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Starling Game Development Essentials
Starling Game Development Essentials
99 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
9 people want to read
About the author
Juwal Bose
2 books3 followersI am game developer, game designer, and technology consultant from the incredibly beautiful state of Kerala in India. I am also the Director at Csharks Games and Solutions Pvt. Ltd., where I manage research and development, training, and pipeline integration.
I have been developing games since 2004 using different technologies, such as ActionScript, Objective-C, Java, Unity, LibGDX, Cocos2D, OpenFL, Unity, and Starling. My team has created more than 400 games to date, and many of the job management games are listed at the top of leading portals worldwide.
I write game development tutorials for GameDevTuts+ and manages the blog of Csharks. I have written 2 technical books on game development frameworks through Packt publishing. I like to read a lot and like to travel.
I do plan to start writing my first fiction novel in 2015.
I have been developing games since 2004 using different technologies, such as ActionScript, Objective-C, Java, Unity, LibGDX, Cocos2D, OpenFL, Unity, and Starling. My team has created more than 400 games to date, and many of the job management games are listed at the top of leading portals worldwide.
I write game development tutorials for GameDevTuts+ and manages the blog of Csharks. I have written 2 technical books on game development frameworks through Packt publishing. I like to read a lot and like to travel.
I do plan to start writing my first fiction novel in 2015.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 27, 2014
I've been studying game development for about six months and this is the first book I've read about using Flex to build a game. The Starling game engine is written in Flex and if you are an experienced Flex/Actionscript developer, this book will get you up and running with Starling in no time.
It's a relatively short book, seven chapters and 100 pages (including the Index), but it's very clearly written, and covers the important things you need to know about Starling while using the development of an Isometric 2D Capture The Flag game to illustrate methods, techniques, and tools.
Part of the reason it's so short, is the author doesn't take a lot of space with code in the book. The code is available for download and is well written and clear. What does make it into the book is just to illustrate a particular item or use case, and then it's back to explanations and illustrations.
I had two favorite chapters, 2 - Going Isometric which has one of the clearest descriptions of an isometric view ("the view of a camera mounted at the top corner of a room and tilted 30 degrees towards the floor and 45 degrees from either wall") and how to convert cartesian coordinates to isometric coordinates. My other favorite is 5 - Boom Boom, Explosions describing how to add special effects, specifically particle effects (explosions, fire, smoke, etc). There were several free, online tools shown and used.
Freely available tools (both downloadable and online) are covered extensively (starting with the Starling engine, itself) and continuing with libraries and tools such as the Feathers UI, and Explosion Generator 3 and the particle editor at ONEBYONE design.
If you already know Actionscript and are familiar with Flex development and looking at creating multi-platform games using Starling, I think you should start with this book. It's got everything you need to get up and running quickly and is written in a nice, tight, clear style.
It's a relatively short book, seven chapters and 100 pages (including the Index), but it's very clearly written, and covers the important things you need to know about Starling while using the development of an Isometric 2D Capture The Flag game to illustrate methods, techniques, and tools.
Part of the reason it's so short, is the author doesn't take a lot of space with code in the book. The code is available for download and is well written and clear. What does make it into the book is just to illustrate a particular item or use case, and then it's back to explanations and illustrations.
I had two favorite chapters, 2 - Going Isometric which has one of the clearest descriptions of an isometric view ("the view of a camera mounted at the top corner of a room and tilted 30 degrees towards the floor and 45 degrees from either wall") and how to convert cartesian coordinates to isometric coordinates. My other favorite is 5 - Boom Boom, Explosions describing how to add special effects, specifically particle effects (explosions, fire, smoke, etc). There were several free, online tools shown and used.
Freely available tools (both downloadable and online) are covered extensively (starting with the Starling engine, itself) and continuing with libraries and tools such as the Feathers UI, and Explosion Generator 3 and the particle editor at ONEBYONE design.
If you already know Actionscript and are familiar with Flex development and looking at creating multi-platform games using Starling, I think you should start with this book. It's got everything you need to get up and running quickly and is written in a nice, tight, clear style.
