The Game Makers Apprentice shows you how to create nine exciting games using the wildly popular Game Maker game creation tool. This book covers a range of genres, including action, adventure, and puzzle gamescomplete with professional quality sound effects and visuals. It discusses game design theory and features practical examples of how this can be applied to making games that are more fun to play.

Game Maker allows games to be created using a simple drag-and-drop interface, so you dont need to have any prior coding experience. It includes an optional programming language for adding advanced features to your games, when you feel ready to do so. You can obtain more information by visiting book.gamemaker.nl.

The authors include the creator of the Game Maker tool and a former professional game programmer, so youll glean understanding from their expertise. The book also includes a CD containing Game Maker software and all of the game projects that are created in the bookplus a host of professional-quality graphics and sound effects that you can use in your own games.

The Game Maker’s Apprentice shows you how to create nine exciting games using the wildly popular Game Maker game creation tool. This book covers a range of genres, including action, adventure, and puzzle games&emdash;complete with professional quality sound effects and visuals. It discusses game design theory and features practical examples of how this can be applied to making games that are more fun to play.

Game Maker allows games to be created using a simple drag-and-drop interface, so you don’t need to have any prior coding experience. It includes an optional programming language for adding advanced features to your games, when you feel ready to do so. You can obtain more information by visiting www.gamemaker.nl.

The authors include the creator of the Game Maker tool and a former professional game programmer, so you’ll glean understanding from their expertise. The book also includes a CD containing Game Maker software and all of the game projects that are created in the book&emdash;plus a host of professional-quality graphics and sound effects that you can use in your own games.

The Game Maker’s Apprentice

This is a wonderful book! The instructions are easy to follow and all of the games are fun. I liked the fact that the finished games are on the CD so you could see what they are like while you are working on them.

Great Book for Early Game Programmers

As a special education teacher, I would like to think that I have a keen eye for books that can hold my student’s interests while meeting their diverse needs. The Game Maker Apprentice does that and more. The only negative comment I have heard about this book from a student is that it does not cover modern three dimensional game programming. My response, you have to learn how to crawl and walk before you can run.
Game Maker Apprentice achieves its goals masterfully, and I will continue to use it to teach game programming with my students.

Game Maker review

I have started using the Game Maker’s Apprentice book and it is well written and has easy to follow directions. I am sure I will enjoy creating games with it.

Déjà Vu - Hoping for More (3.5 Stars)

I downloaded Game Maker 7.0 and read its manual prior to purchasing this book.

My hope was that it would fill in the "holes" not explained by the program manual.

First, the good.

The book gives an excellent explanation of program logic and keeps things simple and effective for any experience level.

I also liked the fact that you could read the book and see examples without actually completing the tutorials.

I especially liked the way the book would demonstrate a particular game tutorial with an easy-to-read flow chart.

So if you didn’t understand the Game Maker’s manual this book IS for you.

Here is where my 3.5 star rating comes in.

I paid about $25 for the book to go beyond the program manual.

The book had a couple of the tutorials that were listed on Yo-Yo games web site. I don’t like the idea of paying for something that is provided for free. However, it gave a better explanation of Game Maker’s interface.

Although you can make a fully functioning game without programming, I was hoping for more guidance on Game Maker Language (GML), which you will need in fine tuning games created with Game Maker.

I was also hoping for more variety in the tutorials. Not everyone may want to make an action oriented game. For example, I wanted to make a little board game, but that isn’t discussed in the book. Hopefully, it will be covered in the next edition or another book.

I still recommend the book, but make sure you are getting it for the right reasons. Review the PDF file and sample text carefully looking at the table of contents and index. You might be able to accomplish your goals by reading Game Maker’s manual and looking through the forums.

fun for making games without programming!

This book, and the accompanying software, provide a FUN way to create some games. I used this book with four teenagers (ages 12-17) and they had a blast! I would recommend this book for anyone who wants to learn more about how games work, while having fun at the same time.

