Good Book Recomendations for Game Programming

[tjmudder]

I 'm looking for a good book that will help me learn to program games, preferably in C#. I've taken a couple back to back C# classes so I know some of the basics. However if there is a beginner book thats good, I may look into it anyway. If there is a better language to learn on, I wouldn't mind some book suggestions for that language. I just wanted to see what other people had to say before I run out and buy the wrong book.

 

[Titan]

The market is flooded with game programming books. I'm tempted to write one.

I like the game programming gems series. I have 1-3, and they are a great collection of articles written by actual game developers. Even the dated ones have valuable lessons in them. I am looking to get rid of them, BTW.

Really this stuff is language independent. A game is a loop. You loop until the game is over. All the concepts of data structures needed for things like AI and collision detection are language independent.

You need to be clear on this: do you want to program an existing game like solitaire, tetris, or a basic FPS, or do you want to design an original game, then make it. Don't burn the candle at both ends. Game design is hard and has little to do with programming. You should have a clear design on paper before you start looking at which language to use.

A game is complicated enough that it usually can't be built incrementally.

 

[tjmudder]

Well to start I plan on building an existing game. Then I plan to design and make an original game. But the first thing I need to know is how to at least write the game. My ultimate goal is to design a game for the iphone. However, I want to make sure that designing a video game is something I want to spend the time on and will enjoy before I go out and buy a mac mini or something because I don't own a mac. And if I decide I don't want to. I at least know more about programming and only just bought a book.

 

[slugg]

This book.

I own it, I like it. I don't have much time for games, so I haven't done too much... but it's a good book. I recommend it

 

[ObscureCaucasian]

Also just in case you don't know, XNA Framework is what you're probably going to want to be looking at.

 

[Modelworks]

I probably would not start with C# if my target was the iPhone. The reason is that in order to run it you need to use mono. Nothing wrong with that, but it adds another level of complexity that you have to learn which really isn't necessary if you just go with native iPhone languages.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objective_c

 

[seemingly random]

I found this book to be very readable. It's helpful if you need some basic math and physics refresh. I think if you seriously get into game programming, you'll end up with several books.