LibGDX Game Development Essentials

LibGDX Game Development Essentials is hard to follow along with, and since I'm one of those learners who likes to follow along when I'm learning a technology, that made this book troublesome.On the one hand, I certainly got something out of the book, and successfully got a glimpse of just how powerful LibGDX is.But on the other hand, glossing over pieces of code, combined with incomplete (or usually just vastly different) code (and assets) in the downloadable zip files, made for a read that was just plain difficult to follow. These aren't merely typos, but rather like either the code or book was revised independently of each other.The book focuses on a single project over its course, which is something I generally like, as it means the project is built upon and expanded. In this case it's a Flappy Bird clone, although it seems to be more of a tweaking of the LibGDX demo "The plane that couldn't fly good." Over the course of the book you learn the ins-and-outs of LibGDX as you create this, primarily from scratch (minus easy to obtain graphics).Going merely with the flow of the book, it certainly does a good job of walking you through the process from initial creation to launch on the Google Play store (as well as a look at Apple's App store - that's all I can say as I skimmed over that particular section). I feel confident enough after reading this book that I could successfully go through that entire process (start to finish). And I have a firm grasp of what LibGDX can do.But I am glad that I picked up two other LibGDX books, as this one just wasn't ideal enough.While Juwal Bose certainly seems to know LibGDX, code confusion ultimately renders LibGDX Game Development Essentials a solid 3 of 5 stars.Depending upon how the other books I purchased are, this review may be appended to in the future. I'll also note that previous to this I read most of Kevin Brothaler's OpenGL ES 2 for Android, which is an awesome book. However, given the power of the LibGDX tool, I don't see myself continuing down that path much further.

There is absolutely no need for this book. A much easier way is to go to Youtube. There are tons of tutorials on each of the topics covered here.So why waste your money ? In fact, in youtube, you will have a much easier learning experience where the authors take you each step along the way. When you get stuck, just google on the specific issue and there are plenty of people asking the same questions. Likewise, you will find many developers sharing their knowhow on the net.

Good book for beginners.Nice examples and covers almost all topics.Cons,Should have been more detailed on 3d and physics

The Best all in one guide to learn libgdx. It teaches you everything about libgdx game development step by step. Fot those who wanna get their feet wet in the world of game development, should start with this book. If you have a good enough knowledge of java, you can follow this book easily. All the concepts have been explained clearly. It teaches you everything you'll ever need to build and publish a game . It even teaches you how put your game on playstore or apple app store and also how to put ads on your game to make money.It even teaches the box2d physics library, tiled map creating, 9patch button creating, particle effects, 3D game development and what not. Almost all of libgdx is covered here, which is more than enough to get a game up and running. I would recommend everyone who wants to build games for android /iphone/ pc/ web to follow this book, this book covers everything.Download the source code from the packt website and keep it open while reading the book , it'll help a lot. Then try it out with your own hands. If you wanna dive into game development, there's no better resource than this. Thanks a lot Juwal Bose and packt for publishing this outstanding book..Thanks a lot. :)

The book has been oriented to beginners and it is written in an easy way, so that you can get to the point quite straightforward. The book covers all the basics you need to know in order to become familiar with LibGDX development, from dev environment setup to game release. Through the different chapters you will apply the concepts you learn to the practice, and by the end of the book you will have your own copy of Flappy bird (surprise :p).More info: http://www.6020peaks.com/2015/02/game-development-beginning-with-libgdx/