Rating: 
Summary: Easy to read, easy to follow and reasonable coverage
Review: I am generally on the lookout for books to recommend to my students on games. This is a relatively easy read and the layout is clear. In other words it is a book that you could hand to a student and expect him or her to make some progress. That's a plus in my opinion. The author takes pains to elaborate various input and manipulation strategies and there is a sense of completeness about the work (though the domain is limited). There is a good discussion of the practical use of textures in games with a supporting short appendix on Photoshop. Artifical intelligence doesn't make any appearance, unless you count the A* algorithm. D3DX is covered but not as a central theme - more of a case of fit it in because readers will expect it. In general, there is a lot of programming material in the book to keep students busy.The book has a number of limitations. It may not be the most appealing text to anyone with game development experience. In the main the game concept in the book is a bit dated - combat strategy. Secondly, there is a large 2D dependency in the book arising from its reliance on tiled graphics. This shouldn't phase a student but a commercial developer may think otherwise. Thirdly, even though the book was published in June 2003 it relies on the older VC++ 6.0 rather than VC++ .net 2002 (obviously it couldn't use .net 2003). This is simply sloppy and suggests that the code from earlier projects was dusted off for the book. I would be more comfortable recommending the book if the publishers brought all the code up to .net 2003 standard.
Rating:
Summary: Easy to read, easy to follow and reasonable coverage
Review: I am generally on the lookout for books to recommend to my students on games. This is a relatively easy read and the layout is clear. In other words it is a book that you could hand to a student and expect him or her to make some progress. That's a plus in my opinion. The author takes pains to elaborate various input and manipulation strategies and there is a sense of completeness about the work (though the domain is limited). There is a good discussion of the practical use of textures in games with a supporting short appendix on Photoshop. Artifical intelligence doesn't make any appearance, unless you count the A* algorithm. D3DX is covered but not as a central theme - more of a case of fit it in because readers will expect it. In general, there is a lot of programming material in the book to keep students busy. The book has a number of limitations. It may not be the most appealing text to anyone with game development experience. In the main the game concept in the book is a bit dated - combat strategy. Secondly, there is a large 2D dependency in the book arising from its reliance on tiled graphics. This shouldn't phase a student but a commercial developer may think otherwise. Thirdly, even though the book was published in June 2003 it relies on the older VC++ 6.0 rather than VC++ .net 2002 (obviously it couldn't use .net 2003). This is simply sloppy and suggests that the code from earlier projects was dusted off for the book. I would be more comfortable recommending the book if the publishers brought all the code up to .net 2003 standard.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Book on Tile-Based Strategy Games
Review: I've been waiting a very long time for the followup strategy book from Wordware and all I can say is, it was worth the wait!!! This book covers many aspects of strategy game development from tile-based rendering to path-finding. I really enjoy the laid-back style of the author and recommend this to anyone who wants to learn about this type of programming.
Rating:
Summary: Solid Intro to Basic Topics
Review: My review of this book is based on my interests and experieces, which are: 1) I have basic computer programming skills; 2) I didn't know anything at all about game programming prior to this book; and 3) I am interested in developing 2D strategy combat games as a hobbyist.
That said, I enjoyed this book and found it very helpful to explain basic game development topics, such as the types of classes to set up for units and terrain tiles, how to load game maps, how to set up default unit data vs. individual unit data, etc. While I could have figured all of this out on my own eventually, this book provided a decent jump start (from a knowledge base of zero). If you know ANYTHING about developing games, this book is probably a waste for you.
This book served my purposes by showing the concepts to use, and I didn't actually rely on running the code provided with the book (just looked at the code as a starting point for the concepts). Nonetheless, I think that the book should have used .NET.
I didn't like the following things about the book: the author tries a little too hard to be flip or funny, but it didn't work for me. Also, he focuses mainly on using 3d tools for 2d graphics, which I never really understood, other than his explanation that all games are going toward 3d, so that is what people should learn.
Bottom line: helpful book for absolute beginners at game development, probably too light for anyone else. Moreover, I have not found any better alternatives to this book. Worth buying for beginners, especially if you can buy it used for cheap!
Rating: 
Summary: Only scratches the surface...
