Download or read book Level Up written by Scott Rogers and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2010-09-29 with total page 515 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Design and build cutting-edge video games with help from video game expert Scott Rogers! If you want to design and build cutting-edge video games but aren’t sure where to start, then this is the book for you. Written by leading video game expert Scott Rogers, who has designed the hits Pac Man World, Maxim vs. Army of Zin, and SpongeBob Squarepants, this book is full of Rogers's wit and imaginative style that demonstrates everything you need to know about designing great video games. Features an approachable writing style that considers game designers from all levels of expertise and experience Covers the entire video game creation process, including developing marketable ideas, understanding what gamers want, working with player actions, and more Offers techniques for creating non-human characters and using the camera as a character Shares helpful insight on the business of design and how to create design documents So, put your game face on and start creating memorable, creative, and unique video games with this book!

Download or read book The World Until Yesterday written by Jared Diamond and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2012-12-31 with total page 727 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The bestselling author of Collapse and Guns, Germs and Steel surveys the history of human societies to answer the question: What can we learn from traditional societies that can make the world a better place for all of us? “As he did in his Pulitzer Prize-winning Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond continues to make us think with his mesmerizing and absorbing new book." Bookpage Most of us take for granted the features of our modern society, from air travel and telecommunications to literacy and obesity. Yet for nearly all of its six million years of existence, human society had none of these things. While the gulf that divides us from our primitive ancestors may seem unbridgeably wide, we can glimpse much of our former lifestyle in those largely traditional societies still or recently in existence. Societies like those of the New Guinea Highlanders remind us that it was only yesterday—in evolutionary time—when everything changed and that we moderns still possess bodies and social practices often better adapted to traditional than to modern conditions.The World Until Yesterday provides a mesmerizing firsthand picture of the human past as it had been for millions of years—a past that has mostly vanished—and considers what the differences between that past and our present mean for our lives today. This is Jared Diamond’s most personal book to date, as he draws extensively from his decades of field work in the Pacific islands, as well as evidence from Inuit, Amazonian Indians, Kalahari San people, and others. Diamond doesn’t romanticize traditional societies—after all, we are shocked by some of their practices—but he finds that their solutions to universal human problems such as child rearing, elder care, dispute resolution, risk, and physical fitness have much to teach us. Provocative, enlightening, and entertaining, The World Until Yesterday is an essential and fascinating read.

Download or read book The Virgin Book of Killer Sudoku written by Virgin Books and published by Random House. This book was released on 2006 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If you thought Sudoku was difficult, wait until you try Killer Sudoku! The next step up from normal Sudoku, the Killer puzzles use the same grid as Sudoku and require the reader to fill in the numbers 1 to 9 as before. But this time the numbers in the outlined boxes must also all add up to a specific number. Already hugely popular in the national press, the puzzles are a must for Sudoku fans. With five difficulty ratings, from 'very easy' to 'deadly', the 100 brand new Killer Sudoku puzzles in this book will provide a challenge to the most ardent Sudoku addict.

Download or read book Word Searches For Dummies written by Denise Sutherland and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2009-05-11 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A travel-friendly puzzle-packed book that keeps the brain in shape One of the best ways to exercise the mind is through word and logic games like word searches and Sudoku. Studies have shown that doing word searches frequently can help prevent diseases like Alzheimer's and dementia. Word Searches For Dummies is a great way to strengthen the mind and keep the brain active plus, it's just plain fun! This unique guide features several different types of word searches that take readers beyond simply circling the answer: secret shape word searches, story word searches, listless word searches, winding words, quiz word searches, and more. It provides a large number of puzzles at different levels that will both test and exercise the mind while keeping the reader entertained for hours.

