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(Writer on Electronic commerce) John Horton

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Beginning C++ Game Programming: Learn C++ from scratch and get started building your very own games 1st Edition, Kindle Edition

by John Horton (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

3.7 24 ratings

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Learn C++ from scratch and get started building your very own games

About This Book

This book offers a fun way to learn modern C++ programming while building exciting 2D games
This beginner-friendly guide offers a fast-paced but engaging approach to game development
Dive headfirst into building a wide variety of desktop games that gradually increase in complexity
It is packed with many suggestions to expand your finished games that will make you think critically, technically, and creatively

Who This Book Is For

This book is perfect for you if any of the following describes you: You have no C++ programming knowledge whatsoever or need a beginner level refresher course, if you want to learn to build games or just use games as an engaging way to learn C++, if you have aspirations to publish a game one day, perhaps on Steam, or if you just want to have loads of fun and impress friends with your creations.

What You Will Learn

Get to know C++ from scratch while simultaneously learning game building
Learn the basics of C++, such as variables, loops, and functions to animate game objects, respond to collisions, keep score, play sound effects, and build your first playable game.
Use more advanced C++ topics such as classes, inheritance, and references to spawn and control thousands of enemies, shoot with a rapid fire machine gun, and realize random scrolling game-worlds
Stretch your C++ knowledge beyond the beginner level and use concepts such as pointers, references, and the Standard Template Library to add features like split-screen coop, immersive directional sound, and custom levels loaded from level-design files
Get ready to go and build your own unique games!

In Detail

This book is all about offering you a fun introduction to the world of game programming, C++, and the OpenGL-powered SFML using three fun, fully-playable games. These games are an addictive frantic two-button tapper, a multi-level zombie survival shooter, and a split-screen multiplayer puzzle-platformer.

We will start with the very basics of programming, such as variables, loops, and conditions and you will become more skillful with each game as you move through the key C++ topics, such as OOP (Object-Orientated Programming), C++ pointers, and an introduction to the Standard Template Library. While building these games, you will also learn exciting game programming concepts like particle effects, directional sound (spatialization), OpenGL programmable Shaders, spawning thousands of objects, and more.

Style and approach

This book offers a fun, example-driven approach to learning game development and C++. In addition to explaining game development techniques in an engaging style, the games are built in a way that introduces the key C++ topics in a practical and not theory-based way, with multiple runnable/playable stages in each chapter.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

John Horton is a coding and gaming enthusiast based in the UK. He has a passion for writing apps, games, books, and blog articles about coding, especially for beginners.

He is the founder of Game Code School which is dedicated to helping complete beginners to get started with coding, using the language and platform that suits them best.

John sincerely believes that anyone can learn to code and that everybody has a game or an app inside their mind, but they just need to do enough work to bring it out.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B01DT4D5MS
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Packt Publishing; 1st edition (October 7, 2016)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 7, 2016
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 43702 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 804 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #2,986,767 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #547 in C++ Programming
- #1,246 in Computer Games Programming
- #1,369 in C++ Programming Language

Customer Reviews:
3.7 24 ratings

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(Writer on Electronic commerce) John Horton

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John Horton is a programming and gaming enthusiast based in the UK. He has a passion for writing apps, games, books, and blog articles. He is the founder of Game Code School.

Customer reviews

3.7 out of 5

24 global ratings

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S. Morris

I found the book to be very good. The games you develop are good and entertaining

Reviewed in the United States on September 16, 2017

Verified Purchase

I found the book to be very good. The games you develop are good and entertaining. The explanations are good. It assumes no knowledge of SFML and little in C++ but is educational as you go. The code is not obtuse as is much of more advanced C++. The author builds each game as a beginner might build them and then he shows you how to improve on them and WHY! So the book is a C++ tutorial, an SFML tutorial, and game development tutorial. I thought it was the best of all the SFML books that I could get my hands on. Most of the others were way too advanced but maybe as I visit them again I will understand more now that I have completed this book.

4 people found this helpful

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Dan

Four Stars

Reviewed in the United States on February 4, 2017

Verified Purchase

Good book for beginners.

2 people found this helpful

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Gregory C. Donald

Save your money, this is horrible.

Reviewed in the United States on January 27, 2018

Verified Purchase

This book is full of errors and poor grammar, I can't believe someone signed off on this. Even worse is that someone hasn't fixed the errors in the Kindle edition and uploaded a corrected version.

Q) Has the bee reached the right hand edge of the screen?
A) No, and it never will since it's moving right to left.

Multiple calls to srand() in the same process is pointless, re-seeding actually produces less randomness.

window(vm, "Timber!!!", Style::Fullscreen); // what's a window? Did anyone even compile test this? Nope :(

Based on VS 2015 which is no longer available, apparently. Current VS works but screen shots are different and the "making a template project" doesn't work.

