Author: Luiz A D R Marques

I've been developing software and selling it on-line since 1994. Current products include STG FolderPrint Plus - a tool to Print Folders, and STGThumb - HTML Album Generator, among others. Some of my other sites - Disk Usage, Directory Printer ,Print Folders and Jejum Intermitente .

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Book Review

Fundamentals of Game Design – Book Review

Fundamentals of Game Design (3rd Edition) – by Ernest Adams – is a great book that covers a lot of what you need to know do design games. Note that game design is not about art or programming – it is mostly about what makes a game playable.

The book covers the many areas of design, including how to come up with the idea, how to develop it into something fun, character and level design, and even how to monetize your game.

I really enjoyed the book, and whenever I play a game now I keep noticing the small details of how it was designed – and how things contribute to the fun or harm it.

After every chapter, there is a section with questions for you to think about what was covered in the chapter and how it apply to a specific game – and also as homework on academic situations. There is also another set of questions that you can use as focus on your projects.

Overall, I loved it and feel it is a great read to anyone interested in game design.

There is also a set of very short books in specific genres – such as shooters, puzzle games, strategy, etc. I have read a couple of them already, and I recommend them – they are a little expensive for the amount of content, though (I am reading them on Safari, myself, so they were free). A couple are included with the book registration at the publisher's site – Construction and Strategy.

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Product Review

Principles of Game Design – Course Review

I recently completed the course Principles of Game Design, on Coursera, from Michigan State University. This course is part of the Game Design and Development Specialization.

I have reviewed the first course in the series – Introduction to Game Development .

This one covers how to design games – having game ideas, creating a story, characters and most of all good gameplay.

It is far less practical than the first, given its nature, although you are supposed to make a prototype of your game for the final assignment.

I took the free version, which unlike the first course, doesn't have quizzes and you can't turn in assignments (of course, you are free to make and evaluate then on your own).

One thing I particularly liked is that every video has a linked transcription. If you read faster than the video, on most classes in this course (which has little graphical supporting material, most of the time), this is much faster. The course also had plenty of links to books, articles and papers on the topics covered, many which great coverage.

The course was interesting, and I've learned a lot. The thing is, one of the books they suggested – Fundamentals of Game Design, by Ernest Adams – is so good that reading the equivalent book chapter always felt better than the course lesson. And as a plus for me, it was already included in Safari, which I already subscribed to (so it is practically free).

Of course, while the book is also filled with exercises, you get no feedback from it (but the feedback from the course, if it is like the first, is just from students, not teachers or TAs). You also don't get a certificate. So keep all of that in mind. In my case, I feel the book is substantially better.

 

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Product Review

Quick Start To Unity – Course Review

Quick Start to Unity is a learning path on PluralSight/DigitalTutors that shows some of the basics of getting around in Unity and making a simple game.

There are about 3 hours of video content (although I took a couple of hours more, as I followed along in Unity and took notes).

I felt the focus was pretty good. I took it after the much longer Coursera Course, Introduction to Game Development . It doesn't cover everything from the course, but it has a nice set and several things that weren't covered in it.

In particular, there were plenty of small tips on how to get better looks (the course is apparently a bit more target toward artists). The completed project is quite simple, but looks quite nice.

Quick Start To Unit Course Final Project
Quick Start To Unit Course Final Project

What I didn't like:

  • the course is for Unity 4, and there is no information on how to make things work with Unity 5. So several times I'd have to Google how to do things. Some text on the bottom from the author with the changes would be great.
  • The video player doesn't allow speeding.

Overall, it is pretty interesting if you already have a Pluralsight subscription, or if you use their trial.

 

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Product Review

Introduction to Game Development – Course Review

Introduction to Game Development, by Michigan University, is a MOOC in Coursera that teaches the principles of game development.

It shows some general principles, and then mostly dives into Unity, which is a very popular game development tool, free for most users, and very easy to use.

You will then develop 3 simples games as you learn Unity and game development:

  1. Solar System – a very simple model of the solar system, with planets that rotate around the sun, moons, light and sound effects.
  2. A roller ball game, where you collect coins and avoid enemies.
  3. A simple shooter where you shoot boxes till you run out of time.

You don't need to be a programmer, but it will make things easier on the last week of the course, and enable you to do more on your games.

My version of the level 2 of Box Shooter
My version of the level 2 of Box Shooter

 

You have mostly simple quizzes per section, and peer reviewed projects. On both, you will need to pay and verify who you are (by using a webcam) to get the certificate. Of course, that is just a way to get money, as verifying that you are in the room doesn't verify that you answered your quizzes yourself or that you made the project you are uploading. It is a simple way to monetize the courses, however, so I can't grumble much about it.

