Rating: 
Summary: Superb coverage of *most* aspects of RTS design/coding
Review: This book is an absolute *must* for aspiring or active RTS designers and coders. First, a disclaimer: the book skips or treats lightly a number of subjects, including 3D graphics and networking.With that said, the content included is superb. I haven't yet loaded the code, but the CD contains a full encapsulation of DirectDraw for 2D graphics programming, and a lot of practical advice for using it. His examples include blitters with progressive levels of optimization, letting you get inside his thought process. The code appears to be free to use and modify. The book also has sections on design, scheduling, and a comparison of several RTS games with appropriate screen shots. As someone who has worked on a variety of programming aspects (AI, graphics, etc.), Mickey has sharp opinions on almost everything, and states them plainly. (Don't mention Hungarian notation...) This "attitude" adds life to what can be painfully dull subjects. Overall, this is an extremely valuable work for anyone in the programming, design, or even art sides of the industry. As a convenience, here's a copy of the highlights of the Table of Contents: 1. Welcome 2. Gameplay 3. Getting started on your game 4. Documents 5. Development 6. Standard macros and data types 7. Background 8. Great ideas (overview of existing games) 9. Working with DirectDraw 10. How to draw as easy as 1, 2, 3 11. How to do your ABC's (alphabet/font design) [ An alphabet design tool is included ] 12. The drawing manager 13. Loading graphics 14. The black space and the wild void of life [ LLE compression, optimization ] 15. Animation 16. The landscape [an excellent, deep summary] 17. The interface 18. Objects and creatures in the world 19. Pathing 20. DirectSound Index (8 pages, reasonable detail)
Rating:
Summary: Written from a Working Man's P.O.V
Review: Just got this a couple days ago, scanned thru the whole thing in a couple days, hard to put down. Excellent work All around. As in all things Creative, there isn't a Right or Wrong method to game programming, this book is one man's perspective -and a good one at that. Kawick mentions the code presented is definatly "prettier" than production code and alot of material is covered, ie; basic design ideas, RTS vs RTT, Game frameworks,Interfaces, AI, Pathing, some discussion on tile-based-worlds, Landscaping, adding creatures & objects, tool sets...Lotsa material, 650+ pages worth, and the CD....Much Love to the CD, NO FLUFF ON IT!!! Sweet and simple, 11 directories, including the LIBRARY -and all its source code, the other 10 are some more complex code samples to support selected chapters - Beautiful!!. This book WILL NOT write your game for you!!! IT WILL NOT TEACH YOU C/C++! But It will get your Juices Going, and give you one working man's take on getting the work done. Know your c/c++ before jumping in this magnificent book. This book will live next to my computer along with, Code Complete and my LotR CD Set. In the Famous words of someone who's name escapes me..."Get The Money!" Thanks Kawick! Excellent Work!!
Rating: 
Summary: Many elements overlooked
Review: The author has glossed over many important elements pertaining to RTS game programming. The most important concepts are briefly mentioned or are not mentioned at all. A good portion of the book is written to describe simple programming methods and layout of a workspace in DevStudio. I spent a few hours reading through the book and am thoroughly disappointed. The code is not organized at all on the CD. It looks as though the author just dumped everything into a single directory and hard coded include paths. I believe that a couple hours on the internet would provide any interested developer with the information presented in this book, plus a whole lot more.
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Summary: A must buy for you people who can't find tile concept books
Review: This book teaches you everything you could want to know on how to start/maintain and finish a RTS/RTT game. This book explains concepts of Starcraft/Total Annihiliation/Dark Reign etc. This book is about tile based games, not 3d, unlike most DirectX books.. so if your a hard core tile based game fan, this book is for you. All the sources on the cdrom work perfectly and cleanly, which is very hard to find in such a product. All and all this book kicks, get it and your mind will be changed, and flaws you may have encounted in past game attempts will vanish..