Great Book for my Ten Year Old Daughter

My ten year old daughter asked for a book that will allow her to create games with Game Maker. I found this book, ordered it, and gave it to her several weeks ago. She’s been deeply involved in the book since, and really likes it. She is now asking to take a class that will teach her Object Oriented Programming so she can actually create the objects!
This is a good book, and I recommend it for budding young developers. JAL

Just as described

Great book for those wishing to create simple to complex games for little or no money.
Came as described, new condition only complaint is that it took so long to recieve.

It is a treasure, priceless

I am one who has no knowledge at all about programing. This book was so useful for me to learn game programing. It is very easy as it teachs you in a step-by-step way plus there is a helpful icons beside each step. The language is simple and easy. In addition to a CD that contains all the files necessary for the learning. Thanks to this book I made my first ever game within hours. I hope there is a second volume that teaches more complex game programing.

Just Right

This book is just what I was looking for for myself and my 12 year old son. We’ve been dabbling with gamemaker for several years. This is a good springboard for delving deeper with a well-written, easy-to-read guide. A good mix of games. Several good issues are developed with each chapter. The instructions are very explicit, which at times can be a little tedious, but on the other hand, has its benefits. There are good points regarding game theory scattered throughout with good, solid examples all the way through.

The Best.

The Best book for the best program, if I could recommend VOL.2 I would put 3D help in, but that’s when GM makes a 3D Shape maker. They use I believe Swift 3D now.

An excellent introduction to games programming

If you are new to games programming then this is a book for you.

Each chapter has a different games to create or try-out (with the complete code on the enclosed CD just in case).

As you would expect each game is more complex to create than the last one, but the book contains very detailed explanations on why certain keys are used or objects included.

Those who are more familiar with the basics of game programming will still probably find the "game maker" engine extremely useful and perhaps better than some others on the market.

Only downside is that the enclosed game maker engine is not a registered version, and costs around £10 to convert it to the latest version.

Overall the book is a very good guide to games programming.

Great

It’s a great book for anyone who is interested in game development. Very easy to use even for grade school students.

For college-level students, this is a great book to learn GameMaker from and to make prototype games for your game designs in mind.

Excellent value for the price.

-Karlo

Very good

This book gives lots of great techniques to use in the creation of your own games. It really covers all aspects of GM6 and has a vast range of techniques which can easily be adapted into any of your own creations.

Highly recommended

This is an excellent book and highly recommended if you want to learn how to create 2D games using the Game Maker software. It is not just that one of the authors is the person who created the software and thus knows it better than anyone else, it is because its so clearly written. Very clear and sequential. A mix of tutorials to make games, and the CD has them all at different stages if you get stuck, and brief chapters on game design.

It is obvious that the authors have taught this material many times. I wish all software instruction manuals were so good (and used so many illustrative graphics on good quality stock).

A Must Have for Game Developer Wannabe’s!

The title should be The Game Maker’s Master Teacher! This book is very well written with clear, step by step instructions and visual images for reference. After completing a section, the authors provide a graphic of what your computer screen should look like if you followed directions correctly. My son, 9, and I worked through the first chapter over a 2 day period (about 3 hours total) and created our first game. He was thrilled! He immediately had ideas on how to "tweak" the game to make it even better. The great thing with this book and accompanying software is that you have the freedom to do so! The disc provides many images to use in game development or you can create your own. Each chapter adds new skills and details to make more interesting and complex games. However, even the first game is fun!

I would highly reccommend this book to anyone interested in creating your own video games. It is extremely user friendly and perfect for the beginner. My son is able to read through and understand it on his own, but it’s more fun to work on it together. (Also, he was more apt to use the visuals to take him through the process but not read the supporting information along the way!) By the end of the first chapter he understood the process fairly well and was able to remember (more than me!) most of the steps as he started creating his own new game. The only improvement I could see is having a "quick reference" page outlining the major steps. With it’s user-friendly format, however, it has been pretty easy to flip back through the chapter for reference.

Good Choice for the Rookies

If you want to make your own computer games with Fancy Graphics + Great Sound Effect, just download the user-friendly tool, Game Maker.

