I hope I'm in the right forum. anyway, i have seen the advert for this book :

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/102...o.y=0&Go=Go

Does it cover A7 and Lite C? Maybe A7 will be released on the same date with the book? Does anybody know who the writer is and is he a frequent forum user here? or maybe one of the developer?

I haven't bought 3d game studio yet (I bought DBP last chrismas and still playing with it) but I do plan to buy along with the book (or maybe buy the book first and try the demo included).

Thanks.

Hi!
Following your link I found a list of books, but none of them is covering 3dGS in a specific way. Or maybe I didn´t see. 3dGS should not be confused with 3d Studio Max, which is a modelling application. I only know of one older book, which might be a little bit out of date.

When I started with Game Studio, I downloaded the manual (link on the download page), which gave me a good overview of the actual possibilities. There are also some basic essential tutorials (c-script workshop, level design tutorial). You can also have a look into the AUM (user magazine).

A7 will come out this year, but 3dGS is constantly being updated, so A7 won´t be something completely different. It´s more a gradual change.
Most important for me: in the past the engine was mostly designed for indoor BSP levels. It´s gradually changing into something that can handle larger outdoor levels (with lot´s of visible models, improved dynamic lighting, large terrain etc.). In addition to that it will be more comfortable to artists and level designers (shader library/editor, interactive leveleditor).

I thing you are refering to this

There is already a topic on this book in other forum which i dont remember.
And about A7, it will not explore that for sure.

Yup, your link works better. I found the thread about this book in the tools section. Anyway, not much information, but might be interesting.

I just got The Official Guide to 3D Gamestudio by Michael Duggan in the mail today and I'm already disappointed. A quick skim of the book leads me to believe 75% of the book is about anything BUT 3DGS. It's a total of 453 pages and there's 106 pages before you even get to "learning the program." The last 70 pages are about marketing, etc. And the pages in between seem heavy on theory and very light on actual exercises. I hope I'm wrong, but I think this book may be a bust!

Hmm I was afraid about that. At the moment of making the order I could choose between this book and 3D Game Textures: Create Professional Game Art Using Photoshop. I bought the Gamestudio book in the hope that it would go further where the c-script workshops stopped and learn me to better program games.

Don't need boring sth like marketing and publishing. If I want to read anything about that I would have ordered another book. Also I do not believe this author have much to say about marketing and publishing.

Although I have not yet viewed the book (will receive march 27th), reading from your comment I think its waste of money already. Maybe if George Pirvu, author of the AUM would write a book, you'd have something to put on your desktop for frequent lookup. Symbolically I will burn in flames The Official Guide to Gamestudio if it turns out bad.

Just received the book The Official Guide to Gamestudio written by Mike Duggan, so lets have a look inside

About the author
Mike Duggan is an artist and animator with a background in 3D modeling and digital animation. He is primarily a game programmer and motion graphics expert with nearly 10 years experience using Conitec's 3D GameStudio engine.

He taught 3D animation and game design at North Arkansas College for the past three years. He also contributed to the following foundations of the Gaming and Robotics curriculum at the high-paced Bryan College based out of Kansas City.

Mike is a published author and is currently working on a online magazine about scratchware game development, which will be out in late 2007. Besides 3D GameStudio, Mike uses Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Autodesk Maya, Autodesk 3D Studio Max, Adobe Flash, Adobe After Effects, and SoftImage XSI in his pipeline and knows a number of programming language, including C-Script, Ruby, Java, CSS, PHP, Actionscript, MEL Script, and Max Script.

Thanks to Johann Christian Lotter, George Pirvu, Dan Silverman, David Lancaster, Realspawn, Exile, Kotakide, Geometricks, and the rest of the community at 3DGS for the help they gave me with the software. Thanks to my editors, Emi Smith, Kim Benbow, and Felicitas Lotter, for helping me put this book together. Thanks to my wife and family for their support.

