Make More Immersive and Engaging Magic Systems in Games

Game Magic: A Designer s Guide to Magic Systems in Theory and Practice explains how to construct magic systems and presents a compendium of arcane lore, encompassing the theory, history, and structure of magic systems in games and human belief. The author combines rigorous scholarly analysis with practical game design advice in the form of a magical recipe book (grimoire).

The book gives you an in-depth understanding of the history and structure of magic to make your games richer and deeper. It shows how to set up tables of correspondences and spell components as well as how to write programming code integrating these components as part of game mechanics. It also illustrates how to divide a simulated world into domains of influence (such as alteration, conjuration, and necromancy) and how to use specific rule systems to simulate powers within these realms.

Showing you how to weave compelling magic into your games, the book is interspersed with examples that illustrate how to design and program magic systems. Working examples are available for download on a supporting website."

The complete off-the-shelf resource for delivering the compulsory core units of the new BTEC Nationals.Used alongside the students' text, 'BTEC Nationals - IT Practitioners', this pack offers a complete suite of lecturer support material and photocopiable handouts for the compulsory core units of the new BTEC National specifications, for National Awards, Certificates and Diplomas. The authors provide all the resources needed by a busy lecturer, as well as a bank of student-centred practical work and revision material, which will enable students to gain the skills, knowledge and understanding they require. Officially endorsed by Edexcel, the pack is freely photocopiable within the purchasing institution, as well as supplied in its entirety on CD Rom, and will include: * Worksheets to support and develop work in the students' book * Planned projects which will enable students to display a wide range of skills and use their own initiative * Assessment materials * Reference material for use as hand-outs * Background on running the new HNC/HND courses * Tutor's notes supporting activities in the students' book and resource pack

Don't waste your time building an application server. See how to build low-cost, low-maintenance, highly available, serverless single page web applications that scale into the millions of users at the click of a button. Build well-tested single page apps that are safe from malicious attacks and adapt to any device or network connected to the web. Avoid messing around with middle-tier infrastructure and get right to the web app your customers want. You don't need to manage your own servers to build powerful web applications--the Internet will do that for you. This book will show you how to create a single page app that runs entirely on web services, scales to millions of users, and costs less per day than a cup of coffee. Using a web browser, a prepared workspace, and your favorite editor, you'll build a complete single page web application, step by step. Deploy your application quickly using Amazon S3. Learn the fundamental technologies behind modern single page apps, and use web standards to create lean web applications that can take advantage of the newest technologies. Connect with providers like Google and Facebook to manage user identities.Read and write user data directly from the browser using a web service database. Learn how to defend your application against common security threats. Whether you've never built a web application before or you're a seasoned web developer who's just looking for an alternative to complex server-side web frameworks, this book describes a simple approach to building serverless web applications that you can easily apply or adapt for your own projects. What You Need: To follow the tutorial in this book, you'll need a computer with a web browser. You'll also need a text editor and a git client. Building this web application will require some sort of development web server. You can use your own, or you can also use the one included with the tutorial's prepared workspace. The included web server requires Ruby 2.0, although we also suggest few alternatives. To get started quickly, you need a basic understanding of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. If you're new to these topics, you can get up to speed using links we'll provide in the Introduction.

Programming the World Wide Web is intended for undergraduate students who have completed a course in object-oriented programming. It also serves as an up-to-date reference for Web programming professionals.

Programming the World Wide Web provides a comprehensive introduction to the tools and skills required for both client- and server-side programming, teaching students how to develop platform-independent sites using the most current Web development technology. Essential programming exercises are presented using a manageable progression: students begin with a foundational Web site and employ new languages and technologies to add features as they are discussed in the course. Readers with previous experience programming with an object-oriented language are guided through concepts relating to client-side and server-side programming. All of the markup documents in the book are validated using the W3C validation program.

Teaching and Learning ExperienceThis program presents a better teaching and learning experience-for you and your students. It will help: Teach Students how to Develop Platform-independent Sites: Students will benefit from a comprehensive introduction to the tools and skills required for both client- and server-side programming.Present Essential Programming Exercises in a Logical Progression: Students begin with a foundational Web site and employ new languages and technologies to add features as they are discussed in the course."

