ActionScript 3.0 Game Programming University | 
 enlarge | Author: Gary Rosenzweig
Publisher: Que
Category: Book
List Price: $49.99
Buy New: $28.93
You Save: $21.06 (42%)
New (34) Used (10) from $28.93
Avg. Customer Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 8595
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 456
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.6
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6.9 x 1.1
ISBN: 0789737027
Dewey Decimal Number: 794.81526
EAN: 9780789737021
ASIN: 0789737027
Publication Date: September 8, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: New, unread, unused and in perfect condition with no missing or damaged pages, may have a remainder mark.
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Product Description
Gary Rosenzweig's ActionScript 3.0 Game Programming University shows you how to use ActionScript, the programming language behind Flash CS3 Professional. The lessons teach you all the basics of ActionScript programming through game examples, but the code can be easily adapted to non-game-oriented projects, such as web training and advertising. Written by a real-world Flash developer, this book presents you with the source code of 16 complete games and lays the foundation for you to create your own games. Gary also provides a companion website - flashgameu.com, which contains files, updates, new content, Gary's blog and much more.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
 Excellent book July 16, 2008
Before buying this book, I searched Amazon.com reviews for the best rated intermediate level AS3 books that address AS3 via examples of AS3 being applied to useful tasks from an Object Oriented approach. With an instructional design/development background, some Java, C and looong ago even BASIC, some history developing with MacroMedia Director, Authorware, and Flash, I needed more than a basic intro, but not just a dry syntax dictionary or another abstract OOP lecture.
His concrete examples illustrating the application of OOP within Flash are really helpful to crystalize working with the object oriented syntax of AS3 in a more dynamic, OO code based approach (and less attaching of scripts and functions to objects and frames).
I tend to look up syntax or search help files for specific function info as I need it, rather than reading entire reference manuals which are typically too vast and tedious for trying to stuff all the syntax in your head at once. Structuring this material around applied, concrete examples is a wonderful, pallatable approach for helping learners who have some knowledge base to extend their knowlege via a meaningful, applied context.
Gary did this beautifully with his use of examples that started very simply and increased to more complex in a pallatable, easy to follow progression.
I thought his tip/background sections throughout were full of info I found interesting as well. I am glad he didn't assume any prior mastery of the use of OOP with Flash though, because there were a few very key holes in my knowledge that his book covers that I had not previously realized.
Anyway, my compliments to Gary on his excellent book, logical progression of concept difficulty, and this book's fun, applied examples. I appreciated his time, expertise and presentation strategy. This was one book that I really felt was well worth its price and time spent reading it.
Excellent February 28, 2008
0 out of 5 found this review helpful
The book is in excellent condition and I got it before the deadline,
It was great!
As good as they come February 8, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is a good as they come. It is well written, well organized and well supported with demo files. I have a wide variety of programming experience, but not much experience at all with Flash. Rosenzweig gives enough general Flash instruction to give the reader enough general Flash understanding to do this type of programming. I think the book is perfect for readers with some programming experience and perhaps less Flash experience. I am not sure it would work as well in the other direction, but the author is clear, concise and easy to follow. I think most anyone with sufficient motivation can find this book a usefull guide into basic game building with the latests versions of Flash.
Excellent practical book for moving from AS2 to AS3 November 21, 2007
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
I got interested in this book after discovering Gary Rosenzweig's AS3 tutorials on his Flash Game University Website. I was impressed by his ability to explain things clearly and simply. As other reviews have already stated "AS3 Game Programming University" is an excellent and highly readable book for learning AS3. In practice I find it much more helpful than Colin Moock's book "Essential ActionScript 3.0", which is a little too academic for me (although I'm glad I have it!). I'm also finding that code snippets in Gary's book are just as useful to me as those in Joey Lott's "ActionScript 3.0 Cookbook" (which covers more topics). It's helpful to me that Gary writes from a Flash authoring perspective rather than Flex. He doesn't hesitate to include timeline based assets and code when it makes sense to do so, rather than use the Flex style of generating everything in code.
The actual games are surprisingly varied and complete, but not so complex that they become difficult to understand. The code that I downloaded from the website works well. It is written in a practical concise manner with proper use of classes and other object-oriented techniques as required by AS3. However, as other reviews have noted, this book is not for advanced programmers that prefer a pure object-oriented style.
I recommend this book if you are moving from AS2 to AS3, even if you are not interested in writing games. Gary does not claim it is suitable for beginners without any programming experience but it is more suitable than Moock's "Essential ActionScript 3.0" (which does make such a claim). However it is not for web designers that don't want to learn programming and it is not for advanced programmers that appreciate Moock's AS3 book.
 A great read for upgrading to AS 3, entertaining too. November 10, 2007
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
Lets face it. There are a lot of Actionscript game books out there. This one is good because 1) It is entertaining and readable & 2) It's the first game book I have found that works for the new actionscript 3.0.
The code itself isn't exactly as object oriented as I would like, but thats true of all the other game books out there too. It does have enough object oriented content to show some amazingly different, and simple methods for making game characters, detecting collisions, and managing objects that are possible with actionscript 3.0. I value this book as a 'how to upgrade' from 2.0 to 3.0.
The games themselves are pretty good and there is a nice variety of game styles to appeal to a wide audience. For a basic game programming book, it omits or glosses over a few important topics such as caching vector objects as bitmaps, pseudo 3-D and optimization in general.
All in all, I suggest this book if you are upgrading skills to actionscript 3.0 or want to write flash games. If you get this book, I also recommend Foundation Actionscript 3.0 Animation: Making Things Move! to round out your collection.
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