Conitec would like to acknowledge the efforts of the following people in relation of 3D GameStudio A6

WED Level Editor: Vladimir Stolipin
MED Model Editor: Vladimir Stolipin
Map Compiler: Marco Grubert, Alexej Stolipin
SED Script Editor: Gustav Nordvall
A6 Engine: Johann Christian Lotter
Physics Engine: Marco Grubert
Demo Games: Czelav Gorski, Dan Silverman, Doug Poston
Game Templates: Doug Poston
Manual: Johann Christian Lotter, Felicitas Lotter
Tutorials: George Pirvu, Felicitas Lotter, Dan Silverman, Doug Poston


PART I GAME CREATION BASICS

Chapter 1 GAMING FUNDAMENTALS
- Evolution of a Medium
- Coming Up with Ideas
- Getting Your Game Idea Out There
- 3D Gamestudio

Chapter 2 PLANNING YOUR GAME
- Development
- The Game Design Life Cycle
- The Preproduction Stage
- The Preduction Stage
- The Post Production Stage
- Rating The Game
- Development Management
- Organic Process
- Rapid Iterative Prototyping
- Vertical Slice Process
- The Cerny Method
- In Summary
- What You Have Learned
- For Review
- What Makes a Great Game
- The Four Fs of Great Game Design
- Fun
- Fairness
- Feedback
- Feasibility
- Game Genres
- Action Game
- Platformer (Arcade Game)
- Action-Adventure Hybrid
- Role-Playing Game (RPG)
- Strategy Game
- Stealth Game
- Simulation
- Sports Game
- Fighting Game
- Construction and Management Simulations (CMS)
- Casual Game
- Online Game
- Survival Horror Game
- Some Lesser-known Genres
- Playing Perspective
- First-Person
- Third-Person
- Top-Down (Aerial View)
- Isometric
- From the Side
- Adventure Scenes
- Fixed Cameras (RE Cameras)
- What You Have Learned
- For Review
- Game Psychology
- Interaction
- Conflict
- World Immersion
- Characters
- Emergent Gameplay
- Symbols and Myth in Games
- The Gamer's Journey
- In Summary
- What You Have Learned
- For Review

Chapter 3 GAME DESIGN
- Game Design Elements
- Genre
- Settings
- Characters
- Premise
- Synopsis
- Player Motivation
- Target Audience
- Game Mechanics
- Game Graphics
- Game Sound
- In Summary
- What You Have Learned
- For Review
- Cast Scenario: Mama Kat
- Genre
- Characters
- Premise
- Synopsis
- Player Motivation
- The Audience
- Game Mechanics
- Game Graphics
- Game Sound
- In Summary

Chapter 4 LEARNING THE PROGRAM
- MED: the Model Editor
- 3D Editor
- Skin Editor
- Animation
- In-Game Rendering
- What You Have Learned
- The WED Interface
- View Windows
- Project Window
- Running Levels
- What You Have Learned
- SED: The Script Editor
- Programming
- C-Script Syntax
- The Interface
- What You Have Learned
- In Summary

PART II MAKING AN ACTION GAME

Chapter 5 MODELING AND ANIMATING CHARACTERS
- Creating Memorable Game Characters
- Personality
- Name
- Appearance
- Voice
- Other Characters
- Five Lessons of Creating Game Characters
- Accept and Capitalize on Lucky Accidents
- Exaggerate the Character's Motions
- Use Appealing Colors Palette
- Make Use of Your Own Artistic Style
- Never Use Stereotypes
- The Princeples of Animation
- Timing
- Emphasis
- Secondary Motion
- Anticitation
- Follow-Trough and Overlapping Actions
- Arcing Motion
- Squash and Stretch
- Weight Distribution
- Appeal
- In Summary
- What You Have Learned
- For Review
- Exercise 5.1: Modeling Your Avatar
- Modeling a Leg
- Modeling a Body
- Modeling Arms
- Modeling a Head
- Putting the Model Together
- Exercise 5.2: Skinning Your Avatar
- Creating a Skin
- Applying the Skin
- Exercise 5.3: Animating Your Avatar
- Stand Animation
- Walk Animation
- Run Animation
- Jump Animation
- Duck and Crawl Animation
- Death Animation
- In Summary

