Unreal Tournament Game Programming for Teens (For Teens (Course Technology))

This must have been a tough book to write. The authors chose a daunting subject--the Unreal scripting language--and attempted to present it to an audience unprepared for its complexities. That isn't to say that the "teens" in the title can't be capable and intelligent or that there aren't many talented programmmers among their ranks. It's the book's premise, however, that it will teach the rank amateur to write Unreal script, which turns out to both be the book's strength and its weakness. On the one hand, it starts by assuming no previous experience with the Unreal engine or programming and begins by building a strong foundation of good programming practice. On the other hand, it means that this slim volume (it's not quite 300 pages long) tries to do a whole lot of things at once.

The book starts with a whirlwind introduction to programming, the Unreal Editor, and even the architecture of the game itself. It shows how to set up the game and editor for scripting,...Read more