In the 1970s, international financier Saul Mammon is king. Hes enigmatic, charismatic, and, one could argue, evil. Nobody plays the game like Saul. His obsessive motivations are practically erotic in nature. He got what he wanted when he wanted it without even trying, but a sensational life lived so precariously on edge can never last. He was once a young boy in New York, born to a modest family, with dreams of climbing the gilded ladder to riches and fame. He achieves all this and more with direct connection to leaders not only in the United States but also in the Soviet Union, Paris, and beyond. His only daughter, Sara, watches from the sidelines as her father inches ever closer to the world of power and deceit. Sauls brilliance and dark side eventually lead to his mysterious death and a rapid cover-up. Perhaps it was inevitable that such an ambitious man would fall, but Sara is haunted by questions, most of which will never be answered. Based on a true story, the rise and fall of Saul Mammon shows what happens when ambition turns malicious and when money is never enough.

As experienced teachers of novice game designers, the authors have discovered patterns in the way that students grasp game design - the mistakes they make as well as the methods to help them to create better games. Each exercise requires no background in programming or artwork, releasing beginning designers from the intricacies of electronic game production and allowing them to learn what works and what doesn't work in a game system. Additionally, these exercises teach important skills in system design: the processes of prototyping, playtesting, and redesigning.

You too can learn to design and develop classic arcade video games like Pong, Pac-Man, Space Invaders, and Scramble. Collision detection, extra lives, power ups, and countless other essential design elements were invented by the mostly anonymous designers at the early pioneering companies that produced these great games. In this book you’ll go step by step, using modern, free software tools such as Unity to create five games in the classic style, inspired by retro favorites like: Pong, Breakout, Space Invaders, Scramble, and Pac-Man. All the source code, art, and sound sources for the projects are available on the companion files. You'll discover the fun of making your own games, putting in your own color graphics, adjusting the scoring, coding the AI, and creating the sound effects. You'll gain a deep understanding of the roots of modern video game design: the classics of the ’70s and ’80s. Features: Uses Unity, C#, Blender, GIMP, and Audacity to make five fun classic games 4-color throughout with companion files that include source code, art, and full projects (also available for downloading from the publisher by emailing proof of purchase to [email protected]) Includes historical anecdotes direct from one of the fabled Atari coin-op programmers Detailed step-by-step instructions, dozens of exercises, and rules of classic game design Contains unique insights on applying classic game design concepts to modern games.

Our reactions and attitudes are the framework of our lives.Realizing how we unconsciously react and what our beliefs and attitudes are can enable us to change them and make living not simply survival, but fun.

Whether you’ve been single a week, a month, a year or longer, you’re probably well aware how challenging it can be to fi nd someone worth dating. You may even be wondering if there is anyone worthwhile left at all. Are all the “Good Ones” taken?? Thankfully no, it can just seem that way . . . The search for love requires us all to play the dating game, and inside this book are “tales from the trenches”—A guy’s inside view on what really goes on in the singles scene and some things that you can do to navigate your way through. Inside are true stories and observations that you will relate to, sympathize with, laugh at and hopefully gain some insight as to what you might do a bit differently in your search for love.

This book contains a total of 22 exclusive interviews on the making of start-of-the-art mobile game engines for Apple and Android devices as well as the web. In this book you'll gain direct first-hand knowledge of how the mobile developer elite design, develop and deliver modern game engines while keeping abreast of the latest features offered by mobile devices. There is no abstracting or watering down of their experiences. You will read about what do, in their own words. The interviews were designed to collect wisdom from game engine developers around the problems of working with and maintaining off-the-shelf mobile game engines, and you will agree that this objective was far exceeded. You will get a snapshot into the thoughts and processes from a diverse and successful collection of mobile game engine developers from around the world. You will feel recharged and will be reinvigorated in your own game development efforts. The sage advice in these interviews will be useful in navigating, selecting and working with the tidal wave of promising mobile game engines available. Reading these interviews will help you find and best use the perfect engine for your mobile game and get it into the hands of an audience that loves it just as much as you.

Two lives, one hope. . . . All Sarah Lind's dreams now seem within her reach: not only is she welcomed back to the Six Realms as the Queen of Ice, she is now days from her marriage to their dragon-shifter King of Flame, and, united by their powerful bond, Sarah and Ben have so far thwarted the Devourer's attempts to ruin the Realms' recovery from its invasion. Yet there is still one more dream for her to discover. However new and growing, that dream proves to be one of the most potent, and, according to the Tree of Ice, the key to saving the Realms from the Devourer once and for all. For though a King is dangerous, a Queen is more powerful. Because she, like a Tree Herself. . . can become a mother. All Koriben Sunfilled's hopes now rest on the promise the Tree of Flame gave him that if he did as She commanded, Sarah—the one person he cannot live without—would survive the darkness coming for her. Yet his Tree's command tests him to his very core, because it echoes his parents' own sacrifice to give him life, the cycle he had once vowed would end with him. But after losing so much, Ben will now do anything to save Sarah. Anything. Even . . . become a father. As desperately as they want to live and save their Realms, Sarah and Ben resolve to have a child only for the right reasons. Yet even as they wait to be sure of rightness of that course, their time is once again running out, for the Devourer will not tolerate the growing threat the Monarchs of Ice and Flame pose. Sensing in them the culmination of millennia of Tree preparations for its final defeat, the Devourer has determined they must die—and it knows just how to lure the Queen of Ice into the open. The Devourer will invade once again, this time coming for the fading Tree of Ice, whom Sarah is sworn to protect. This time . . . . . . it is coming for Earth.