Chapter 6 BUILDING IINTERIOR LEVELS
- 3D Space
- Spatial Dimensions
- Unit of Measurement
- Textures
- Level of Detail (LOD)
- Entities
- Level Architecture
- Game Flow and Level Layout
- Pacing and Balance of Resources
- Level Layout
- In Summary
- What You Have Learned
- For Review
- Exercise 6.1: Building Mansion Floor 2
- Starting a New Level File
- Basic Geometry
- Adding the Details
- Placing Props
- Test-run the Level
- Exercise 6.2: Building Mansion Floor 1
- Flipping This Level
- Adding The Details
- Test-run the Level
- Exercise 6.3: Building the Death-Match Arena
- In Summary

Chapter 7 ELECTRONIC GAME INTERFACES
- Fleshing Out the "Gooey" Details
- Listing Priorities for Your Interface
- Types of Interfaces
- In Summary
- What You Have Learned
- For Review
- Exercise 7.1: Scripting Your Action Game
- Creating a Player and Enemy Entities
- Blow Stuff Up
- Create Animated Doors
- Play Audio in Your Game
- Move from One Level to the Next
- Desing a HUD
- Give the Player Power-Ups
- Make Entities Interact with the Player
- Design a Nifty Splash Panel Intro
- In Summary

PART III MAKING A ROLE-PLAYING GAME

Chapter 8 Game Narrative and Puzzle Design
- History of Role-Playing Games
- Trends in Role-Playing Games
- Traits of Every Role-Playing Game
- Game Narrative (or How I Put a Story to Tetris)
- Some Brief Terminology
- Purposes of Game Narrative
- Most Common Plots
- String of Pearls Method of Scripting
- Making Players Make Choices
- Types of Game Challenges
- Ordinary and Unusual Uses of Objects
- Alchemical Puzzles
- Cryptographic/Clue-Driven Game
- Mental Deduction Puzzles
- Timing/Sequence Challenges
- Social/Dialog Puzzles
- Mazes
- Monsters
- Traps
- Problems to Avoid
- Creating a Classic Clue-Driven Game
- Keeping It Real
- In Summary
- What You Have Learned
- For Review

Chapter 9 BUILDING EXTERIOR LEVELS
- Exercise 9.1: Building the City of Krawl
- Setting Up
- Basic Geometry
- Adding a Sky
- Adding Lights and SFX
- Adding Final Touches
- Exercise 9.2: Building the Sewer Tunnels
- Setting Up
- Building Your Level
- Exercise 9.3: Building the Guard Barracks
- Setting Up
- Building Your Level
- Exercise 9.4: Adding Final Touches
- Creating an RPG Camera
- Creating Entities
- Creating Weather
- In Summary

Chapter 10 Better Animation and AI
- Exercise 10.1: Bones Animation
- Animating Mama Kat
- Exercise 10.2: Artificial Intelligence
- Fundamental AI Structure
- AI Used in 3D GameStudio
- Exercise 10.3: NPC Communication
- Play Audio on Contact
- Show Journal Clues
- In Summary

Chapter 11 COMBAT SYSTEMS
- Exercise 11.1: Character Selection
- Character Stats
- Setting Up
- Looting the Place
- Gaining Knowledge from Books
- Other Tests
- Exercise 11.2: Melee Combat
- Exercise 11.3: Ranged Combat
- First-Person Bow and Arrow Shooting
- Exercise 11.4: Stealth Combat
- Creating Stealth Mode
- In Summary

PART IV CONCLUSION

Chapter 12 SELLING YOUR GAME
- Independent Game Development
- Scratchware Manifesto
- Selling Hobby Games
- Starting a Studio
- Video Game Marketing
- The Marketing Mindset
- The Image You Represent
- Promotional Tools
- Sticking Around
- In Summary
- What You Have Learned

Chapter 13 GETTING A JOB IN THE INDUSTRY
- Game Education
- Breaking In to the Market
- Finding Job Openings
- Specializations
- The Demo, Cover Letter, and Resume
- The Job Interview
- Networking
- What Do You Want to Do With Your Life?
- In Summary
- What You Have Learned
- For Review

I just got my copy of this book on Tuesday. At this point I just finished chapter two. From what I can tell so far, a lot of it is geared towards the planning aspect of making a game and approaching it in a manner that will allow for project completion.

