The collection ranges from early games right up to newly invented games. The rules of all games are explained lucidly, and the tactical advice given is explicit.

    And through CODE, we see how this ingenuity and our very human compulsion to communicate have driven the technological innovations of the past two centuries. Using everyday objects and familiar language systems such as Braille and Morse code, author Charles Petzold weaves an illuminating narrative for anyone who’s ever wondered about the secret inner life of computers and other smart machines. It’s a cleverly illustrated and eminently comprehensible story—and along the way, you’ll discover you’ve gained a real context for understanding today’s world of PCs, digital media, and the Internet. No matter what your level of technical savvy, CODE will charm you—and perhaps even awaken the technophile within.

    There is no magic to successful blogging; with this book you'll learn the techniques to attract and keep a large audience of loyal, regular readers and leverage this popularity to achieve your goals. Become more influential and earn extra money by blogging. Whether you want to create a popular technical blog from scratch or take your blog to the next level, this book shows you how. Technical blogging expert Antonio Cangiano shares his extensive expertise with you, sparing no details and laying out a complete step by step road map to help you plan, create, market, monetize, and grow your own popular blog. Antonio will guide you through all the choices you have to make in setting up a successful blog, teach you the key things you need to know to write blog posts that get read, and give you the tools to produce content regularly You'll learn how to promote your blog, understand traffic statistics, and build a community. And once you've built it, you'll learn how to benefit from it: advance your career, make money from your blog, use it to promote your products or company, and take advantage of your blog to the fullest. And when your blog takes off, Antonio will show you how to avoid the pitfalls of success.Technical Blogging is the only guide you'll need to create and maintain a successful technical blog.

    What type of font to use? How big? How should those letters, words, and paragraphs be aligned, spaced, ordered, shaped, and otherwise manipulated? In this groundbreaking new primer, leading design educator and historian Ellen Lupton provides clear and concise guidance for anyone learning or brushing up on their typographic skills. Thinking with Type is divided into three sections: letter, text, and grid. Each section begins with an easy-to-grasp essay that reviews historical, technological, and theoretical concepts, and is then followed by a set of practical exercises that bring the material covered to life. Sections conclude with examples of work by leading practitioners that demonstrate creative possibilities (along with some classic no-no's to avoid).

    Not to worry: This book is the one place you can turn to find quick, non-intimidating, excellent design help. In The Non-Designer's Design Book, 2nd Edition, best-selling author Robin Williams turns her attention to the basic principles of good design and typography. All you have to do is follow her clearly explained concepts, and you'll begin producing more sophisticated, professional, and interesting pages immediately. Humor-infused, jargon-free prose interspersed with design exercises, quizzes, illustrations, and dozens of examples make learning a snap—which is just what audiences have come to expect from this best-selling author.

    Adventure alongside Nathan Drake, as Dark Horse Books and Naughty Dog team up to bring you this breathtaking, comprehensive exploration into the Uncharted saga! Encompassing Drake's Fortune, Among Thieves, and Drake's Deception, this epic volume offers a look at hundreds of never-before-seen designs and pieces of concept art from the creation of one of the most exciting game series of this generation, along with insightful commentary from the games' creators! Don't miss out on this opportunity to own a piece of Uncharted history!

    In the 30-year history of the Dungeons & Dragons game, this type of boxed set has never been available -- until now. Enjoy the foundation of the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game in one product that is a great gift for someone you want to introduce to the hobby or as a gift to yourself. With these three books in one case, the entire world of Dungeons & Dragons is yours to explore and share with others.

    Take a gander at the game's traditional hand-drawn frame-by-frame animation. Peek at the early concepts, production work, and early ideas that went into the making of Cuphead's characters, bosses, stages and more including never-before-seen content from the upcoming DLC!Relive the most cherished and challenging moments of Cuphead and Mugman's adventure to reclaim their souls from The Devil, all in a way you've never seen before! Guided by personal insights from game directors Chad and Jared Moldenhauer, take a one-of-a-kind trip through the Inkwell Isles and discover an all-new appreciation for Cuphead's animation style and challenging retro gameplay.Dark Horse Books and Studio MDHR are thrilled to present The Art of Cuphead! This vintage-style art extravaganza is the perfect book for fans of Cuphead!

