Description: Mastering Unreal Technology, Volume I: Introduction to Level Design with Unreal Engine 3 is your start-to-finish guide to modding and level design with the world’s hottest new gaming engine: Unreal Engine 3. Here’s everything you need to know to jumpstart your skills and create stunning new content and games for consoles and PCs alike! Your authors aren’t just the world’s #1 Unreal game development trainers: They’ve even built the training modules that shipped with Unreal Tournament 3: Limited Collector’s Edition. Now, working with the full cooperation of Unreal Engine 3’s creators, Epic Games, they introduce every facet of game development–from simple level creation to materials, lighting, and terrain...even advanced level optimization and streaming!

Description: Using XNA Game Studio 3.0, any programmer can master the art of game development and begin selling games to millions of Xbox 360 users worldwide. Now, there’s a practical, comprehensive guide to game development with Microsoft’s powerful new XNA Game Studio 3.0 and the entire XNA Framework.

In Microsoft® XNA® Game Studio 3.0 Unleashed, XNA expert Chad Carter covers the entire XNA platform, presents extensive sample code, and explains that code line by line. Carter walks you through the entire process of game development, including installing XNA, creating objects, handling input, managing and extending the content pipeline, optimizing game performance, and creating both 3D and 2D games. Carter presents sophisticated coverage of using XNA’s high level shader language; creating physical effects; and endowing characters with realistic artificial intelligence.

Description: For many players, games are entertainment, diversion, relaxation, fantasy. But what if certain games were something more than this, providing not only outlets for entertainment but a means for creative expression, instruments for conceptual thinking, or tools for social change? In Critical Play, artist and game designer Mary Flanagan examines alternative games—games that challenge the accepted norms embedded within the gaming industry—and argues that games designed by artists and activists are reshaping everyday game culture.

Description: Mastering Unreal Technology, Volume II: Advanced Level Design Concepts with Unreal Engine 3 is your start-to-finish guide to state-of-the-art Unreal Tournament 3 modding and level design. Here’s everything you need to know to take your game design skills to the next level, creating content with breakthrough depth and interactivity! Your authors aren’t just the world’s #1 Unreal game development trainers: They’ve built the training mods that shipped with Unreal Tournament. Now, working with the full cooperation of Unreal Engine 3’s creators, Epic Games, they introduce innovative, pro-quality techniques you’ll find nowhere else: outstanding solutions for everything from particle effects to physics, materials to cinematics. Packed with tips, hands-on tutorials, and expert insight, Mastering Unreal Technology, Volume II will help you take Unreal Tournament 3 and Unreal Engine 3 to the limit...and then blow right by it!

Description: Learning Flash CS4 Professional offers beginners and intermediate Flash developers a unique introduction to the latest version of Adobe's powerful multimedia application. This easy-to-read book is loaded with full-color examples and hands-on tasks to help you master Flash CS4's new motion editor, integrated 3D system, and character control with the new inverse kinematics animation system. No previous Flash experience is necessary. This book will help you:

Description: From EverQuest to World of Warcraft, online games have evolved from the exclusive domain of computer geeks into an extraordinarily lucrative staple of the entertainment industry. People of all ages and from all walks of life now spend thousands of hours—and dollars—partaking in this popular new brand of escapism. But the line between fantasy and reality is starting to blur. Players have created virtual societies with governments and economies of their own whose currencies now trade against the dollar on eBay at rates higher than the yen. And the players who inhabit these synthetic worlds are starting to spend more time online than at their day jobs.

Description: An Introduction to Game Studies is a core textbook for game studies as an academic discipline, and is the comprehensive guide to the field. It introduces the student to the history and character of games studies as an analytical study of games in culture, and then moves to provide an overview of games as signifying and dynamic cultural constructs. This book shows how to analyze games by introducing the core analytical concepts in the contexts of games and game cultures of four periods. It covers the prehistory of games, the 70s, 80s, and 90s and also contemporary developments. Students will be introduced to both the theoretical core and the essential genres and classics of the subject.

Description: Welcome to the exciting world of the video game artist. "Beginning Game Graphics" is your guide on a step-by-step path, beginning with the most basic modeling techniques and wrapping up with advanced workflows used by professional game artists. It provides powerful and easy-to-use tools to get you started, and it covers many of the methods, philosophies, and proven techniques that can improve your game demos and help separate you from the crowd in the rapidly growing interactive entertainment industry. Whether you are a video game enthusiast, an artist breaking into the world of video games, or a game programmer ready to model your own characters and sets, this book is the ideal introduction to 3D modeling for video games.

Description: Creating enticing game art can mean the difference between getting a game published or rejected. Great game art can also be a very rewarding to the game designer! "Beginning Illustration and Storyboarding for Games" focuses on specific issues surrounding developing concept art for games. It emphasizes artistic development using computer drawing and painting programs such as Corel Painter, Corel Draw, and Corel Photo Paint. This book is ideal for beginning art students who wish to learn the fundamental techniques used in creating concept art for game designs. It covers basic game design elements, storyboards, character designs, game world designs, level layouts, and other key visual elements typically used in game designs. As you work your way through the book, you will learn how to create art as well as how the art is used in a game design document.

Description: Ideal for both existing members and those contemplating joining for leisure or business, this compendium provides extensive information on the online world of Second Life. A modern day Internet phenomenon, over 5 million residents—users from across the globe—have built up this 3D virtual world, forming a complex community of social groups and businesses. Because of this overwhelming popularity, many new users find Second World too daunting and confusing, giving up after only a few hours. Recognizing the need for straight-forward advice for newcomers, this handy guide explains how to play the game rather than what it is and what can be done there. The topics addressed include how to make clothes, build a house, start a business, and earn money.