Toolset development is an extremely broad topic. Game Engine Toolset Development provides you with a core set of skills and a comprehensive insight that will aid you in the development of game engine utilities, significantly reducing the time period associated with the construction phase of a project. The book starts off with topics regarding development methodologies and best practices, and then proceeds into advanced topics like swap chain management and MVC object model automation with CodeDom. An introductory working knowledge of C# and the .NET 2.0 framework is expected, allowing the content of each topic to be directed towards the subject and avoiding trivial and introductory explanations. Readers are not required to have any experience developing game engine tools. Terminology and design fundamentals specific to toolset development are clearly depicted and explained. The companion Web site provides downloads of all source code from the book, as well as several bonus chapters.

Interesting little compendium

I admit that at first I was thinking this book would focus more on the game engine part of the toolset development in its title. I knew it wasn’t REALLY about developing a game engine but even so, make sure you understand what you’re getting.

That said, I really liked this book. I’m halfway through it already (it’s a very quick read given how discrete each chapter is and the clear and easy to read print and examples).

I’ve read a number of game development books and you rarely get everything done right. This book gets close. The author describes the particular problem the chapter seeks to solve (e.g. encryption, batch processing, etc.) and goes through the steps of solving it.

The book is similar to those programming gems types of books that aren’t organized in some linear fashion but are discrete chapters on specific topics that can be picked and chosen as you see fit.

The author does a very good job of putting the examples together and many of the chapters have been useful to me (I plan on implementing a number of the tools/frameworks he mentions).

If you’re working on a game engine, I really suggest trying this book out. This assumes you’re not already an expert game programmer who already built a lot of these sorts of tools before.

If you’re looking for something that will help you build a full-fledged game engine, look for another book...then come back to this and get it to help you flesh out your toolset.

Recipe book for tool developers

This is an excellent book, which covers a lot of important aspects of game/engine tool development, but it is more like a recipe book, as each chapter subject is almost stands on its own - just like game programming gems series. My favorite is how to integrate native code into a managed application. The book is well written (one of the best I’ve read recently), and the only thing i missed is a few chapters on how-to integrate into an existing pipeline - like importer/exporter for a common 3d package at least. A better title for this book would be "(game)tool programming gems"

If the industry pros chiming in weren’t enough...

Then, as a hobbyist, I’ll just let you know that this book not only teaches, but flat you gives you some great modular code that you can work into many different types of tools.

There’s also some great design principles covered that have improved my workflow, even though i’m currently working solo.

An excellent Microsoft.NET 2.0 introduction relating to gaming

I just received my copy of Game Engine Toolset Development and I have been unable to put the book down. The author gives a good introduction to .NET 2.0 and relates it to toolset development for games. The chapters are easy to read and follow and he gives good advice on how to build good tools. He could have looked at other toolsets to make the book more complete, but I see this book as a way to introduce students to game programming who have a basic programming background (Java, C++, C, Alice 2.0, etc.).

Good book.. but it’s not what you think it is

I bought this book thinking it would help me write a new tool for, say, building 3d models, or some other general tool. When it arrived I got excited just by the shear size of it, it’s huge!

However, I started flipping through it browsing each and every chapter (didn’t read them all in detail of course, but quite a few) and it doesn’t teach you how to make a NEW tool for your game, it teaches you how to make an EXISTING tool better. While that knowledge is extremely valuable (and the reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 3), it’s not what the description of the book stated: "Readers are not required to have any experience developing game engine tools." If you have no experience developing a tool, you’re going to have a little trouble getting started. If you know enough math and have good enough coding skills to get a game engine going, you’ll be able to write a tool for your game, but you don’t need this book to do it.

Now, with that said, this book IS quite good and worth your money so long as you don’t expect to read this book and then write a tool, you’re going to need more info. Get the book anyway and use it as a guide, it’s usefull in that aspect.

This book is so good at making a tool better, most of it’s "gems" can and should be applied to ANY application, game tool or not. Also, it covers some good highlevel (or lowlevel, depending on how you view it) .Net functionality such as interfacing with COM and code documentation, as well as few other excellent techniques. These "gems" are quite valuable on their own.

So, in conclusion, if you know nothing about writing a tool, or you don’t know C#, hold off on buying this book (make sure to put it in your wish list however). If you have a tool but find it’s difficult to work with, or you want to broaden it’s appeal, or just simply make it better, get this book, you won’t regret it.

