Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 56
 Awesome for beginners July 7, 2009
sandy (rochester ny)
This book is great for teens and young adults. I knew HTML (I am 10 years old) when I first got the book, so it was easy for me. It was sometimes a little confusing when you read the code, but later it is a breeze. Awesome for beginners, and a good reference for the more advanced people. Good book, 5 stars.
 Lots to like, could be better, pre-teens need much guidance through it June 3, 2009
Henry Flurry (Prescott, AZ USA)
I bought this for my 10 year old son - not quite a teenager, but it is very difficult to find books and programming languages to introduce programming to kids who have experience playing computer games. Either the level of programming available in the language is not sophisticated enough (e.g., Scratch), or you can't find a book to teach programming and guide the child through the language itself.
The book comes with a CD which includes all the source code and assets needed for the examples given, plus a demo copy of the BlitzMax Basic programming language.
My son's working through it slowly. We've taken the model of: he reads a few pages, and then I explain the concept a bit more clearly to him. Early examples of complete programs, given to show the reader where one is headed, were overwhelming to my son. A teenager would probably need fewer explanations, in part due to the greater breadth of math they will have studied. Nevertheless, I would prefer a book that explained things more at the level of the TRS-80 Introduction to BASIC manual on which I taught myself BASIC in 10th grade.
My biggest complaint about the book is that it doesn't use Strict variable typing, which would require all variables to be declared before use. I watched my son become very frustrated trying to debug a programming example he'd modified. I could see that the problem was a typo in a variable name, but without strict variable typing, the programming compiler does not complain. It took quite some time for me to guide him towards discovering the error. It would have been very easy for all of the author's examples to require Strict Variable declarations, and this would save countless hours of needless debugging by his readers. There are other non-defensive programming habits buried in the author's programming style, but for me, this is the most blatant problem and the one that would be most easy to fix.
I *do* like that the book has chosen BlitzMax Basic as its language - this language works on Mac, PC, and Linux, so the book is not platform specific. The environment is very stable (no crashes to date), although the debugger leaves much to be desired. (And the book does little to discuss debugging programs.) We did need to purchase BlitzMax ($80 as I write this) once the demo we downloaded had expired. This might not be the case for all platforms, because some BitzMax platforms are included on the book's CD. (My son is using a PowerPC OS X eMac - that version of BlitzMax is not included on the CD.) [As an aside, I've even taken to using BlitzMax to prototype various programming ideas - much faster and easier than writing a C++, Objective-C, or even Visual Basic program.]
And, of course, what could be cooler to a kid than learning to write video games?
One final thought: This book is about giving the reader a specific project (writing a video game) in which the language is learned and hands on experience is gained. The reader will learn some programming concepts, but much of what is learned beyond the language itself is how this particular video game works. There is much more to programming, or even game programming, than this book will offer. But, I think that this is a highly appropriate way to get one's feet wet in programming.
I think that there are newer books that advertise for Absolute Beginners, and if I were to do it again, I'd probably look more closely at these books.
In summary: for Teenagers who are motivated to learn and will take the time to grok the examples, this book will likely work well. For younger kids, and probably teenagers who need more detailed explanations, this book falls a bit short. However, with adult guidance, the book would suffice even for this audience.
An accompanying cd-rom offers source code from examples in the book, plus art and music libraries January 16, 2009
Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA)
If you enjoy playing video games and want to learn how to create them, then the third updated edition of GAME PROGRAMMING FOR TEENS is for you. It shows how to design and develop a complete video game from start to finish without any prior programming knowledge needed, showing the basics of BlitzMax, an easy game programming language good for Windows or Mac users alike. An accompanying cd-rom offers source code from examples in the book, art and music libraries, and a free 30-day trial version of Corel Paint Shop Pro and the Blitz circle of products. Any who would program games for teens will find this involving.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
Very good but needs more. November 13, 2008
Richard Torres (Bellingham, WA USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I believe this is a good book for people new to the Blitzmax language; however there is still a few things that is not covered in this book leaving, the reader to find there own answers from other sources like the web. One being the ability to create a game that has more movement controls, for game types that are not limited to the old space invader styles. I believe a little more effort should have been put into the online networking side of things, for using the UDP protocol for online multiplayer games.
I believe the next version of this book should include information on how to use the new MiniB3D graphics engine with Blitzmax. New game developers will benefit from being able to create 3D games using the power of MiniB3D. I hope the author takes this review to heart and includes this in his next book.
 quite surprised by other review scores... March 9, 2007
corn_fest (PA, USA)
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
I really didn't like this book. It was written oddly, and doesn't teach you that much (which may have more to do with the fact that the programming language taught is really simplistic). The programs included are limited demos, and the final project (Invaderz!!!-what a wonderful name >_>) is not even explained in the book.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 56
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