No matter you are an expert or just a Rookie, this book is definitely your right choice to develope professional-like games with lots of funs. Step-by-step instructions are easily for anyone to follow.

Don’t miss the chance to get the book and create your home-make Shooting, Platform, Actions games. You will receive more fun on making games rather than just playing them.

An excellent book for children interested in programming

My 12 year old son got interested in how computers work and especially how computer games get written. Being a software developer myself, I however could not explain him well these topics in a language that would be easily understood by a kid. And I am not a game programming expert, so I simply don’t know how this stuff is written.

When I first saw this book, I was not sure if it would be suitable for a kid. But I decided to take a risk, since the book had a lot of illustrations and language did not seem to be very technical. I gave it to my son two days ago, and I can see alredy now that this was an excellent gift: he used all weekend on reading chapters from the book, trying making his first games, calling his parents all the time to show us his achievement. He even found a forum for game development, asked questions, received answers and made improvements in his first programs based on discussion results! And by the way - English is a foreign language for him.

I wish all books for beginners was written in a such entertaining way.

In newest condition

It was in the best quality of written material I have even ordered. Came very timely delivery wise, and was very prompt.

WOW! I am so excited

I am about to embark on making games with my middle school girls technolgy club. I was a bit worried, as I am not even a game PLAYER myself. I made my first game last night in under an hour following the great instructions in this book. I can now go in confidently to my club and guide the girls to do the same. I am sure they will be successful and as excited as I am about designing and playing their own original games!

I bought this because of all the other teacher recommendations and they were RIGHT! Watch out Nintendo, here we come!

The Game Maker’s Apprentice

A great teacher resource. A must have book if you are interested in developing skills and teaching Game Maker.

Great book!

With this book you will learn to design games with Game Maker. Excellent!

Works Great in my Classes

I use this book as a textbook on Game Maker, which is one of the modules in my Advanced Technology class for Middle School Students. It is absolutely perfect for this age group. The CD provides all the necessary support resources so we don’t lose time and interest having to build sprites, objects, and rooms. Before I taught the whole class, I gave the book to one of the brighter students. He was able to build the Evil Clutches game working completely independent of the class, having only the book. This confirmed to me that the book can be used by beginners. The book is so well done that all I have to do is facilitate the class and provide help to students who have questions. It also provides the completed games that I show to those students who need to see the completed product to understand the concepts.

Great book for a really great program

I use GameMaker to give middle school science club students an introduction to computer programming. This book really helped me organize the material I was presenting and gave it the polish an artistically challenged individual like myself could never achieve. The whole Object/Event/Action process really does a nice job teaching the kids the fundamentals of modern object oriented programming in an easy to visualize way and writing games is something they can really relate to. Surprisingly, at our students request, the library has even purchased a copy of this book but the waiting list is a long one.

Excellent choice for someone interested trying their hand at game development without first earning a degree in computer science. It comes with a disk that contains everything you need; the GameMaker tools and plenty of samples. It’s easy enough for an enthusiastic 11 year old, perfect for teens, and challenging enough for us big kids that are much older. I can’t say enough good things about it...

The Game Maker’s Apprentice: Game Development for Beginners

I used it. It was great for the beginners who want to start doing game development for their career.

Absolutely What it Claims. Excellent.

I started using Game Maker and then five days later got this book -- what a help. My high school students are going to love learning to build their own games. Along the way, they will master most of the principles of object oriented programming without even knowing it. If this book (and software) had been available when I was their age, I might seriously have considered a career in programming or game design. This book makes it easy for students to rapidly add a series of successful projects to their portfolio -- AND they will be ready to move into an object-oriented programming language by the end.

Best Of Its Kind

There is no question this is the best book available to teach a beginner how to write a computer game. There is not even a close second place. Within minutes, a beginner can start working on writing a game, within hours he will have learned enough to write his own great looking game and within days he can create programs that have a polished look and feel.

Congratuations to the author. This book and the included program have hooked my kids and opened up the world of computer programming to them.