The games industry is serious business and the role of a games designer has dramatically changed over just the last few years. Developers now have to rethink everything they know about the creative, technical and business challenges to adapt to the transition to games as a service. Games as a Service: How Free to Play Design Can Make Better Games has been written to help designers overcome many of the fears and misconceptions surrounding freemium and social games. It provides a framework to deliver better games rather than the 'evil' or 'manipulative' experiences some designers fear with the move away from wasteful Products to sustainable, trustworthy Services. Oscar Clark is a consultant and Evangelist for Everyplay from Applifier. He has been a pioneer in online, mobile and console social games services since 1998 including Wireplay (British Telecom), Hutchison Whampoa (3UK) and PlayStation (R)Home. He is a regular columnist on PocketGamer.Biz and is an outspoken speaker and moderator at countless games conferences on Games Design, Discovery, and Monetisation. He is also a notorious hat wearer.

The book teaches a student to model a scientific problem and write a computer program in C language to solve that problem. To do that, the book first introduces the student to the basics of C language, dealing with all syntactical aspects, but without the pedantic content of a typical programming language manual. Then the book describes and discusses many algorithms commonly used in scientific applications (e.g. searching, graphs, statistics, equation solving, Monte Carlo methods etc.).This important book fills a gap in current available bibliography. There are many manuals for programming in C, but they never explain programming technicalities to solve a given problem. This book illustrates many relevant algorithms and shows how to translate them in a working computer program.

This book describes the methodology and accompanying technology for reducing the costs of validation of changes by introducing automatic techniques to analyze and test software increments. It builds a unified approach to efficient and reliable validation of changes and upgrades, and may be used as a research monograph and a reference book.

The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.tandfebooks.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 3.0 license. Gambling is both a multi-billion-dollar international industry and a ubiquitous social and cultural phenomenon. It is also undergoing significant change, with new products and technologies, regulatory models, changing public attitudes and the sheer scale of the gambling enterprise necessitating innovative and mixed methodologies that are flexible, responsive and 'agile'. This book seeks to demonstrate that researchers should look beyond the existing disciplinary territory and the dominant paradigm of 'problem gambling' in order to follow those changes across territorial, political, technical, regulatory and conceptual boundaries. The book draws on cutting-edge qualitative work in disciplines including geography, organisational studies, sociology, East Asian studies and anthropology to explore the production and consumption of risk, risky places, risk technologies, the gambling industry and connections between gambling and other kinds of speculation such as financial derivatives. In doing so it addresses some of the most important issues in contemporary social science, including: the challenges of studying deterritorialised social phenomena; globalising technologies and local markets; regulation as it operates across local, regional and international scales; and the rise of games, virtual worlds and social media.

The new generation of 32-bit PIC microcontrollers can be used to solve the increasingly complex embedded system design challenges faced by engineers today. This book teaches the basics of 32-bit C programming, including an introduction to the PIC 32-bit C compiler. It includes a full description of the architecture of 32-bit PICs and their applications, along with coverage of the relevant development and debugging tools. Through a series of fully realized example projects, Dogan Ibrahim demonstrates how engineers can harness the power of this new technology to optimize their embedded designs.

With this book you will learn: The advantages of 32-bit PICsThe basics of 32-bit PIC programmingThe detail of the architecture of 32-bit PICsHow to interpret the Microchip data sheets and draw out their key pointsHow to use the built-in peripheral interface devices, including SD cards, CAN and USB interfacingHow to use 32-bit debugging tools such as the ICD3 in-circuit debugger, mikroCD in-circuit debugger, and Real Ice emulator
Helps engineers to get up and running quickly with full coverage of architecture, programming and development tools Logical, application-oriented structure, progressing through a project development cycle from basic operation to real-world applications Includes practical working examples with block diagrams, circuit diagrams, flowcharts, full software listings an in-depth description of each operation

Agile project management is a proven approach for designing and delivering software with improved value to customers. Agility is all about self-directed teams, feedback, light documentation, and working software with shorter development cycles. The role of the project manager with agile differs significantly from traditional project management in that there is minimal up-front planning. Agile for Project Managers will help project managers from any industry transition to agile project management. The book examines the project management component of agility, concentrating on industry standards, certifications, and being agile. It also compares agile methods to traditional project management methods throughout to provide readers with a clear understanding of the differences between the two. The book's focus is in alignment with the Project Management Institute (PMI (R)) Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP (R)) credential-making it an ideal resource for anyone preparing for the PMI-ACP (R) exam. Coverage includes: Agile as a project management methodology Agile teams Agile tools and techniques Flavors of agile Agile principles Agile certifications The book provides readers with the understanding required to decide which projects will benefit from agile. It also includes information that can help readers to assess their organizations' readiness for agile methods. Complete with a list of agile training providers, the book will help certified project managers make a smooth transition to agile project management and will provide newcomers with the basic knowledge needed to pass the PMI-ACP (R) exam, the first time around.

Many approaches to creating Software Product Lines have emerged that are based on Model-Driven Engineering. This book introduces both Software Product Lines and Model-Driven Engineering, which have separate success stories in industry, and focuses on the practical combination of them. It describes the challenges and benefits of merging these two software development trends and provides the reader with a novel approach and practical mechanisms to improve software development productivity.The book is aimed at engineers and students who wish to understand and apply software product lines and model-driven engineering in their activities today. The concepts and methods are illustrated with two product line examples: the classic smart-home systems and a collection manager information system.

Starting Out with Programming Logic and Design, Third Edition, is a language-independent introductory programming book that orients students to programming concepts and logic without assuming any previous programming experience. In the successful, accessible style of Tony Gaddis' best-selling texts, useful examples and detail-oriented explanations allow students to become comfortable with fundamental concepts and logical thought processes used in programming without the complication of language syntax. Students gain confidence in their program design skills to transition into more comprehensive programming courses. The book is ideal for a programming logic course taught as a precursor to a language-specific introductory programming course, or for the first part of an introductory programming course.

Think in the Clojure way! Once you're familiar with Clojure, take the next step with extended lessons on the best practices and most critical decisions you'll need to make while developing. Learn how to model your domain with data, transform it with pure functions, manage state, spread your work across cores, and structure apps with components. Discover how to use Clojure in the real world, and unlock the speed and power of this beautiful language on the Java Virtual Machine. Clojure Applied gives you the practical, realistic advice and depth of field that's been missing from your development practice. You want to develop software in the most effective, efficient way possible. This book gives you the answers you've been looking for in friendly, clear language. Dive into the core concepts of Clojure: immutable collections, concurrency, pure functions, and state management. You'll finally get the complete picture you've been looking for, rather than dozens of puzzle pieces you must assemble yourself.First, explore the core concepts of Clojure development: learn how to model your domain with immutable data; choose the ideal collection; and write simple, pure functions for efficient transformation. Next you'll apply those core concepts to build applications: discover how Clojure manages state and identity; spread your work for concurrent programming; and create and assemble components. Finally, see how to manage external integration and deployment concerns by developing a testing strategy, connecting with other data sources, and getting your libraries and applications out the door. Go beyond the toy box and into Clojure's way of thinking. By the end of this book, you'll have the tools and information to put Clojure's strengths to work. What You Need: To follow along with the examples in the book, you will need Clojure 1.6, Leinegen 2, and Java 6 or higher.

Writing for the Web unites theory, technology, and practice to explore writing and hypertext for website creation. It integrates such key topics as XHTML/CSS coding, writing (prose) for the Web, the rhetorical needs of the audience, theories of hypertext, usability and architecture, and the basics of web site design and technology. Presenting information in digestible parts, this text enables students to write and construct realistic and manageable Web sites with a strong theoretical understanding of how online texts communicate to audiences. Key features of the book include: Screenshots of contemporary Web sites that will allow students to understand how writing for and linking to other layers of a Web site should work. Flow charts that describe how Web site architecture and navigation works. Parsing exercises in which students break down information into subsets to demonstrate how Web site architecture can be usable and scalable. Detailed step-by-step descriptions of how to use basic technologies such as file transfer protocols (FTP). Hands-on projects for students to engage in that allow them to connect the various components in the text. A companion website with downloadable code and additional pedagogical features: www.routledge.com/cw/applen Writing for the Web prepares students to work in professional roles, as it facilitates understanding of architecture and arrangement of written content of an organization's texts.

