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The Gamer's Guide to Coding: Design, Code, Build, Play
Learn one of today’s most important skills—coding—while creating your own games!
With this illustrated, interactive guide to coding, readers will discover how to create, test, and play fun 2D computer games. No prior programming knowledge is required to become just follow the easy step-by-step examples to program and share games on an Apple or Windows PC, Android device, or Apple iOS tablet. With code instruction in JavaScript—a user-friendly programming language used in millions of websites—this book is the perfect springboard for mastering any coding skill, from website creation to business processes, computer engineering, and professional-level game development.
With this illustrated, interactive guide to coding, readers will discover how to create, test, and play fun 2D computer games. No prior programming knowledge is required to become just follow the easy step-by-step examples to program and share games on an Apple or Windows PC, Android device, or Apple iOS tablet. With code instruction in JavaScript—a user-friendly programming language used in millions of websites—this book is the perfect springboard for mastering any coding skill, from website creation to business processes, computer engineering, and professional-level game development.
320 pages, Paperback
Published April 4, 2017
6 people are currently reading
362 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 18, 2017
The Gamer’s Guide to Coding: Design, Code, Build, Play is a clear, concise guide to learning the basic concepts of coding and designing your own 2-D games.
Thoughtfully designed, each chapter illustrates step-by-step examples and builds upon concepts learned in previous chapters; leading the reader to discover and understand the essential building blocks of coding and game design.
Author, Gordon McComb thoughtfully provides links to free online support, bonus games, references, tips, and how-to advice. Suggestions for where to play and how to publish the games you’ve constructed are also included. Excellent resources all the way around for the beginner game coder.
The Gamer’s Guide to Coding: Design, Code, Build, Play is perfect for teens or anyone with an interest in game coding and was designed for readers with little or no previous knowledge in JavaScript/coding. What better way to learn about game coding than designing and sharing your own 2-D games?
This book offers a great introduction to the subject of game coding and the knowledge and skills you develop are sure to help build a solid foundation for understanding the more complex code designing of websites, computer engineering, and professional level games development.
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Thoughtfully designed, each chapter illustrates step-by-step examples and builds upon concepts learned in previous chapters; leading the reader to discover and understand the essential building blocks of coding and game design.
Author, Gordon McComb thoughtfully provides links to free online support, bonus games, references, tips, and how-to advice. Suggestions for where to play and how to publish the games you’ve constructed are also included. Excellent resources all the way around for the beginner game coder.
The Gamer’s Guide to Coding: Design, Code, Build, Play is perfect for teens or anyone with an interest in game coding and was designed for readers with little or no previous knowledge in JavaScript/coding. What better way to learn about game coding than designing and sharing your own 2-D games?
This book offers a great introduction to the subject of game coding and the knowledge and skills you develop are sure to help build a solid foundation for understanding the more complex code designing of websites, computer engineering, and professional level games development.
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
May 10, 2024
Learning Game Coding
This is a great book!
I enjoyed McComb's writing, and found the book a fun read.
Definitely got this book as it is something I was hoping to help me better teach youth how to code - and I am glad I got this book.
Check it out if this sounds fun to you as well!
4.8/5
This is a great book!
I enjoyed McComb's writing, and found the book a fun read.
Definitely got this book as it is something I was hoping to help me better teach youth how to code - and I am glad I got this book.
Check it out if this sounds fun to you as well!
4.8/5
October 4, 2017
Worked through this book, so it took me a bit of time to review properly and give the book its due. Grab the book and jump right in to the coding world.
This book quite fascinating. The format of these types of books is helpful to me: vast swaths of text interspersed with colored blocks that highlight important points or oddities. Great for a quick reference later. Style-wise, this is geared toward people a few steps above the Idiots' Guide to... type books but who wouldn't mind being seen with one of those on their shelf. It is quite organized, between the table of contents in the front and the index and appendices in the back, and the corresponding website is handy. It's broken down even further into sections: Part 1: Getting Started (which covers the very basics, such as common HTML elements and what HTML looks like, in case the reader is truly a newb); Part 2: Learning the Ropes (which starts the reader in JS and goes from the bare bones basics for a game to enhancements that the reader can learn or not); and Part 3: Stepping Up Your Game (which includes adding sound, debugging, etc, and also appendices with resources).