Review: The Amazon book info reads: "Text covers everything needed to create a strategy game using C++ and DirectX 9.0," and the description tells us "Strategy Game Programming with DirectX 9.0 covers everything necessary for you to create a strategy game using C++ and DirectX 9.0." This is simply not true. While this book covers many subjects, it only barely touches upon any important aspects of strategy game (either real-time or turn-based) programming. Chapter 1 is a brief history of some important strategy games over the past few decades. The chapter is interesting, but (as with the rest of the book) saturated with bias. Chapter 2 is a short but concise coverage of setting up projects for VC++ 6.0 and setting up a skeleton Windows application. This chapter has good information for VC++ novices, and the author's use of diagrams and flowcharts for explaining concepts is superb. However, considering that the book focuses on such a specific subtopic within game programming - that being strategy game programming, -- the pages set aside for this chapter really could have been put to more topical use. That said, the chapter only takes up less than 30 pages, and is regrettably one the more cohesive chapters in the book. Chapter 3 is a very high-level approach to the concept of real-time strategy games. The topics covered in this chapter are concepts which anyone interested in creating a strategy game should be very familiar, else they probably wouldn't have picked up the book in the first place. The one good point worth mentioning is the discussion on player goals, but otherwise, what ended up taking 20 pages to explain could have fit on 5 pages without the fluff and opinion. Chapter 4, "Planning Your Game Project," simply should not have appeared in this book (except maybe as an appendix), assuming that the subject of the book was meant to be on programming strategy games with DirectX 9.0. The chapter uses about 15 pages to discuss the software development life cycle - completely unnecessary considering that this book is not aimed at people in the game development industry. Chapter 5 is a long, good discussion on tile-based game maps, isometric tiling, and a brief talk about 3D tiling (brief, but with an implementation of the technique). This chapter is really the meat of the entire book, it goes in-depth on these concepts and covers a variety of situations. Chapter 6, "Interface Design and Development,"sounds like a relevant topic until you learn that the entire focus of the chapter is on building out-of-gameplay menus, not in-game interfaces. Although the menus are well-covered, they are only marginally relevant to strategy gaming, and would have been justified as an appendix. Sadly this chapter takes up 75 pages of a 500 page book. Chapter 7 discusses using DirectSound and DirectMusic. The best chapter in the book, and yet as specific to strategy games as leaves are to trees. It's unfortunate that the topics more specific to strategy games did not get the same level of detail and attention as this chapter. If Chapter 5 was the meat, then Chapter 8 is the potatoes. The chapter covers designing and implement units and unit management, rendering textured sprites, and using external unit data files. Neither concise or cohesive, but the information is still there. Chapter 9 succinctly covers keyboard input with DirectInput. Part III is a tool development section, containing 2 chapters. Chapter 10 does a good, detailed job of explaining and showing how to create a map editor; and Chapter 11 also does a good job of explaining how to add 3D models to the game, how to animate them, and then shows how to create a basic 3D animation editor. Part IV, "Advanced Topics," includes: Chapter 12, a basic discussion and implementation of the A* pathfinding algorithm; Chapter 13, a short talk on particle effects; and Chapter 14, "Network Programming Primer." Chapter 12 could have been more detailed, and Chapter 13 was relevant as an advanced topic for strategy game programming. However, Chapter 14 details an absolutely unnecessary lecture on the history and variety of networks and network systems before delving into how to do Windows socket programming, with NO discussion on DirectPlay aside from a short paragraph basically stating that it exists. Now, why exactly did the author of a book about programming DirectX strategy games completely turn away from the subject matter suggested by the title of the book? Because: "The main detriment to DirectPlay is that you don't have complete control over it, [p 483]" and "you can't use it in operating systems other than Windows [p 483]." So, does that mean we should not program the rest of our game with Direct3D graphics, DirectInput interface, or DirectSound and DirectMusic audio either? To finish out the book, the Appendix is a shameless plug and tutorial for Adobe Photoshop. The main faults with the book are poor organization, absence of essential information for creating a working strategy game, and lack of topic depth where it's needed most. The majority of the book is not relevant to the subject of the book (programming strategy games with DirectX 9.0), and is already covered by books particular to those subjects. Also, while there are code samples, none of them culminate into a working sample of a strategy game (although the map editor is commendable). Finally, at the listing price of $60 US, the book is simply not worth the money - in fact, I purchased the book used on Amazon for about $25, and still don't feel totally justified about the purchase. If you are looking to learn to creating strategy games, my suggestion is to not buy this book. I wish there were more out there on strategy game development, but unfortunately there isn't (and that includes "Real-Time Strategy Game Programming Using MS DirectX 6.0" by Mickey Kawick as well, because I've heard that it's worse than this one).
Rating:
Summary: Great book!!!
Review: This book covers it all! There are chapters on everything from tile graphics to path finding. My favorite aspect of the book is how easy it is to pick up. The examples are VERY easy to follow and use. The code is straight forward and easy to read. The author also goes to great lengths to keep the book code up to date (he has posted code updates for the latest DX SDK on his website.) I can't say enough good things about this book.
Rating:
Summary: Great book!!!
Review: This book covers it all! There are chapters on everything from tile graphics to path finding. My favorite aspect of the book is how easy it is to pick up. The examples are VERY easy to follow and use. The code is straight forward and easy to read. The author also goes to great lengths to keep the book code up to date (he has posted code updates for the latest DX SDK on his website.) I can't say enough good things about this book.
Rating: 
Summary: ok
Review: This book is a good start, but just that. No hand holding here of any coding. If you want to design you book on paper first, this book will help you with that, but coding is another story.
Rating:
Summary: ok
Review: This book is a good start, but just that. No hand holding here of any coding. If you want to design you book on paper first, this book will help you with that, but coding is another story.
Rating: 
Summary: WARNING! Don't buy this book based upon its title!
Review: To sum this book up in one thought: Based upon the information in the book, I have serious doubts that the author has ever written a strategy game. The Amazon book info reads: "Text covers everything needed to create a strategy game using C++ and DirectX 9.0," and the description tells us "Strategy Game Programming with DirectX 9.0 covers everything necessary for you to create a strategy game using C++ and DirectX 9.0." This is simply not true. While this book covers many subjects, it only barely touches upon any important aspects of strategy game (either real-time or turn-based) programming. I was appalled at the absence of information on selection boxes and "picking" units, specifically (and absolutely) necessary for RTS game programming! The main faults with the book are poor organization, absence of essential information for creating a working strategy game, and lack of topic depth where it's needed most. The majority of the book is not relevant to the subject of the book (programming strategy games with DirectX 9.0), and is already covered by books particular to those subjects. Also, while there are code samples, none of them culminate into a working sample of a strategy game (although the map editor is commendable). Finally, at the listing price of $60 US, the book is simply not worth the money - in fact, I purchased the book used on Amazon for about $25, and it's not worth even $25! (...except maybe as a lesson in how not to write a book on programming strategy games.) If you are looking to learn to creating strategy games, DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK! Spend your money on a different book. I seriously do not see how other reviewers could have given this book a high rating, but everyone is entitled to an opinion. (Although I seriously wonder how many readers found it possible to build a strategy game after reading this book.) I wish there were more out there on strategy game development, but unfortunately there isn't. [I revised this review after reading the book a second time.] (...)
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