current version of the product. That said, let me go on to say that I _really_ hope they will do so, as this is otherwise a very, very good book. If you already know how to program, but find the GM IDE baffling, the examples will help you calm down and get focused. If you already know how to program, but find the immense list of GM functions and the large variety of ways to do things daunting, the examples will help you calm down and feel secure. But, if you don't already know how to program, this book may frustrate you, unless you limit yourself to the GM8 product on the included CD. I wouldn't recommend doing that, however, as you will then be "learning" methods that are already obsolete and simply _will not work_ when you start using GameMaker:Studio. Ignoring the technical details, the book's methodological approach to game programming is very enlightening. I've written, oh, maybe a billion ( 8-) ) lines of code for computer graphics applications of one kind or another. Gaming is something I'm new at, however, and I've only been doing object-oriented programming for about four years now. So, when one example showed how to animate a character on the screen so it smoothly moves from one position to the next by replacing it with an instance of a different object, having that object's position remain unchanged, but animating its graphic appearance to make it look like it was moving, then replacing it with an instance of the original object but in the new location, well... that was an "aha!" moment for me. Overall, a fine book. I will definitely be buying the sequel soon. But, until it is updated to reflect the actions available in the current version of GameMaker:Studio, I have to say it should be used only by people who already know how to program basic event-driven code, and who at least know what multi-threading is.

I stepped through the first game (Chapter 2) with my 11 year old son this past weekend. He seemed to really enjoy it and it was nice to work on a project with him. I think that we'll probably dedicate a couple of hours every week to working through each chapter until we finish the book. The good. It's a good primer to get kids interested in programming. It allows them to begin understanding the concepts of objects and how the objects work together in a program in order for things to happen. The software to make the games is easy enough for children and when looking through the book it strengthens their use of a computer. The bad. In chapter 1 it's explained that the software included on the disk is basically a trial version and you cannot use code / advanced features without paying for them. I thumbed through the book and seen that the last couple of chapters actually dive into code and really that's what I was hoping for to begin with. My son is not a wiz-kid by any means but being that he's learning algebra in school now and loves video games that I could begin tying math into something fun - game programming. My background in programming is for business systems - data manipulation can be interesting for geeky types but it's not something I can share with my son. I don't know how to write games and I would have loved to have learned along side him using this book. Unfortunately this book is not what I was shooting for. As I mentioned at the beginning of the review, we'll go ahead and work our way through the book and we'll invest in another book that really gets into coding rather than using an excellent piece of software to write games for you...which is what this is...a HOW TO BOOK on HOW TO USE YOYO GAMES software to make games... 3 stars. Decent introductory book. It does still allow the tweaking of variables to show the impact that it has on the objects in the game and perhaps in the further chapters it will get into that more and more.

(English) The book presents a very good structure in its content and through each one of its nine projects, it goes introducing you to the design of the video games. For people that want to begin in the programming and the design of video games with Game Maker, it is excellent, because it presents the use of this programming platform, so much in their graphic way as in way text, what makes it a very good source. It also presents in one of their chapters some concepts related with the reactive intelligence applied in the programming of video games with Game Maker. Perhaps the only point that I had liked to see is an introduction to the 3D games, for people that have bought the license of Game Maker. It had been an extra that we had thanked a lot. In general I recommend it thoroughly to learn how to program video games with Game Maker in less than one month. Cordial Greetings Angel Pretelín Ricárdez Associate Professor apretelin@ipn.mx Professional Interdisciplinary Unit in Engineering and Advanced Technologies. UPIITA. IPN, Mexico (Español) El libro presenta una muy buena estructura en su contenido y a través de cada uno de sus 9 proyectos, va introduciéndote a al diseño de los videojuegos. Para las personas que deseen iniciarse en la programación y el diseño de videojuegos con Game Maker, resulta excelente, pues presenta el uso de esta plataforma de programación, tanto en su modo gráfico como en modo texto, lo que lo hace una fuente muy buena. Además presenta en uno de sus capítulos algunos conceptos relacionados con la inteligencia reactiva aplicada en la programación de videojuegos con Game Maker. Tal vez el único punto que me hubiera gustado ver es una introducción a los juegos 3D, para las personas que han comprado la licencia del Game Maker. Hubiera sido un extra, que hubiéramos agradecido mucho. En general lo recomiendo ampliamente para aprender a programar videojuegos con Game Maker en menos de un mes. Saludos Cordiales Angel Pretelín Ricárdez Profesor Asociado B apretelin@ipn.mx Unidad Profesional Interdisciplinaria en Ingeniería y Tecnologías Avanzadas. UPIITA - IPN, México

I bought this book already knowing about game maker and wanting to learn more. The book itself is well written and guides you through step by step to create 9 games each one progressively adding more depth and work to accomplish. It teaches you the basics and even at the end of each chapter tells you to tinker with the game you just made and see what you can add to it and gives some hints which I personally thought was pretty cool. The only downside is this book uses gamemaker 8 which is included on the cd but game maker is currently at the time of me writing studio 1.2. Some of the drag and drop functions needed for the book are no longer included such as the sleep function and the show highscore function. However this is to help make the games created with the software easier to distribute across multiple platforms I.E. Android, Apple, Etc. You can easily google and find workarounds to these problems and alot of the solutions are on the yoyogames website itself as well so its not to big of a problem but something that buyers need to know beforehand. So i would like to see the book updated to game maker studio but as mentioned before you can use workarounds which will help sharpen your skils even more. All in all this is a great book and a good starting point for learning how to use game maker and i would recommend it to anyone who is interested in game maker.

