San Francisco, CA, May 6, 2009—The Blender 3D content creation suite is one of the world's most popular 3D design and rendering tools. But it's also a fast and powerful animation suite with an integrated game engine that lets users build levels, characters, props, lighting, and game logic. With so much depth and so many professional-level features, a guide to help game designers harness its full capabilities was badly needed. To help artists and game developers get the most out of the Blender game engine, No Starch Press and the Blender Foundation have teamed up to bring their official guide to game creation with Blender to readers worldwide.
The Blender GameKit, 2nd Edition (No Starch Press, May 09, 320 pp. w/ CD, full color, $44.95, ISBN 9781593272050) is the ultimate guide to creating and animating 3D games with Blender. "Blender is a uniquely powerful tool," said No Starch Press founder Bill Pollock. "Its 3D modeling, animation, and rendering capabilities are on par with the best commercial software, but Blender is free. With Blender, anyone can be a game developer; you don't have to pirate the expensive stuff or work for EA or Blizzard—you can do it at home, in your pajamas."
Now fully revised and updated for Blender 2.48, The Blender GameKit, 2nd Edition begins with a crash course for those new to 3D development and the Blender interface. Step-by-step tutorials teach readers the fundamentals of making games, like how to create models, add motion and interactivity, and turn objects into actual games. A reference section offers complete coverage of the game engine framework, game logic bricks, real-time materials and textures, and Python for game programming.
This four-color book includes a CD containing editable (and playable!) Blender games like the groundbreaking open source game Yo Frankie!, all files for the tutorials, and Blender V2.48 for Windows, Mac OSX, and Linux.
For more information, to schedule an interview, or to request a review copy of The Blender GameKit, 2nd Edition, contact Travis Peterson at No Starch Press (nostarchpr@oreilly.com, +1.415.863.9900, x300), or visit www.nostarch.com.
Sample Pages from The Blender GameKit, 2nd Edition:
A sample of what readers can do with The Blender GameKit, 2nd Edition:
(C) Copyright Blender Foundation, apricot.blender.org
About the Authors
This 2nd edition of The Blender GameKit was produced by the Blender Foundation to help users unleash their 3D game creation powers and to support open source projects to further improve Blender. Editor Carsten Wartmann is a 3D designer and renowned author of several Blender books.
Additional Resources
Chapter 6, "Tube Cleaner: A Simple Shooting Game" (PDF)
Table of contents overview
Detailed table of contents (PDF)
Index (PDF)
Large cover image
The Blender GameKit, 2nd Edition
Edited by Carsten Wartmann
May 2009, 320 pp. w/ CD, full color
ISBN 9781593272050, $44.95 USD
order@oreilly.com
1-800-998-9938
1-707-827-7000
Available in fine bookstores everywhere, from www.oreilly.com/nostarch, or directly from No Starch Press (http://www.nostarch.com/, orders@nostarch.com, 1-800-420-7240).
About No Starch Press
Founded in 1994, No Starch Press is one of the few remaining independent computer book publishers. We publish the finest in geek entertainment—unique books on technology, with a focus on Open Source, security, hacking, programming, alternative operating systems, and LEGO. Our titles have personality, our authors are passionate, and our books tackle topics that people care about. See http://www.nostarch.com/ for more information and our complete online catalog. (And most No Starch Press books use RepKover, a lay-flat binding that won't snap shut.)
About the Blender Foundation
The Blender Foundation is an independent organization (a Dutch "stichting") acting as a non-profit public benefit corporation with offices in the Amsterdam Blender Institute. The Foundation works to establish services for active users and developers of Blender, maintain and improve the current Blender product via a public accessible source code system under the GNU GPL license, establish funding that serves the foundation's goals, and give the worldwide Internet community access to 3D technology in general, with Blender as a core.
About O’Reilly
O’Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books, online services, magazines, and conferences. Since 1978, O’Reilly Media has been a chronicler and catalyst of cutting-edge development, homing in on the technology trends that really matter and spurring their adoption by amplifying “faint signals” from the alpha geeks who are creating the future. An active participant in the technology community, the company has a long history of advocacy, meme-making, and evangelism.