This tutorial-based book allows readers to create a first-person game from start to finish using industry-standard (and free to student) tools of Unity, Substance Painter, and Maya. The first half of the book lays out the basics of using Maya and Substance Painter to create game-ready assets. This includes polygonal modeling, UV layout, and custom texture painting. The book then covers rigging and animation solutions to create assets to be placed in the game, including animated first-person assets and motion-captured NPC animations. Finally, readers can put it all together and build interactivity that allows the player to create a finished game using the assets built and animated earlier in the book. * Written by industry professionals with real-world experience in building assets and games * Build a complete game from start to finish * Learn what the pros use: construct all assets using the tools used at game studios across the world * All software used are free to students * When complete, students will have a playable version of an FPS game Jingtian Li is a graduate of China's Central Academy of Fine Arts and New York's School of Visual Arts, where he earned an MFA in Computer Art. He currently is an Assistant Professor of 3D Animation & Game Design at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas. Adam Watkins is a 20-year veteran of 3D education. He holds an MFA in 3D Animation and a BFA in Theatre Arts from Utah State University. He currently is the Coordinator and Professor of the 3D Animation & Game Department at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas. Kassandra Arevalo is an instructor of 3D Animation & Game Design at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas. She previously worked as an animator at Immersed Games. Matt Tovar is an industry veteran animator. He has worked at Naughty Dog, Infinity Ward, and Sony Interactive on such games as The Last of Us, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and most recently Marvel's Avengers with Crystal Dynamics. He is an Assistant Professor of 3D Animation at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas.

Questioning essentialist forms of feminist discourse, this work develops an innovative approach to gender and feminist theory by drawing together the work of key feminist and gender theorists, such as Judith Butler and Donna Haraway, and the biopolitical philosophy of Giorgio Agamben and Gilles Deleuze. By analysing representations of the female cyborg figure, the gynoid, in science fiction literature, television, film and videogames, the work acknowledges its normative and subversive properties while also calling for a new feminist politics of selfhood and autonomy implied by the posthuman qualities of the female machine.

This tutorial-based book allows readers to create a first-person game from start to finish using industry-standard (and free to student) tools of Unity, Substance Painter, and Maya. The first half of the book lays out the basics of using Maya and Substance Painter to create game-ready assets. This includes polygonal modeling, UV layout, and custom texture painting. The book then covers rigging and animation solutions to create assets to be placed in the game, including animated first-person assets and motion-captured NPC animations. Finally, readers can put it all together and build interactivity that allows the player to create a finished game using the assets built and animated earlier in the book. * Written by industry professionals with real-world experience in building assets and games * Build a complete game from start to finish * Learn what the pros use: construct all assets using the tools used at game studios across the world * All software used are free to students * When complete, students will have a playable version of an FPS game Jingtian Li is a graduate of China's Central Academy of Fine Arts and New York's School of Visual Arts, where he earned an MFA in Computer Art. He currently is an Assistant Professor of 3D Animation & Game Design at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas. Adam Watkins is a 20-year veteran of 3D education. He holds an MFA in 3D Animation and a BFA in Theatre Arts from Utah State University. He currently is the Coordinator and Professor of the 3D Animation & Game Department at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas. Kassandra Arevalo is an instructor of 3D Animation & Game Design at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas. She previously worked as an animator at Immersed Games. Matt Tovar is an industry veteran animator. He has worked at Naughty Dog, Infinity Ward, and Sony Interactive on such games as The Last of Us, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and most recently Marvel's Avengers with Crystal Dynamics. He is an Assistant Professor of 3D Animation at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas.

