My name is Erik Yuzwa and I run an independent computer games company, Wazoo Enterprises Inc. With the help of some fine folks at Delmar Cengage Learning, I’ve published “Learn C++ By Making Games”. Click here to buy it now or read more details below.

Learn C++ By Making Games

The C++ language is still a strong and viable option for any stripe of developer today, whether they be interested in producing their own games or business software. For a new developer, the language can be tricky to learn and you may not know where to begin.

This book is written as an easy-to-follow guide to using the C++ language. It is a step-by-step resource for learning the language from the ground up with the objective of helping you learn.

My C++ Background

I became interested in computer programming at a young age, and as I was growing up I tended to gravitate towards trying to figure out how things were done. During my University years, I became interested in using Borland’s Turbo C++ IDE which was my first introduction to the language. As my interest grew, so did the vast number of tasks I could suddenly accomplish!

I’ve written a series of game development related articles using C++ for various popular websites such as gamedev.net and bizgames.com.

During 2004 I also approached the University of Calgary’s Continuing Education department about a game development focused course, and won approval for running 3 semesters of “PC Game Programming 101″ where I taught my students the basic concepts of game development using C++.

I don’t like to play any internet marketing sales games. It is misleading and disrespectfull of you. There is no long sales letter, no fake amped hype and no hard sell pitches. My book is 100% content. No catches and no attempts inside the book of trying to sell you a bigger product.

Don’t just take it from me, what do readers say about the book?

why you must learn c++

When compared to some of the popular languages today of C# or Java, you might have a bit of fear that you’re “wasting your time” learning something such as C++. I disagree with this fear completely! Nearly every higher level language has very C++ like structures and terminology making it easier to pick them up, once you’ve understood the concepts of C++. The C++ language is also still quite popular in the mobile technology world of development, not to mention the thousands of companies around the world that still rely on programs written in C++ to run their business operations.

Table of Contents

The book is 450 pages in total and contains a lot of theory, explanations and sample code.
Here’s the table of contents:

• Ch 1. Introduction to Programming
• Ch 2. The Mandatory Hello World Program and Its Structure: Blocks, Comments, The Standard Namespace, etc.,
• Ch 3. Variables, Constants and Volatile Variables
• Ch 4. Basic Data Types, Enums, Typedefs
• Ch 5. Console input/output
• Ch 6. Strings
• Ch 7. Game #1: Funny Headlines
• Ch 8. Assignment and Typecasting, Operators: Arithmetic, Bitwise, Shortcut Assignments, Blocks
• Ch 9. Conditional Statements: If, Switch, the “?” Operator, Loops: While, Do, For; Break and Continue Statements
• Ch 10. Game #2: The Last Straw, PART III Functions: Including Libraries and Using Predefined Functions
• Ch 11. Random Numbers
• Ch 12. Defining Your Own Functions
• Ch 13. Function Parameters: Call by Value, Call by Reference, Default Parameters, Returning Values from Functions
• Ch 14. Variable Scope Rules
• Ch 15. Inline Functions vs Macros
• Ch 16. Game #3: Blackjack, PART IV Elementary Data Structures
• Ch 17. One-Dimensional Arrays, Searches and Sorts, Multi-Dimensional Arrays, Array Parameters
• Ch 18. Recursion
• Ch 19. Structures
• Ch 20. Unions
• Ch 21. Game #4: Mastermind, PART V Pointers
• Ch 22. Introduction to Pointers: What They Are, How to Initialize Them, etc.
• Ch 23. Pointer Arithmetic, Pointer Parameters
• Ch 24. Comparisons Between Pointers and Arrays, Function Pointers, Pointers vs References
• Ch 25. Game #5: Variable-sized Minesweeper
• Ch 26. Classes, Objects, Composition, Inheritance, Abstraction, Polymorphism, Encapsulation, Data and Function Members
• Ch 27. Accessing Data and Function Members from Inside and from Outside the Objects, Access Qualifiers: Private, Public, Protected, Friend, Class Declarations and Definitions
• Ch 28. Object Construction and Destruction, Overloading Functions, Overloading Operators
• Ch 29. Classes vs Structs, Object Equality, Dynamic Objects (new and delete)
• Ch 30. OO Analysis, Inheritance and Class Hierarchies
• Ch 31. Virtual Functions and Virtual Base Classes
• Ch 32. Game #6: Othello
• Ch 33. Text Files and fstreams
• Ch 34. Object Serialization
• Ch 35. Game #7: Adding a Savegame to Othello
• Ch 37. Where to find SDL and free compilers on the Web
• Ch 38. Crash Course in SDL Graphics, Keyboard input, and other basic Concepts
• Ch 39. Defining GraphicalEntity class that can show itself in SDL
• Ch 40. Covering input and sound in SDL
• Ch 41. Game #8: Graphical Othello
• Ch 42. Introduction to Linked Lists
• Chapter 43. Discussion of Templates
• Chapter 44. Introduction to Exception Handling
• Ch 45. Introduction to Containers and Iterators

Buy my book now by clicking the button below. Thanks very much for the support.