whats a good beginner book for game development

[airsoft]

Im new to game programming and i was wondering whats a good book i could get to start out.

[Sodabread]

Well, , first off, are you new to programming in general or just game programming?

[dbest]

Did you read this:
http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread63827.html? It has listed a few books in there.

You can also look at Game Coding Complete.

Other useful books may be found from:
http://www.toymaker.info/html/books.html
http://www.amazon.com/Game-Programming-Computers-Internet-Books/b?ie=UTF8&node=15375251

[airsoft]

im new to programming in general

[airsoft]

Would Accelerated C++ be a good book to start out.

[Sodabread]

My recommendation for a C++ book would be C++ Primer Plus. Be warned, C++ is a tough language to learn. Make sure you do your research on languages before you go with one, just to make sure you go with the right one. You could spend years learning C++ well enough to make a game then realize you hate it. Look around, read some tutorials on different languages, see what you like.

[griswolf]

C and C++ are more difficult languages to start with, though very powerful/fast-running and certainly not impossible. Free if you use the various Gnu compilers. Much documentation.

Since you are just starting, I recommend that you try something with a smaller entry cost. Python would be good since it is reasonably simple, has good graphics available. Much documentation, but perhaps not quite as much as for C++. It is also free. http://www.python.org

A lot of online games these days are written for Adobe Flash using Action Script. I've not worked with this stuff, so all I have is a URL: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash

Of course, there are also the Windows compilers and languages

[airsoft]

I have found another book C++ for the absolute beginner. would you recommend this

[jwenting]

no, I can't recommend that book.
Mind I've not read it, but any book with a title like that leaves me highly suspicious as to its content.

[airsoft]

do you have any book in mind that you've read that could start me off.

[airsoft]

also would you recommend learning python instead of c++ and if so can you list some books.

[griswolf]

I have very much enjoyed books by Scott Meyers, though they are more about design and general C++ and less about graphics and games. I also like Bruce Eckle's "Thinking in C++" (be aware that it has several editions, and you want the most recent). I have enjoyed Barabara Moo's writing, though I'm not sure I've read all the way through any of her books.

I have no information beyond the web page that you see here: http://dehesa.freeshell.org/ICPPPG/ , but it looks from a superficial examination like it might fit your needs nicely. Besides, anyone who supports freeshell.org gets at least a little extra credit ;)

[griswolf]

Yes, I do recommend python over C++ for a beginning programmer: In my opinion it is more accessible because it is a script language with duck typing, as well as a "nicer" language because everything is first class. It works on almost every platform with little or no os-specific tweaking needed. On the other hand it is very slow compared to compiled C/C++

I learned Python from Python Essentials Reference, the tutorials at python.org and by reading other people's code. I was already an experienced programmer when I started with the book. It seems to be a reasonable introduction, but your mileage may vary. I am not much interested in graphics, so once again I can't give you a good graphic/game reference for python. Pygame seems to be popular (Ignore the April Fools posting in the front page), but there are many other graphics options.

[Tech B]

You don't need a book. Google is the best teacher I've ever had the pleasure of learning from.

And if your going 3D game venue; Panda3D is really simple and well supported. You can model everything in Blender and export to .egg.

[n.cramp]

The 'in easy steps' series of books are always quite good. They are for ABSOLUTE beginners though, and do research the topics you read as they will only give you a condensed introduction. http://www.ineasysteps.com/books/details/?1840782951

I'd recommend getting to grips with C and Java first. Java especially as you'll find that Java can handle a lot of windowing elements for you, leaving you to concentrate on the code itself.