As a textbook for learning the fundamentals of modeling, rigging and animating 3D-modeled characters for use in video games, this step-by-step lesson book builds on the reader's modeling skills acquired from reading Volume I. The reader will model characters for the Castle Environment created in Volume I, which will be rigged using the Character Animation Toolkit (CAT) in 3ds Max and animated with game moves. The Skin Modifier is used for associating the meshes to the rigs and the characters are then exported to the Unity game engine and integrated into the Castle Scene with a Third Person Character camera. As the text introduces new modeling skills, it additionally calls on the reader to perform repetitive tasks, reinforcing skills learned in the process. The content is presented as if the reader is in a working video game studio, being responsible for researching asset design and providing the team with placeholder assets and final model assets that are unwrapped and custom textured using both box mapping and the 3ds Max Quick Peel tool. Although the text uses Autodesk 3ds Max for the modeling program, the principles are transferable to other major modeling programs. Key Features: The goal of this book is to teach the fundamentals of 3D modeling video game characters in a simplified, logical progression optimized for learning at a beginner level. Rigging principles (Linking, Inverse Kinematics [IK], Forward Kinematics [FK], Skin Deformation, Weighting Vertices and more) are introduced in a gradual progression to allow maximum comprehension and retention. This series of modeling exercises is the result of having successfully taught over 1000 video game students the fundamentals of 3D modeling. This complete, clearly written and concise text is written for self-paced learning, helping those instructors who might not be fully trained in 3D modeling and those interested in self-teaching. Includes instructions and project files for exporting the finished project environment into the 3D game engine, Unity. A companion site (www.3dsMaxBasics.com) includes working 3ds Max project files for chapters, notes and corrections, a 3ds Max user interface, 3ds Max shortcut keys and more.

The vision of a world in which privacy persists and security is ensured but the full potential of the technology is nevertheless tapped guides this work. It is argued that security and privacy can be ensured using technical safeguards if the whole RFID system is designed properly. The challenge is immense since many constraints exist for providing security and privacy in RFID systems: technically and economically but also ethically and socially. Not only security and privacy needs to be provided but the solutions also need to be inexpensive, practical, reliable, scalable, flexible, inter-organizational, and lasting.

After analyzing the problem area in detail, this work introduces a number of new concepts and protocols that provide security and ensure privacy in RFID systems by technical means. The classic RFID model is extended and considerations in new directions are taken. This leads to innovative solutions with advantageous characteristics. Finally, a comprehensive framework including required protocols for operation is proposed. It can be used within a global scope, supports inter-organizational cooperation and data sharing, and adheres to all the architectural guidelines derived in this work. Security and privacy is provided by technical means in an economic manner. Altogether, the goal of building scalable and efficient RFID systems on a global, inter-organizational scale without neglecting security and privacy has been achieved well.

An Image Processing Tour of College Mathematics aims to provide meaningful context for reviewing key topics of the college mathematics curriculum, to help students gain confidence in using concepts and techniques of applied mathematics, to increase student awareness of recent developments in mathematical sciences, and to help students prepare for graduate studies. The topics covered include a library of elementary functions, basic concepts of descriptive statistics, probability distributions of functions of random variables, definitions and concepts behind first- and second-order derivatives, most concepts and techniques of traditional linear algebra courses, an introduction to Fourier analysis, and a variety of discrete wavelet transforms - all of that in the context of digital image processing. Features Pre-calculus material and basic concepts of descriptive statistics are reviewed in the context of image processing in the spatial domain. Key concepts of linear algebra are reviewed both in the context of fundamental operations with digital images and in the more advanced context of discrete wavelet transforms. Some of the key concepts of probability theory are reviewed in the context of image equalization and histogram matching. The convolution operation is introduced painlessly and naturally in the context of naive filtering for denoising and is subsequently used for edge detection and image restoration. An accessible elementary introduction to Fourier analysis is provided in the context of image restoration. Discrete wavelet transforms are introduced in the context of image compression, and the readers become more aware of some of the recent developments in applied mathematics. This text helps students of mathematics ease their way into mastering the basics of scientific computer programming.

