Reviews for Game Engine Architecture

1. Game Engine Architecture

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, January 12th, 2010

   This book was bought as a gift, and has received high praise from my son, who is on a university games development course.
   
   The delivery agent used however was dreadful, and gets a zero rating.

2. This book is the dogs danglies, buy it now!

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, December 12st, 2009

   In this book, the authors share with us a wealth of experience and knowledge on how cutting edge game engines work from the outside in, as opposed to the inside out approach of most beginners books. I've read just about every game programming book there is, and I have to say that never before has there been a book that so perfectly describes how all the pieces fit together in a modern game engine.
   
   This book does not come with a CD-ROM, so beginners beware, you might actually have you use your code and brain something! There is plenty of inlined code in the text of the book to explain the fundamentals of many topics, but the implementation details are left to the reader - an exercise I think most professionals reading this book will prefer. References are given for all the topics discussed, so it is easy to find the resources you need to decide on your own implementation. Instead of providing code to a game engine, the authors describe different approaches, drawing on knowledge of the open source OGRE graphics engine, the Unreal 3 Engine and the authors own experiences working pn proprietary engines at Naughty Dog and Midway.
   
   There is so much knowledge in this book, but it did skim over audio and multiplayer subsystems, even though references are given, it would have made for a fascinating insight should they have included those topics, but alas they did not make it in. I can only hope that there is a sequel and that they decide to cover those topics.
   
   All in all I would say that overall this book has a place on any developers bookshelf. In fact I would say it should be made essential reading for game developers everywhere at any level. Even if the authors do skim over some topics, there is such a wealth of knowledge to be earned just by learning from the authors profound insights, and it makes for a fascinating read for those who are interested. This one gets 5 stars from me and a permanent place on my desk next to me!

3. Worth its weight in gold

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, August 12th, 2009

   After reading countless books and information on websites based on game engine design and architecture, this, to me, is the definitive book written by a professional, for beginners, hobbyists and other professionals alike. The way the author seems to seamlessly blend information that is useful to the less experienced and information that is crucial to all is possibly the best I've seen in any computer book, let alone one of the game development genre (of which I own dozens).
   
   If you're even remotely interested in game engine architecture, or games in general, or even large-scale modular c++ systems, this is a compelling, if almost unputdownable, read. If you're an experienced developer and are looking to get into games or game engines and understand the finer details but not how engines pull everything together, this will answer practically everything.
   
   One of its best attributes is that you don't have to trawl through endless pages of dreary engine code. There are snippets of code in the book, but they are snipped and presented in context and in such a readable fashion that they seem to blend into the prose and most definitely add just enough splashes of technical colour. A lot of books on engine architecture seem to concentrate more on coding the individual components, with little time spent on how everything fits together. The author has worked on AAA titles and gives regular insights into how things were done on those titles.
   
   Most of the computer books I've read, especially in the game genre, have me searching for the author's email address to ask for clarification on certain areas. This author seems to have the nack of explaining things perfectly.
   
   If you're about to invest in some literature about game engine architecture (this isn't a cheap book, hence the use of the word 'invest'), my advice would be to have a look at this one first.