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Why do I want big, expensive books?
Mar. 8th, 2011 12:22 amI was browsing around my university's library today and found a couple of books that would be very interesting to read.
Unfortunately, due to me not taking any classes right now, I don't get to borrow any library materials right now.
(when I graduate, I'll be able to borrow books as an alumni, but I'm still waiting on that)
The first one I found was rather unusual, as it was focused on a supposedly small aspect of game design that is typically overlooked, but can have a major impact on how a game can be played.
Real Time Cameras: A Guide for Game Designers and Developers talks about how to properly design a camera management system in great depth, drawing some comparisons to "classical" non-interactive camera setups as used in the movie industry.
It also goes into a small but crucial amount of detail on how the rest of the game's systems should be designed so the camera stuff doesn't have to step on too many toes.
Cost through one of our major bookstore chains is $65.95, rather more than I would like to spend on books right now.
The second book of interest was on a semi-related topic to the first one in that it was related to designing games, only this one is entirely focused on how the engine itself should be designed.
Game Engine Architecture talks about how the core engine should be designed for best effect.
It's another expensive book, costing $71.50, a bit more even than the one on camera design.
While browsing for information on the above two books, I found a third book that would be interesting to have.
Multi-threaded Game Engine Design covers how to design a game engine to run on our modern multi-core processors, which sounds like a very useful topic to me.
While not as expensive as the first two, $45.50 is still a fair bit to put down for a book, at least on my income.
If I have to take another course to finish my degree, the first two books will be at the top of my list of books to borrow, but if I manage to get a good job (ie, one where I get at least $1,000 a month) I'll probably buy all three of these relatively quickly.
I've already got some ideas for redesigning and improving my current Tetris game engine which I will be implementing and posting about here, so expect to see more game development journals in the near future.
Unfortunately, due to me not taking any classes right now, I don't get to borrow any library materials right now.
(when I graduate, I'll be able to borrow books as an alumni, but I'm still waiting on that)
The first one I found was rather unusual, as it was focused on a supposedly small aspect of game design that is typically overlooked, but can have a major impact on how a game can be played.
Real Time Cameras: A Guide for Game Designers and Developers talks about how to properly design a camera management system in great depth, drawing some comparisons to "classical" non-interactive camera setups as used in the movie industry.
It also goes into a small but crucial amount of detail on how the rest of the game's systems should be designed so the camera stuff doesn't have to step on too many toes.
Cost through one of our major bookstore chains is $65.95, rather more than I would like to spend on books right now.
The second book of interest was on a semi-related topic to the first one in that it was related to designing games, only this one is entirely focused on how the engine itself should be designed.
Game Engine Architecture talks about how the core engine should be designed for best effect.
It's another expensive book, costing $71.50, a bit more even than the one on camera design.
While browsing for information on the above two books, I found a third book that would be interesting to have.
Multi-threaded Game Engine Design covers how to design a game engine to run on our modern multi-core processors, which sounds like a very useful topic to me.
While not as expensive as the first two, $45.50 is still a fair bit to put down for a book, at least on my income.
If I have to take another course to finish my degree, the first two books will be at the top of my list of books to borrow, but if I manage to get a good job (ie, one where I get at least $1,000 a month) I'll probably buy all three of these relatively quickly.
I've already got some ideas for redesigning and improving my current Tetris game engine which I will be implementing and posting about here, so expect to see more game development journals in the near future.