The aim of this book is to outline the concept of entropy, various types of entropies and their implementation to evaluate a variety of biomedical signals/images. The book emphasizes various entropy-based image pre-processing methods which are essential for the development of suitable computerized examination systems. The recent research works on biomedical signal evaluation confirms that signal analysis provides vital information regarding the physiological condition of the patient, and the efficient evaluation of these signals can help to diagnose the nature and the severity of the disease. This book emphasizes various entropy-based image pre-processing methods which are essential for the development of suitable computerized examination systems for the analysis of biomedical images recorded with a variety of modalities. The work discusses the image pro-processing methods with the Entropies, such as Kapur, Tsallis, Shannon and Fuzzy on a class of RGB-scaled and gray-scaled medical pictures. The performance of the proposed technique is justified with the help of suitable case studies, which involves x-ray image analysis, MRI analysis and CT analysis. This book is intended for medical signal/image analysts, undergraduate and postgraduate students, researchers, and medical scientists interested in biomedical data evaluation.

In view of better results expected from examination of medical datasets (images) with hybrid (integration of thresholding and segmentation) image processing methods, this work focuses on implementation of possible hybrid image examination techniques for medical images. It describes various image thresholding and segmentation methods which are essential for the development of such a hybrid processing tool. Further, this book presents the essential details, such as test image preparation, implementation of a chosen thresholding operation, evaluation of threshold image, and implementation of segmentation procedure and its evaluation, supported by pertinent case studies. Aimed at researchers/graduate students in the medical image processing domain, image processing, and computer engineering, this book: Provides broad background on various image thresholding and segmentation techniques Discusses information on various assessment metrics and the confusion matrix Proposes integration of the thresholding technique with the bio-inspired algorithms Explores case studies including MRI, CT, dermoscopy, and ultrasound images Includes separate chapters on machine learning and deep learning for medical image processing

Description: This tutorial-based book allows readers to create a first-person game from start to finish using industry-standard (and free to student) tools of Maya, Substance Painter, and Unreal Engine. The first half of the book lays out the basics of using Maya and Substance Painter to create game-ready assets. This includes polygonal modeling, UV layout, and custom texture painting. Then, the book covers rigging and animation solutions to create assets to be placed in the game including animated first-person assets and motion-captured NPC animations. Finally, readers can put it all together and build interactivity that allows the player to create a finished game using the assets built and animated earlier in the book. * Written by industry professionals with real-world experience in building assets and games. * Build a complete game from start to finish. * Learn what the pros use: construct all assets using the tools used at industries across the world. * All software used are free to students. * When complete, students will have a playable version of an FPS game. Jing Tian Li is a graduate of China's Central Academy of Fine Arts and New York's School of Visual Arts, where he earned an MFA in Computer Art. He currently is an Assistant Professor of 3D Animation & Game Design at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas. Kassandra Arevalo is an instructor of 3D Animation & Game Design at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas. She previously worked as an animator at Immersed Games. Matt Tovar is an industry veteran animator. He has worked at Naughty Dog, Infinity Ward, and Sony Interactive on such games as The Last of Us, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and most recently Marvel's Avengers with Crystal Dynamics. He is an Assistant Professor of 3D Animation at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas.

A New Way of Analyzing Object Data from a Nonparametric Viewpoint Nonparametric Statistics on Manifolds and Their Applications to Object Data Analysis provides one of the first thorough treatments of the theory and methodology for analyzing data on manifolds. It also presents in-depth applications to practical problems arising in a variety of fields, including statistics, medical imaging, computer vision, pattern recognition, and bioinformatics. The book begins with a survey of illustrative examples of object data before moving to a review of concepts from mathematical statistics, differential geometry, and topology. The authors next describe theory and methods for working on various manifolds, giving a historical perspective of concepts from mathematics and statistics. They then present problems from a wide variety of areas, including diffusion tensor imaging, similarity shape analysis, directional data analysis, and projective shape analysis for machine vision. The book concludes with a discussion of current related research and graduate-level teaching topics as well as considerations related to computational statistics. Researchers in diverse fields must combine statistical methodology with concepts from projective geometry, differential geometry, and topology to analyze data objects arising from non-Euclidean object spaces. An expert-driven guide to this approach, this book covers the general nonparametric theory for analyzing data on manifolds, methods for working with specific spaces, and extensive applications to practical research problems. These problems show how object data analysis opens a formidable door to the realm of big data analysis.