Good book.. but it’s not what you think it is

I bought this book thinking it would help me write a new tool for, say, building 3d models, or some other general tool. When it arrived I got excited just by the shear size of it, it’s huge!

However, I started flipping through it browsing each and every chapter (didn’t read them all in detail of course, but quite a few) and it doesn’t teach you how to make a NEW tool for your game, it teaches you how to make an EXISTING tool better. While that knowledge is extremely valuable (and the reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 3), it’s not what the description of the book stated: "Readers are not required to have any experience developing game engine tools." If you have no experience developing a tool, you’re going to have a little trouble getting started. If you know enough math and have good enough coding skills to get a game engine going, you’ll be able to write a tool for your game, but you don’t need this book to do it.

Now, with that said, this book IS quite good and worth your money so long as you don’t expect to read this book and then write a tool, you’re going to need more info. Get the book anyway and use it as a guide, it’s usefull in that aspect.

This book is so good at making a tool better, most of it’s "gems" can and should be applied to ANY application, game tool or not. Also, it covers some good highlevel (or lowlevel, depending on how you view it) .Net functionality such as interfacing with COM and code documentation, as well as few other excellent techniques. These "gems" are quite valuable on their own.

So, in conclusion, if you know nothing about writing a tool, or you don’t know C#, hold off on buying this book (make sure to put it in your wish list however). If you have a tool but find it’s difficult to work with, or you want to broaden it’s appeal, or just simply make it better, get this book, you won’t regret it.

Excellent book!

One of the most important parts of game development that is often neglected is the Toolset. Tools can be the difference between a top notch game that is delivered on time and one that is sub par and late.

This book covers many extremely useful topics, and the author uses C# and the .NET Framework 2.0 which are, in my opinion, the best option for rapid tool development.

I will be using this book as I plan and develop tools for my current and future projects.

Roy Eltham
Senior Programmer
Sony Online Entertainment

Excellent book!

One of the most important parts of game development that is often neglected is the Toolset. Tools can be the difference between a top notch game that is delivered on time and one that is sub par and late.

This book covers many extremely useful topics, and the author uses C# and the .NET Framework 2.0 which are, in my opinion, the best option for rapid tool development.

I will be using this book as I plan and develop tools for my current and future projects.

Roy Eltham
Senior Programmer
Sony Online Entertainment

Excellent Resource for Tools & .NET 2.0 Topics

This book uses the industry standard ’gem’ (multi-article) layout. The articles are some of the best I have read on the subjects that they cover. The author was very thorough in his explanation of the techniques he presents and his writing style is very simple to follow and keeps you entertained.

This is by far the best tools book I have ever seen for the game industry. I would recommend this book for just about anyone: hobbyists, people just trying to break into the industry, and industry veterans. You’re practically guaranteed to find several of the articles helpful. Excellent reference. Will be right next to my desk for years to come. I’m even going to buy an extra copy for the office.

Anthony Whitaker - Chief Technical Officer - Boanerges Studios, LLC.

Great book!

I have been awaiting the arival of this book since I first heard about it over the summer. Now that I have it and have begun reading it, it as lived up to the expectations that I had hoped for. I hope many other game dev studios have someone read this book to get them to switch to .NET for tool development.

I hope to use this book to help influnce the company I work for, Raven Software to switch to .NET at some point.

Great book, I recommend anyone interested in Tools Development read it.

Ryan Hummer
Tools Programmer
Raven Software

Wow! Great book

The game dev industry has been missing a book specific to tools dev for a long time, and this author sure filled in the gap! I got my copy a couple days ago and I haven’t put it down since. Not only is the book about building tools with the productivity and stability of .NET, but it’s based on the latest cutting edge version, 2.0. Excellent!!!!!

Excellent Resource for Tools & .NET 2.0 Topics

This book uses the industry standard ’gem’ (multi-article) layout. The articles are some of the best I have read on the subjects that they cover. The author was very thorough in his explanation of the techniques he presents and his writing style is very simple to follow and keeps you entertained.

This is by far the best tools book I have ever seen for the game industry. I would recommend this book for just about anyone: hobbyists, people just trying to break into the industry, and industry veterans. You’re practically guaranteed to find several of the articles helpful. Excellent reference. Will be right next to my desk for years to come. I’m even going to buy an extra copy for the office.

Anthony Whitaker - Chief Technical Officer - Boanerges Studios, LLC.