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AppGameKit Classic Chat / AppGameKit Tutorial Guides News

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LeeBamber
TGC Lead Developer
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Posted: 2nd Nov 2018 13:47
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Hello,

Did you know that we revise the Tutorial Guides regularly to keep them up to date with the language, and even expand sections based on community feedback? This stick has been created so the author can communicate directly with you, to announce revisions to one of the books or get feedback on areas you feel could be improved. Here is a link the books, comprising of two Tutorial Guide volumes, a beginners guide for Tier 1 users and a shorter book to get you started with Tier 2 coding: https://www.appgamekit.com/order#tutorial-guides.
Hogging the awesome since 1999
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Alistair
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Posted: 2nd Nov 2018 14:37
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Thanks for setting up this thread, Lee.

To start, let me detail the current state of each of the "Official" books that are sold by TGC.

All the books are designed to help you through the AppGameKit learning process with not only full descriptions of commands but also example code, complete (short) games and activities (with solutions) to help you master AGK.

The Official AppGameKit Beginner's Guide. This is just the first several chapters of the next book (see below). It should be more than enough to get you started with the AppGameKit even if you have never programmed before. This book was last updated to comply with the August 2018 release of AGK. If you bought an earlier version of the book, you can receive a free up to the latest version through Steam or TGC. You can also upgrade to the longer book through TGC.

The Official AppGameKit Tutorial Guide Vol #1. Again, this is a guide suitable for the absolute beginner and also cover AGK-specific topics such as Handling Multimedia Resources, User Input Techniques, Creating a Structure that can be Used for Most of Your Programs, Sprite Movement and Animation, Particles and Several Sample Games. Currently, the book covers up to the August 2018 release of AGK.

The Official AppGameKit Tuorial Guide Vol #2. This is a guide to what might be considered more advanced topics such as Tweening, Memblocks, 2D and 3D Physics, 3D Models and Games, Networking, and an Introduction to Game AI. Again, there are sebveral complete games and many activities. The book covers up to the December 2017 release of AGK.

The Official AppGameKit Tier2 Starters' Guide. This is a short book showing how to get started using C++ (Visual Studio and Android Studio) to create your Tier 2 games. It assumes you are already familar with C++.

Updates for each book are generally free.

That's the book plugging over!

If I can be of any help with anything within the books please put your question on this thread (or PM me).
It would also be useful if you could report any errors or omissions that you've spotted so that these can be corrected for the next book release.
And lastly, if there's any topic you'd like to see added to any of the books, please let me know.
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Bored of the Rings
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Posted: 2nd Nov 2018 15:22
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Just purchased AppGameKit Vol2, thanks for producing these great books, very handy.
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Alistair
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Posted: 3rd Nov 2018 15:49
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@Bored Thanks for that. Glad you're finding them useful.
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Bored of the Rings
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Posted: 5th Nov 2018 06:50 Edited at: 5th Nov 2018 06:51
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GUILibrary.agc seems to be missing from the resources download files (reference Activity 14.27 (Shaders) AGK2 Vol2
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Alistair
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Posted: 5th Nov 2018 08:13
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@Bored. Thanks for letting me know. I'll fix that today (Monday) and report back here once I've added it.
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Alistair
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Posted: 5th Nov 2018 08:16
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@Bored My brain has just woken up! That library file isn't meant to be included in the resources. You're meant to build it yourself has you work through the appropriate chapter.
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Bored of the Rings
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Posted: 5th Nov 2018 08:48
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thanks Alistair, yes I just realised as I waded through the book. That'll teach me to jump ahead, although I'm only using as reference. Well, I can build GUI's no problem, but will follow the guide to build the AppGameKit resource one. thanks again for a great reference/tutorial book.
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DennisW
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Posted: 10th Nov 2018 17:17
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I would like to see a Tutorial on using way points in AGK. I might have missed them if there out there some where. Also it was great to get the Upgrade on GianitAssetPack1_Oct2018 ,but it would be even greater to have a racing Tutorial even if just for a oval track.

Dennis
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Alistair
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Posted: 11th Nov 2018 07:29
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@Dennis. Thanks for the suggestion. The Tutorial Guide Vol#1 now has an Extras chapter. I'll look into adding a section there on using way points.
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Alistair
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Posted: 12th Nov 2018 07:13
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@c0d3r9 The chapter titled "Extras" is in the currently available version of Vol#1. It is the last chapter in the book. At the moment it contains only one topic: creating Bezier curves using sprite-based lines. The plan is to add one more topic to that chapter each time the book is updated. What that topic is depends on any requests I have received. So far suggestions have been waypoints and swiping.
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blink0k
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Posted: 21st Nov 2018 19:24 Edited at: 21st Nov 2018 19:29
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Is there a link to the resources for the tutorial Vol2? I can't copy/past the source code from the .pdf
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blink0k
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Posted: 22nd Nov 2018 08:31
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Thank you
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Alistair
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Posted: 22nd Nov 2018 14:34
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You'd probably learn a lot more by typing it in yourself, but I suppose not everyone has the time for that. BTW, you'll have to change the quote, double quote and line continuation characters when copying from the PDF.
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blink0k
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Posted: 22nd Nov 2018 19:33
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It would be super helpful if there was a site i could go to and download the code. I thought there was one but i must be mistaken
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Alistair
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Posted: 5th Feb 2019 09:38
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There will be new/updated books published to cover AppGameKit Studio when that product is released. I don't have access to a beta copy yet so I have no way of knowing how much work will be involved in updating the books.
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Alistair
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Posted: 25th Feb 2019 10:55
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I just noticed that someone on the Steam community pages is complaining about having to pay the full price for the Tutorial Guide vol 1 having already bought the Beginners guide. I'd just like to point out that TGC offer an upgrade price for moving from Beginners Guide to Tutorial Guide vol 1.

