Learn Game Programming with Ruby: Bring Your Ideas to Life with Gosu
by Mark Sobkowicz
Level up your programming skills while making fast-paced, arcade-style video games. Make enemy spaceships explode in balls of fire, and escape from a pit while dodging falling boulders. You’ll use the fun and approachable Ruby programming language and the Gosu 2D game library, which makes making games a breeze. Gain the skills and techniques you need to bring your own video game ideas to life with moving images and thumping sounds.
Buy Now
This title is currently available in Beta. Buy the eBook now, and you'll be able to download successive releases of the eBook as the authors add material and correct mistakes. You'll get the final eBook when the book is finished.
You'll also be able to buy the paper book at a substantial discount when it's released (we're currently estimating 2015-11-15, but these dates can change).
About this Book
- 185 pages (est)
- Published:
- Release: B1.0 (2015-04-14)
- ISBN: 978-1-68050-073-8
If you have a little experience programming in Ruby or another language, then you’re ready to start making your own video games. In this book you’ll learn concepts such as animation, keyboard and mouse movement, sounds and music, and physics as you build four exciting games.
Your first game will test your reflexes as you try to click on a ruby that pops in and out of your screen. Learn how to draw images and text, and how to make objects move around the screen. You’ll make a space-shooter where you defend your home base from a seemingly endless stream of enemies, as you discover how to use keyboard input, add music and sounds, an opening title screen, and scrolling end-credits. Next up: make a sliding number puzzle game where you’ll learn to incorporate more complicated logic and user interaction into your game. Learn all about game physics as you build a game where a bold adventurer must climb out of a pit while dodging bouncing, spinning rocks. Finally, package up your games as Windows and Mac apps so you can share them with your friends.
When you’re done with this book, you’ll have improved your programming skills, and you’ll have all the tools you need to make your own arcade-style games.
What You Need
You’ll need a computer running Windows 7 or later, or Mac OS X 10.7 or later. All the other software you need is free, and the first chapter will get you up and running.
Contents and Extracts
This book is currently in beta, so the contents and extracts will change as the book is developed.
Introduction- Ruby and Gosu
- What You’ll Need
- The Road Ahead
- Bumps in the Road
- What’s Next?
- Get Ready
- Getting Ready with Windows
- Getting Ready with OS X
- What if it Doesn’t Work?
- Install a Text Editor
- Organize Your Workspace
- What’s Next
- Creating Your First Game excerpt
- Make an Empty Window
- Getting Images for your Games
- Draw the Ruby
- Move the Ruby
- Make the Ruby Blink
- Add the Hammer
- Keep Score
- Set a Time Limit
- Play Again?
- Make it Your Own
- What’s Next
- Creating a Sprite-based Game excerpt
- The Player Class
- Move the Ship
- Make an Enemy
- Make it Your Own
- What’s Next
- Managing Lots of Sprites
- Make more Enemies
- Fire Bullets
- Handle Collisions
- Make Animated Explosions
- Cleaning Up our Arrays
- Make it Your Own
- What’s Next?
- Adding Scenes and Sounds
- Start over with Scenes
- End the Game
- Add Music and Sounds
- Make it Your Own
- What’s Next?
- Creating a Puzzle Game
- Drawing The Board
- Dragging a Square
- Turn Rules into Code
- Make it Your Own
- What’s Next
- Making a Platformer Game with Physics
- Use a Physics Engine
- Make Boulders Fall
- Make Stationary Walls and Platforms
- Moving a Character with Physics
- Add Moving Platforms
- Make it Your Own
- What’s Next
- Making a Side-Scrolling Game
- Use a Camera
- Place Platforms Randomly
- Shake your Camera
- Make it Your Own
- What’s Next
- Package and Share Your Game
- Packaging for Windows
- Packaging for OS X
- Share your Game
- What’s Next
- Resources
- Documentation
- Images and Sounds
- Bibliography