Successful games merge art and technology in truly unique ways. Fused under tight production deadlines and strict performance requirements, shaped by demanding player expectations, games are among the most complex software projects created today. Game AI Pro: Collected Wisdom of Game AI Professionals covers both the art and the technology of game AI. Nothing covered is theory or guesswork. The book brings together the accumulated wisdom, cutting-edge ideas, and clever tricks and techniques of 54 of today's top game AI professionals. Some chapters present techniques that have been developed and passed down within the community for years while others discuss the most exciting new research and ideas from today's most innovative games. The book includes core algorithms that you'll need to succeed, such as behavior trees, utility theory, spatial representation, path planning, motion control, and tactical reasoning. It also describes tricks and techniques that will truly bring your game to life, including perception systems, social modeling, smart camera systems, player prediction, and even an AI sound designer. Throughout, the book discusses the optimizations and performance enhancements that enable your game to run while maintaining 60 frames per second.

A computationally oriented comparison of solution algorithms for two stage and jointly chance constrained stochastic linear programming problems, this is the first book to present comparative computational results with several major stochastic programming solution approaches.
The following methods are considered: regularized decomposition, stochastic decomposition and successive discrete approximation methods for two stage problems; cutting plane methods, and a reduced gradient method for jointly chance constrained problems.
The first part of the book introduces the algorithms, including a unified approach to decomposition methods and their regularized counterparts. The second part addresses computer implementation of the methods, describes a testing environment based on a model management system, and presents comparative computational results with the various algorithms. Emphasis is on the computational behavior of the algorithms.

A Functional Start to Computing with Python enables students to quickly learn computing without having to use loops, variables, and object abstractions at the start. Requiring no prior programming experience, the book draws on Python's flexible data types and operations as well as its capacity for defining new functions. Along with the specifics of Python, the text covers important concepts of computing, including software engineering motivation, algorithms behind syntax rules, advanced functional programming ideas, and, briefly, finite state machines. Taking a student-friendly, interactive approach to teach computing, the book addresses more difficult concepts and abstractions later in the text. The author presents ample explanations of data types, operators, and expressions. He also describes comprehensions-the powerful specifications of lists and dictionaries-before introducing loops and variables. This approach helps students better understand assignment syntax and iteration by giving them a mental model of sophisticated data first. Web ResourceThe book's supplementary website at http://functionalfirstpython.com/ provides many ancillaries, including: Interactive flashcards on Python language elements Links to extra support for each chapter Unit testing and programming exercises An interactive Python stepper tool Chapter-by-chapter points Material for lectures

Writing for the Web unites theory, technology, and practice to explore writing and hypertext for website creation. It integrates such key topics as XHTML/CSS coding, writing (prose) for the Web, the rhetorical needs of the audience, theories of hypertext, usability and architecture, and the basics of web site design and technology. Presenting information in digestible parts, this text enables students to write and construct realistic and manageable Web sites with a strong theoretical understanding of how online texts communicate to audiences. Key features of the book include: Screenshots of contemporary Web sites that will allow students to understand how writing for and linking to other layers of a Web site should work. Flow charts that describe how Web site architecture and navigation works. Parsing exercises in which students break down information into subsets to demonstrate how Web site architecture can be usable and scalable. Detailed step-by-step descriptions of how to use basic technologies such as file transfer protocols (FTP). Hands-on projects for students to engage in that allow them to connect the various components in the text. A companion website with downloadable code and additional pedagogical features: www.routledge.com/cw/applen Writing for the Web prepares students to work in professional roles, as it facilitates understanding of architecture and arrangement of written content of an organization's texts.

For the second or third programming course. A practical and unique approach to data structures that separates interface from implementation. This book provides a practical introduction to data structures with an emphasis on abstract thinking and problem solving, as well as the use of Java. It does this through what remains a unique approach that clearly separates each data structure's interface (how to use a data structure) from its implementation (how to actually program that structure). Parts I (Tour of Java), II (Algorithms and Building Blocks), and III (Applications) lay the groundwork by discussing basic concepts and tools and providing some practical examples, while Part IV (Implementations) focuses on implementation of data structures. This forces the reader to think about the functionality of the data structures before the hash table is implemented.

