We have been running a giveaway of my recently released book PlayStation Mobile Development Cookbook here on GameFromScratch.com.  Now we announce the lucky winners!

The lucky winners are ( by Disqus username ):

Neil Munro

Brian Beuken

Chaibi Mustapha

Congratulations to each of you. I sent you each an email in case you miss this thread.  I have submitted your email addressed to Packt.  Let me know if you don't hear anything shortly.

As to how I selected the winners… I wrote a program of course!

The follow is the Haxe source code for choosing a random value from an array:

package;

import neko.Lib;

class Main
{
	static function main()
	{
		var contestents:Array<String> =
			[
			"ComRevan",
			"Dave01x",
			"Neil Munro",
			"Kronaxx",
			"Liam Duffy",
			"Matin Habibi",
			"DynaVita",
			"Ayat Motevallian",
			"Brian Beuken",
			"Wojciech Musialkiewicz",
			"hdra",
			"BenjaminBrown",
			"Shawn A. Allen",
			"chaibi mustapha",
			"Calle Leppajoki",
			"Waldson Patricio",
			"Lior Tal",
			"Huy Pham",
			"Alessandro Stamatto",
			"ThePettyTyrant",
			"PSMHobbyist",
			"Joey Blaze",
			"ibai",
			"Alberto Gomez R",
			"violet",
			"pedgarcia"
			];

		var index : Int;
		var winner1, winner2, winner3: String;
		
		// Get random index between 0 and contestent array length
		// Get name at that position
		// Remove that name from the list so they cant win twice
		// Repeat two more times.
		Lib.print("Choosing first winner:");
		index = Std.random(contestents.length);
		Lib.println(index);
		winner1 = contestents[index];
		contestents.remove(winner1);
		
		Lib.print("Choosing second winner:");
		index = Std.random(contestents.length);
		Lib.println(index);
		winner2 = contestents[index];
		contestents.remove(winner2);
		
		Lib.print("Choosing third winner:");
		index = Std.random(contestents.length);
		Lib.println(index);
		winner3 = contestents[index];
		contestents.remove(winner3);
		
		//Display luck winners
		Lib.println("The winners are:");
		Lib.print(winner1 + "\n" + winner2 + "\n" + winner3 + "\n");
	}
	
}

Then from a terminal I did:

Congratulations to the lucky winners and thanks to everyone that participated.

PSSDK, PlayStation Mobile

As some of you may already know, I recently published my first book. Now teaming up with my publisher Packt Publishing we are organizing a giveaway!  Three lucky winners stand a chance to win an e-copy of PlayStation®Mobile Development Cookbook. Keep reading to find out how you can win a copy.

 EDIT: Winners have been announced. 

Overview of PlayStation®Mobile Development Cookbook:

• Learn how you can create your own fantastic PlayStation®Mobile (PSM) applications

• Develop 2D games quickly and easily, complete with graphics, audio, and input

• Discover how to construct your own 3D world, import models, and even create texture and vertex shaders

You can read more about this book and download free Sample Chapter: 

How to Enter?

In a nutshell, you just need to leave a comment in this thread.  Of course, I'd love to hear what you think of the contents of the book when you comment! The winner will be contacted via email, so be sure to use a valid email address or I won't be able to contact you.  The contest will run until Monday April 29th, at which point I will collect all the email addresses and select three at random as winners.

PSSDK, PlayStation Mobile, Book

While I was working on my PlayStation Mobile book I didn’t produce all that many PlayStation Mobile tutorials.  I guess it was a matter of PSM overload in a way, although you should expect to see a few more in the near future covering things that have been added since the book was released.  The good new is, there is another developer, Alex McGilvray, that has created some great PSM tutorials!  His series of tutorials are a bit lower leveled than the ones here on GameFromScratch and are a good compliment.

He has made the following tutorials:

Tutorial 1 -- Getting Started

Tutorial 2 Part 1 – Shader Programming

Tutorial 2 Part 2 – Vertices, Indices and Vertex Colors

Tutorial 2 Part 3 – Texture Coordinates

Tutorial 2 Part 4 – Vertex Buffers

Tutorial 2 Part 5 – The Render Loop

Tutorial 3 – Improving PSM Rendering Performance

Or you can just check out his blog.  Nice work Alex! 

Programming PlayStation Mobile, PSSDK, Tutorial

As I mentioned earlier this week, I just finished publishing my first book, the PlayStation Mobile Development Cookbook.  Since then it has been making it's way through the publishing chain.

Right now it is much more widely available.  

You can purchase and download a digital copy on Packt's website now.  Digital copies are available in epub, mobi and PDF formats.  The source code bundle is also available.  Just a bit of a warning, it weighs in at a hefty 158MB.  What can I say… there's lots of code in this book.  You can also order a print copy from the Packt website.

The book is also now on Amazon.  The Kindle version is available for download right now.  The print version ships on March 28th ( Thursday ).

It should also be up on Barnes and Noble and Safari Books Online shortly, I will update when links are available.   I have to say, seeing your name up on Amazon.com is a rather cool feeling! :)

PSSDK, Book, PlayStation Mobile

So, some exciting personal news today, I can finally unveil what I've been working on the last several months, my new book PlayStation Mobile Cookbook!  A special thanks to my reviewers and supporters at Sony and the entire team at Packt, it was a pleasure working with you all on this book.

If you have never read one of Packt's "cookbook style" books, its basically composed of a series of recipes illustrating how to perform a particular task

followed by a detailed description of what's happening as well as various tips and tricks.  In this case, its contains over 60 different sample applications illustrating how to do… well, just about everything you want to with the PlayStation Mobile SDK.  If you've run through any of my tutorials, you should have a pretty good idea of what to expect.

For a better idea of the contents of the book, here is the Table of Contents:

• Preface

• Chapter 1: Getting Started

• Introduction
• Accessing the PlayStation Mobile portal
• Installing the PlayStation Mobile SDK
• Creating a simple game loop
• Loading, displaying, and translating a textured image
• "Hello World" drawing text on an image
• Deploying to PlayStation certified Mobile Android devices
• Deploying to a PlayStation Vita
• Manipulating an image dynamically
• Working with the filesystem
• Handling system events

• Chapter 2: Controlling Your PlayStation Mobile Device

• Introduction
• Handling the controller's d-pad and buttons
• Using the Input2 wrapper class
• Using the analog joysticks
• Handling touch events
• Using the motion sensors
• Creating onscreen controls for devices without gamepads
• Configuring an Android application to use onscreen controls

• Chapter 3: Graphics with GameEngine2D

• Introduction
• A game loop, GameEngine2D style
• Creating scenes
• Adding a sprite to a scene
• Creating a sprite sheet
• Using a sprite sheet in code
• Batching a sprite with SpriteLists
• Manipulating a texture's pixels
• