I want to learn programming 2D games. What's the best E-Book?

Hello everyone!

I've been programming with C++ for a bit more than a year now. I already have the basic concepts of it like creating functions and multi-file projects and why is that useful. Though I am a bit clunky in OOP. Today I thought to myself that it's finally time to move onto something a bit more advanced than command line projects and I want to make a 2D game (side scroller preffered). For the last few hours I've been doing research on what would be the best E-Book to learn that and there were so many different ones. I looked through all of them and each and every single one them explains stuff in different ways. Though I noticed that they all used Visual Studio so I have just installed it (been using Dev-C++ and might still use it). Since I have zero experience in 2D game making I'd like a book with detail explanations why should something be "like that" and not "like that". What would you recommend me to read? Any help is much appreciated! :)

If you're programming for Windows, I'd recommend VS (2015 Community is free if you meet the criteria).

For learning c++, I'd suggest
http://www.learncpp.com/

and for reference,
http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/
http://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language

2-D games are based upon graphical programming - so the first thing to decide is what graphical framework you're going to use? There are several - GTK, QT, GDI+, FLTK etc etc etc - not forgetting Microsoft's Direct-X & MFC.

As I'm not a game/graphical developer I can't advise which. It will also depend upon your target computer(s) and whether you want/need x-platform support. It will also probably depend upon which book(s) you go for!

For books, try
Programming: Principles & Practice using c++ https://www.amazon.co.uk/Programming...actice+c%2B%2B
(get the 2nd edition). This teaches classes using the FLTK framework.

For games, have a look at
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Programming...%2B%2B+2d+game

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Originally Posted by zablas

Hello everyone!

I've been programming with C++ for a bit more than a year now. I already have the basic concepts of it like creating functions and multi-file projects and why is that useful. Though I am a bit clunky in OOP. Today I thought to myself that it's finally time to move onto something a bit more advanced than command line projects and I want to make a 2D game (side scroller preffered). For the last few hours I've been doing research on what would be the best E-Book to learn that and there were so many different ones. I looked through all of them and each and every single one them explains stuff in different ways. Though I noticed that they all used Visual Studio so I have just installed it (been using Dev-C++ and might still use it). Since I have zero experience in 2D game making I'd like a book with detail explanations why should something be "like that" and not "like that". What would you recommend me to read? Any help is much appreciated! :)

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When you have mastered these industry standard game engines then you slowly need to concentrate on 5 major topics in game programming. They are as follows:

Physics for games.
Graphics, lighting, camera and shadows.
Audio and design.
AI for video games.
Multiplayer game design, memory management, debugging, parallel programming and general game engine overview.
Now lets list out the books according to the topics mentioned above.

I. Physics for games

Game Physics Engine Development: How to Build a Robust Commercial-Grade Physics Engine for your Game - Ian Millington
Game Physics - David H. Eberly
Physics for Game Programmers - Grant Palmer
Real-Time Collision Detection - Christer Ericson

Well it depends on what kind of gaming projects do you want in your portfolio, what is your ultimate goal. If you want to create games for yourself as an Indie developer, then you can just pick up an engine you feel comfortable with and then start learning it its not that difficult to program in an engine once you know C++. But if you want to work for a AAA studio, that's not what you want.

Other thing 1 year of c++ is not enough for anything to be honest, it takes way more time than that to be good with c++, its a huge language. Learn more latest tutorial from here.

If you are writing your own engine, you would need to write at least a graphics and physics system, that's the bare minimum. Audio System, GUI, AI, Scripting, and editor are other parts of the engine you would want to work on. You don't need to be very good with all of them, but you need to know how all of them work.

I would advise having look at Game Coding Complete 4.0 by Mike McShaffry or Game Engine Architecture by Jason Gregory (this would help only after you are good with C++)

Programming: Principles & Practice using c++
Ohh the best book in the world!

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i agree with u