    It covers topics ranging from personal responsibility and career development to architectural techniques for keeping your code flexible and easy to adapt and reuse. Read this book, and you'll learn how toFight software rot; Avoid the trap of duplicating knowledge; Write flexible, dynamic, and adaptable code; Avoid programming by coincidence; Bullet-proof your code with contracts, assertions, and exceptions; Capture real requirements; Test ruthlessly and effectively; Delight your users; Build teams of pragmatic programmers; and Make your developments more precise with automation. Written as a series of self-contained sections and filled with entertaining anecdotes, thoughtful examples, and interesting analogies, The Pragmatic Programmer illustrates the best practices and major pitfalls of many different aspects of software development. Whether you're a new coder, an experienced programmer, or a manager responsible for software projects, use these lessons daily, and you'll quickly see improvements in personal productivity, accuracy, and job satisfaction. You'll learn skills and develop habits and attitudes that form the foundation for long-term success in your career. You'll become a Pragmatic Programmer.

    This book draws on material Michael created for his renowned Object Mentor seminars, techniques Michael has used in mentoring to help hundreds of developers, technical managers, and testers bring their legacy systems under control. The topics covered include: Understanding the mechanics of software change, adding features, fixing bugs, improving design, optimizing performance Getting legacy code into a test harness Writing tests that protect you against introducing new problems Techniques that can be used with any language or platform, with examples in Java, C++, C, and C# Accurately identifying where code changes need to be made Coping with legacy systems that aren't object-oriented Handling applications that don't seem to have any structureThis book also includes a catalog of twenty-four dependency-breaking techniques that help you work with program elements in isolation and make safer changes.

    In this collection of essays, nationally known science writers Deborah Blum, Mary Knudson, and Robin Marantz Henig assemble the best science writers working today to explain what they do and how to do it well. Field Guide combines detailed and practical how-to advice with thoughtful discussions of the challenges of science journalism in the 21st century. It doesn't shy away from addressing such controversial matters as cloning, stem cell research, eugenics, medical overtreatment, and questions of scientific honesty. Offering a comprehensive overview of the field of science writing, this book discusses a broad range of media and sources, from newspapers to broadcast journalism and from corporations to government agencies. It also provides a detailed analysis of some of the hottest fields in science writing - ranging from mental health to human genetics - and covers a diverse array of writing styles, from "gee-whiz" to investigative. With more than 45 esteemed contributors - people who work for such leading news outlets as Scientific American, Popular Science, Discover, Smithsonian, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal - this book is an invaluable resource for current and aspiring science writers, students and instructors in science writing and journalism, and scientists who are interested in science communication.

    In On Writing and Worldbuilding, we will discuss specific and applicable ideas to consider, from effective methods of delivering exposition and foreshadowing, to how communication, commerce, and control play into the fall of an empire.

    Like civilization, play requires structure and participants willing to create within limits. Starting with Plato, Huizinga traces the contribution of Homo Ludens, or "Man the player" through Medieval Times, the Renaissance, and into our modern civilization. Huizinga defines play against a rich theoretical background, using cross-cultural examples from the humanities, business, and politics. Homo Ludens defines play for generations to come."A happier age than ours once made bold to call our species by the name of Homo Sapiens. In the course of time we have come to realize that we are not so reasonable after all as the Eighteenth Century with its worship of reason and naive optimism, though us; "hence moder fashion inclines to designate our species asHomo Faber Man the Maker. But though faber may not be quite so dubious as sapiens it is, as a name specific of the human being, even less appropriate, seeing that many animals too are makers. There is a third function, howver, applicable to both human and animal life, and just as important as reasoning and making--namely, playing. it seems to me that next to Homo Faber, and perhaps on the same level as Homo Sapiens, Homo Ludens, Man the Player, deserves a place in our nomenclature. "--from the Foreward, by Johan Huizinga

    Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics is a seminal examination of comics art: its rich history, surprising technical components, and major cultural significance. Explore the secret world between the panels, through the lines, and within the hidden symbols of a powerful but misunderstood art form.

    Today, twenty million people worldwide are surfing the Net. Where Wizards Stay Up Late is the exciting story of the pioneers responsible for creating the most talked about, most influential, and most far-reaching communications breakthrough since the invention of the telephone. In the 1960's, when computers where regarded as mere giant calculators, J.C.R. Licklider at MIT saw them as the ultimate communications devices. With Defense Department funds, he and a band of visionary computer whizzes began work on a nationwide, interlocking network of computers. Taking readers behind the scenes, Where Wizards Stay Up Late captures the hard work, genius, and happy accidents of their daring, stunningly successful venture.