The best Canadian website for buying books is Chapters. The new site for Chapters is chapters.indigo.ca. If you have a Chapters in your city go there and check it out.

Here in London, Ontario the Chapters always has some good game development books (usually only one copy which I always end up buying).

If you are in a bigger city like Toronto you should have no problem getting these books.

Also, Chapters has a great "Come in and Read the Book" policy. They promote you to grab a stack of books, sit on the couch and read it to see if it''s for you.

Hope this helps.

borngamer

For my pennies worth...

Buy the Standard version of the Visual C++ compiler (not the intro version!), it only has a few things that the pro version doesnt and while you are learning I dont think you would notice the difference. You can upgrade later. This comes with a simple intro to windows peogramming. I suggest a library for obtaining books to start with, its cheaper and you dont end up with any lemons as you have a chance to read them before you decide to shell out your hard earned cash and buy it (points to bookcase with a number of expensive lemons gathering dust). Alternatively I assume they have second hand book shops and discount book shops in Canada, you can find some reasonable texts cheap for a few minutes browsing.

Learn to program windows simply first and while you are doing that work on your game design! Seems a little dull but the work you put in here will help you later! (I suggest reading ''Game architectyre and Design'' by Andrew Rollins et al.).

If you want any other book suggestions try the listings on this site or email me.

Good luck.

BornGamer, I live in windsor, and I have a chapters about a 10 min walk from my house, but I never saw a game programming book there. I''ll go take a look
thanks
Black_Mage

Now im seriously confused. Although I respect all your decisions and opinions i decided to do some follow up to the program GPSK4.0 . Now, most of you recommended the program Sam''s Teach Yourself C++ in 21 days. And to get that rather than GPSK4.0. Well I took a closer look at GPSK4.0 and I saw that it infact does come with the book Sam''s Teach Yourself C++ in 21 days. And also a Direct X 7 book. I''m not 100% sure on this but Im fairly sure im going to buy it.
Black_Mage

Yes, I think it does come with the book on CD. I think the GPSK is good if you know how to write games and just need the tools, but I don''t think it will teach you a whole lot. Aside from the C++ book and the DirectX book which isn''t that good in my opinion. I really doubt you''d use the Genesis engine or any of that for a while, if at all. The C++ book might be okay, but I think you''d be better if getting a different book on DirectX (such as Tricks of the Windows Game Programming Gurus).

No actually the book on the cd is Sams Teach yourself VISUAL C++. Its all about the IDE and MFC programming that is not what you want. For Sams Teach Yourself C++ in days is different. It is mostly printing to the screen, but 99% of what is in there is in game programming. ie. with inhertince, polymorphism, encapsulation, calsses and more. Also the E-Book on the CD, Teach yourself DirectX programming in 24 hours doesn''y come with the cd and you need resources, like .bmps and the sort. Its a waste of $60. Buy Sams teach yourself C++ in 21 days ($34.00 us)
and when your done with that make a text based RPG. Thata what I did. Then buy a book on DirectX 8. A lot has changed from 7 to 8, especially in the 3d department. Anyway that in the future, but if you do get C++ in 21 days go through every example.

Hope this helps. You''l save money.

btw. I have used nothing from Game Programming Starter Kit 4.0. Waste of my money.

Do you think it would be wiser for me to learn C++ before buying the GPSK4.0? Because I do think its pretty cool espicially with the world generator and the animation program.

Black_Mage

You are going to find any windows development difficult without knowing (at least a little) C++ first. Once you ''get going'' your C++ and MFC skills will develop together.




If it is not nailed down it''s mine,
and if I can prise it loose,
it''s not nailed down!

Take your money, buy that Game Programming 4.0 box set! That is what I bought! It has Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 (full version), Genesis 3D SDK, SRMA, DirectX 7 SDK and 2 ebooks about C++ and directX. My advice: Get it, you won''t regret it!

Master Conjruer

This isn''t a discouragement. I''m not going to try to influence you one way or the other about what to buy. I do want to pass this bit of information on:

Be fully aware that dues are gonna have to be paid. You will see this time and time again on this entire site. Fundamentals take priority over everything, no exception. If your new to something and your planned purchase doesn''t seem to push heavy on that issue, best to invest on what you need right now rather than something you think you''ll need or simply just want.

A side note to everyone intersted in books: Everybody, and I mean everybody, I know that''s anywhere near close to being a competent programmer have usually aquired a small library of speciality books, magazines, and urls. Doesn''t mean anything, just an observation I have made over the years...

:::You''ll now be returned to your regularly scheduled programming:::

YAP-YFIO
-deadlinegrunt