The options for the codes themselves are great, with code in the text (to type yourself in Atom) and available for download and import into Atom (for ease of use or quicker use). I'm typing it in so as to learn the syntax better. Reading it and typing it, to me, are vastly different experiences, but it's handy to be able to download it and import it so you can look at yours side-by-side in Atom and find your errors (if any)...for instance, I had a ( out of place, which buggered my code, and I couldn't find it until I put it side-by-side with the guidebook's code.
McComb's explanations are great thus far. He has an example code, and then he dives deeper, detailing what's going on line-by-line where necessary. That's handy, if you know it's coming. He provides error avoidance upfront while introducing elements (ie when he introduces variables in JavaScript, he includes the rules for naming conventions-must start with an alpha char or _ or $ but may contain a numeric char later in the name...and no spaces).
Prior knowledge? I'd say there's no real prerequisites to be able to enjoy this book, but someone familiar with coding in general might get more out of it, as I did. The step-by-step format, though, means the reader can walk away having coded without really knowing how to replicate that without the book in front of him/her, so one should decide what he wants to take away from reading this book: having coded or being able to code. Either option is viable. JavaScript is the main language used herein, which is easy to pick up because it's very user-friendly. Atom makes it easily deployable, too.
Besides the book, obviously it's handy to have a computer with internet access to be able to delve in fully. The book says it's compatible with an "Apple or Windows PC, Android device, or Apple iOS tablet."
** In compliance with FTC guidelines, I disclose that I received this book for free through Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ Giveaways.**
This book quite fascinating. The format of these types of books is helpful to me: vast swaths of text interspersed with colored blocks that highlight important points or oddities. Great for a quick reference later. Style-wise, this is geared toward people a few steps above the Idiots' Guide to... type books but who wouldn't mind being seen with one of those on their shelf. It is quite organized, between the table of contents in the front and the index and appendices in the back, and the corresponding website is handy. It's broken down even further into sections: Part 1: Getting Started (which covers the very basics, such as common HTML elements and what HTML looks like, in case the reader is truly a newb); Part 2: Learning the Ropes (which starts the reader in JS and goes from the bare bones basics for a game to enhancements that the reader can learn or not); and Part 3: Stepping Up Your Game (which includes adding sound, debugging, etc, and also appendices with resources).
The options for the codes themselves are great, with code in the text (to type yourself in Atom) and available for download and import into Atom (for ease of use or quicker use). I'm typing it in so as to learn the syntax better. Reading it and typing it, to me, are vastly different experiences, but it's handy to be able to download it and import it so you can look at yours side-by-side in Atom and find your errors (if any)...for instance, I had a ( out of place, which buggered my code, and I couldn't find it until I put it side-by-side with the guidebook's code.
McComb's explanations are great thus far. He has an example code, and then he dives deeper, detailing what's going on line-by-line where necessary. That's handy, if you know it's coming. He provides error avoidance upfront while introducing elements (ie when he introduces variables in JavaScript, he includes the rules for naming conventions-must start with an alpha char or _ or $ but may contain a numeric char later in the name...and no spaces).
Prior knowledge? I'd say there's no real prerequisites to be able to enjoy this book, but someone familiar with coding in general might get more out of it, as I did. The step-by-step format, though, means the reader can walk away having coded without really knowing how to replicate that without the book in front of him/her, so one should decide what he wants to take away from reading this book: having coded or being able to code. Either option is viable. JavaScript is the main language used herein, which is easy to pick up because it's very user-friendly. Atom makes it easily deployable, too.
Besides the book, obviously it's handy to have a computer with internet access to be able to delve in fully. The book says it's compatible with an "Apple or Windows PC, Android device, or Apple iOS tablet."
** In compliance with FTC guidelines, I disclose that I received this book for free through Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ Giveaways.**
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
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