Creating Games in C++ - A Step-by-Step Guide - TFE Times

[Pages:602]Creating Games in C++: A Step-by-Step Guide By David Conger, Ron Little ............................................... Publisher: New Riders Pub Date: February 21, 2006 Print ISBN-10: 0-7357-1434-7 Print ISBN-13: 978-0-7357-1434-2 Pages: 464

Table of Contents | Index

Do you love video games? Ever wondered if you could create one of your own, with all the bells and whistles? It's not as complicated as you'd think, and you don't need to be a math whiz or a programming genius to do it. In fact, everything you need to create your first game, "Invasion of the Slugwroths," is included in this book and CD-ROM. Author David Conger starts at square one, introducing the tools of the trade and all the basic concepts for getting started programming with C++, the language that powers most current commercial games. Plus, he's put a wealth of top-notch (and free) tools on the CD-ROM, including the Dev-C++ compiler, linker, and debugger--and his own LlamaWorks2D game engine. Step-by-step instructions and ample illustrations take you through game program structure, integrating sound and music into games, floating-point math, C++ arrays, and much more. Using the sample programs and the source code to run them, you can follow along as you learn. Bio: David Conger has been programming professionally for over 23 years. Along with countless custom business applications, he has written several PC and online games. Conger also worked on graphics firmware for military aircraft, and taught computer science at the university level for four years. Conger has written numerous books on C, C++, and other computer-related topics. He lives in western Washington State and has also published a collection of Indian folk tales.

Creating Games in C++: A Step-by-Step Guide By David Conger, Ron Little ............................................... Publisher: New Riders Pub Date: February 21, 2006 Print ISBN-10: 0-7357-1434-7 Print ISBN-13: 978-0-7357-1434-2 Pages: 464

Table of Contents | Index

Copyright Acknowledgments Introduction

What's Different About This Book What's in This Book? System Requirements Free Stuff on the CD Who Am I? Part 1: The Really Basic Stuff Chapter 1. What it Takes to be a Game Programmer

Programming Skills Computer Graphics Skills Game Design Skills Art Skills Sound and Music Skills Summary Chapter 2. Writing C++ Programs Introducing the Dev-C++ Compiler Programming in C++ Essential Math Operators Loops While Loops Do-while loops Windows Programming Game Programming Summary Part 2: ObjectOriented Programming in Games Chapter 3. Introducing Object-Oriented Programming Software Objects Classes

Logical Operators The If-Else Statement Namespaces and Scope Resolution A Brief Word About Structures Summary Chapter 4. Introducing the LlamaWorks2D Game Engine A Step-by-Step Overview How Does Llamaworks2D Work? A Stationary Ball A Bouncing Ball Getting Good Results Summary Chapter 5. Function and Operator Overloading What Is Overloading? Implementing a Vector Class with Overloading Summary Chapter 6. Inheritance: Getting a Lot for a Little What Is Inheritance? Deriving Classes Protected Members Overriding Base Class Functions Customizing Your Game with Inheritance Summary Part 3: The Essentials of Game Development Chapter 7. Program Structure Program Structure File Structure A Game Called Ping Summary Chapter 8. Sound Effects and Music Sound Effects and Music Are Emotion Storing Sound Data Sound Effects in LlamaWorks2D Noise, Sweet Noise Play That Funky Music, Geek Boy Summary Part 4: Graduating to Better C++ Chapter 9. Floating-Point Math in C++ Getting into the Guts of Floating-Point Numbers Case Study: Floating-Point Numbers and Gamespaces Summary Chapter 10. Arrays What Are Arrays? Declaring and Using Arrays Initializing Arrays