Download or read book Decoded written by Jay-Z and published by One World. This book was released on 2010-12-07 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Decoded is a book like no other: a collection of lyrics and their meanings that together tell the story of a culture, an art form, a moment in history, and one of the most provocative and successful artists of our time. Praise for Decoded “Compelling . . . provocative, evocative . . . Part autobiography, part lavishly illustrated commentary on the author’s own work, Decoded gives the reader a harrowing portrait of the rough worlds Jay-Z navigated in his youth, while at the same time deconstructing his lyrics.”—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times “One of a handful of books that just about any hip hop fan should own.”—The New Yorker “Elegantly designed, incisively written . . . an impressive leap by a man who has never been known for small steps.”—Los Angeles Times “A riveting exploration of Jay-Z’s journey . . . So thoroughly engrossing, it reads like a good piece of cultural journalism.”—The Boston Globe “Shawn Carter’s most honest airing of the experiences he drew on to create the mythic figure of Jay-Z . . . The scenes he recounts along the way are fascinating.”—Entertainment Weekly “Hip-hop’s renaissance man drops a classic. . . . Heartfelt, passionate and slick.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Download or read book Relentless written by Younggil An and published by . This book was released on 2016-04-14 with total page 626 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book contains analysis of 48 games between two of the top Go players of the early 21st century, but it is not just another book of game commentaries. It is the story of the rivalry and friendship between Lee Sedol and Gu Li, their relentless struggle to become the best, and an explication of the secrets of Go hidden within their games. There are two parts to Relentless. Part One is the core of the book and examines, in unprecedented detail, the 10 game match (jubango) played by Lee Sedol and Gu Li throughout 2014. Part Two reviews every other official game between the two masters (up until the end of 2015), providing the reader with ample material to review and enjoy, while reflecting on what they learned in Part One. Rather than just saying what happened, we use the match as the basis for an extensive study of the fundamental techniques, strategies and principles of Go--all applied within the context of real games, so that the reader can see how ideas and techniques are employed in practice. Go is an art form, and like other arts, studying the work of masters contributes greatly to one's appreciation, enjoyment and gradual mastery of the craft. When you study a piece of music, the goal is rarely (if ever) just to be able to play it. Rather, a deep study of a piece is intended to convey a visceral understanding of the technique and theory embodied within it, in a way that a book about theory never could. Relentless strives to offer that same experience to Go players. Over two years, we have distilled our knowledge and passion for the game into 625 pages of pure Go, until nothing more would fit. Where other books might gloss over the details, we have sought to expose the wealth of tactical considerations beneath the surface, so that they may be studied, applied to the reader's games, and eventually mastered. We have extracted a practical lesson from every passage of play and boiled it all down to a series of memorable proverbs (both old and new) for the reader to internalize. Relentless also draws on the knowledge of great thinkers of the past--such as Sun Zi (Sun Tzu), Lao Zi, Thucydides, Carl von Clausewitz, and many more--demonstrating how their ideas apply to Go. Finally, the commentary is honest. In the past, some books portrayed professional Go players like gods and politely overlooked small mistakes. We make no apologies for doing away with this convention. This is not intended to be the kind of book you will only read once. The content is dense in parts and may require reflection. It is our hope that it will serve readers for many years to come, however worse for wear, as a source of knowledge and inspiration, throughout their journey along the path of Go.

Download or read book Everyone s an Author written by Andrea Lunsford and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Students today are writing more than ever. Everyone's an Author bridges the gap between the writing students already do--online, at home, in their communities--and the writing they'll do in college and beyond. It builds student confidence by showing that they already know how to think rhetorically and offers advice for applying those skills as students, professionals, and citizens. Because students are also reading more than ever, the third edition includes new advice for reading critically, engaging respectfully with others, and distinguishing facts from misinformation. Also available in a version with readings.

Download or read book THINK Critically written by Peter A. Facione and published by Prentice Hall. This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THINK Currency. THINK Relevancy. THINK Critically. THINK Critically is a cutting-edge, self-reflective guide for improving critical thinking skills through careful analysis, reasoned inference, and thoughtful evaluation of contemporary culture and ideas. An engaging visual design developed with extensive student feedback and 15-page chapters makes THINK Critically the textbook your students will actually read. It delivers the core concepts of critical thinking in a way they can easily understand. Additionally, engaging examples and masterful exercises help students learn to clarify ideas, analyze arguments, and evaluate reasoning. A better teaching and learning experience This program will provide a better teaching and learning experience--for you and your students. Here's how: Improve Critical Thinking - "Think Critically" exercises are positioned throughout each chapter to help students build skills. Engage Students - In-text features include "Map It Out" sections, video clips, and Web-based multimedia examples. Support Instructors - Four new optional chapters are available through the Pearson Custom Library, and a comprehensive supplements package is available to be packaged with this text.

