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The Game Maker's Apprentice: Game Development for Beginners (Technology in Action) | 
 enlarge | Authors: Jacob Habgood, Mark Overmars
Publisher: Apress
Category: Book
List Price: $39.99
Buy New: $26.39
You Save: $13.60 (34%)
New (11) Used (14) from $18.00
Rating:  35 reviews
Sales Rank: 14379
Media: Paperback
Pages: 336
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.9
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 7 x 0.8
ISBN: 1590596153
Dewey Decimal Number: 794.81526
EAN: 9781590596159
ASIN: 1590596153
Publication Date: June 26, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 4 to 7 weeks
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
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 gamescomplete 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, so you dont need to have any prior coding experience. It includes an optional programming language for adding advanced features to your games, when you feel ready to do so. You can obtain more information by visiting book.gamemaker.nl. The authors include the creator of the Game Maker tool and a former professional game programmer, so youll glean understanding from their expertise. The book also includes a CD containing Game Maker software and all of the game projects that are created in the bookplus a host of professional-quality graphics and sound effects that you can use in your own games.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 30 more reviews...
Great book but Software company is Risky October 16, 2008
T. A. Hogan (Toronto, Canada)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I own this book and it is excellent as is the software that comes with the book. (Game Maker Lite edition) I would not upgrade to the pro however as I paid for the pro upgrade key and Softwrap, the company in charge will not give me my activation key. Moreover, I have created two tickets with Yoyo Games helpdesk and both have been ignored. Buyer Beware. I have reported this to Paypal.
The Game Maker's Apprentice July 14, 2008
J. Marshall
This is a wonderful book! The instructions are easy to follow and all of the games are fun. I liked the fact that the finished games are on the CD so you could see what they are like while you are working on them.
 Great Book for Early Game Programmers June 1, 2008
M. Daly (Thousand Oaks, CA USA)
As a special education teacher, I would like to think that I have a keen eye for books that can hold my student's interests while meeting their diverse needs. The Game Maker Apprentice does that and more. The only negative comment I have heard about this book from a student is that it does not cover modern three dimensional game programming. My response, you have to learn how to crawl and walk before you can run.
Game Maker Apprentice achieves its goals masterfully, and I will continue to use it to teach game programming with my students.
Game Maker review May 27, 2008
Oneda Mason (Ferrum, VA USA)
I have started using the Game Maker's Apprentice book and it is well written and has easy to follow directions. I am sure I will enjoy creating games with it.
 Deja Vu - Hoping for More (3.5 Stars) April 13, 2008
Alphonzo R. Belcher (Oklahoma City, OK)
12 out of 13 found this review helpful
I downloaded Game Maker 7.0 and read its manual prior to purchasing this book.
My hope was that it would fill in the "holes" not explained by the program manual.
First, the good.
The book gives an excellent explanation of program logic and keeps things simple and effective for any experience level.
I also liked the fact that you could read the book and see examples without actually completing the tutorials.
I especially liked the way the book would demonstrate a particular game tutorial with an easy-to-read flow chart.
So if you didn't understand the Game Maker's manual this book IS for you.
Here is where my 3.5 star rating comes in.
I paid about $25 for the book to go beyond the program manual.
The book had a couple of the tutorials that were listed on Yo-Yo games web site. I don't like the idea of paying for something that is provided for free. However, it gave a better explanation of Game Maker's interface.
Although you can make a fully functioning game without programming, I was hoping for more guidance on Game Maker Language (GML), which you will need in fine tuning games created with Game Maker.
I was also hoping for more variety in the tutorials. Not everyone may want to make an action oriented game. For example, I wanted to make a little board game, but that isn't discussed in the book. Hopefully, it will be covered in the next edition or another book.
I still recommend the book, but make sure you are getting it for the right reasons. Review the PDF file and sample text carefully looking at the table of contents and index. You might be able to accomplish your goals by reading Game Maker's manual and looking through the forums.
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