In this course, you can do all quizzes and projects without paying. You just don't get the certificate.

The course is part of Game Design and Development Specialization . It is interesting to note that quizzes and projects are disabled if you don't pay for the next course. Courses are cheap, though, just US$59.

Overall, I felt that the course was interesting, and I had fun building the games, even if I don't know if I am going to follow up on game development.

On a more somber note, the second project had the page broken (the assignment was blank) and even a week after I reported this and several people mentioned in the discussion forum, nothing was done. Questions about things that no longer work (because of Unity updates) went unanswered by the teacher or TAs.

So I'd be a lot less likely to buy one of these courses, knowing that if the course is broken, it is your problem.

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Book Review

LinkedIn in 30 minutes – Book Review

LinkedIn in 30 minutes, by Angela Rose, is an excellent short introduction to LinkedIn.

It has plenty of useful tips, even if you already has some experience with the network.

For great profiles I'd recommend the LinkedIn Strategy course, but this covers some of the same material, just in much less detail.

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Book Review

Twitter in 30 minutes – Book Review

I just read Twitter in 30 minutes – by Ian Lamont. It did take around 30 minutes – even while going to Twitter to check things out.

I feel that the book will be almost nearly pointless if you already use Twitter (which I'd guess means you wouldn't be the target of it).

Nevertheless, I still learned a few things I didn't know.

 

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Book Review

Agile Principles, Patterns and Practice in C# – Book Review

Agile Principles, Patterns and Practice in C#, by Robert C. Martin and Micah Martin, covers a number of agile practices in C#.

The book is a little old by now (2006), but while it does feel dated at points, that doesn't take away the overall quality.

I particularly liked how much time was spent going through the analysis and coding of a large practical example (a payroll) – including DB persistence.

 

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Product Review

Blinkist – Review

Blinkist is a service that provides 15 minute non-fiction book summaries, both in text and audio form. They have over 1000 books, and I have gone through their catalog and they have a lot of books I felt were interesting (including several that I bought years ago and never got around to reading).

I got the Premium version from AppSumo, which was in a sale for US$20 for the first year. It includes audio books, syncing with Evernote (which I didn't try was it wasn't clear to me what access they get), and sending books to Kindle. Usually it US$79, which I'm not sure is worth it.

At US$20, however, I have rather liked it. I tried a book I read before (an Elon Musk biography) and while the summary naturally didn't have the depth or enjoyment of the book, it did cover most major points – and took me well under the 15 minutes to read.

Personally, I read several dozen books a year, but there is always a huge list of books on my to-read list.

I have tried their apps on the web, iPad and Android. The apps worked well on all platforms, and include highlighting and sync. The only problem I noticed is that on the iPad, the books I added to my library on their site didn't show up. On Android this worked fine. I read several books(4), which all had some useful insights, and heard a couple of audio books on the treadmill. I felt that the audio was very clear and the voice was pleasant.

I noticed that my reading time, even using highlighting, is well below the quoted minutes time (I used to read at 600WPM, although I haven't tested lately).

Overall, the service seems pretty useful, and is worth looking into – specially if you don't have to time read as many books as you want. They also a free trial.

PS: I don't get paid if you use the link on the review box (the More Details button) , but I do get 7 extra days of service.

 

Categories
Book Review

Networking for Nerds – Book Review

Networking For Nerds: Find, Access and Land Hidden Game-Changing Career Opportunities Everywhere, by Alaina G. Levine, covers the many ways in that you should always be networking to advance your career.

Some of the advice is targeted towards academics, but most should apply to everyone.

Some of the areas covered are how to network everywhere, in specific settings, how to network online and how to make your own career opportunities.

One piece of advice that I felt was missing is that author suggested that you Google your name over time to keep track of what your name is associated with – but no mention of Google Alerts. This is a minor detail, though.

Overall, somewhat useful. I feel it is a little pricy for the size (e-book version, at least), but I got it from Safari.

Related:

Linkedin Strategy Course

Categories
Book Review

Essential C# 6.0 – Book Review

Essential C# 6.0, by Eric Lippert and Mark Michaelis – cover the C# language up to the 6.0 update of last year.

Coverage and examples are pretty good. One thing I liked is that any extensions to the original language are clearly marked with a version number. If you get the book to update your knowledge, there is also a nice index for each version.

Given how little changed in version 6.0, it'd be silly to buy the book though – there are plenty of blog posts covering this. If you get it for free (maybe from Safari or something similar at work), then it might be a good idea.

Overall, pretty good coverage, although I'd recommend C# in a Nutshell instead – it felt a little more complete and had more developed examples.