- Animation
- Application design
- ASP.NET
- C#, .NET 3.5
- Controls
- Data access
- Effects
- Expression Blend
- Expression Design
- Game development
- Graphics
- Javascript and AJAX
- Math and Physics
- Media streaming
- Multimedia
- Security
- Silverlight
- Styling
- UI Design
- VB.NET
- Video
- Visual Studio
- WCF
- WPF
- XAML
BlueForest Networks
Game Programming with Silverlight
Publisher: Course Technology PTR - June 30, 2009 ISBN-10: 1598639064, ISBN-13: 9781598639063
Author: Michael Snow
312 pages
Game Programming with Silverlight - book reviews: 12
Game Programming with Silverlight shows anyone interested in game design and development how to build web-based games using any of the major operating systems and browsers.
This comprehensive guide walks readers through every feature of Silverlight used in game creation. You'll get an introduction to Silverlight 3 and all of its cool features.
After you're comfortable with the application you'll learn how to create your game world, add objects and animate them, incorporate sound and music, network your game and make it multiplayer, and more!
Each chapter covers a wide range of topics that you can leverage to build just about any type of game using Silverlight.
It's OK. But the code is incomplete.
I enjoyed reading this book, however, the code in this book uses many custom coded helper methods and static classes that are unmentioned and undefined. The Author does not tell us that the definitions of these helper methods (1) are not in the book & (2) cannot be downloaded using the links that he provides in the book. For example, the code in this book uses Utils.GetImageFileName(Image), Consts.TerrainLayerCount, Consts.Unknown and Consts.None to name a few. Although these could probably be implemented intuitively by most readers, including myself, I would have preferred that the code was included in the book. Even more, I'd would have preferred to be informed that this code was simply not available rather than for me to waste time flipping through the book and searching the internet, only to find out for myself.
James M. Mantooth
31 May, 2010
Average Book - Worth a quick view
I purchased this book in order to ascertain whether or not it was worth attempting to write complex multi-player games like RPGs with Silverlight. I think the first third of the book basically gives you a primer on Visual Studio, Silverlight, and Expression Blend. The second two thirds of the book provided more relevant material. However, I came away feeling like Silverlight was not the platform on which I wanted to work. That's a personal choice because I prefer 3D graphics, and Silverlight is too weak in this area.
The book was interesting, but I couldn't put it to use in my development environment.
Rob
02 March, 2010
Good book
A good book covering an array of topics related to 2D game programming with Silverlight 3.0 . The chapter with Networking is a very nice addition to the book. I rate it as an overall good read.
Maciej Misztal
30 March, 2010
Build a game step by step in Chapter 4
Starting with Chapter 4, you can use each section to begin building your game step by step, from creating the game loop and enabling full screen, to loading images and detecting mouse double-clicks.
Of course, not all scenarios are covered, but you can use the discussions at [...] to ask questions or ask for suggestions about implementation.
Yes, some of the downloadable source code is buggy, but people are posting solutions as they find them to [...].
I would've given the book 5 stars if it weren't for the fact that Silverlight coders with less experience might have trouble figuring out how to implement some of the scenarios. For example, in the section about Putting Your Game in Full-Screen Mode, you see the code for the event handler method that will do the work, but not how and where to attach the handler to an event. I looked in the source code and couldn't find any use of the IsFullScreen property, so there wasn't help there. But hey, the discussion board is pretty active, so that should help.
Love the book!
JanetFi
21 August, 2010
Fantastic Book
I really enjoyed Mike's book. The content is great and the sample code that is provided is very helpful. Causual gaming is clearly going to be a big role for Silverlight and this book does a great job in getting developers ready for the task.
Michael Hanley
08 May, 2010