Programming is now parallel programming. Much as structured programming revolutionized traditional serial programming decades ago, a new kind of structured programming, based on patterns, is relevant to parallel programming today. Parallel computing experts and industry insiders Michael McCool, Arch Robison, and James Reinders describe how to design and implement maintainable and efficient parallel algorithms using a pattern-based approach. They present both theory and practice, and give detailed concrete examples using multiple programming models. Examples are primarily given using two of the most popular and cutting edge programming models for parallel programming: Threading Building Blocks, and Cilk Plus. These architecture-independent models enable easy integration into existing applications, preserve investments in existing code, and speed the development of parallel applications. Examples from realistic contexts illustrate patterns and themes in parallel algorithm design that are widely applicable regardless of implementation technology.
The patterns-based approach offers structure and insight that developers can apply to a variety of parallel programming modelsDevelops a composable, structured, scalable, and machine-independent approach to parallel computingIncludes detailed examples in both Cilk Plus and the latest Threading Building Blocks, which support a wide variety of computers

This book covers the most important topics in the area of pattern recognition, object recognition, computer vision, robot vision, medical computing, computational geometry, and bioinformatics systems. Students and researchers will find a comprehensive treatment of polygonal approximation and its real life applications. The book not only explains the theoretical aspects but also presents applications with detailed design parameters. The systematic development of the concept of polygonal approximation of digital curves and its scale-space analysis are useful and attractive to scholars in many fields.

Disability and New Media examines how digital design is triggering disability when it could be a solution. Video and animation now play a prominent role in the World Wide Web and new types of protocols have been developed to accommodate this increasing complexity. However, as this has happened, the potential for individual users to control how the content is displayed has been diminished. Accessibility choices are often portrayed as merely technical decisions but they are highly political and betray a disturbing trend of ableist assumption that serve to exclude people with disability. It has been argued that the Internet will not be fully accessible until disability is considered a cultural identity in the same way that class, gender and sexuality are. Kent and Ellis build on this notion using more recent Web 2.0 phenomena, social networking sites, virtual worlds and file sharing. Many of the studies on disability and the web have focused on the early web, prior to the development of social networking applications such as Facebook, YouTube and Second Life. This book discusses an array of such applications that have grown within and alongside Web 2.0, and analyzes how they both prevent and embrace the inclusion of people with disability.

If you want to be successful in any area of game development game design, programming, graphics, sound, or publishing you should know how standouts in the industry approach their work and address problems. In Honoring the Code: Conversations with Great Game Designers, 16 groundbreaking game developers share their stories and offer advice for anyone aspiring to a career in the games industry. You ll learn from their triumphs and failures and see how they dealt with sweeping changes in technology, including critical paradigm shifts from CD-ROMs and 3D graphic cards to the Internet and mobile revolution.

The book presents in-depth interviews with a diverse mix of game professionals, emphasizing the makers of adventure games, role-playing games, and real-time strategies. It focuses on developers who have contributed to multiple eras or genres as well as those who have hired, taught, or mentored newcomers. Since the mobile revolution has opened up new demographics and new gameplay mechanics, the book features current developers of games for mobile devices. It also explores how indie game developers are making commercial-quality games with a small team mostly using free tools and funded with crowdsourcing applications.

While there are plenty of resources available for aspiring game developers to learn the necessary technical skills, there is hardly any historical material on the culture that made the games industry possible. Filling the void, this book provides a historical and cultural context for the games industry. It takes you into the minds of the pioneers who blazed the trails and established the industry as we know it today."

This book compares the three most prominent representatives of evolutionary algorithms - genetic algorithms, evolution strategies, and evolutionary programming - computational methods at the border between computer science and evolutionary biology. The algorithms are explained within a common formal framework, thereby clarifying the similarities and differences of these methods. The author also presents new results regarding the role of mutation and selection in genetic algorithms and uses a meta-evolutionary approach to confirm some of the theoretical results.

This book examines how video game mechanics and narratives can teach players skills associated with increased psychological well-being. It integrates research from psychology, education, ludology, media studies, and communication science to demonstrate how game play can teach skills that have long been associated with increased happiness and prolonged life satisfaction, including flexible thinking, openness to experience, self-care, a growth mindset, solution-focused thinking, mindfulness, persistence, self-discovery and resilience. The chapters in this volume are written by leading voices in the field of game studies, including researchers from academia, the video gaming industry, and mental health practitioners paving the way in the field of "geek therapy." This book will advance our understanding of the potential of video games to increase our psychological well-being by helping to mitigate depression, anxiety, and stress and foster persistence, self-care, and resilience.