Steel Penny Games

Yesterday, I had a pleasant surprise on my way to work.  Opening the front door  and making a mad dash to the car is pretty routine in Texas: in summer, it's to avoid the blazing sun and heat, in winter it'll be the rain (or lately, snow?).  As I pushed open the door, there was unexpected and substantial resistance... aha!  A cardboard box with my name on it.  Jenny and I played 20 questions for a moment guessing who had ordered what, why it would come right now, and so on.  Clueless, I slit the tape holding the mysterious box from my prying eyes.  Moments later, Ooos and Aaahs as I pulled out my complimentary copy of Game Engine Gems 1, which marks the first time I've ever been published.

Thumbing through the articles, it looks like a really great read--I'm actually looking forward to seeing how the other authors work their miracles in game development.  Eric Lengyel, my good friend, did an excellent job editing the tome and maintaining consistency (even if he moved all my consts to the wrong side of the type declarations  :-) ).  If there's any complaint to make, it's that the whole book wasn't printed in color.  Code is so much more readable that way, as are the various diagrams.  At least there's a cdrom that contains everything (and then some) in glorious color.

So, while I didn't get to go to GDC this year again--too busy--at least I have a consolation prize that promises to be pretty interesting.