Digital art practitioners work under the constant threat of a medium - the digital - that objectifies the self and depersonalises artistic identities. If digital technology is a pharmakon in that it can be either cure or poison, with regard to digital art practices the digital may have in fact worked as a placebo that has allowed us to push back the date in which the crisis between digital and art will be given serious thought. This book is hence concerned with an analysis of such a relationship and proposes their rethinking in terms of an ethico-phenomenological practice informed by an in-depth understanding of the digital medium. Giuseppe Torre engages with underground cultures such as Free and Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) and its ties with art discourse. The discussion is informed by various philosophical discourses and media theories, with a focus on how such ideas connect back to the existing literature in performance studies. Replete with examples of artwork and practices, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of theatre and performance studies, art and technology.

This book covers the technology of digital image processing in various fields with big data and their applications. Readers will understand various technologies and strategies used in digital image processing as well as handling big data, using machine-learning techniques. This book will help to improve the skills of students and researchers in such fields as engineering, agriculture, and medical imaging. There is a need to be able to understand and analyse the latest developments of digital image technology. As such, this book will cover: * Applications such as biomedical science and biometric image processing, content-based image retrieval, remote sensing, pattern recognition, shape and texture analysis * New concepts in color interpolation to produce the full color from the sub-pattern bare pattern color prevalent in today's digital cameras and other imaging devices * Image compression standards that are needed to serve diverse applications * Applications of remote sensing, medical science, traffic management, education, innovation, and analysis in agricultural design and image processing * Both soft and hard computing approaches at great length in relation to major image processing tasks * The direction and development of current and future research in many areas of image processing * A comprehensive bibliography for additional research (integrated within the framework of the book) This book focuses not only on theoretical and practical knowledge in the field but also on the traditional and latest tools and techniques adopted in image processing and data science. It also provides an indispensable guide to a wide range of basic and advanced techniques in the fields of image processing and data science.

This student-friendly book provides an accessible overview of the primary debates about the effects of video games. It expands on the original The Video Game Debate to address the new technologies that have emerged within the field of game studies over the last few years. Debates about the negative effects of video game play have been evident since their introduction in the 1970s, but the advent of online and mobile gaming has revived these concerns, reinvigorating old debates and generating brand new ones. The Video Game Debate 2 draws from the latest research findings from the top scholars of digital games research to address these concerns. The book explores key developments such as virtual and augmented reality, the use of micro-transactions, the integration of loot boxes, and the growth of mobile gaming and games for change (serious games). Furthermore, several new chapters explore contemporary debates around e-sports, gamification, sex and gender discrimination in games, and the use of games in therapy. This book offers students and scholars of games studies and digital media, as well as policymakers, the essential information they need to participate in the debate.

Content-Based Image Classification: Efficient Machine Learning Using Robust Feature Extraction Techniques is a comprehensive guide to research with invaluable image data. Social Science Research Network has revealed that 65% of people are visual learners. Research data provided by Hyerle (2000) has clearly shown 90% of information in the human brain is visual. Thus, it is no wonder that visual information processing in the brain is 60,000 times faster than text-based information (3M Corporation, 2001). Recently, we have witnessed a significant surge in conversing with images due to the popularity of social networking platforms. The other reason for embracing usage of image data is the mass availability of high-resolution cellphone cameras. Wide usage of image data in diversified application areas including medical science, media, sports, remote sensing, and so on, has spurred the need for further research in optimizing archival, maintenance, and retrieval of appropriate image content to leverage data-driven decision-making. This book demonstrates several techniques of image processing to represent image data in a desired format for information identification. It discusses the application of machine learning and deep learning for identifying and categorizing appropriate image data helpful in designing automated decision support systems. The book offers comprehensive coverage of the most essential topics, including: Image feature extraction with novel handcrafted techniques (traditional feature extraction) Image feature extraction with automated techniques (representation learning with CNNs) Significance of fusion-based approaches in enhancing classification accuracy MATLAB (R) codes for implementing the techniques Use of the Open Access data mining tool WEKA for multiple tasks The book is intended for budding researchers, technocrats, engineering students, and machine learning/deep learning enthusiasts who are willing to start their computer vision journey with content-based image recognition. The readers will get a clear picture of the essentials for transforming the image data into valuable means for insight generation. Readers will learn coding techniques necessary to propose novel mechanisms and disruptive approaches. The WEKA guide provided is beneficial for those uncomfortable coding for machine learning algorithms. The WEKA tool assists the learner in implementing machine learning algorithms with the click of a button. Thus, this book will be a stepping-stone for your machine learning journey. Please visit the author's website for any further guidance at https://www.rikdas.com/

