SAMS teach yourself game programming with DirectX in 21 days

Learn everything you need to program 2D games with DirectX 8.1. The reader will develop a complete game engine that he can use to extend the supplied game or to create a new game from scratch. Learn to implement the power of the DirectX 8.1 SDK for quicker development and more visually appealing games. No game programming experience required. The introductory chapters provide a solid basis in using Direct3D and DirectSound in a 2D gaming environment, providing not only the necessary theoretical discussions, but also sample programs that demonstrate the concepts discussed. Once the reader learns these basic DirectX techniques, the book leads the reader through the design and programming of a console-style computer role-playing game. As the reader builds the game piece by piece, he not only applies what he's learned about Direct3D and DirectSound, but also learns the fundamental skills needed to program games. Currently, no other book on the market covers the same material. Award-winning author Clayton Walnum has been writing about computers for two decades. In the 80's, Clay published many computer games in Atari computer magazines and eventually became the Executive Editor of two monthly Atari magazines, ANALOG Computing and ST-Log. Over the course of his career, he has written many books on graphics and game programming, covering such technologies as Visual Basic, C++, OpenGL, and DirectX. Some of these books include Sams Teach Yourself Game Programming with Visual Basic 6 in 21 Days, Dungeons of Discovery: Writing Dazzling Windows Games with WinG, 3-D Graphics Programming with OpenGL, and Creating Turbo C++ Games. Clay holds a degree in Computer Science.