UDK Game Development ~ Paperback ~ Alan Thorn

These days, the games industry is a multi-billion-dollar business. In this competitive marketplace, developers seek to gain an advantage over the competition by using ready-made, third-party tools and engines that enable them to quickly design high-powered games. One such tool is the Unreal Development Kit, or UDK, created by Epic Games. With the freely downloadable UDK, game developers can turn their existing graphics, sounds, ideas, concepts, and plans into fully working and cohesive games. UDK(TM) GAME DEVELOPMENT is written with newcomers to the UDK in mind. It is arranged so that each of the core foundational UDK components is considered in depth and one by one, in the best order in which to tackle them. Reading this book, you'll explore such key topics as meshes, materials, textures, sounds, and lights. As you do, you'll discover how to build a number of levels, or mini-games, that feature music, animated characters, weapons, destructible scenery, lighting effects, particle systems, and more. After reading this book from cover to cover, you'll have a firm grasp of UDK essentials. A companion Web site contains all the UDK levels constructed in this book, source code for the UnrealScript language, and material and mesh files.Author BiographyAlan Thorn is a London-based game developer, freelance programmer, and author with more than 13 years of industry experience. He founded the game studio Wax Lyrical Games in 2010 and is the creator of the award-winning game Baron Wittard: Nemesis of Ragnarok. He is the author of ten video training courses and thirteen books on game development, including Practical Game Development with Unity and Blender and UDK Game Development. Alan has worked freelance on more than 500 projects, including games, simulators, kiosks, serious games, and augmented reality software for game studios, museums, and theme parks worldwide. He is currently working on an upcoming 2D-adventure game, Mega Bad Code, for desktop computers and mobile devices.