Download or read book How to Do Things with Videogames written by Ian Bogost and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2011-08-05 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent years, computer games have moved from the margins of popular culture to its center. Reviews of new games and profiles of game designers now regularly appear in the New York Times and the New Yorker, and sales figures for games are reported alongside those of books, music, and movies. They are increasingly used for purposes other than entertainment, yet debates about videogames still fork along one of two paths: accusations of debasement through violence and isolation or defensive paeans to their potential as serious cultural works. In How to Do Things with Videogames, Ian Bogost contends that such generalizations obscure the limitless possibilities offered by the medium’s ability to create complex simulated realities. Bogost, a leading scholar of videogames and an award-winning game designer, explores the many ways computer games are used today: documenting important historical and cultural events; educating both children and adults; promoting commercial products; and serving as platforms for art, pornography, exercise, relaxation, pranks, and politics. Examining these applications in a series of short, inviting, and provocative essays, he argues that together they make the medium broader, richer, and more relevant to a wider audience. Bogost concludes that as videogames become ever more enmeshed with contemporary life, the idea of gamers as social identities will become obsolete, giving rise to gaming by the masses. But until games are understood to have valid applications across the cultural spectrum, their true potential will remain unrealized. How to Do Things with Videogames offers a fresh starting point to more fully consider games’ progress today and promise for the future.

Download or read book The Colors of Nature written by Raymond Jungles and published by The Monacelli Press, LLC. This book was released on 2008-10-28 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In exquisite gardens inspired by the lush native plants of his adopted home of Miami, landscape artist/architect Raymond Jungles uses nature as a means of self-expression. He is known for modernist groupings of geometric shapes, which highlight the natural aspects of plantings, water features, and native stone. His use of plants, drawn largely from those indigenous to subtropical regions, emphasizes their dramatic sculptural forms. Jungles's original and inviting green spaces, like those of his mentor, the master landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx, bring the comfort and beauty of nature into built settings. This monograph on the work of Raymond Jungles features more than 20 residential projects. From a rooftop garden 34 stories in the air to a natural setting of ponds and islands surrounding a 1920s residence to an informal green space in the Pearl Islands of Panama, Jungles constructs vibrant spaces that complement the natural environment. His modern vocabulary is on display in beautiful color photographs that document each landscape in both panoramic views and intimate details. Jungles's own descriptions of each garden address the process of making the landscape as well as the design elements that tie each composition to common experiences of nature.

Download or read book The Cult of LEGO written by John Baichtal and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2011-11-01 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Cult of LEGO, Wired's GeekDad blogger John Baichtal and BrickJournal founder Joe Meno take you on a magnificent, illustrated tour of the LEGO® community, its people, and their creations. The Cult of LEGO introduces us to fans and builders from all walks of life. People like professional LEGO artist Nathan Sawaya; enigmatic Dutch painter Ego Leonard (who maintains that he is, in fact, a LEGO minifig); Angus MacLane, a Pixar animator who builds CubeDudes, instantly recognizable likenesses of fictional characters; Brick Testament creator Brendan Powell Smith, who uses LEGO to illustrate biblical stories; and Henry Lim, whose work includes a series of models recreating M.C. Escher lithographs and a full-scale, functioning LEGO harpsichord. Marvel at spectacular LEGO creations like: –A life-sized Stegosaurus and an 80,000-brick T. Rex skeleton –Detailed microscale versions of landmarks like the Acropolis and Yankee Stadium –A 22-foot long, 350-pound re-creation of the World War II battleship Yamato –A robotic, giant chess set that can replay historical matches or take on an opponent –A three-level, remote-controlled Jawa Sandcrawler, complete with moving conveyor belt Whether you're a card-carrying LEGO fanatic or just thinking fondly about that dusty box of LEGO in storage, The Cult of LEGO will inspire you to take out your bricks and build something amazing.

