Rating: 
Summary: buy it now!!
Review: a must book, talk about every thing , the code is in C++ and easy to use it. he made a good core library helps you to make an rpg games with dxgraphics,Dinput,Daudio and the cool thing Directplay, the book use directx8. and the cool thing i think all love it is Make a simple game, he made a complete game using the rest of the book. Buy it now and buy Trics Of THE WINOWS GAME PROGRAMMING GURUS.IF U WANT TO MADE A COMPLETE GAMES FOR ALL KINDS. THANKES JIM,ANDRE'...
Rating:
Summary: Jack of All Trades....
Review: But Master of None. Still, this is one of the better books I've read in the Prima Tech series. It starts off with the game development theory, introduces programming concepts, gets nitty-gritty with the game core, and then offers some other advice. I agree with what the other reviewers said. This book moves FAST. What other books in the series does in 5 paragraphs this book does in about two sentences. What I didn't like was the fact that it really glossed over some of the advanced DirectX graphics stuff, like multitexturing. That shouldn't be too much of a problem though if you pick up another DirectX book, but it would have been nice had the author included it here. If all you want to do is to make simple RPGs this book comes very close to being the all-in-one that you are looking for. However, game engines are rarely just bunch of written functions. If you truly want to get into heavy RPG programming, you'll need to learn Windows Programming to develop your own level design tools. Each segment has enough detail for light work and simple projects, but if you want to get more in depth there are entire books written on those topics, and I highly recommend you get them, as well as OpenGL and OpenAL books. After finishing this book, you'll gain the knowledge of RPG development, but to seriously use it for profit, you'll need the more advanced books that I hinted above.
Rating:
Summary: Just Great!!
Review: Every single thing you ever wanted to ask in game programming is there may i need to say more!!!
Rating:
Summary: Great book! For Windows Programming and RPGs
Review: Great for learning Windows programming and starting to build your digital worlds.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome book
Review: I don't have many books about programming, but this one is awesome. You've got whirlwind tour to all aspect of directx before learning about rpgs. This book is a good one to start learning directx. Buy it! Here is the TOC:
Chapter 1 - A World of Role-Playing
Chapter 2 - Exploring RPG Design Elements
Chapter 3 - Story-Writing Essentials
Chapter 4 - Starting with C++
Chapter 5 - Programming with Windows and Application Basics
Chapter 6 - Drawing with DirectX Graphics
Chapter 7 - Interacting with DirectInput
Chapter 8 - Playing Sound with DirectX Audio
Chapter 9 - Networking with DirectPlay
Chapter 10 - Creating the Game Core
Chapter 11 - Using 2-D Graphics
Chapter 12 - Creating 3-D Graphics Engines
Chapter 13 - Mixing 2-D and 3-D Graphics Engines
Chapter 14 - Implementing Scripts
Chapter 15 - Defining and Using Objects
Chapter 16 - Controlling Players and Characters
Chapter 17 - Working with Maps and Levels
Chapter 18 - Creating Combat Sequences Chapter 19 - Getting Online with Multiplayer Gaming
Chapter 20 - Putting Together a Full Game
Chapter 21 - Marketing and Publishing your Game
Rating:
Summary: The best book I've found on this topic by far
Review: I had a specific objective in mind when I bought this book. I'm in the process of writing a hobby level multi-user RPG for me and maybe up to a hundred or so other players (not many hundreds or thousands). I have a solid background in C++, less so in DirectX.
I've bought many books on game programing to help me with this process and to my surprise I've found this one simply amazing while most of the others I've found to be little more than expensive doorstops. :)
Like all the books of this nature, I read it in very much a "pick and choose" manner, focussing on chapters I liked and extracted code from the CD for places where it helped me. I found the material covered and, more importantly, the code representation of that material to be extremely helpful in my coding process.
I believe the tips and code the book provides (which all compile and provide very reasonable and practical applications for the ideas demonstrated) saved me (literally) hundreds of hours of research (not to mention trial and error) finding methods that work and work well and covered all of the core componenets I would want in a role-playing game. It covered multi-player over the internet, 2d and 3d rendering in directX, how to construct combat, spells, chat, and inventory systems and a variety of other items.
Naturally, I had to do a lot of customization to make the game do what I wanted it to do and I had to merge several of the ideas discussed into my own framework (for example the multi player network section is covered more or less stand alone where clearly other parts of the book need to be integrated with it to form a real game), but the result is I have a basic game up and running in a fraction of the time it would have otherwise taken, which no other book has ever really brought me.
