Game Programming Starter Kit 4.0 by Macmillan

Description

For those interested in a powerhouse of programming and game-designing capabilities, Macmillan's Game Programming Starter Kit 4.0 will be the place to start your journey. The package is a virtual compendium of resources for creating your own games and is designed for those with some previous knowledge of gaming, animation and C++ programming. The package comes with gamer Marc Saltzman's book, Game Design: Secrets of the Sages (2nd edition), Genesis 3D SDK world generator and editor, Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 Introductory Edition, Shadow Realm Model Animator, and Microsoft DirectX 7.0, plus two e-books from the Sams Teach Yourself Series: Visual C++ 6 in 21 Days and DirectX 7 in 24 Hours.

Starting with characters, you can tinker with Shadow Realm Model Animator's samples (a complete soldier plus six geometric simple examples) to understand what SRMA has to offer. The brief, straightforward tutorial keeps things in perspective and walks you through your model animation from the early steps (importing a mesh, designing and modifying bones and their orientation and joints) to the more crucial stages (defining components, model animation and animation frames).

Your folks will need a place to interact in, so next you can start working on the environment with the Genesis world generator and editor. Not for the faint of heart or impatient, this package rivals some of the most complex, and most capable design utilities available. You will begin by gaining an understanding of the terminology and language used by this application; once you're on-board in that regard, you will be using its features with abandon. You will have a plethora of textures at your fingertips for the variety of shapes and constructions offered; you can modify everything from the sky to the fixtures on a wall. And best of all, if you're terribly pernickety about the angles of things, degrees of rotation or vantage points, you will have modifiable numeric control of virtually every aspect of your world.

You'll then turn to the nuts and bolts design of your game with Microsoft's Visual C++ 6.0 Introductory Edition compiler and DirectX 7.0 development libraries. For the newbie, you will want to check out the e-books, as well as any other material on C++ that you can find (we recommend Borland C++ Programming Starter Kit Deluxe 5.0. And even when you're done reading the books, you will find that both the compiler and DirectX have extensive online tutorials and help sheets to get you through any rough spots.

For those experienced in the beauties and intricacies of C++, you will find this compiler ready to go and complete with a debugger (for those errant typos and oversights) and resource editor. And for those that want to make the most of their game (and isn't that all of us?), the DirectX libraries will provide you with the support for two- and three-dimensional graphics, plus sound and music.

To tie it all together, and possibly to get a little inspiration, browse the Game Design Secrets of the Sages book. Here you will learn about everything from basic design to artificial intelligence, puzzle workings to agents and headhunters. —Emilie Dirks

Platforms

Windows NT, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows Me, Windows 95