Download or read book The Invisible Gorilla written by Christopher Chabris and published by Harmony. This book was released on 2011-06-07 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reading this book will make you less sure of yourself—and that’s a good thing. In The Invisible Gorilla, Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons, creators of one of psychology’s most famous experiments, use remarkable stories and counterintuitive scientific findings to demonstrate an important truth: Our minds don’t work the way we think they do. We think we see ourselves and the world as they really are, but we’re actually missing a whole lot. Chabris and Simons combine the work of other researchers with their own findings on attention, perception, memory, and reasoning to reveal how faulty intuitions often get us into trouble. In the process, they explain: • Why a company would spend billions to launch a product that its own analysts know will fail • How a police officer could run right past a brutal assault without seeing it • Why award-winning movies are full of editing mistakes • What criminals have in common with chess masters • Why measles and other childhood diseases are making a comeback • Why money managers could learn a lot from weather forecasters Again and again, we think we experience and understand the world as it is, but our thoughts are beset by everyday illusions. We write traffic laws and build criminal cases on the assumption that people will notice when something unusual happens right in front of them. We’re sure we know where we were on 9/11, falsely believing that vivid memories are seared into our minds with perfect fidelity. And as a society, we spend billions on devices to train our brains because we’re continually tempted by the lure of quick fixes and effortless self-improvement. The Invisible Gorilla reveals the myriad ways that our intuitions can deceive us, but it’s much more than a catalog of human failings. Chabris and Simons explain why we succumb to these everyday illusions and what we can do to inoculate ourselves against their effects. Ultimately, the book provides a kind of x-ray vision into our own minds, making it possible to pierce the veil of illusions that clouds our thoughts and to think clearly for perhaps the first time.

Download or read book A Dingo Ate My Math Book written by Burkard Polster and published by American Mathematical Soc.. This book was released on 2017-12-27 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Dingo Ate My Math Book presents ingenious, unusual, and beautiful nuggets of mathematics with a distinctly Australian flavor. It focuses, for example, on Australians' love of sports and gambling, and on Melbourne's iconic, mathematically inspired architecture. Written in a playful and humorous style, the book offers mathematical entertainment as well as a glimpse of Australian culture for the mathematically curious of all ages. This collection of engaging stories was extracted from the Maths Masters column that ran from 2007 to 2014 in Australia's Age newspaper. The maths masters in question are Burkard Polster and Marty Ross, two (immigrant) Aussie mathematicians, who each week would write about math in the news, providing a new look at old favorites, mathematical history, quirks of school mathematics—whatever took their fancy. All articles were written for a very general audience, with the intention of being as inviting as possible and assuming a minimum of mathematical background.

Download or read book Beyond Choices written by Miguel Sicart and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2013-09-06 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How computer games can be designed to create ethically relevant experiences for players. Today's blockbuster video games—and their never-ending sequels, sagas, and reboots—provide plenty of excitement in high-resolution but for the most part fail to engage a player's moral imagination. In Beyond Choices, Miguel Sicart calls for a new generation of video and computer games that are ethically relevant by design. In the 1970s, mainstream films—including The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, Raging Bull, and Taxi Driver—filled theaters but also treated their audiences as thinking beings. Why can't mainstream video games have the same moral and aesthetic impact? Sicart argues that it is time for games to claim their place in the cultural landscape as vehicles for ethical reflection. Sicart looks at games in many manifestations: toys, analog games, computer and video games, interactive fictions, commercial entertainments, and independent releases. Drawing on philosophy, design theory, literary studies, aesthetics, and interviews with game developers, Sicart provides a systematic account of how games can be designed to challenge and enrich our moral lives. After discussing such topics as definition of ethical gameplay and the structure of the game as a designed object, Sicart offers a theory of the design of ethical game play. He also analyzes the ethical aspects of game play in a number of current games, including Spec Ops: The Line, Beautiful Escape: Dungeoneer, Fallout New Vegas, and Anna Anthropy's Dys4Ia. Games are designed to evoke specific emotions; games that engage players ethically, Sicart argues, enable us to explore and express our values through play.

