- Beginning C++ Game Programming: Learn C++ from scratch by building fun games

This is a great book for people wanting to get into game development. Experience with C/C++ is definitely helpful, although not mandatory for the book to be useful. The book walks you through several basic 2D game builds. Instructions in the book are well-defined, and explained. The book doesn't just tell you to "write this code here", but it tells you WHY you write that code there, and what that code does. The sample programs in the book are easy to follow. The instructions make it easy to hack the code yourself and make personal modifications, seeing how they alter the performance and functionality. If I were to give any gripe or critique to the book, it would be that the book focuses on MS Visual Studio. That being said, the instructions are written in such a way, that you can definitely use the book with Linux, but you just need to know the steps to setting up the libraries and dependencies in your IDE or Makefile.

I found this explained things well for me. It was much easier to understand what I was getting into with this.

So far so good learn a game from scratch no engine

First things first--If you want to follow along with this book you MUST use version 2.6.0 of SFML. I tried the most recent version of SFML and the RenderWindow class didn't understand the arguments I was sending to it. This isn't really the Author's fault, I'm just mentioning it here as a PSA. With that out of the way, let's talk about the book. The good: This is not like copying code from a 1980's computer magazine. Here, the Author does a very good job of explaining the code and providing as many opportunities as possible to run the incomplete game at various stages to see the progress. Whenever a new concept is introduced, the Author presents simplified theory on the concept before implementing it in the game code. Also, there is a lot of additional information provided that is interesting but not directly related to the code. Lots of links provided. To get the most out of this book, I recommend taking the time to review and really understand the code every step of the way before moving on. The bad: The errors in the code. There are a number of places where the actual code is commented out as if it is a part of a previous comment (preceded by a // symbol). This would be bad enough if it happened a few hundred pages in, but is particularly egregious considering it happens throughout the very first chapter! I imagine a complete beginner to c++ would be very confused by this. Also, a major line of code missing on page 514. Strangely, the code in the download bundle does not have these errors. The Pong game has some rather major bugs, but if you understand the code, they're not hard to fix. The ugly: In the Zombie Shooter game, the hitboxes on the zombies and player character are bigger than they should be. So unless you want to take take damage within smelling distance of a zombie, I recommend getting a png image editor and cropping the extra space around the characters before starting.

This book is really good for people who want to learn C++/Game Development as it's title suggests, the explanations in the book are very well done, abstracting subjects so that the beginner can gradually learn harder concepts, I will definitely recommend this book if you're a beginner.

This book is perfect. The examples are well-explained and the hands-on approach keeps you engaged. Plus, if you buy the book, you get a free PDF version as well.

Did not finish this text @ 50 pages in with lots and lots of skimming through the rest of the book. A few brief points: -Mac & Linux users are left in the wind as this text focuses on Windows OS & Visual Studio. -C++ fundamentals are sidelined as the author favors jumping into SFML (which is a mess of an experience for folks to set up in general). -There is a clear focus on “just doing”, not in-depth comprehension While I have experience with Swift, this is one of my first brushes with C++ in the context of game dev. I don’t think I’d recommend it. It’s wild to me that this is reviewed so highly on Amazon with someone giving it 4 stars even though with their background/degree in CS, they state that they still struggled with this text. Largely, I found that the book is inconsistent with info/definitions & oversimplifies a lot in order to get folks making “end products”. Rather than focusing on learning how to think, problem-solve & interrogate things like a programmer, this text prioritizes instant gratification. I found that the author does an incredible disservice to folks by “holding back necessary information” in the hopes of not overwhelming readers. My favorite (sarcasm) part is where at the end of the first chapter, the author answers the likely question of “what if I don’t understand this function stuff?” by beginning with “it doesn’t matter”. The author more or less states how repeated exposure will clear things up. While yes, repeated exposure is helpful, I think it actually does matter whether or not the description of functions is clear to readers. It absolutely does matter if folks understand functions as this is such a fundamental foundation for all programming. Maybe this will work for some folks, but as an educator I was left wanting.

Absolutely brilliant book!! Would give 6 stars if I could! I must have for anyone beginning game development with SFML!

Best book I have seen on this subject. Even if there are typos at the beginning of the book in the programming code. If you know a bit about c++ then you will notice right away. If you are new to it, you may wonder what is going on. It corrects itself in the following paragraphs, but still..

I think this is a great primer for whoever wants to start game development. However this can start being a bit challenging if you are not using Windows. Nothing impossible but I had to highlight it. The difficulty is progressive and is nice. You can download a pdf of the book and I recommend it. It is using C++ 20 and SFML 2.6.x so it's quite up to date.

So far its easy to follow, but some of the calculations the author failed to explain, for example why we are taking timeDelta substracting it. Had to take ChatGpt to help understand why the calculation was doing what it was doing. Someone who started C++ will have a bit difficulty to understand. Overall good book.