Charlie Thorpe-Campbell is the greatest RAM-runner the world has ever seen—and he knows it. On the verge of retirement from the sport, he is defending his title as champion of the annual orbital race one final time when he's suddenly hurtling away into deep space. Charlie's unscheduled voyage through a wormhole ends with a crash-landing on a most unusual planet, with scores of spacecraft from all corners of the universe in orbit. Seeking help, he heads toward what appears to be civilization, unaware of the horrors waiting for him there... Once inside the great, orb-covered city, Charlie is thrust into intergalactic competition by a bloodthirsty alien race. When he discovers he can use his unique abilities to save not only himself, but the entire galaxy, will he face up to the challenge—or run from it? Previously published as Charlie Runs Rings Around the Earth, newly revised by the author. 39,000 words

"Covers UFOs, aliens, and alien abductions, including specific examples and skeptical arguments against the belief in aliens"--Provided by publisher.

On the Planet of Oria, and its nearby neighbors, a near utopian society has been developed by the leaders and most intelligent beings on the planets. The great Rankin has developed a perpetual energy source by harnessing the power of the binary black hole / star through the construction of The Cube. An evil force on Oria has recently developed a desire to gain control of the planet through dubious and dangerous acquisition of nuclear weapons recently found on our planet Earth. The Committee of Ten, comprised of the greatest leaders of Oria, has found out about the evil plan that could wipe out billions of innocent people. Lyton Rennedee must be stopped. Consensus is met to call upon their best and most worthy Major in their Military. Hoken Rommeler is truly up to the test.

Earth's population has been reduced to less than 2 million people after a catastrophic attack by a pillager race intent on securing more raw materials for their war machine. After destroying earth's attackers, aliens seeking a new home, settle here and begin rebuilding the planet. But as Ralph discovers too late, the powerful radars used by our planet's military and air traffic controllers have been acting as beacons, transmitting their pulsed electrons across space for the past 70 years; drawing aggressive aliens to earth like moths to a flame. Ralph Butler, the man who once thought UFOs and aliens were no more than hilarious hallucinations, now heads the earth defense forces; joined in an alliance with a number of other planets.

Winner of the 2019 Phi Beta Kappa Award for Science "A valuable perspective on the most important problem of our time." —Adam Becker, NPR Light of the Stars tells the story of humanity’s coming of age as we realize we might not be alone in this universe. Astrophysicist Adam Frank traces the question of alien life from the ancient Greeks to modern thinkers, and he demonstrates that recognizing the possibility of its existence might be the key to save us from climate change. With clarity and conviction, Light of the Stars asks the consequential question: What can the likely presence of life on other planets tell us about our own fate?

Master the most important skills and techniques you need to know for professional HTML5 and JavaScript 2D game development. This book delves into many of the great classic techniques of video game design. You’ll discover how to develop games and game levels using Tiled Editor, how to implement tile-based collision, how to design advanced pathfinding and enemy AI systems, the fundamentals of broad-phase collision, and how to make isometric games. All the techniques and supporting code are explained in an easy-to-understand manner and written in a general way so that they can be applied to any game engine or technology that you’re comfortable using. You'll find detailed working examples, with dozens of illustrations and many concepts you can freely apply to your own projects. All the math and programming techniques are elaborately explained and examples are open-ended to encourage you to think of original ways to use these techniques in your own games. You can use what you learn in this book as the basis for making games for desktops, mobile phones, tablets, or the Web. The Advanced Game Developer's Toolkit is a great next step if you already have some JavaScript game-making- experience, or a great continuation if you've already read Advanced Game Design with HTML5 and JavaScript by the same author. What You'll Learn Work with advanced tile-based design techniques for puzzle, platform and maze games Use Tiled Editor to build game worlds Build path-finding and AI systems using Line of Sight and A* (A-Star) Make isometric games Manage complexity to build games of any size that scale seamlessly Who This Book Is For Video game developers with some experience who want to learn the essential techniques they need to know to take their skills to the next level and for readers who want to understand and fine-tune every line of code they write, without resorting to quick fixes.

The Complete, Up-to-Date Guide to Building AR and VR Games Google’s new ARCore and Daydream VR platforms enable you to deliver advanced augmented and virtual reality games and apps on a wide spectrum of modern Android devices. Now for the first time, there’s a comprehensive deep dive into both ARCore and Daydream for every Android developer and designer. Multi-award-winning AR/VR developer Sam Keene takes a hands-on approach, leading you through all aspects of the ARCore and Daydream frameworks and SDKs, with step-by-step tutorials and advice for building pro-quality AR/VR games and apps. Keene presents his material as a cookbook of recipes to get you up and running with VR/AR development as fast and as painlessly as possible. The recipes in most chapters start by assembling the essential building blocks, which are pieced together to create something larger. You are then free to take these building blocks and turn them into your own creation. Keene also provides an extensive library of downloadable, up-to-the-minute ARCore and Daydream code to jumpstart your project. In addition, he takes you through crucial UX design principles and best practices learned from building large scale VR and AR apps at Google. Google Daydream VR Cookbook shows you how to: Install and explore the Google Daydream development tools Master basic and advanced Daydream Controller techniques Implement intuitive VR user interfaces Integrate audio, video, and realistic physics into your VR games Install and explore the ARCore SDK and development tools Learn how to build AR apps that solve real user needs Master AR game development using ARCore Optimize VR and AR game performance Whether you are a software developer, UX professional, visual designer, beginner, or you come from a different design field, this book is a great practical introduction to VR and AR.