Ali Jaya Meilio

Hi all, it’s a long time since I write my last blog post.
And now, I want to review a book that I recently read, It’s “Learning Construct 2” by Aryadi Subagio.
The book is written by my friend (acquaintance?) in Game Developer Indonesia community, so… I want to help to spread the exposure of this book.

And you can buy it or get a free sample at Learning Construct 2 by Aryadi Subagio at Packtpub

Synopsis

For the one who wants the short synopsis (in my opinion) about the book, here it is:

It’s a book for complete newbie in Game Development, that doesn’t know how to make a game or how to program. The book tells how to make a game with Construct 2, with Learning by Doing approach. The reader is asked to make several simple game to get a grasp of the mechanic of the Game Development with Construct 2.

Target Audience

This book targets really specific people, that is complete newbie in Game Development world and doesn’t know how to programming.

Because the book assumes it like that. And that’s a good thing.
It will make zero assumptions of reader knowledge of the programming or game development, so, if the reader is complete newbie, he/she will not lose a single detail what this book tells about.

But if the reader knows how to program or have been Game Development using another authoring tools, they will find this book is kinda slow. So I don’t think they will benefit much from this book.

The Structure and Content

The books cover all from the start of nothing, to publish a game.

It starts with setting up the Construct 2, including downloading, installing, etc.
And continues to give the basic information of Game Design, tells What makes a game, a game.

And, although the title says “Learning Construct 2”, actually this book is pretty much Using Construct 2, because this book actually teaches Learning by Doing.
So the reader is not presented with a bunch of theory and manual about the Construct 2, but hand of practice of making games.

So by the Third Chapter, the reader is asked to make a game like Flappy Bird. It’s a simple game, but from there, the reader could get a better grasp what Construct 2 can really do.

New technique is revealed with the game. Because some games need different feature, therefore new technique needs to be revealed.
The chapter is structured very well, so that the prerequisites technique is shown first before the required technique to make a game.

So that’s advised to follow the book from the start and follow along the tutorial, because if you jump the Chapter, you may put yourself in confusion because you met the technique that is not explained in that Chapter, because it’s covered in previous Chapter.

And the last Chapter is how to debug your game, which is important for any programming thing.
Finally, there’s a Chapter dedicated to publish your game in several platform like mobile game, web game, or desktop game.

So this book covers what it takes from zero to publish your game and show it to the world for the one who never makes any game before.

My Personal Opinion

The game that is presented in this book is really simple, not only for someone who have already in Game Development, but also for the complete newbie which is the target audience.

It’s not an AAA game that any wannabe newbie game developer that want to make, it’s just simple game, with simple algorithm, and simple interaction.

So I would like to see this book as a guideline rather than a rule. The games that presented in this book are just a tools for learning purpose.
And also, this book encourages the reader to do something more with the game they have made, put some feature and mix the technique, so it will become a full blown game rather than a simple prototype.

This books teaches how to use Construct 2, but not with lengthy manual and theory, but with game tutorial, which is more fun to do.

The downfall of this book is it’s too verbose, so the sentence looks very long. Sometimes it is just tiring to read the book only not practice it.
The author tries to use friendly sentence, resulting the sentence too long for the information it contains. It could be understood because this book is for complete newbie.

Conclusion

Wow… this review is longer than expected.
So in conclusion, I really recommend this book to someone who often says “I want to make a game. Where do I need to start? What tools should I use?”…
And they often get the answer like “The tools doesn’t matter, you could make game almost from anything”…
Which is I don’t think it would help anyone, you could instead pick this book and start make one.

Written with StackEdit.