Reader reviews

The clearest explanation of game programming I have come across.

This is the third book I have read on game programming this year, and it is comfortably the best of them. Some terminology is introduced without much ceremony; I had to look a few things up along the way. The book rewards careful reading. Skimming it would be a mistake. If you have the prerequisites, this is an easy recommendation. I will be keeping it on my desk rather than the shelf.

An enjoyable and informative read, though it could have been shorter.

This is the third book I have read on data visualization this year, and it is comfortably the best of them. A few of the examples could be more realistic, but the underlying points come across clearly. I appreciated the honesty about what the book does not cover — it saved me from expecting things that were not there. The code samples assume a particular environment, which took a bit of fiddling to get running properly. Worth picking up if you already have the basics. Set realistic expectations and you will get a lot out of it.

Finally, a book that treats javascript with the care it deserves.

This is the third book I have read on javascript this year, and it is comfortably the best of them. The explanations are careful without being condescending, which is a difficult balance to strike. Some terminology is introduced without much ceremony; I had to look a few things up along the way. If you have the prerequisites, this is an easy recommendation. I will be keeping it on my desk rather than the shelf.

Worth every page. I have already recommended it to two colleagues.

I read this over a couple of weekends alongside a small side project, which turned out to be the ideal way to approach it. The index and cross-references are surprisingly good, which matters for a book I will come back to. Some of the diagrams are dense and I had to reread a few sections, though that may just be me. An easy five stars from me. I look forward to whatever the author writes next.

Excellent from start to finish. No filler, no padding.

I was looking for something that would bridge the gap between tutorials and proper reference material, and this does that well. The chapters on windows desktop are the strongest — the examples are stripped down but complete, and I could follow along without constant guessing. The exercises at the end of each chapter are worth doing — they caught a few misconceptions I did not know I had. If you have the prerequisites, this is an easy recommendation. I will be keeping it on my desk rather than the shelf.

Useful in parts. Fine as a reference, less so as a cover-to-cover read.

This is the third book I have read on game development this year, and it is comfortably the best of them. The author avoids over-explaining, which keeps the pace up but means you need to pay attention. The early chapters move quickly through material I already knew, but the later sections were genuinely new to me. Borrow it first if you can, or at least check the table of contents carefully before buying.