Rating: 
Summary: More sloppy and overrated
Review: I just want to say that I am amazed at the shining reviews for this book. I guess Jim Adams really *does* have a few loyal friends. The first thing you'll need to do upon buying his book is install the DirectX SDK off the CD. I should mention that the DirectX version is 8.0, and it may poop out half-way through the installation. If it doesn't, don't fret, you should be installing DirectX 8.1 from Microsoft's site anyway. Then, download the DX 8.1 updates from his less-than-impressive web site. Sound like a hassle yet? Read on. As others have mentioned, the first few chapters are a complete waste, as Jim hops on his creative high-horse and gives tips on how to make a plot -- imagine this -- multi-layered and interesting. Gee. Thanks, Jim. Then he goes into a superficial overview of C++. Why, I don't know. If you're a beginner at C++, his whirlwind tour isn't going to help you make sense of anything. If you're familiar with the language, he's only stating the obvious. But the part I found to be unbelievable (but sadly true) is that he spends a good deal of time talking about how GREAT classes are, then doesn't even bother to use them for the first 10 chapters of examples. He uses structures in his examples, contradicting his own advice, then applies pressure in Chapter 10 to use his GameCore for all your programming efforts. He weaves snippets of code between concept overviews, which always end in him saying, "See, it's that simple." But very seldom does his code work as printed. You can expect your compiler to maul you with error messages when running his code, but after weeding out his sloppy mistakes (type mismatches, lack of header/library references, etc.), you may actually get a working program. This book is the perfect example of an author undergoing an identity crisis: meaning, he couldn't quite identify his audience. Perhaps it's not all Adams' fault... the book should clearly identify the skill level for which it is intended. Regardless, there is no excuse for the number of errors, oversights, and assumptions made in this book -- nobody should have to read someone's work and discern what's accurate and what isn't.
Rating: 
Summary: Not for advanced programmers!
Review: I rate this book with 3 stars even though my own personal opinion of it is somewhat lower. As has been pointed out in previous reviews the books does cover a lot of ground and leaves you with a complete mini-game. That's why the book might be good for newbie programmers who are looking for an example of how to write a rpg. And that's what earns the book 3 stars in my review. I just want to stress something that the other reviewers haven't mentioned - this book is *not* for experienced programmers who are working seriously on their own rpg already! It cannot be used as a reference on how to implement those things you haven't done yet because the book tries to cover so much that it only presents very specific solutions for all the topics. There is only *one* type of combat covered for example, and that's a FF7 style turn-based combat. If you're planning for something else this book will be useless for you on this subject. And the same can be said about all the other topics: item management, engine design, level management, automapping, AI etc. Each topic is quickly breezed over and then a specific solution is presented. Take it or leave it. In my case I didn't take any of them... So in summary: Might be interesting for newbie rpg programmers who wants a guide through an example rpg. But any experienced programmer should leave this book alone!
Rating:
Summary: Great book!!
Review: I'm an experienced (6 years) C/C++ and windows programmer. Over the past two years I have been focusing on learning game development. This is the first time I have EVER reviewed a book. What an amazing book! I read this book cover to cover over a weekend and am preparing to go through it again at the computer. It answers a lot of questions I've had concerning game development that weren't covered in other books. Sometimes the author mentions things that there wasn't room for in the book (It is a huge book already), but guess what? It is all in fully commented code on the CD. That is not even mentioning the fact that the author has a web site where he is posting new ideas, updates, and other examples. This book gives everything the "Programmer" needs to get a solid foundation to an RPG going. This includes developing tools and scripts to assist you in your game development. I'm giving the book 5 stars because that is what it deserves. The book does include some rudimentary introductions to C++ and Windows programming that could have been left out (or just put on the CD), but that's for me, and I don't take away points for including information. This book is great for people who are having problems with 3D concepts such as Vectors, Matrix Math, Transformation Matrices, etc. This book by far teaches these better than any other source I've found. Like I said, I can't wait to go through this book again!
Rating:
Summary: Great book, despite some of these reviews!
Review: It amazes me that people post reviews stating, "Don't buy this book," or "3 stars (but should be less in my opinion)," among many others, because the book doesn't have the quote un-quote "advanced" information they were looking for. According to one reviewer this "advanced" information he was looking for was "a non-Final Fantasy type combat system." This book TEACHES you the IDEAS behind how game programming works, with an emphasis and examples on ROLE PLAYING GAMES. What's the most popular type of role playing game? Final Fantasy type. If you are an "advanced" game programmer and this book didn't help you, then you should be able to use your own knowledge and program your OWN combat system. It seems like you were looking for a book that offered the solution (combat system) that you wanted to cut and paste into your "advanced and superior code." For those that want a book to help their imagination grow and problem solving nodes start firing away after seeing some real-life examples, this book is for you. If you want to buy a book that contains code you are just going to cut and paste into your own source, then you're right, this book is not "advanced" enough.
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