Problems with Array Boundaries Summary Chapter 11. Pointers Why Are Pointers Important to Games? Declaring and Using Pointers Pointers and Dynamic Memory Allocation Pointers and Inheritance Arrays Are Pointers in Disguise Summary Chapter 12. File Input and Output Games and File I/O Types of Files Summary Chapter 13. Moving into Real Game Development Sprites that Come Alive High-Speed Input Summary Part 5: The Big Payoff Chapter 14. No Slime Allowed: Invasion of the Slugwroths What It Takes to Make a Real Game Essential Game Design Designing Invasion of the Slugwroths Summary Chapter 15. Captain Chloride Gets Going Introducing Captain Chloride Pulling It Together In The Game Class Summary Chapter 16. The World of Captain Chloride The New Captain Chloride Levels in LlamaWorks2D Summary Chapter 17. Captain Chloride Encounters Solid Objects Bumping into a Solid Door Picking Up a Key Making the Door Open and Close Summary Chapter 18. That's a Wrap! Time for Consolidation Enter villains, Stage Left Additions to the Game Epilogue: Not the End Glossary Index

Copyright

Creating Games in C++: A Step-by-Step Guide

David Conger with Ron Little

New Riders 1249 Eighth Street Berkeley, CA 94710 510/524-2178 800/283-9444 510/524-2221 (fax)

Find us on the Web at:

To report errors, please send a note to errata@

New Riders is an imprint of Peachpit, a division of Pearson Education

Copyright ? 2006 by David Conger

Project Editors: Davina Baum, Kristin Kalning Development Editors: Davina Baum, Denise Santoro Lincoln Production Editor: Myrna Vladic Copyeditor: Liz Welch Tech Editor: Ron Little Compositor: WolfsonDesign Indexer: Karin Arrigoni Cover design: Aren Howell Interior design: WolfsonDesign

Notice of Rights

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. For information on getting permission for reprints and excerpts, contact permissions@.

Notice of Liability

The information in this book is distributed on an "As Is" basis without warranty. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of the book, neither the author nor Peachpit shall have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the instructions contained in this book or by the computer software and hardware products described in it.

Trademarks

Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and Peachpit was aware of a trademark claim, the designations appear as requested by the owner of the trademark. All other product names and services identified throughout this book are used in editorial fashion only and for the benefit of such companies with no intention of infringement of the trademark. No such use, or the use of any trade name, is intended to convey endorsement or other affiliation with this book.

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Printed and bound in the United States of America

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my mother, Jan Conger, for all the good that she has done and still does.

Thanks, Mom.

Acknowledgments

This book has been one of the hardest projects I've ever worked on. Not because the book itself was hard to write, but because of three major computer crashes (and two replacement motherboards), two serious illnesses, two surgeries, having to change compilers after the third chapter, and having to entirely rewrite the game engine after the fourth. I can honestly say that I could not have got through this book without the support of all those who worked on it. I especially want to thank Kristin Kalning, who is simply the best project editor I've ever worked with. Thanks also to Davina Baum, Liz Welch, Myrna Vladic, Owen Wolfson, Eric Geoffroy, Aren Howell, and Denise Lincoln.

I especially want to thank Ron Little. His technical edits were excellent. And without his help on the sample programs for the last five chapters, I'd probably still be working on this book.

Introduction

The first video game I ever played (at age 13) was Pong. It was a very simple ping-pong simulation. During my teenage years, a few, more advanced games appeared on the market. Most notable were the Atari games such as Missile Command, a nuclear warfare simulator. When I was 19, I went to live for a couple of years in Japan. There I discovered a whole new worldseveral, in fact. Around the time I arrived in Japan, the game Space Invaders had just crested its phenomenal wave of popularity. I had never seen anything so cool. By the time I returned to the United States, video games were everywhere.

In the fall of 1981, I started college. Keith, a longtime friend and roommate, pointed to a class in the university's catalog and told me, "You have to take this programming class. I know you'll love it." He was right. By the time two weeks had passed, I knew I would be working with computers for the rest of my life. And what did I specialize in? Graphics and games, of course. When I started writing games in college, it was a long and difficult task. The only people who had a prayer of writing decent games were complete geeks (like me). A lot has changed since then. With the tools available now, nearly anyone can write an original and inventive game.

 ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download