If I ran a school, a computer course would be offered using this as its textbook.

Excellent book to begin to program in "Game Maker" / Excelente libro para comenzar a programar en Game Maker.

(English)
The book presents a very good structure in its content and through each one of its nine projects, it goes introducing you to the design of the video games.
For people that want to begin in the programming and the design of video games with Game Maker, it is excellent, because it presents the use of this programming platform, so much in their graphic way as in way text, what makes it a very good source.
It also presents in one of their chapters some concepts related with the reactive intelligence applied in the programming of video games with Game Maker.
Perhaps the only point that I had liked to see is an introduction to the 3D games, for people that have bought the license of Game Maker. It had been an extra that we had thanked a lot.
In general I recommend it thoroughly to learn how to program video games with Game Maker in less than one month.

Cordial Greetings

Angel Pretelín Ricárdez
Associate Professor
apretelinr@ipn.mx
Professional Interdisciplinary Unit
in Engineering and Advanced Technologies.
UPIITA. IPN, Mexico

(Español)
El libro presenta una muy buena estructura en su contenido y a través de cada uno de sus 9 proyectos, va introduciéndote a al diseño de los videojuegos.
Para las personas que deseen iniciarse en la programación y el diseño de videojuegos con Game Maker, resulta excelente, pues presenta el uso de esta plataforma de programación, tanto en su modo gráfico como en modo texto, lo que lo hace una fuente muy buena.
Además presenta en uno de sus capítulos algunos conceptos relacionados con la inteligencia reactiva aplicada en la programación de videojuegos con Game Maker.
Tal vez el único punto que me hubiera gustado ver es una introducción a los juegos 3D, para las personas que han comprado la licencia del Game Maker. Hubiera sido un extra, que hubiéramos agradecido mucho.
En general lo recomiendo ampliamente para aprender a programar videojuegos con Game Maker en menos de un mes.

Saludos Cordiales

Angel Pretelín Ricárdez
Profesor Asociado B
apretelinr@ipn.mx

Unidad Profesional Interdisciplinaria
en Ingeniería y Tecnologías Avanzadas.
UPIITA - IPN, México

Most fun book. ever.

Going through this book is really a blast - in fact several explosions from game to game, chapter to chapter. It demonstrates by direct practice how to use GM. GM is a lot like Visual Studio specifically geared for games. It is very simple to preview parts and test the game as you go. The book covers all aspects of what you may need to create your own games including some direction on where to go for graphics and sound development. Also the GM community online has many more resources listed as well as member GM creations and works in progress.

If you like playing your own game, you’ll love this book and GM!

A Teacher’s review

Although I’m only half way through the book I’m most impressed with the language used, images used and the type of games the book explains. You won’t be disappointed.

Peter Clarke

I Recommend The New Game Maker Book To Everyone In Even Slight Interest

"The Game Maker’s Apprentice" was the greatest book I’ve ever read. Not Kidding. I read the entire book in 2 and 1/2 days. I even skipped dinner the first day. The Game Maker’s Apprentice comes with a CD-rom including all of the resources and finished games mentioned in the book and games that show step-by-step how to program it. I recommend it to ANYONE who is interested in the Computer Gaming or Video Gaming field. Not only does the book teach you how to program 9 great games and show you how all of the steps of game creation can be fun, but it also has 3 chapters specifically based on extending your games with tips by professionals.

Excellent resource for learning game oriented programming.

This book is an excellent resource for learning the fundamentals of game programming and the logic necessary to be successful at it. The book is well written, easy to follow and understand. The tutorials are fun and the games you create, while relatively simple, are quite enjoyable. The 3 or so chapters on game development are also sound and offer some excellent insight into making a good game. The Game Maker software included with the book, with it’s built in programming language, is surprisingly powerful and intuitive. Additionally, Game Maker has a very strong on-line presence and has an extremely active forum for asking questions that aren’t covered, or are beyond the scope of the book. (And it’s all free too!!)