Description: A Moving Subject offers a collection of essays from around the world. From Italy to the Middle East, from an analysis of A Night on Bald Mountain to African cinema animation, these essays help to paint the world of animation in a comprehensive and international manner. Handpicked by renowned animation historian and researcher Giannalberto Bendazzi, this book offers a look at the global foundations of animation from disparate regions, peoples and methods, and helps to demonstrate animation as a unifying factor of the human race. Key Features: A fresh perspective on animation from a global lens A new look into traditional animation produced from around the world Essays that reflect on the nature of colour, animation and light Author: A former professor at the Nanyang Technological University of Singapore and the Universita degli Studi of Milan, Italian-born Giannalberto Bendazzi has thoroughly investigated the history of animation for more than forty years. A founding member of the Society for Animation Studies, he has authored or edited various classics in various languages and has lectured extensively on every continent. He received an honorary doctorate from Lisbon University in 2019.

Description: A Moving Subject offers a collection of essays from around the world. From Italy to the Middle East, from an analysis of A Night on Bald Mountain to African cinema animation, these essays help to paint the world of animation in a comprehensive and international manner. Handpicked by renowned animation historian and researcher Giannalberto Bendazzi, this book offers a look at the global foundations of animation from disparate regions, peoples and methods, and helps to demonstrate animation as a unifying factor of the human race. Key Features: A fresh perspective on animation from a global lens A new look into traditional animation produced from around the world Essays that reflect on the nature of colour, animation and light Author: A former professor at the Nanyang Technological University of Singapore and the Universita degli Studi of Milan, Italian-born Giannalberto Bendazzi has thoroughly investigated the history of animation for more than forty years. A founding member of the Society for Animation Studies, he has authored or edited various classics in various languages and has lectured extensively on every continent. He received an honorary doctorate from Lisbon University in 2019.

This book examines the brief yet accelerated evolution of newsgames, a genre that has emerged from puzzles, quizzes, and interactives augmenting digital journalism into full-fledged immersive video games from open-world designs to virtual reality experiences. Critics have raised questions about the credibility and ethics of transforming serious news stories of political consequence into entertainment media, and the risks of trivializing grave and catastrophic events into mere games. Dowling explores both the negatives of newsgames, and how the use of entertainment media forms and their narrative methods mainly associated with fiction can add new and potentially more powerful meaning to news than traditional formats allow. The book also explores how industrial and cultural shifts in the digital publishing industry have enabled newsgames to evolve in a manner that strengthens certain core principles of journalism, particularly advocacy on behalf of marginalized and oppressed groups. Cutting-edge and thoughtful, The Gamification of Digital Journalism is a must-read for scholars, researchers, and practitioners interested in multimedia journalism and immersive storytelling.