Download or read book Newsgames written by Ian Bogost and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2012-09-21 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How videogames offer a new way to do journalism. Journalism has embraced digital media in its struggle to survive. But most online journalism just translates existing practices to the Web: stories are written and edited as they are for print; video and audio features are produced as they would be for television and radio. The authors of Newsgames propose a new way of doing good journalism: videogames. Videogames are native to computers rather than a digitized form of prior media. Games simulate how things work by constructing interactive models; journalism as game involves more than just revisiting old forms of news production. Wired magazine's game Cutthroat Capitalism, for example, explains the economics of Somali piracy by putting the player in command of a pirate ship, offering choices for hostage negotiation strategies. Videogames do not offer a panacea for the ills of contemporary news organizations. But if the industry embraces them as a viable method of doing journalism—not just an occasional treat for online readers—newsgames can make a valuable contribution.

Download or read book Quests written by Jeff Howard and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2008-01-24 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This unique take on quests, incorporating literary and digital theory, provides an excellent resource for game developers. Focused on both the theory and practice of the four main aspects of quests (spaces, objects, actors, and challenges) each theoretical section is followed by a practical section that contains exercises using the Neverwinter Nigh

Download or read book Living Lively written by Haile Thomas and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2020-07-28 with total page 539 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nominee, NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work “Thomas's body positive, social and economic justice-oriented ethos, rich writing, beautiful photography, and accessible recipes are perfect for anyone looking for an antidote to the typical vegan evangelism that often shames people for their food choices.” - Shondaland By a superstar nineteen-year-old activist and motivational speaker, a unique cookbook and inspiring guide that combines 80 delicious, wholesome, super-powered plant-based recipes with a "7 points of power" manifesto to inspire the next generation of leaders toward self-reflection, critical thinking, and unlearning toxic ideas. When her father developed Type 2 diabetes, eight-year-old Haile Thomas began a journey that would change her family's dietary habits, improve her dad's health, and radically transform her life. Haile’s family began looking into ways to improve his condition without having to rely on medication with dangerous potential side effects. Inspired by her mom’s research, and fueled by her love of food, Haile learned everything she could about nutrition. After seeing how dramatically she and her family were able to change her dad’s health, she chose to expand her reach to make the biggest positive impact possible in the world—particularly in underserved and at-risk communities. At 16, she was the youngest to graduate from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition as a Certified Integrative Nutrition Health Coach. Now a social entrepreneur, speaker, and activist Haile is an advocate for conscious living who promotes resilience, positivity, and a healthy, nourishing lifestyle to young people everywhere. Haile believes that to productively work toward our best selves, we must first fuel the vessel that supports us—our bodies. By incorporating healthy, plant-based dishes into our daily routine, we can boost qualities such as confidence, happiness, and positivity, giving us the energy we need to change our lives and the world. Haile’s delicious, nutrition-packed vegan recipes boost brain power, calm the body, and provide energy. Some of the sensational food in Living Lively includes: Golden Dream Turmeric Berry Chia Pudding Fruity Jamaican Cornmeal Porridge Potachos (Potato Nachos) with Green Chile Cheese Sauce Straight Fire Mac N' Cheese Korean Jackfruit Sloppy Jill AB & J Swirl Brownies Shortcut Sweet Potato Pie Boats Living Lively combines these recipes with advice and insights from Haile's life as well as other dynamic, relatable young women, Gen Z leaders who are activating their power every day, including environmentalist and animal rights activist Hannah Testa, dancer and actress Nia Sioux, entrepreneur and mentor Gabrielle Jordan, global activist and sustainable fashion entrepreneur Maya Penn, and self-love advocate Luisa Gaffga. They promote not just physical nutrition but mental and emotional engagement, by paying close attention to the messages we receive from society, our personal relationships, and more to think critically about how they affect us and our outlook on the world. These tools are specifically targeted at positive resistance, growth, and joy in what Haile calls the “7 Points of Power”—wellness, world perspective, media and societal influences, thoughts and spirituality, education, relationships, and creativity and giving. Beautiful and uplifting, Living Lively empowers us to take strong, positive steps to nourish ourselves, each other, our communities, and the planet.