I really can’t say enough good things about this book\CD package. The book is well done and the Game Maker software really makes it fun to learn programming, which is soemthing you won’t hear often about other "learn-how-to-program" books.

Must have book for Game Maker 6.1 software

Easy to follow color book for beginners, you make a game in no time and come with cd-rom with all the resources to built the games.

Facil the seguir libro a color para principiantes, haces un juego en muy poco tiempo y viene con un cd-rom con todos los recursos para crear los juegos.

Recommended GM Read

I bought this book mainly to relearn the basics in Game Maker, and work my way into more advanced levels of GM programming, like AI and Multiplayer. I was quite pleased with the colorful graphics and easy reading of this book.

Bottom Line - If you own Game Maker, I suggest you buy this book along with the registered version of Game Maker, which is ad free and lets you perform the more complicated functions by unlocking them (multiplayer, particles, 3D, etc.) However, the book is compatable with the free version too! If you dont own Game Maker, this book still has many good sections about proper game design; quite helpful in laying out your games!

You wont be Disappointed!

Outstanding Teacher and Student Resource

As a teacher of game making to high school students, I cannot commend this book highly enough. Game making is a rapidly expanding area included in most forward thinking school curricula, enabling students to engage with learning in new and exciting ways. Through game making students can learn critical thinking skills, problem solving, logic & mathematical reasoning and much more. This book supports the teaching of game making and should be included in the toolbox for all teachers wanting students who are excited about their learning.
The Game Maker’s Apprentice contains step by step instructions, presented in a clear and attractive way, to create 9 great games using the freely available Game Maker software. My students are so desperate to get hold of my copy that I have had to order five more, so that they can get started at the earliest possible opportunity. The book leads the learner in a clear but gentle way to develop all the foundation skills necessary to begin designing and making their own games. Game design theory is developed alongside the example games. An added bonus is the included CD containing the Game Maker software, resources needed to build the games and examples completed to a number of different stages.
The Game Maker’s Apprentice is a quality presentation, printed on good quality paper with excellent graphics, making it highly attractive to use. Although there is an electronic version available, the print version is so attractive it is worth getting. A must for every classroom!

Game Making Simplicity and Strength at its Best !

The Game Maker’s Apprentice has to be one of my most eagerly awaited Computer Book purchases for quite sometime. The fabulous presentation and great use of terminology, really makes it a joy to read. Each chapter guides you through gently, in order to achieve more confidence into creating your own game or project. Each page is colourful and the beautiful illustrations brings things to life.

The book is accompanied by a great CD with all of the examples, resources and Game Maker itself, which is really easy to get into. Within no time at all, you’ll get used to it’s interface and workings. The tutorials start you off with the basics and progressively bring you to the wonderfully powerful Game Maker Language (GML). So not only can you create games using a Drag ’n’ Drop interface, you can also use a powerful programming language as well. All of this is included in the unregistered version, but by paying an ever so reasonable registration fee, you unlock the full potential of Game Maker.

I used Game Maker to create my first ever PC game, Bugsy. The Game Maker Forum helped me out when I came across a problem or a bug I couldn’t resolve. There a lots of games and projects created with this wonderful program. You will also find many other sites across the Internet that provide helpful advice and tutorials. Not forgetting the official Game Maker site run and hosted by Mark Overmars.

The books co-writer, Jacob Habgood, has made a marvellous job along side Mark, to make this a very interesting book indeed.

You might also be interested to know, that another book covering the Game Maker theme, Basic Game Design and Creation by Namu Swamy is available as well. This also brings you to the Game Maker stable to learn some very easy steps into the basics of game design without it appearing too boring or tiresome.

Your gaming ideas and projects start here !

Game Making Simplicity and Strength at its Best !

The Game Maker’s Apprentice has to be one of my most eagerly awaited Computer Book purchases for quite sometime. The fabulous presentation and great use of terminology, really makes it a joy to read. Each chapter guides you through gently, in order to achieve more confidence into creating your own game or project. Each page is colourful and the beautiful illustrations brings things to life.

