Chapter 14
Afterword
If you are interested in stories with happy endings
you would be better off reading some other book.
you would be better off reading some other book.
— Lemony Snicket,
A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning
A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning
14.1What Next?
You have reached the end of the book. Where to go from here? Well, if you've stayed with us up to this point, then you probably understand enough to get started with some real code, and you're probably itching to put all this new knowledge to work, right? We've found that the best way to learn is by doing. So don't just sit there, start making something!
As our final act, we leave you with these last few exercises. Some of them might be applicable only for those readers interested in making video games, but we wish you good luck wherever this knowledge takes you. We've learned a lot, worked very hard, and had a lot of fun writing this book, and we hope the same can be said of your experience reading it.
Exercises
- Download a game engine and make a mod for it.
- Learn about what makes video games fun. Take three of your favorite games and make a detailed analysis of their mechanics. What makes them fun?
- Complete a large and challenging project that implements an advanced technique or an experimental gameplay feature.
- Pick a particular aspect of video game programming that you find interesting and delve deeply into that area.
- Get a job working for a company that makes the kinds of games you will be proud of. (Hint: This is greatly facilitated by taking advantage of your answers to Exercises 1–4. Also, see the index entry for “job interview.”)
- Learn how to get along with other people, work on a team, and use version control and task tracking software. Nobody succeeds alone.
- Make some great video games. Always use technology as a means to an end, and never lose sight of the end product.
- Never stop learning.
I'm very well acquainted, too, with matters mathematical,
I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical,
About binomial theorem I'm teeming with a lot o' news,
With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse.
I'm very good at integral and differential calculus;
I know the scientific names of beings animalculous:
In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I am the very model of a modern Major-General.
I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical,
About binomial theorem I'm teeming with a lot o' news,
With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse.
I'm very good at integral and differential calculus;
I know the scientific names of beings animalculous:
In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I am the very model of a modern Major-General.
— Major-General Stanley from The Pirates of Penzance