Sams Teach Yourself Game Programming With Visual Basic in 21 Days (Teach Yourself Days)

by Clayton Walnum

"Sams Teach Yourself Game Programming with Visual Basic in 21 Days" teaches the reader the art of game programming from the ground up. The reader is assumed to have basic programming knowledge that he... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 067231987X
• ISBN13: 9780672319877
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: Sams
• Length: 696 Pages
• Weight: 2.68 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 1.5" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

A must have for any one wanting to program games

If you are new to programming games and you want to start in the right derection go with this book. even though when you start it is kind of slow it gets going and on chapter 13 you are ready to create you first full game. there are some things that i would get ride of but for any one new this is highly recommended. Even if you are advanced its still fun to read and has great ideas to start you off on your new game. also a great reference for VB Game Programmers considering theres only like 4 good Vb Game Programming books out there.

This is a Wonderful Book... BUY IT!

This is an outstanding book in every sense of the word. The author is knowledgeable about game programming and writes with panache and clarity. The folks who'll benefit most from this book are those who've just mastered the basics of vb, and are itching to polish up their skills, especially in the area graphics and animations. I consider myself an advanced-beginner/intermediate vb programmer. I've found this book a pure joy to read. This is probably the only vb game programming book in print today, and thank God it's as good as it can get. It takes you slowly by the hand from simpler games to the ones that are much more complex. Although the title says "Teach yourself in 21 days", if you're thorough like me, you'd take considerably longer. For example, I took more than a coupla days to fully understand and analyse how the codes work for each chapter from Day 7 onwards. You must be prepared to work them out in front of your PC. Trust me, it's very rewarding. It's rare these days to find authors who can make tough programming topics easy (and game programming IS difficult). Prior to reading this book, I thought it'd be hopeless to learn to write a game in VB by myself. This book bring game programming right to the door-step of junior vb programmers. Great job, Walnum.PS. By the way, this book is clealy pitched at beginning and intermediate programmers. I've read earlier somewhat negative reviews here which lamented the lack of instructions on DirectX. Come on! The "Teach Yourself" series are NOT for advanced programmers. You can't put a book down just because it didn't meet with your expectations. At best you can ony say that YOUR judgement about the book is wrong; you can't then conclude that the book is bad. You can only do justice to a book's worth by considering its merit vis-a-vis its targetted audience.

Great for Learning Game Programming

I have read a few of books in regards to game programming, but none of them have even come close in terms of learning to do it. With the exception of this book, all of the other books I have read are in C/C++ (which I do know, by the way). However, the concepts presented in the other books are hard to comprehend, and even the most insignificant of things to do (such as turn 1 pixel 1 degree and change it's color) were all very complex mathematical structures.This book is different. Although I would recommend that you are somewhat familiar with VB before reading, this book will teach you the fundamentals of programming a decent game. I consider myself to be an above average vb programmer, and this book only helped me to be better. It has no coverage of DirectX, so if that is what you are looking for then this book is not for you. Otherwise, if you are interested in learning how to create decent games, and show those C/C++/OpenGL programmers out there that us VB programmers are smarter than what they think we are, then get this book!

Great for new game programmers

This is a great book if you're just starting to learn about game programming. It doesn't assume that you know anything (except being familiar with Visual Basic) and starts from the basics. By the time you're done with this book, you'll be able to program high-quality games, including even making level editors. In fact, the RPG and strategy games that are included are worth the price of the entire book!

Very useful for learning to program VB6 games

Teach Yourself Game Programming with VB is one of very few books available on programming games with VB, and it's the only one I've found that specifically uses VB6. (It recommends you use the Pro Ed, which lets you compile fast executables). It covers several different types of games, as well as pointing out what kinds are best suited to VB.I found the book very helpful. I've done a little hobby-type programming in the past, but have only recently begun to learn VB. I read the whole book first, then went back and started working my way thru. The source code is thoroughly explained, and the CDROM actually includes all the source code so you can play them as you follow along with the text and see how they're supposed to work before you even try writing your own versions.There was a time when writing games in BASIC was how everybody learned how to program. This book gives you the tools to do the same in Visual Basic. It doesn't assume you're a total novice at VB, but it doesn't require years of programming experience either. I think it's a good introduction to what can be a complex subject.