Looking through the book, it doesn't really give a lot of scripting examples, so I doubt it will be for the mid ranged experience level (and above) 3dgs user. But like I said, I haven't read it all the way yet, so I could be wrong.

What's on the companion cd

- Free 3d models
- Free sound files
- Project samples: Hector Hex, Mama Kat
- Bunch of WAD (texture) files
- Software: GameStudio A6 trial, A4 Font Generator, Audacity, Gensurf, Paint.NET


So i've finished reading the book and here are my opinions.

Yesterday I typed the content of the book structure. But I wanted to reply on this again, because at first glance you almost think lot of ground is covered, but its just theory no example, no tutorial, no code in most cases.

The programming in this book is nearly zero. Mike Duggan has 10 years experience with GameStudio. Foremost with programming, but he doesn't share his secrets in the book. The gems. Instead quoted frequently what others wrote.

The book isn't suited for noobs and this is obvious the group the author geared towards. Why not suited you might ask? Well if you want to do some exercises from the book there are virtually no images/icons to show what the author wants you to do. Instead there are few images and lots of text, and you are left on your own. Very bad if you are just starting.

So for who is this book really? I'd say not for experts, because expert programmers might find the code to simple or could figure it out themself. 3d artist will roll eyes about the design approach. Nothing fancy or yawdropping for them. Also theory isn't what experts are waiting for. I guess they already know all this information and don't need to be reminded again.

There is a place in the book where it says: Blow Stuff Up. And you think wow here it comes. But then you find yourself including templates with functions you could already have known if you did some of the available tutorials, read the GameStudio manual. And Acknex User Magazine by George Pirvu.

Why learn the reader to include template and not learn him to create the effect from start to end. Blow sth up? Yeah right. Then it goes to opening doors. I laughed, why? Well there is problem if you create a door code and you have more than one door. This can be solved. I hoped the author would show how and used scripting for this, instead he used templates.

The model/skin/animate a character tutorial inside the book isn't bad, but very basic. And the tutorial looks like the one Realspawn contributed some time ago. If you have little more skill in 3d modeling and other software than MED, maybe you better download a tutorial on professional character modeling for free elsewhere.

If you think there's a complete game inside this book, on the companion cd or that you will be making one from scratch your wrong. Yes there are two samples, but again if you read the AUM, there's really nothing that will make you say wow.

There is some level building in the book, but the moment I was instructed to use CSG substract and block based geometry I quickly went on to the next page. Might missed something great, but I just don't do blocks anymore. Only models.

As others already stated. Alot of theory in this book. If you ever bought a book on Game Programming, such as All-In-One game programming books, those that go a little deeper behind the scenes, this book is a total waste because most things you either already know or sound very familiar to you.

Truly liked the information about Conitec though. Maybe not really need to buy a book for that as I could have asked these things myself. Still interesting to know a little history about the engine and the people around it.

The Slicing Blades, the NPC communication and the Combat system are fun. I like them, but there should have been more. I guess these are the best things the book has to offer when it comes to programming.

Still, I would not recommend this book. However, if this would be the first book about game design and programming you have ever bought. And you do not know anything about what goes on behind the scenes, it might be a good read though.

Some of the exercises in the book are to simple for me and the result is not worth the time spend. If someone with no experience tries to do some of these, he or she might be left with a lot of questions. If you know a little more about GameStudio/modeling, doing the exercises seems easy. Guess if you're creative and have wonderful imagination you could go from where the exercise stops and create something more professional.

These are my thoughts. Don't want to talk bad about the author or the book. I do not want to act like I know everything better or can do better. However this book gets a low rating from me. I am not disapointed, i'm sad. Hope the author will learn from the little mistakes and amaze with something awesome next time.