The road to game development

I made one of the best purchases I've ever made a short while ago. I was at the bookstore, looking for a good book to buy with my gift certificate, and my girlfriend casually pointed to a book about 3d game programming. It seemed pretty decent when I flipped through it, so I decided to buy it.

The book's titled Introduction to 3D Game Programming with DirectX 9.0c A shader approach and it's by Frank D. Luna (Wordware publishing). It begins with a brief overview of some of the mathematical concepts you need to know, such as Vector algebra, Matrix Algebra, and a bit about Planes. After that it goes into a decently thorough look at DirectX (thorough for a beginner at any rate). Just in one chapter alone I learned much about 2d programming that I was hoping to learn (and that got me so excited I decided to post). Also, the book gives exercises that it expects you to figure and do on your own. They're good practice and generally helpful.

The book is a bit tough though. I've never had a decent Trigonometry lesson so the math sections were a bit of a struggle at times (especially the exercises). Given that I've studied a bit about DirectX on my own already the first two chapters are easier, but I suspect the coming chapters on more detailed 3d concepts is going to be truly tough for me.

And the book expects that you have an understanding of C++. If you don't, I recommend finding a good book on the subject. Awhile ago I was thinking of posting programming lessons on this blog but I never really got around to it. Maybe I'll try it again, and this time only post lessons in smaller, easier to manage chunks.