programming

It's hard to find good information about game programming and design. The trouble is that people working in the industry have an incentive to keep their techniques secret -- they don't want their competitors to learn them. The people who aren't in the industry can write about games but don't have the experience to back it up.

Game AI Programming Wisdom gives us wisdom from people who have worked on real games. Each section is a short explanation of a particular problem (like pathfinding, tactical reasoning, or pattern recognition). Since they're short and independent, you can pick the section that applies to the problem you're trying to solve and read that without having to read everything in order. However, each section is written by a different person, so if you try to read the book straight through you will be distracted by the change in writing styles and level of detail.

I'm quite glad to see this book. It's actually the first game programming/design book that I purchased. (I'm quite picky when it comes to books. I'm sure Amazon doesn't like that.) Most of the game books I see go into low level programming details. This book teaches you the principles and techniques that will be useful for more than the specific problems they cover.

Written in the same format as the Game Programming Gems books this book should be the first thing you buy if you're serious about AI. Well written and edited by some of today's most knowledgable AI programmers the topics covered include path planning, race AI, team tactics, finite state machines, scripting etc. The path planning section of the book alone is priceless. I did feel there may have been a little overlap with some of the AI sections in the Game Programming Gems books and one or two pearls of wisdom could have been expanded upon but other than that it was hard to fault the book. Therefore, get it! Read it! Treasure it!

Confused about AI? Get this book! This is a nicely bound reference library with a large variety of techniques and algorithms.

You'll get to read articles written by some of the industries' brightest talent. I keep it next to my desk at all times.