Breaking down the book

As you can see in the main text, this book will be broken into five different parts. Each part will consist of an undisclosed number of chapters. As I am in the process of writing this book while it is being posted (granted I will be at least three chapters ahead of what I am posting) I do not know what will be in specific chapters yet. I also do not know how many chapters will be in each section.

This book will cover the creation of my Magic Artillery game, which will be released on my site some time in the future. It will start with a quick lesson on the java programming language. Following that will be a section on how to design a game. That will lead into the building the core section, where we build the core of the game. Once we have the core, we can finish programming the actual game. Finally, we will add multiplayer control to the game.

What is Magic Artillery? Those of you who are keeping up with my Ultimate Retro Project can probably remember my artillery game (episodes 7 and 8). This game is a logical extension of that game. For details on the game, you will have to wait until we start writing the design specifications in part two of this game.

Well, that may not be entirely true. If I get far enough ahead in the writing of the book, I may release early builds of the game long before the book dictates those releases. In other words, if I really get into the design of the game I may finish the book years ahead of the actual release of the chapters. In that case, visitors to my site will get to see the game long before this book dictates.

Part One: The Java Programming Language

The goal of this section is to familiarize readers with the Java programming language. I will start out by looking at the freely available Java Development Kits (JDK) and Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) and how to use these tools. Commercial development tools are also available, and in many cases are worth what you would pay for them.

Once the reader has the tools, we will quickly go over the language. I should emphasize the word quick, as throughout this section I will be assuming that the reader has some knowledge of programming. While I will try to cover all the topics that a newcomer to programming would need to know, I will not spend too much time on the various topics. If the reader is able to quickly learn the material and has no need of numerous examples and detailed explanations of topics, they can probably learn the language by just reading my tutorial. For those new programmers who seem to have trouble following my tutorial, I would recommend finding additional sources of information on learning how to program.

Part Two: Planning the Project

Once we have covered the Java programming language, we will be able to start planning out our project. We start with a look at the development cycle. Different companies have different ways of developing software. We will look at the more common terms used in the cycle. And I will in detail go through my personal development cycle. Those of you who are reading my Flash book as well will notice that it has a chapter on the development cycle. As the game in this book is much more complex than any of the games being developed in the flash book, this book will cover the development cycle in much more detail.

Almost every development cycle starts with the creation of Design Specifications. We will look at why it is a good idea to write a design document, look at what should be contained in a Design Specifications Document, and then briefly look at how the design can change over the course of developing a title. Once we know what Design Specifications are, we can start working out some of the design specifications for the Magic Artillery game.

Finally, we will plan out the work schedule for putting together the game. Scheduling is probably the hardest task in the design process of the game. I will go over some of the scheduling techniques that are used and will conclude by describing the technique that I personally use.