February 13, 2014
Starling Game Development Essentials is a book which will introduce readers to the Starling graphics framework within the context of developing a basic turn-based game. The book assumes intermediate knowledge of AS3 and Flash development, which makes it a good starting point for those who are already familiar with Flash and are looking to get into Starling development.
I found the book fairly engaging, with some good code samples and completed projects (provided as a download from the publisher’s web site) to poke around in. However, I did find the book lacking in other areas, particularly with the writing style and in some explanations of presented topics.
I think the main issue that nagged at me was that it seemed like English was not the author’s native language, and unfortunately it showed through in the writing. (Some careful editing could have cleaned up the text and fixed the obvious grammar issues, so it’s hard to blame the author for this one.) Some sections were just plain awkward to read, and required some parsing to get at the intended meaning, which depending on your level of experience, could be either trivial or quite frustrating.
If you can get past the writing style, generally things are explained in a way that’s understandable, although this is another area where I feel there could have been more effort put in. A lot of times I felt that a topic could have been explained in more detail; Other times, a paragraph would try to pack in so much information, that it could have been broken down into smaller, more digestible portions of knowledge.
Despite these flaws, the book has given me some ideas which I wouldn’t have encountered otherwise, and that alone is worth the price of admission. Also, when you consider the general scarcity of comprehensive learning materials covering the Starling framework, it’s worth giving this book the benefit of the doubt.
It may seem like my rating isn’t that great, but overall I’d recommend Starling Game Development Essentials for those who want to get into Starling development and have some previous Flash/AS3 knowledge. It’s a little rough around the edges, but ultimately serves as a good primer to introduce the topic, and provides some great example projects and source code to sink your teeth into. Get it here: http://bit.ly/KsHZqf
I found the book fairly engaging, with some good code samples and completed projects (provided as a download from the publisher’s web site) to poke around in. However, I did find the book lacking in other areas, particularly with the writing style and in some explanations of presented topics.
I think the main issue that nagged at me was that it seemed like English was not the author’s native language, and unfortunately it showed through in the writing. (Some careful editing could have cleaned up the text and fixed the obvious grammar issues, so it’s hard to blame the author for this one.) Some sections were just plain awkward to read, and required some parsing to get at the intended meaning, which depending on your level of experience, could be either trivial or quite frustrating.
If you can get past the writing style, generally things are explained in a way that’s understandable, although this is another area where I feel there could have been more effort put in. A lot of times I felt that a topic could have been explained in more detail; Other times, a paragraph would try to pack in so much information, that it could have been broken down into smaller, more digestible portions of knowledge.
Despite these flaws, the book has given me some ideas which I wouldn’t have encountered otherwise, and that alone is worth the price of admission. Also, when you consider the general scarcity of comprehensive learning materials covering the Starling framework, it’s worth giving this book the benefit of the doubt.
It may seem like my rating isn’t that great, but overall I’d recommend Starling Game Development Essentials for those who want to get into Starling development and have some previous Flash/AS3 knowledge. It’s a little rough around the edges, but ultimately serves as a good primer to introduce the topic, and provides some great example projects and source code to sink your teeth into. Get it here: http://bit.ly/KsHZqf
August 13, 2016
Finished reading the book.
Starling, with Adobe AIR, makes it very easy for an ActionScript developer to create games. This book claims to guide you through the development of a cross-platform Starling tile-based, isometric, turn-based game with AI, multiplayer capability, and its own level editor, which you will publish on the Web, App Store, and Google Play.
Knowledge of Actionscript/Flash is required. Additionally there are some other frameworks dependencies for some chapters as well.
This book is for ActionScript developers who are trying to create Starling cross-platform games. As the book claims prior knowledge of Starling will help, but is not necessary. I personally am a JavaScript expert who does not know much of ActionScript. But for guys like us it will be a steep learning curve.
