Paraglyph Press announces its latest
addition to its game programming library, Start Your Engines: Developing Driving and Racing Games. Written
by game programming expert Jim Parker, a pioneer in the rapidly
evolving area of game programming education, Start Your Engines shows
readers how to design and develop fast-action driving and racing games.
Although this genre of games is very popular-estimated to represent
nearly 20% of all computer games sold today-very little information has
been published on this topic until now.

In Start Your Engines, the author takes readers through the entire
process of creating driving and racing games, from exploring the design
elements, game architecture, collision detection, intelligent opponents,
and good audio techniques, to using cinematography, creating terrains,
understanding the physics of racing games, using artificial intelligence,
and simulating continuous time. The author first teaches readers how to
create a 2D driving game, and then shows how to convert that project
into
a 3D racing game. In this unique book, readers will learn:

• The nuts and bolts of creating driving and racing games-from time
  simulation to camera placement and controlling time and objects
• Tips and techniques from leading 3D game developers for creating
  challenging driving and racing models utilizing AI and numerous
  collision detection packages
• How to develop games that utilize varying driving conditions and
  challenging terrains and utilize ambient traffic and intelligent
  opponents
• How to create a full-featured dune-buggy racing game that takes place
  on the unique terrain of Mars-with all the physic and AI background
  presented in an interactive, step-by-step learning format

Keith Weiskamp, President and Publisher of Paraglyph Press says, “This
is the first book published on the art of designing and programming
driving and racing games. Jim Parker expertly presents all of the
critical techniques that game programmers need to master to create
their own driving and racing games, and we’re confident that all
students
of game programming will find this new book to be enormously useful.”

About the Author
Dr. Jim Parker (Alberta, Canada), an expert on driving and racing games,
has been an educator, programmer, and game designer for many years.
In 2000 he pioneered Canada’s first curriculum to train and educate
aspiring game developers at the University of Calgary, in conjunction
with Radical Entertainment of Vancouver. His course in Computer Game
Programming at the University of Calgary always contains a driving game
as the project for the class. He is a firm believer in the
democratization
of game creation, and this book is but one step in that process -
teaching others that they, too, can make a game that someone will
want to play. Dr. Parker lives with his family on a farm near
Cochrane, Alberta.