Reader reviews

Outstanding. I kept finding reasons to come back to it.

This is the third book I have read on game programming this year, and it is comfortably the best of them. It is denser than the page count suggests, and I found myself slowing down around the middle. Some of the material is available elsewhere, but rarely presented this clearly. Some terminology is introduced without much ceremony; I had to look a few things up along the way. I have already recommended it to two colleagues and will recommend it to more.

Exactly the book I needed. Straight to the point and genuinely useful.

I read this over a couple of weekends alongside a small side project, which turned out to be the ideal way to approach it. The progression from chapter to chapter is well thought out; nothing feels out of order. The author clearly knows the subject deeply and has thought hard about how to teach it. The writing is direct and does not waste space on filler, which I value in a technical book. Worth the money and the reading time, without hesitation.

Finally, a book that treats game design with the care it deserves.

There is a particular kind of technical book that is dense without being difficult, and this is one of them. The author avoids over-explaining, which keeps the pace up but means you need to pay attention. I found myself making notes in the margins, which is always a good sign. This is the book I wish had existed when I started working with game design.

This is the one to get if you are serious about simulation.

I had been on the fence about this one for a while, and I should have bought it sooner. There is a section near the end that ties several earlier ideas together in a way I had not seen before. Some of the diagrams are dense and I had to reread a few sections, though that may just be me. This is the book I wish had existed when I started working with simulation.

I have read a lot of books on this subject and this is the clearest.

This is the third book I have read on graphics & design this year, and it is comfortably the best of them. The exercises at the end of each chapter are worth doing — they caught a few misconceptions I did not know I had. The explanations are careful without being condescending, which is a difficult balance to strike. I found myself making notes in the margins, which is always a good sign. One of those books that pays for itself within the first few chapters. Highly recommended.

Good value. Not perfect, but I would buy another book from this author.

I bought this on a whim after seeing it mentioned in a forum thread, and I am glad I did. The early chapters move quickly through material I already knew, but the later sections were genuinely new to me. A couple of chapters felt like they could have been merged, but that is a minor complaint. The author avoids over-explaining, which keeps the pace up but means you need to pay attention. Four stars, and I suspect a second edition could easily push it to five.