The theory is nicely laid out with plenty of visuals and code examples. The “Tools of the trade” section at the end of the chapter is a great plus too that will surely help you become a proficient game developer. The relationship between Cartesian and Isometric view is explained with code and figures and should clear the basics. There are explanations on how depth sorting, collision detection, and isometric movement are done based on a tile-based approach. There is also a good intro to basic AI implementation. Basic AI decision making and path following are explored. We also learn about time-based animations and their advantages. And then there are explosions!!! We are introduced to the Starling Particle Extension, which is used to create dynamic explosions comprising of multiple particle systems including a flame and smoke.
A lot of information has been provided about going cross-platform, supporting multiple screens, handling touch input and specifics related to iOS and Android. Publishing to the Apple app store and Google Play has also been covered in brief. And whats a game without analytics? So a brief chapter has been added at the end explaining those.
Creating games is never easy, but Starling Game Development Essentials, with the help of the Flag Defense game source code, will help you in the process and make you capable of creating your next Starling cross-platform game. Knowledge of Actionscript/Flash is required, but as mentioned before not absolutely essential. Overall this is nice book to read on your way to become a effecient Game developer.
Get the book here http://bit.ly/KsHZqf
Starling, with Adobe AIR, makes it very easy for an ActionScript developer to create games. This book claims to guide you through the development of a cross-platform Starling tile-based, isometric, turn-based game with AI, multiplayer capability, and its own level editor, which you will publish on the Web, App Store, and Google Play.
Knowledge of Actionscript/Flash is required. Additionally there are some other frameworks dependencies for some chapters as well.
This book is for ActionScript developers who are trying to create Starling cross-platform games. As the book claims prior knowledge of Starling will help, but is not necessary. I personally am a JavaScript expert who does not know much of ActionScript. But for guys like us it will be a steep learning curve.
The theory is nicely laid out with plenty of visuals and code examples. The “Tools of the trade” section at the end of the chapter is a great plus too that will surely help you become a proficient game developer. The relationship between Cartesian and Isometric view is explained with code and figures and should clear the basics. There are explanations on how depth sorting, collision detection, and isometric movement are done based on a tile-based approach. There is also a good intro to basic AI implementation. Basic AI decision making and path following are explored. We also learn about time-based animations and their advantages. And then there are explosions!!! We are introduced to the Starling Particle Extension, which is used to create dynamic explosions comprising of multiple particle systems including a flame and smoke.
A lot of information has been provided about going cross-platform, supporting multiple screens, handling touch input and specifics related to iOS and Android. Publishing to the Apple app store and Google Play has also been covered in brief. And whats a game without analytics? So a brief chapter has been added at the end explaining those.
Creating games is never easy, but Starling Game Development Essentials, with the help of the Flag Defense game source code, will help you in the process and make you capable of creating your next Starling cross-platform game. Knowledge of Actionscript/Flash is required, but as mentioned before not absolutely essential. Overall this is nice book to read on your way to become a effecient Game developer.
Get the book here http://bit.ly/KsHZqf
August 3, 2016
This goat is for those who have already mastered Flex and Action Script and interested in connecting to create games using the Starling framework.
The book is divided so that each chapter takes up a major part in the development of an Isometric catch flag games.
It seemed like English was not the author’s native language, and unfortunately it showed through in the writing. It was hard though understand some text.
The book addresses only the code that is important for the content of the chapter. While the sample code is fully functional.
He also discusses how to do to get up, the game on the various platforms like iOS and Android.
In the books chapter there is a description on how the game works and how an Isometric world works and how a level is describe. You also get an easy level designer tool.
The book offers many good suggestions for programs you can invest in order to create value objects.
The book also gives a suggestion how to make it multiplayer.
The book is divided so that each chapter takes up a major part in the development of an Isometric catch flag games.
It seemed like English was not the author’s native language, and unfortunately it showed through in the writing. It was hard though understand some text.
The book addresses only the code that is important for the content of the chapter. While the sample code is fully functional.
He also discusses how to do to get up, the game on the various platforms like iOS and Android.
In the books chapter there is a description on how the game works and how an Isometric world works and how a level is describe. You also get an easy level designer tool.
The book offers many good suggestions for programs you can invest in order to create value objects.
The book also gives a suggestion how to make it multiplayer.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews