SFML Game Development by Example - 4th SFML book

[OrderNexus]

Good day, fellow SFML developers!

I'm extremely happy to announce that the fourth book in the SFML series has just been published! It's called "SFML Game Development by Example" and can be found here:

https://www.packtpub.com/game-development/sfml-game-development-example


I have put a lot of work and effort into this project, and I really hope that those of you who decide to purchase it will enjoy it. Since this is a "by example" publication, I've tried to explore some additional aspects of game development and programming, such as game programming patterns, implementing a flexible G.U.I. system, utilizing the entity component system paradigm, and much more. This is also the first SFML book to tackle the topic of networking, as the final project is a small RPG-style multiplayer game, where players can duke it out by using very basic combat. It looks a little something like this:


I think I have managed to produce a fairly smooth learning experience throughout the book, by addressing most of the issues a beginner game developer might face in a carefully compartmentalized manner. The book will guide you through three projects in total. The first one is a snake remake. Why snake? Well, it's simple and awesome. The second project is a side-scrolling platformer, which you can see on the cover of the book. It introduces a lot of common concepts of game development to the reader and serves as an intermediary project, which leads them nicely into the last project. Sound and music management, G.U.I. and ECS are all implemented here, along with the grand finale of networking, which spans the last two chapters.

With that said, I hope you enjoy the book if you do decide to purchase it. I'd like to express the deepest thanks to Laurent, without whom I wouldn't have had this opportunity. Also, feel free to contact me if you have any issues or questions. You can leave a message here or contact me via e-mail at: order.nexus.dev@gmail.com

Have a nice day!

[SeriousITGuy]

As the book is on sale I just grabbed a copy and gone through the TOC. Looks very interesting, some things seem familiar from previous books, but some things look very interesting. Thanks for the work, I look forward to read and test it

[Elias Daler]

Looks very interesting. Great job. I'll check it out when I have some money, ha-ha. (would be interesting to see your implementations of ECS).

[zsbzsb]

Is the source code available on github as with some of the other SFML books?

[OrderNexus]

Thank you for all of the nice comments, guys!

Is the source code available on github as with some of the other SFML books?

I will make it publicly available soon, just as I make sure the publisher has no problems with me doing so. Until then, the source code can always be downloaded from their website: https://www.packtpub.com/books/content/support/21835

As the book is on sale I just grabbed a copy and gone through the TOC. Looks very interesting, some things seem familiar from previous books, but some things look very interesting. Thanks for the work, I look forward to read and test it

Thanks for your support! I really hope you enjoy it.

[Sanction]

Awesome looking foreword to adding it to my collection

[OrderNexus]

Awesome looking foreword to adding it to my collection

Great! I hope you enjoy it

[Resethel]

Ah!!! Waited for it for 6 months now , thanks a lot 

[Mario]

+1 alone for a fitting cover image rather than some generic and unrelated thingy.

I'm not sure about the screenshot in your post, though. That nearest neighbour stretching has some very noticeable amount of inconsistent pixel sizes (reminds me of the latest Final Fantasy PC ports).

[OrderNexus]

Ah!!! Waited for it for 6 months now , thanks a lot 

Thank you! I can't believe someone has been waiting for it to come out for so long I hope you enjoy it!

+1 alone for a fitting cover image rather than some generic and unrelated thingy.

I'm not sure about the screenshot in your post, though. That nearest neighbour stretching has some very noticeable amount of inconsistent pixel sizes (reminds me of the latest Final Fantasy PC ports).

Thank you! It felt like a book about game development should have a cover that can't be mistaken for something else

As far as the graphics go, I suppose it's a matter of taste. To me personally, it felt more like an old school RPG with texture smoothing disabled. To each their own, I guess

[Mario]

You misunderstood me. I love retro-games (and still enjoy playing old NES/SNES era games). But compare the width/height of pixels. Some rows will be higher than others, which can create a very inconsistent look.

[OrderNexus]

You misunderstood me. I love retro-games (and still enjoy playing old NES/SNES era games). But compare the width/height of pixels. Some rows will be higher than others, which can create a very inconsistent look.

Ah, I see what you're saying. Sorry about that. It may have something to do with the zoom value of the view being used, in addition to the texture not being smoothed, which results in "nearest neighbor" being used. It may also have to do with the view's center or size not being integers, since this effect is different depending on where the player stands. This might be something I could address in an errata, if it ever comes to it. Thanks for pointing it out

[Mario]

It's probably caused by a scaling factor being not close to an integer and smaller than 2. The higher it is, the less noticeable are some misaligned rows. With a scaling factor of 1.5 every second row is inconsistent, with 2.0 all are perfect, with 2.2 only every tenth(?) row is affected, etc.

It's nothing critical, but rendering looks inconsistent.

[OrderNexus]

It's probably caused by a scaling factor being not close to an integer and smaller than 2. The higher it is, the less noticeable are some misaligned rows. With a scaling factor of 1.5 every second row is inconsistent, with 2.0 all are perfect, with 2.2 only every tenth(?) row is affected, etc.

It's nothing critical, but rendering looks inconsistent.

You're right. Like I said, if Packt allows me to make further revisions, it will definitely be resolved.

[Jesper Juhl]

Looks interresting. I might buy this.
(especially if it's free of di/tri-graphs unlike some other book and uses modern C++).
Anyway; congratulations on getting published. Great to have another SFML book out there.