The other point made on Steam is that the Tutorial Guide is really just an extension of the Beginners Guide. This is true but the reason that both exist is not to try and squeeze more money out of people, it is simply that TGC were keen to publish a book at a certain date and the
contents of the Beginners Guide was a far as I'd written when that date arrived! But the Beginners Guide takes you as far as creating a reasonably complex game without going into detailed explanations and examples of using most of the remaining AppGameKit Tier 1 commands which
is the purpose of the latter part of the Tutorial Guide vol 1 and the whole of volume 2.

And I know I should really write this response on Steam, but unfortunately, I have no access there.
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fubarpk
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Posted: 25th Feb 2019 14:09
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Thanks Alistair the same person is complaining on the facebook pages
fubar
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CQueens
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Posted: 25th Feb 2019 14:56
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A Facebook user has led me the direct forum way for my concerns here.
I would like to write you a PM, only I have to write three post first to use the PM function.
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Alistair
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Posted: 26th Feb 2019 08:15
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@CQueens I've responded to your PM. Hopefully, my offer may solve your problem.
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CQueens
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Posted: 27th Feb 2019 22:56
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Yes thank you. The problem is now completely solved. Thank you for your nice and successful communication.
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Alistair
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Posted: 15th May 2019 08:08
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For anyone that bought the AppGameKit book directly from Digital Skills, the updated (and renamed) volume 1 which now covers AppGameKit Studio is now available for free download. Please email details of your original purchase to sales@digital-skills.co.uk and we'll let you know how to download the newest version.
The new version now has 1,100 pages (About 100 more than the old version). The additional pages cover the new IDE, debugger, and Screen Editor.

The updated volume 2 (which has a few pages on the 2D physics available from the Scene Editor and a new chapter on data structures (queue, stack and set) ) will be available shortly.

These free updates will also be available from TGC and Steam soon.
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Bored of the Rings
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Posted: 15th May 2019 13:51
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thanks Alistair, I contacted Digital-Skills and now have a downloaded/backup copy. Will have a good read later.
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Alistair
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Posted: 15th May 2019 19:03
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@Bored of the Rings After 14 years and that list of languages, I suspect there's not much the book will teach you! BTW, the resources for the new book will be up on the Digital Skills site in a few days.
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Alistair
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Posted: 18th May 2019 12:24
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The Official AppGameKit Studio Tutorial Guide Volume 2 is now available for free download if you purchased the original volume 2 directly from Digital Skills. Just email us with your details (sales@digital-skills.co.uk).
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Alistair
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Posted: 20th Jun 2019 15:56
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All AppGameKit books written by myself will, in future be available only from Digital Skills (www.digital-skills.co.uk) and will be reverting to their original "Hands On" titles.
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Mykyl66
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Posted: 16th Aug 2019 09:23
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Where on your site is the versions for AppgameKit Classic? Thanks
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Alistair
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Posted: 17th Aug 2019 07:51
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Since the Studio books are really just an extension of the Classic books there seemed little point in selling both. The only part in the Studio books that has replaced text from the Classic books is the discussion of the interface and that is really just a few pages.
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Mykyl66
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Posted: 18th Aug 2019 19:37
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Kind of obvious wasn't it. Cheers.
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Battoad
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Posted: 28th Aug 2019 14:25
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Hi Alistair,

I believe that i have found an area not yet covered in your books and which TGC do not seem too eager to cover.
A fairly recent thread posted by Pfaber1 dated 18 August 2019 and titled "Earning a living using AGK" basically sums the area up and although i believe making a living this way is highly unlikely there appears little help, poor documentation, zero examples and any pieces of information which are available throughout the forum are fragmented, difficult to find or out of date, which makes any attempt even more arduous.

As an idea for your next Hand on Book, this would be very desirable and one which i would definitely buy.

I know that you could not go in to this on the request of one person so if others would also like to see this area better covered this could be the time to say.

Thanks.
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Alistair
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Posted: 29th Aug 2019 12:19
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Hi Battoad,

I would definitely buy a copy of that book myself! I'm afraid I've never had any experience in that aspect of AGK. However, if anyone else would like to publish a book covering this aspect, I could certainly give them advice on how to publish it or even give them a hand with the writing.
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