If you?re a video game enthusiast, then you?ve probably thought more than once about creating your own games. Now you can develop your own 3D games using 3D GameStudio! The Official Guide to 3D GameStudio will help you develop the skills you need to create a variety of games, including first-person shooter and fantasy role-playing. Learn how to make a game from start to finish using the most readily found tools in the industry. You?ll cover the fundamentals of character animation, level building, and programming various effects. You?ll even get tips on the game industry as a whole, including how video games are made, what job opportunities exist, and how you can break into the industry. Whether you want to make games for your own enjoyment or to build your career portfolio, this all-in-one guide covers everything you need to know to make amazing 3D games!

If you’re a video game enthusiast, then you’ve probably thought more than once about creating your own games. Now you can develop your own 3D games using 3D GameStudio! The Official Guide to 3D GameStudio will help you develop the skills you need to create a variety of games, including first-person shooter and fantasy role-playing. Learn how to make a game from start to finish using the most readily found tools in the industry. You ll cover the fundamentals of character animation, level building, and programming various effects. You’ll even get tips on the game industry as a whole, including how video games are made, what job opportunities exist, and how you can break into the industry. Whether you want to make games for your own enjoyment or to build your career portfolio, this all-in-one guide covers everything you need to know to make amazing 3D games!

A good book for those starting out ...

I’ve owned 3D Game Studio for several years and hadn’t seen an English language book, so I picked this up with some excitement. I’ve created art assets and done some level design in 3DGS but for the most part, I haven’t tackled the programming in any significant way. I mention this since, after several years of waiting, I approached the book with some preconceptions about what it should be. Because of this it is not surprising it initially fell short of the ’vision’ I had in my brain of a guru-like book of ultimate 3DGS wisdom. I’ve since taken a step back, considered what other software products ’official guides’ were like and prepared what I hope is a balanced review. Whether you love, or just like this book, is going to depend on what you expect out of it.

In my opinion this book is ideal as a ’light’ introduction to 3DGS and game programming concepts. In review other official guides I find they range from minimalist, "hello world" type books that seem to have been created only to satisfy customer expectation of a manual, to full fledged product bibles which are really useful. This book, like most, falls somehwre in between. If you are brand new to 3DGS, or a student taking a first course on game programming, you’ll find that the author has taken considerable time to explain helpful points about game history, interface, and playability issues; he also touches on game psychology, the importance of story and marketing. All of these are essential concepts and should be welcome if you are a student taking a game programming course or if 3D Game Studio is your first exposure to a game development system.

The book is well written, easy to understand and adequately illustrated. The chapters on modeling using MED (the 3D Game Studio model editor), skinning and animating your model are satisfactory. The level design chapters are also appropriate and the included project walks you through successfully designing, creating and texturing a level.

The scripting chapters cover some of the basics of scripting, but this is the area that left me wanting for more. In fairness, after reviewing the official guide (for a much more expensive animation and design product I use at work) I find that the level of detail covered is similar. It is likely that the author generalized or covered some of the programming material lightly because, at the time this book was written, 3DGS was at about version 6.4 but the very significant A7 was already on the horizon, and has since been released. A7 appears to be a substantial step forward for the game engine and suite of tools that comprise 3D Game Studio. A large part of that is the inclusion of the Lite-C programming language. This may explain the light c-script coverage since it is likely that c-script, even if in continues to be supported, will become much less important than the more powerful Lite-C. Having said that, c-script is covered and basic interactivity walked through in the relevant chapters. There is also some additional material and scripts on the disk.

So we are back to my first paragraph. Whether this book is for you or not depends on what you expectations and point of departure are. If you are a student (or a teacher) using 3D Game Studio as part of an introductory game development class then this book would be a good choice. The coding material would have to be supplemented, in my opinion, by Conitec’s in depth written documentation, by guru George Pirvu’s free and excellent AUM user magazine and by the extremely active and friendly official user forums. This book, along with an instructor guided project, could also satisfy the course requirements for an introduction to game programming based on the 3DGS engine.

It’s usefulness to people that have some game dev experience is going to vary by individual and skill level, so look at the TOC, any other reviews and get feedback from the 3DGS forum members who have the book - then make a determination.

I am generally satisfied with the book, with the sole exception of my desire for more substantial programming tutorials.

If the next version of the book is updated to include good material on Lite-C programming, or perhaps a second companion volume with more significant programming information is created, it would increase the value of the book immensely and likely drag in many of the thousands of current users who are eager to use Lite-C.

The Official Guide to 3D GameStudio