This unique survey of the career of Michael Dudok de Wit discusses all of his works and offers a glimpse into his private life. The biography of this European master of 2D animation, born in the Netherlands and based in London, is the first complete overview of the well-defined and canonic opus of this humble genius. Visually and thematically, Dudok de Wit's poetic and singular style of animation differs from the rest of contemporary independent animation production. This book reveals what still challenges and thrills Dudok de Wit in the art of animation and why he persistently continues to believe in the beauty of hand-drawn animation. Key Features The complete animation production of Michael Dudok de Wit, never-before reviewed in one volume An all-embracing approach regarding this auteur, unavailable elsewhere in one place (his biography, his peculiar method of work, his extracurricular activities) An ad hoc glossary of animation written by Michael Dudok de Wit and a critical reception of his body of work with a wide contribution of his colleagues and collaborators Filmography and bibliography Author Andrijana Ruzic graduated in History and Criticism of Art at the Universita degli Studi in Milan, Italy, where she fell in love with the medium of animation. She specialised in the History of Animated Film under Giannalberto Bendazzi's mentorship. For the past six years, she has curated the section dedicated to animated films at the International Comics Festival in Belgrade, Serbia. She is a member of the Selection Board of Animafest Scanner, the symposium for Contemporary Animation Studies at the World Festival of Animated Film held annually in Zagreb, Croatia. She writes about animation and art for the Belgrade weekly magazine Vreme.

A Beginner's Guide to Image Multi-Level Thresholding emphasizes various image thresholding methods that are necessary for image pre-processing and initial level enhancement. Explains basic concepts and the implementation of Image Multi-Level Thresholding (grayscale and RGB images) Presents a detailed evaluation in real-time application, including the need for heuristic algorithm, the choice of objective and threshold function, and the evaluation of the outcome Describes how the image thresholding acts as a pre-processing technique and how the region of interest in a medical image is enhanced with thresholding Illustrates integration of the thresholding technique with bio-inspired algorithms Includes current findings and future directions of image multi-level thresholding and its practical implementation Emphasizes the need for multi-level thresholding with suitable examples The book is aimed at graduate students and researchers in image processing, electronics engineering, computer sciences and engineering.

The fastest, easiest, most comprehensive way to learn Adobe Photoshop Elements 2021 Classroom in a Book (R), the best-selling series of hands-on software training workbooks, offers what no other book or training program does -- an official training series from Adobe, developed with the support of Adobe product experts. Adobe Photoshop Elements 2021 Classroom in a Book contains 10 lessons that cover the basics and beyond, providing countless tips and techniques to help you become more productive with the program. You can follow the book from start to finish or choose only those lessons that interest you. Purchasing this book includes valuable online extras. Follow the instructions in the book's "Getting Started" section to unlock access to: Downloadable lesson files you need to work through the projects in the book Web Edition containing the complete text of the book What you need to use this book: Adobe Photoshop Elements 2021 software, for either Windows or macOS. (Software not included.) Note: Classroom in a Book does not replace the documentation, support, updates, or any other benefits of being a registered owner of Adobe Photoshop Elements 2021 software.

This book examines third-party review sites (TPRS) and the intersection of the review economy and neoliberal public relations, in order to understand how users and organizations engage the 21st century global review economy. The author applies communication and digital media theories to evaluate contemporary case studies that challenge TPRS and control over digital reputation. Chapters analyze famous cases such as the Texas photographer who sued her clients for negative reviews and activists using Yelp to protest the hunt of "Cecil the Lion," to illustrate the complicated yet important role of TPRS in the review economy. Theories such as neoliberal public relations, digital dialogic communication and cultural intermediaries help explain the impact of reviews and how to apply lessons learned from infamous cases. This nuanced and up to date exploration of the contemporary review economy will offer insights and best practice for academic researchers and upper-level undergraduate students in public relations, digital media, or strategic communication programs.