The Game Maker's Apprentice is a companion book for videogame engine software "Game maker". ( About 15 years ago, videogames began to split into the game "engine" which could be re-used and monetizied to make other games, and the game assets which would be unique to the game. This is now common practise with game engines being either free, available for a fee or proprietary...see Wikipedia "Videogame engines") This book is a step-by-step, easy-to-use guide to building working games (2-D games so far...)inside the Game make game engine. The book comes with a free download of the freeware Game maker ( see YoYO games.com). For about $30, you can upgrade to the pro-version which allows you to build executable file games which you can send to other people... Back to the Book...it is well written with lots of screen shots of what you should see at each stage of the game's design. Almost anyone can write your own game in a few hours. I have previously duplicated the first 3 games which are described in the free tutorials available at the gamemaker website in about 3 weeks. This book was a great addition to those tutorials. While no game engine is effortless, In my opinion this book's approach is about as straight forward and visually oriented as I can imagine. Enjoy! Sons of Series The Game Maker's Apprentice: Game Development for Beginners (Book & CD)

This book has a lot of great information in it, however if you are looking for just straight programming for games, then this will just give you a little scratch of it. It's more of a "how-to-use" their program the game maker, than it is about programming. However, it is a fun chance to create your own games from beginning to end. Great layout, and excellent detail on how to program a game using their system. They also have a link to their website that has a forum and a whole community of gamemaker programmers. So if you are strictly looking for game programming, then just get this one as a supplement to your library, however dont get this is you are just starting out and want to strictly learn programming.

Veramente non ho letto tutto il libro anzi sono all'inizio tuttavia mi sembra molto buono.Mi piace il fatto che è scritto in un linguaggio molto semplice e nel contempo è anche abbastanza esauriente.Il libro guida il lettore nella realizzazione di nove giochi spiegando passo passo cosa bisogna fare e come.Conoscevo già uno dei due autori del libro(Mark Overmars)perchè ho seguito dei suoi tutorial con gamemaker e lo reputavo una persona molto in gamba.Per questo ho deciso di comprare il libro. In definitiva consiglio il libro a chi voglia accostarsi al mondo della creazione dei videogames.

Awesome,Awesome,Awesome

Been wanting to get into game development as a part time hobby for well over a decade! I bought Game Maker Studio Professional edition as an entry point but quickly found the built-in tutorials to be lacklustre and youtube videos were too disjointed and assumed different levels of base knowledge. For the best A to Z of beginner game design pickup The Game Maker's Apprentice: Game Development for Beginners. Pros: - Comes with a CD full of art and sound assets to help build the demo games - Lots of different style games to make including brick-break, puzzle, top-down explorer - Very finely tuned difficulty progression throughout the book - The English is well-explained with almost no errors and lots of clarifications and FYI's to enhance your knowledge of why we are doing something - Well illustrated and layout is great - Good introduction to scripting - Introduces you to best practices which you often won't get when self-teaching. Cons: - Slightly out of date as based on an older version of Game Maker. I was able to complete the entire book however without problems. Some features mentioned in the book are no longer available or have been superseded including built-in High Score table and the sleep function amongst others. - Lots of little projects which is great but nothing to really sink your teeth into. However, the book will take you a while to get through and the sequel "The Game Maker's Companion" offers more in depth projects. - Sometimes a little elementary and there are a lot of repetitive tasks for each project such as creating sprites, sounds, objects etc before getting into the game design. Overall, I am very satisfied with the book which is just what I was looking for and highly recommend it for Game Maker beginners and others who have watched a few YouTube videos but want a more academic step-by-step guide. On to the sequel!

Ich bin schon lange grosser Fan vom Game Maker und habe mir dieses Buch gekauft einfach nur weil ich den Game Maker und den Autor des Buchs unterstützen will. Jeder, der zumindest mal reinschnuppern will wie so ein Spiel zusammengebaut wird, kann sich dieses Buch bedenkenlos zulegen. Der Game Maker ist in der freeware Version gleich mit dabei, die Vollversion bietet für 15€ für die Enthusiasten einiges mehr, aber nichts was ein Anfänger vermissen würde. Auch sehr empfehlenswert für die jüngere Zielgruppe, mein Eindruck ist das ein grosser Teil der Game Maker community zwischen 12-16 Jahren alt ist, und auch für diese Zielgruppe sind die Inhalte des Buches bestimmt sehr zugänglich. Vorausgesetzt, man hat die passenden Englischkenntnisse.

super book it boost my interest in gaming making technology.I love to develop game with this book.Thanks for this book.