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AppGameKit Classic Chat / Interest in a book for AGK2

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MikeHart
AGK Bronze Backer
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Posted: 20th Sep 2014 12:06
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Hello folks,

for a while I played around with AppGameKit but never really used it for complete projects. Now with AGK2 available on OSX, naturally the usage is much higher and I love the product.

In the past I have written a book for a different game development tool which was well received.
Sadly, this tool got less attention from its dev these days so writing another book about it seems not reasonable for me.

As I am playing with AGK2, I got very interested in writing a book, as you can imagine... about AGK2. I didn't had the best experience with my former publisher so I plan on self publishing it. Writing a complete book is a hell of work. Therefore I need to know if there is an actual market to make it worth the effort. Kickstarter is no option at the moment for Germany based projects like I would need it. They announced that it will come soon but to my surprise they added other countries lately.

So here is my approach in some market research, would you like to see a book for AGK2? If yes, which topics would you love to see in it? More technical ones, or more on developing specific games?

So please raise your opinion, I would love to hear it.

Take care
Michael Hartlef
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Digital Awakening
AGK Developer
22
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Joined: 27th Aug 2002
Location: Sweden
Posted: 20th Sep 2014 13:44
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Quote: "Kickstarter is no option at the moment for Germany based projects like I would need it."

Use Indiegogo or another service?

Quote: "So here is my approach in some market research, would you like to see a book for AGK2?"

Have an old book for v1 that I haven't touched in like 2 years so no. I already know so much about AppGameKit that I don't need a book. I just look up what I need in the help files etc.

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bjadams
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Posted: 20th Sep 2014 15:38
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I would check that AppGameKit has a wider userbase than MonkeyX, before self publishing
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xCept
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Posted: 22nd Sep 2014 06:22
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There are already a couple of relatively thorough books for AppGameKit V1, which is programmatically no different than V2 except V2 adds some additional commands and a new IDE/compiler. I don't know how popular those books were, but my gut instinct says you will likely not recoup your expenses by writing a new AppGameKit book given the current user base and existing information availability.

I do not have a need for a book personally, but some AppGameKit features that could certainly benefit from more extensive documentation include:

- Social Network Integration (i.e., Facebook/Twitter publishing)
- In App Purchases
- Push Notifications
- Publishing (Google Play, iTunes, Ouya)
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Daniel TGC
Retired Moderator
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Posted: 22nd Sep 2014 07:41 Edited at: 22nd Sep 2014 07:42
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The Teach Yourself Stuff book is already being rewritten for AppGameKit v2, however there\'s little point in finishing it until the 3D commands are in place, and the product is commercially viable. For an Alpha it\'s very good, but it\'s not advanced far enough to justify releasing it at this point.
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RickV
TGC Development Director
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Posted: 22nd Sep 2014 15:10
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Hi Michael,

I think there's always room for more materials to help new and experienced coders. Your book on Monkey looks very comprehensive, well done with that!

We feel AGK2 can become a very successful product as we move forward with it, so extra materials like books and videos will be sought after by users. TGC would also consider re-selling the book too.

Rick

Development Director
TGC Team
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3d point in space
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Posted: 27th Sep 2014 13:51 Edited at: 27th Sep 2014 13:57
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writing a book is not easy. I know because I am in graduate school. and I have trouble writing reports longer than 50 pages or so. Writing a book requires you to look at how will read it. The reason why it would be hard is because you are competing with online materials such as forums. I think better use of your time is to write a general book about sprite sheets, or how to create 3d models so they do not look bad in object mode.

Developer of Space Chips, pianobasic, zipzapzoom, and vet pinball apps. Developed the tiled map engine seen on the showcase. Veteran for the military.
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MikeHart
AGK Bronze Backer
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Posted: 28th Sep 2014 21:19
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Quote: "writing a book is not easy. I know because I am in graduate school. and I have trouble writing reports longer than 50 pages or so. Writing a book requires you to look at how will read it. The reason why it would be hard is because you are competing with online materials such as forums. I think better use of your time is to write a general book about sprite sheets, or how to create 3d models so they do not look bad in object mode."


I actually have written a book before which is published (See first post). So I know what it takes.
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