<story><title>The C++ Programming Language (4th Edition)</title><url>http://www.stroustrup.com/4th.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>girvo</author><text>I&apos;ve recently started learning C++ again to get into game programming. Initially I was learning Flash/AS3 based engines, as I used to be quite a great AS2 programmer back in the day.&lt;p&gt;I want to learn to create cross-platform games, but want to get in the guts a bit more than, say, Unity lets you. So, C++ is what I decided on.&lt;p&gt;It&apos;s a beast of a language, I&apos;ll tell you that much, but it&apos;s actually really quite enjoyable to program in! It was the first real language I tried to learn when I was 12 years old. I got as far as making a text game with `switch&apos; statements ;)&lt;p&gt;Definitely going to order this one I think. Coming from an ALGOL-derived language background for the most part, having something like this as a reference will be brilliant, and a good addition to go with my `Pro C++&apos; book (handles architecture and idioms more than the language itself per se, but does cover some advanced features).&lt;p&gt;The only thing I wish I could find was a reference on how games are actually _built_: what development patterns, what tools I&apos;ll need to write, etc. All I can find are low-level OpenGL based things for writing engines, or fluffy &quot;Design a Game!&quot; crap. *sigh</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>hdivider</author><text>I&apos;m a short while away from releasing a game made in C++/DirectX for Windows 8 (using the DirectXTK helpers and obvious APIs like XAudio2) - i.e. mostly &apos;from scratch,&apos; more or less.&lt;p&gt;And I have to say - yeah, you definitely learn a &lt;i&gt;lot&lt;/i&gt; from that kind of project, not least because you have to constantly bear the rather large technical overhead. And that learning certainly feels great. =)&lt;p&gt;However, I also have to say this: while the sheer power of the &apos;raw&apos; C++/DirectX combo is enormous in terms of what games you could potentially make, the fact that even basic ideas take a comparatively long time to prototype is something that I think acts as a substantial disadvantage when it comes to the actual business side of things.&lt;p&gt;I think a lot of really interesting, innovative ideas for game mechanics (or game atmosphere or feedback or other critical and somewhat subjective aspects of game development) don&apos;t require the full horsepower (performance or flexibility-wise) of the raw C++/(DirectX || whatever) approach. A few basic ideas (which you don&apos;t have to realise from scratch) can combine to give unexpected results, some of which could be really interesting. Maybe it&apos;s like spanning a 2D vector space with a linear combination of just two different vectors.&lt;p&gt;(This might link in nicely with what Daniel Cook means by &apos;finite infinity&apos; in his talk on game design [1].)&lt;p&gt;Just something to think about. =)&lt;p&gt;[1]: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7DFuXDN29M&amp;#38;list=PL1A42B4BE1438E290&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7DFuXDN29M&amp;#38;list=PL1A42B4...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>The C++ Programming Language (4th Edition)</title><url>http://www.stroustrup.com/4th.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>girvo</author><text>I&apos;ve recently started learning C++ again to get into game programming. Initially I was learning Flash/AS3 based engines, as I used to be quite a great AS2 programmer back in the day.&lt;p&gt;I want to learn to create cross-platform games, but want to get in the guts a bit more than, say, Unity lets you. So, C++ is what I decided on.&lt;p&gt;It&apos;s a beast of a language, I&apos;ll tell you that much, but it&apos;s actually really quite enjoyable to program in! It was the first real language I tried to learn when I was 12 years old. I got as far as making a text game with `switch&apos; statements ;)&lt;p&gt;Definitely going to order this one I think. Coming from an ALGOL-derived language background for the most part, having something like this as a reference will be brilliant, and a good addition to go with my `Pro C++&apos; book (handles architecture and idioms more than the language itself per se, but does cover some advanced features).&lt;p&gt;The only thing I wish I could find was a reference on how games are actually _built_: what development patterns, what tools I&apos;ll need to write, etc. All I can find are low-level OpenGL based things for writing engines, or fluffy &quot;Design a Game!&quot; crap. *sigh</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>mkilling</author><text>Game Coding Complete: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.amazon.com/Game-Coding-Complete-Fourth-ebook/dp/B00B7RE4GQ/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.amazon.com/Game-Coding-Complete-Fourth-ebook/dp/B...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>