Proper analysis of image and multimedia data requires efficient extraction and segmentation techniques. Among the many computational intelligence approaches, the soft computing paradigm is best equipped with several tools and techniques that incorporate intelligent concepts and principles. This book is dedicated to object extraction, image segmentation, and edge detection using soft computing techniques with extensive real-life application to image and multimedia data. The authors start with a comprehensive tutorial on the basics of brain structure and learning, and then the key soft computing techniques, including evolutionary computation, neural networks, fuzzy sets and fuzzy logic, and rough sets. They then present seven chapters that detail the application of representative techniques to complex image processing tasks such as image recognition, lighting control, target tracking, object extraction, and edge detection. These chapters follow a structured approach with detailed explanations of the problems, solutions, results, and conclusions. This is both a standalone textbook for graduates in computer science, electrical engineering, system science, and information technology, and a reference for researchers and engineers engaged with pattern recognition, image processing, and soft computing.

This innovative text bridges media theory, psychology, and interpersonal communication by describing how our relationships with media emulate the relationships we develop with friends and romantic partners through their ability to replicate intimacy, regularity, and reciprocity. In research-rich, conversational chapters, the author applies psychological principles to understand how nine influential media technologies-theatrical film, recorded music, consumer market cameras, radio, network and cable television, tape cassettes, video gaming, and dial-up internet service providers-irreversibly changed the communication environment, culture, and psychological expectations that we then apply to future media technologies. With special attention to mediums absent from the traditional literature, including recorded music, cable television, and magnetic tape, this book encourages readers to critically reflect on their own past relationships with media and consider the present environment and the future of media given their own personal habits. 20th Century Media and the American Psyche is ideal for media studies, communication, and psychology students, scholars, and industry professionals, as well as anyone interested in a greater understanding of the psychological significance of media technology, usage, and adoption across the past 150 years.

This book teaches beginners and aspiring game developers how to develop 2D games with Unity. Thousands of commercial games have been built with Unity. The reader will learn the complete process of 2D game development, step by step. The theory behind each step is fully explained. This book contains numerous color illustrations and access to all source code and companion videos. Key Features: Fully detailed game projects from scratch. Beginners can do the steps and create games right away. No coding experience is necessary. Numerous examples take a raw beginner toward professional coding proficiency in C# and Unity. Includes a thorough introduction to Unity 2020, including 2D game development, prefabs, cameras, animation, character controllers, lighting, and sound. Includes a step-by-step introduction to Unity 2019.3. Extensive coverage of GIMP, Audacity, and MuseScore for the creation of 2D graphics, sound effects, and music. All required software is free to use for any purpose including commercial applications and games. Franz Lanzinger is the owner and chief game developer of Lanzinger Studio, an independent game development and music studio in Sunnyvale, California. He started his career in game programming in 1982 at Atari Games, Inc., where he designed and programmed the classic arcade game Crystal Castles. In 1989, he joined Tengen, where he was a programmer and designer for Ms. Pac-Man and Toobin' on the NES. He co-founded Bitmasters, where he designed and coded games including Rampart and Championship Pool for the NES and SNES, and NCAA Final Four Basketball for the SNES and Sega Genesis. In 1996, he founded Actual Entertainment, publisher and developer of the Gubble video game series. He has a B.Sc. in mathematics from the University of Notre Dame and attended graduate school in mathematics at the University of California at Berkeley. He is a former world record holder on Centipede and Burgertime. He is a professional author, game developer, accompanist, and piano teacher. He is currently working on remaking the original Gubble game in Unity and Blender.

Independent Videogames investigates the social and cultural implications of contemporary forms of independent video game development. Through a series of case studies and theoretical investigations, it evaluates the significance of such a multi-faceted phenomenon within video game and digital cultures. A diverse team of scholars highlight the specificities of independence within the industry and the culture of digital gaming through case studies and theoretical questions. The chapters focus on labor, gender, distribution models and technologies of production to map the current state of research on independent game development. The authors also identify how the boundaries of independence are becoming opaque in the contemporary game industry - often at the cost of the claims of autonomy, freedom and emancipation that underlie the indie scene. The book ultimately imagines new and better narratives for a less exploitative and more inclusive videogame industry. Systematically mapping the current directions of a phenomenon that is becoming increasingly difficult to define and limit, this book will be a crucial resource for scholars and students of game studies, media history, media industries and independent gaming.