3 people found this helpful

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Marijan F.

Excellent introduction to C++ and making games, highly recommended

Reviewed in the United States on March 30, 2018

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Excellent book, very clearly written and makes explanations why we're doing things the way we're doing them in the book. I struggled with some C++ concepts before reading this but now it makes perfect sense. Recommended.

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Brent

A lot of typos and some of the formatting (carriage ...

Reviewed in the United States on March 19, 2018

Verified Purchase

A lot of typos and some of the formatting (carriage returns and highlights) of the code can be confusing since they are off a little bit.

Helpful

A. Devlin

Learn the concepts of game programming, C++ and SFML all in the same place

Reviewed in the United States on January 15, 2018

I originally purchased the video of this book from Packt which I enjoyed, but it can be annoying scrubbing back and forth when you have mistyped a bit of code, so i personally prefer to learn from a book where I can take my time etc. The book is more in depth than the vids. Not only will you learn C++ concepts but a lot of game concepts that you can reuse over and over again in your own games. Oh and also SFML. Highly recommended.

One person found this helpful

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iPaul

Good game programming book, not for C++ beginners

Reviewed in the United States on November 6, 2016

The book is well written, you will learn how to code 2D games with C++ and the SFML game framework. I've implemented the first game from the book, a clone of Timberman, the text was pretty easy to follow.

Despite the book claim that you will learn C++ from scratch, I would advise to know a bit of C++ or a similar language (Java, C#) when you start with this book. The book is not written as a C++ learning book for a complete beginner. It may be possible to "learn by doing", but you will need to be very disciplined and be OK with copying code from the book that you don't understand completely. Personally I didn't have any problem reading the book, but I'm more of an advanced C++ programmer. I think a complete C++ beginner will be quickly overwhelmed by how much he needs to learn in order to understand what is going on with the code.

11 people found this helpful

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John Casteele

Good content, but in serious need of an editor

Reviewed in the United States on October 5, 2018

I got this book as part of a bundle of programming titles. I would gladly have given it 4 or 5 stars based on its content, but some of the errors in the book knocked that back a bit.

The book was written for use with Visual Studio 2015, so it's a little outdated in places but that's not the author's fault so it doesn't affect my review. The main place where this is an issue is in the early part of the book where it talks about creating a template for your game projects; you'll have to make a few slight adjustments if you use VS2017 (the current version as of the time of this review) and that may cause a little bit of frustration.

The big thing that dragged my rating down was that there were a few typos and errors in the book, including code errors (which is the biggest reason I'm giving 3 stars.) These are mentioned specifically in some of the 1-star reviews, though what those reviewers fail to mention is that the correct code is given during the breakdown of what the different lines do. It's disappointing that someone didn't review the book more closely and make sure that the code blocks were correct to start with, but if you read through the chapters they'll give you the correct code as well.

All in all it's a good book, though it would certainly be helped by a second edition that updated everything for a newer version of Visual Studio and brought an editor onboard to catch code errors and typos.

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Mr. Paul J. Gullett

A Great Way To Start the C++ Journey

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 8, 2018

Verified Purchase

It always depressed me how, whenever I went to learn C++, that you spent ages typing

cout << "Some old nonsense" << endl

to work your way through some of the basics of the language. Boredom would quickly set in, and it would go back to the bottom of the to-do list.

This book, however, breaks with that tradition and makes learning the basics of the language fun.

It covers making three games and builds up to the more complex items as you go. To stop the cout boredom, it uses SFML, so even the simple stuff looks like a real game.

Kudos to the author a very well thought through experience.

2 people found this helpful

Ingles49

Not as described

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 8, 2018

Verified Purchase

The book was, at least 10 years out of date. The promised CD, with all the code, was not enclosed and when a replacement was sent it was also the wrong item. The only good thing was that I received a full refund.

One person found this helpful

Amazon Customer

Cool book, but not perfect

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 25, 2019

Verified Purchase

I've read and completed the programs for the first 2/3 of this book.
Its a good introduction to game development in C++ and also the SFML library.
I would not recommend this book for learning C++ for beginners. Having some working knowledge of the language is a must, I'd say.
My other quibble is with the technical approaches suggested by the book. There's lots of clunky mathematics and a few instances where the solutions to problems are 'hacky' - not 'clean'. There are some nice design patterns used but also some techniques that are best avoided. Singletons are used too liberally, for example.
Overall its a nice introduction and, to be fair, the book succeeds in helping a beginner develop three playable games, which is definitely cool!

Luigi

Err

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 19, 2019

Verified Purchase

Poor quality paper made me feel like vomiting had to return.

Kevin

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 23, 2018

Verified Purchase

Love this book, amazing and useful