Rating: 
Summary: A Little Disappointing but Quite Promising
Review: I received this book a few days ago. I've only read the first 4-5 chapters, and skimmed the rest. I was disappointed at first. The final chapters look quite promising, devoted to the construction of RTS games: landscape, interface, objects, creatures, pathing. I wish the book had more of that coverage, because that's what I was hoping for. The middle chapters are more DirectX-oriented, which is a little more than I'd hoped since I don't program on Windows. But that's to be expected I suppose given the title. The beginning chapters are on intro, game design, coding style, project scheduling, etc. The points the author makes are good and correct, but really I have enough books on some of those topics: Code Complete, Rapid Development, The Practice of Programming, etc. I would have preferred more coverage of RTS. For example, network/multiplayer issues don't appear to be covered. ANSI C++ is Standard C++, or ISO C++. It's a little misleading, because the author doesn't seem to use a lot of the Standard Library (STL, std::string, etc.) but instead makes his own types and libraries (eg, EVENT_QUEUE instead of std::queue<EVENT>). I realize the roll-your-own approach might be better in practice, but for pedagogical reasons I would have used the Standard Library. I'm breaking into the middle chapters now, which I will read (albeit quickly) and can also farm off to a colleague who is a Windows developer and looking into DirectX programming. It is the final chapters that interest me most. However, this is the only book on the subject and I intend to give it a thorough read. I hope to have a better opinion towards the end, hence the 4 star rating. Probably, this book is a good one if you don't already know about project management, requirements analysis, etc. I still hope someone writes a good RTS game construction book, or at least open source reference game with supporting web documentation. I suppose that's what my game will be (http://www.cgocable.net/~mlepage/minion/).
Rating:
Summary: Looks pretty awesome
Review: I just got my copy today and I have looked throught the first 30 some pages and it looks like a winner. Its actually 714 pages. It looks like it covers a lot of ground. And from what I've read, the author knows what he's talking about. I would recommend this book to anyone searching for a book of this Genre.
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Summary: Covers alot of great material!
Review: I just received this book straight from the publisher today, and just on first look it appears to have really hit the nail on the head. Here's what the back cover has to say about the book. - Understand gameplay issues that affect your game, including strategy, mood, and resources. - Learn about the features of DirectX 6.0, including DDraw, D3D, and DSound, while using C++ instead of MFC - Build a macro and data type library to simplify your code - Learn how to develop a schedule, including building a paradigm and defining the framework. - Create animated backgrounds, overlays, and special effects, and learn how to animate the walk cycle in eight directions. - Understand the concept of tiles, how to raise and lower tiles to provide elevation, and how to use world and map coordinate systems. - Find out how to make the user interface intuitive and easy to create and use, with such elements as windows, buttons, and icons. - Define the framework to manage the AI for the different creatures and entities that inhabit your game's world. - Discover how to path from one desination to another using different pathing methods such as A*, ray casting, and waypoints, and how to use blocking terrain effectively. - Implement DirectSound to manage sounds in your game and maintain the sound interface. This book, unlike most game programming books (as if there are alot to begin wtih), was written by someone who deals with real world game programming issues on an every day basis. He actually worked on the Age of Empires team from what I understand, and I think Dominion too (maybe?). Anyhow, this book seems to definitely be worth the price. You should check it out.
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Summary: Does anybody know what ANSI is?
Review: He says he wrote the book in ANSI C++, but what the heck is that? If anybody knows, write me. Thanks
Rating: 
Summary: This is a well-rounded book with a lot of code.
Review: I have attempted to create simplified interfaces in dealing with the Messy DirectDraw com system. DirectSound has been greatly simplified by my "clever" encapsulation. I include Black Space compression (LLE) and a lot of optimizations regarding graphics. I have over 80 pages of pathing information and detailed implementation with well-documented code. The coverage of Entities/Creatures in the world is exhaustive and many AI details are thoroughly covered. 3 different tile systems with dozens of graphic representations show different tile setups in various configurations. I even cover information on game design and good design ideas in various games. Written entirely in ANSI C++
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Summary: Good Prep for developing a RTS game.
Review: When I first purchased this book, as a C programmer, I had a very hard time understanding alot of the code. So I kinda put in on the shelf and went down to my local bookstore and purchased "Teach Yourself C++ in 21 Days", so I could understand C classes and templates and object-oriented programming. And I recommend that if you even consider yourself a GOOD C programmer, don't get this book until you first have a great understanding of the things I listed above. The book covers many many gameplay and design topics using the DirectX API. However, if you are not at all familiar with Windows Programming or the DirectX API, I suggest you first buy LaMonthe's book, "Windows Game Programming for Dummies" or "Trick of the Windows Game Programming Gurus". These two books written by the master game programming author do a very good job explaining Windows programming and how it works with the DirectX API. Assuming that you know C++ programming, basic Windows Programming, and are familiar with DirectX, this books is a really good buy. I have yet so see any REAL books on RTS/TTS game out there and they are some of the most popular games on the market. Age of Empires, Age of Kings, StarCraft, all the Command & Conquer games such as Red Alert and Tiberium Sun, the list goes on and on. No books does a better job of covering all the major topics of progamming in this field than this one does. The reason I give it five stars is because even though it can seem complex and not well enough commented, it is still written for Windows Win32 programming using the easiest and best API (DirectX) for video games. And the second reason is because it's the only real book I have found on Real-Time Strategy. Recommended for intermediate to advanced C++ programmers only though.
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