Mastering Unreal Technology: The Art of Level Design

Comment: It came in decent quality. Some pages crinkled a bit but there is no writing or hightlighting in the book.

Comment: This was probably a pretty good intro to the Unreal Editor when it came out. Unfortunately, the editor has since gone through at least 2 new versions with many changes making it really hard to follow along or do any of the tutorials. I did learn by mostly having to search through the editor for where things are now, which often introduces you to areas that may not even be mentioned in the book. The tutorial files for UT2 mostly won't open in the more current versions of the software, UT3 and most recently UDK. A third of the book is dedicated to Maya which has gone through at least five or six additional versions since the books release. The Maya tutorials mostly require a plugin which, of course, has not been updated to accommodate newer versions of Unreal or Maya. As such, the Maya portions are OK as basic Maya references, but useless as to it's integration with Unreal in both software's current versions. I gave it a three as it's a decent overview of earlier versions of Unreal. there is some good info in it but I recommend picking up a cheap or used copy if you're thinking about purchasing it purely as a reference.

Comment: This book is a great start if you are interested in designing your own levels or creating a new game. Good step by step tutorials to give you a good idea of how to create similar levels. I would highly recommend this book for beginners and intermediate game/level designers.

Comment: I was using UnrealEd before I bought this book and I wanted to gain more insight. This book contained almost nothing I didn't already know and I wouldn't recommend it for anyone who has used UnrealEd extensively. It doesn't cover what you would think for 1000 pages. It only covers the basics of everything. But for someone who wants to get into UnrealEd this would be a great book. Don't expect to become an expert with this book, it just teaches the fundamentals, which is still a great start for beginners.

Also, one third of the book pertains to 3D modeling, which should be a separate book in itself. Yes, it's great to know about 3D modeling when creating maps but it's an entirely different field.

Comment: This was once a great book on the subject of level design - I have no reason to doubt that. However, it is no longer of any use. You need to supply your own copy of Unreal 2000 to work with the book, and that game is out of date. Moreover, you need to supply your own copy of Maya 9, which you can no longer get by any simple methods.