Macromedia Flash MX 2004 Games Most Wanted

Rating:
Summary: Nice physical effects
Review: As a physicist, I immediately turned to the parts that incorporate physics. Like the friction of a billiard ball on a pool table. I grew up on Pong, and the rich texturing here is so amazingly removed from that! The discussions on how to collide two balls may not be fully correct to someone who had to deal with impact parameters in classical and quantum mechanics. But it suffices well in the book's simulations.

Another chapter deals with using gravity, and will be useful to some of you. Takes the mystery out of incorporating at least a simple gravity in your games. Maybe it is nothing profound, but the results are very slick. And achieved with relatively little source code, which is thoroughly explained in the narrative.

The level of detail of the physical simulations here does not approach that of some games by Activision and Electronic Arts, of course. But those are games developed with multimillion dollar budgets and teams of programmers. This book is suitable for you to develop a game by yourself.