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The Little Book Of Adventure Game Programming: Program Retro Text Adventures in C# (and other languages)
Write a retro text-adventure!
Learn the lost arts of the game implementers as Huw Collingbourne (author of the cult adventure game, The Golden Wombat Of Destiny) explains exactly how to write an exploring-style adventure game. All the source code can be downloaded from from the Bitwise Books web site (www.bitwisebooks.com).
The Little Book Of Adventure Game Programming provides a step-by-step guide to creating a game in C#, which is one of the most important languages on Windows and is also available on macOS and Linux. The programming principles and techniques explained in the book can also be used to write adventure games in other languages such as Java, Ruby or Object Pascal. Short examples (source code also available for download) are provided in those languages. As well as teaching adventure games specifically, this book can also be used as a tutorial to writing C# programs. It covers all the most important features of the C# language.
This book explains... How to write Interactive Fiction (IF) games Creating class hierarchies How to create a map of linked 'rooms' Moving the player around the map Adding treasures to rooms How to take and drop treasures Putting objects into containers (sacks, treasure chests etc.) Using lists and dictionaries Overridden methods Overloaded methods How to save and load games Designing a game with a user interface Designing a command-line game to run at the system prompt ...and much moreWhether you are new to programming or an old hand, this book will challenge you to expand your programming expertise while coding a really fun programming project. The programming topics covered list structures and dictionaries, streaming and serialization, object hierarchies, constructors, exception-handling, enums, generics and much more. This book may also complement standard C# tutorials (such as our other title, The Little Book Of C#) by taking you through the development of a complex project containing multiple source code files, partial classes and collections of objects.
Huw Collingbourne has been a programmer for more than 30 years. As well as writing text adventure games, he is an online programming instructor who has taught tens of thousands of students to code in languages such as Ruby, C, C#, Java and Object Pascal. He has written programming columns for numerous computer magazines such as PC Plus and Computer Shopper. He is Technical Director of the independent development company, SapphireSteel Software. He is the author of a number of programming books including The Little Book Of C, The Little Book Of C#, The Little Book Of Pointers and The Little Book of Recursion.
The Little Book Of Adventure Game Programming gives you just the stuff you really need to get straight to the heart of text adventure programming without all the fluff and padding.
Learn the lost arts of the game implementers as Huw Collingbourne (author of the cult adventure game, The Golden Wombat Of Destiny) explains exactly how to write an exploring-style adventure game. All the source code can be downloaded from from the Bitwise Books web site (www.bitwisebooks.com).
The Little Book Of Adventure Game Programming provides a step-by-step guide to creating a game in C#, which is one of the most important languages on Windows and is also available on macOS and Linux. The programming principles and techniques explained in the book can also be used to write adventure games in other languages such as Java, Ruby or Object Pascal. Short examples (source code also available for download) are provided in those languages. As well as teaching adventure games specifically, this book can also be used as a tutorial to writing C# programs. It covers all the most important features of the C# language.
This book explains... How to write Interactive Fiction (IF) games Creating class hierarchies How to create a map of linked 'rooms' Moving the player around the map Adding treasures to rooms How to take and drop treasures Putting objects into containers (sacks, treasure chests etc.) Using lists and dictionaries Overridden methods Overloaded methods How to save and load games Designing a game with a user interface Designing a command-line game to run at the system prompt ...and much moreWhether you are new to programming or an old hand, this book will challenge you to expand your programming expertise while coding a really fun programming project. The programming topics covered list structures and dictionaries, streaming and serialization, object hierarchies, constructors, exception-handling, enums, generics and much more. This book may also complement standard C# tutorials (such as our other title, The Little Book Of C#) by taking you through the development of a complex project containing multiple source code files, partial classes and collections of objects.
Huw Collingbourne has been a programmer for more than 30 years. As well as writing text adventure games, he is an online programming instructor who has taught tens of thousands of students to code in languages such as Ruby, C, C#, Java and Object Pascal. He has written programming columns for numerous computer magazines such as PC Plus and Computer Shopper. He is Technical Director of the independent development company, SapphireSteel Software. He is the author of a number of programming books including The Little Book Of C, The Little Book Of C#, The Little Book Of Pointers and The Little Book of Recursion.
The Little Book Of Adventure Game Programming gives you just the stuff you really need to get straight to the heart of text adventure programming without all the fluff and padding.
129 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 26, 2019
9 people want to read
About the author
Huw Collingbourne
27 books21 followersHuw Collingbourne is a writer, programming instructor and software developer. He is the author of a number of fiction and factual books. His novels include the Kill Job series (gritty 1960s Cold War and crime) The Exodus Plague post-apocalyptic thrillers and The 1980s Murder Mysteries (crime capers).
In the 1980s Huw was a pop music journalist and he interviewed many of the 'New Romantic' stars such as Boy George, Adam Ant, Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet and Depeche Mode. In the 1990s he published the 'adult humour' magazine, 18 Rated, which was immediately banned by all leading UK newsagents (who obviously failed to see the joke).
Huw's programming books including The Little Book Of C, The Little Book Of Pointers, The Little Book of Recursion, The Little Book Of C#, The Little Book Of Ruby and The Book Of Ruby. He has programmed in a broad range of languages since the early 1980s. He has written programming and technical columns for numerous computer magazines in the UK including PC Plus, PC Pro and Computer Shopper. He is author of the cult adventure game, The Golden Wombat Of Destiny.
Huw has, at various times, been a magazine editor, publisher and TV presenter. He has an MA in English and a 2nd dan black belt in the Japanese martial art of Aikido - the latter skill useful when attempting to control his huge, hairy and amazingly strong Pyrenean Mountain Dogs.
In the 1980s Huw was a pop music journalist and he interviewed many of the 'New Romantic' stars such as Boy George, Adam Ant, Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet and Depeche Mode. In the 1990s he published the 'adult humour' magazine, 18 Rated, which was immediately banned by all leading UK newsagents (who obviously failed to see the joke).
Huw's programming books including The Little Book Of C, The Little Book Of Pointers, The Little Book of Recursion, The Little Book Of C#, The Little Book Of Ruby and The Book Of Ruby. He has programmed in a broad range of languages since the early 1980s. He has written programming and technical columns for numerous computer magazines in the UK including PC Plus, PC Pro and Computer Shopper. He is author of the cult adventure game, The Golden Wombat Of Destiny.
Huw has, at various times, been a magazine editor, publisher and TV presenter. He has an MA in English and a 2nd dan black belt in the Japanese martial art of Aikido - the latter skill useful when attempting to control his huge, hairy and amazingly strong Pyrenean Mountain Dogs.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 22, 2020
A very quick yet informative read on creating a text adventure game using some modern programming. Throughout the book, the author explains all the concepts in a clear easy to read manner. Basic tenets of programming involving Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) are discussed and honestly, a text adventure game is a great way to see all these concepts in action. He runs the gamut from creating a player object to even a basic language parser. Source code can be downloaded from the bitwise site (but you do have to give your email and sign up for a newsletter, not my favorite tactic to get code, but I understand nonetheless).
His code is clean and easy to understand, but I don't necessarily always agree with the naming conventions. One of his base classes is called Thing and I think a more suitable name could've been chosen. My other qualm with the book was that it jumps around from his separate projects, which are called game 01, game 02 etc... This goes back to what I think is a poor naming convention with the projects as you truly have no idea what is in each project besides looking at it yourself or when he references it in the book. The book also doesn't really walk you through building a project yourself, it's more a guide through his own project and the code he's built.
That being said, his code is a really great foundation for a text adventure game and he explains all of it well. Past the few misgivings, I enjoyed reading through this and I'd recommend this as a fun way for a beginner to programming to learn some concepts or even someone experienced to get a perspective on how to start coding an adventure game. Worth the read!
His code is clean and easy to understand, but I don't necessarily always agree with the naming conventions. One of his base classes is called Thing and I think a more suitable name could've been chosen. My other qualm with the book was that it jumps around from his separate projects, which are called game 01, game 02 etc... This goes back to what I think is a poor naming convention with the projects as you truly have no idea what is in each project besides looking at it yourself or when he references it in the book. The book also doesn't really walk you through building a project yourself, it's more a guide through his own project and the code he's built.
That being said, his code is a really great foundation for a text adventure game and he explains all of it well. Past the few misgivings, I enjoyed reading through this and I'd recommend this as a fun way for a beginner to programming to learn some concepts or even someone experienced to get a perspective on how to start coding an adventure game. Worth the read!
Displaying 1 of 1 review