The book is accompanied by a great CD with all of the examples, resources and Game Maker itself, which is really easy to get into. Within no time at all, you’ll get used to it’s interface and workings. The tutorials start you off with the basics and progressively bring you to the wonderfully powerful Game Maker Language (GML). So not only can you create games using a Drag ’n’ Drop interface, you can also use a powerful programming language as well. All of this is included in the unregistered version, but by paying an ever so reasonable registration fee, you unlock the full potential of Game Maker.

I used Game Maker to create my first ever PC game, Bugsy. The Game Maker Forum helped me out when I came across a problem or a bug I couldn’t resolve. There a lots of games and projects created with this wonderful program. You will also find many other sites across the Internet that provide helpful advice and tutorials. Not forgetting the official Game Maker site run and hosted by Mark Overmars.

The books co-writer, Jacob Habgood, has made a marvellous job along side Mark, to make this a very interesting book indeed.

You might also be interested to know, that another book covering the Game Maker theme, Basic Game Design and Creation by Namu Swamy is available as well. This also brings you to the Game Maker stable to learn some very easy steps into the basics of game design without it appearing too boring or tiresome.

Your gaming ideas and projects start here !

a good book and tool!

I think it’s a good book not only for beginners but also for the designers who have no programming background to boarden their knowlege of programming. As game development is an iterative process,I suppose the Game Makers is also a good tools to build a prototype to test design ideas.The book teach
you step by step which will significantly facilitate learning.

a good book and tool!

I think it’s a good book not only for beginners but also for the designers who have no programming background to boarden their knowlege of programming. As game development is an iterative process,I suppose the Game Makers is also a good tools to build a prototype to test design ideas.The book teach
you step by step which will significantly facilitate learning.

Makes learning fun!

Together with the Gamemaker software, The Game Maker’s Apprentice provides an excellent introduction to world of digital game making!

Contained in the book are several clear, step-by-step examples of of game construction, from simple shooter games to those with more sophisticated concepts. The examples are written to be accessible to anyone and no programming knowledge or skills are required to build interesting and fun digital games! Best of all, the text encourages game makers to experiment with concepts and build their own games!

Thoroughly recommended for any novice wishing to quickly and simply make their own games or to learn the basics of computer game programming!

Makes learning fun!

Together with the Gamemaker software, The Game Maker’s Apprentice provides an excellent introduction to world of digital game making!

Contained in the book are several clear, step-by-step examples of of game construction, from simple shooter games to those with more sophisticated concepts. The examples are written to be accessible to anyone and no programming knowledge or skills are required to build interesting and fun digital games! Best of all, the text encourages game makers to experiment with concepts and build their own games!

Thoroughly recommended for any novice wishing to quickly and simply make their own games or to learn the basics of computer game programming!

An excellent introduction to Computer Games design and programming.

The Game Maker’s apprentice is an engaging and accessible introduction to the fascinating world of Computer Game design.
Each chapter uses a hands on approach, creating example games in the free Gamemaker software, that allows the reader to build up a broad toolkit of games design skills. New programming structures are introduced in a clear and simple way, always accompanied by examples.

I have used this book to teach Games design to secondary pupils and they have found it very entertaining as well as technically challenging.

I would not hesitate to recommend this book to anybody who would like to try designing their own games or would like to teach Games Design to a group of students. The methodologies and design approaches used are transferable to any other programming environment that the reader may wish to progress to at a later stage.

An excellent introduction to Computer Games design and programming.

The Game Maker’s apprentice is an engaging and accessible introduction to the fascinating world of Computer Game design.
Each chapter uses a hands on approach, creating example games in the free Gamemaker software, that allows the reader to build up a broad toolkit of games design skills. New programming structures are introduced in a clear and simple way, always accompanied by examples.

I have used this book to teach Games design to secondary pupils and they have found it very entertaining as well as technically challenging.

I would not hesitate to recommend this book to anybody who would like to try designing their own games or would like to teach Games Design to a group of students. The methodologies and design approaches used are transferable to any other programming environment that the reader may wish to progress to at a later stage.