Bacone - Blender Game Engine Beginners Guide Beginners Guide

Victor Kuller Bacone is the pen name for a Blender enthusiast of six years. By profession, he is a video editor, but the explosion of current technologies has led him to learn 3D software, and he chose Blender out of them all.

In the short span of his career within the Blender community in Catalonia (Spain), Victor has promoted Blender events, master classes, and an online magazine under the name Blendercat (http://www.blendercat.org) for anyone who wants to learn 3D using free software. His great admiration for the animation and interactive side of Blender is combined with his passion for games, and more specifically, the ease with which one can create games using Blender. He holds a Masters degree in Computer Science, and teaches both young and unemployed adults.

I would like to thank Sisizik, without whose help I couldn't have transcribed this book.

Pang Lih-Hern is a Computer Game Engine Programmer with more than five years of industry experience. He started programming when he was 12, learning the quick, basic language. After graduating with a degree in Software Engineering and Games Design from Multimedia University Malaysia, he began his freelancing endeavors, which eventually led him to be a part of the core technical team for John Galt Games (Malaysia). He was a part of the decision-making group for designing and implementing the company's proprietary game engine. Lih-Hern is also actively involved on the open source front, often submitting fixtures and features for the popular, open source Ogre3D engine. One notable contribution of his was the Parallel Split Shadow Map feature that enhances the shadow rendering of a 3D scene. He is also a strong advocate of Blender and is currently holding the position of maintaining the Blender exporter to Ogre3D's mesh format.

After leaving John Galt Games (Malaysia), Lih-Hern co-founded Liquid Rock Games Sdn. Bhd.(outsource development) and Nakama Studios Sdn. Bhd.(in-house development) with his fellow artist partner Yap Chun Fei. The goal was to create innovative, AAA-quality games, without the need for a huge budget cost, by means of using open source technology and tools, such as Blender, Gimp, and Ogre3D. As of now, Nakama Studios (their in-house development studio) is in the process of developing its first, racing title named TrackVerse (formally known as Aftershock), an online, multiplayer, racing construction kit game. The game's artwork have been modeled and textured using Blender and Gimp, showcasing the capability of such tools in the commercial market.

Lih-Hern has also reviewed another book for Blender published by Packt Publishing called Blender 2.49 Scripting by Micheal Anders .

First of all, I would like to thank Packt Publishing for giving me the opportunity to review this book. I would also like to thank my family and the co-partner of my company, for allowing me the spare time and support to review this book. This book serves as a nice introduction to the world of game development, to enthusiasts with little or no knowledge in game development. I hope this book will help pave the initial, stepping stones for using the Blender Game Engine to create their own dream games.

Michelangelo Manrique , born on May 20th, 1980, has always been interested in Fine Arts. This interest made him not only start his university studies in the History of Art, but also to work as a painter and art curator. Michelangelo also has a love of technology, and he discovered the use of Blender in 2004. Blender caught his attention and he was fascinated by this 3D suite's possibilities and workflow.

He is currently a member of bf-docboard-es, helping with the official wiki translation of the Blender software to the Latin-Spanish community.

Presently, Michelangelo is working as a programmer. He publishes tutorials and writes articles, and at the same time offers different courses for Blender learning. He is available to do freelance or collaborative work with other studios, or for discussion events about the software. Michelangelo is a Blender Foundation Certified Trainer.

For further information, visit http://www.lighthouseanimation.es.

Michelangelo has also been working on different areas of software engineering, such as developing websites, managing databases, or programming for http://www.gpvwc.com. He is currently working as a full-time programmer at gamereactor.es, and is actively involved in the Blender community through publishing articles and offering courses for Blender learning, especially regarding rigging and modeling.

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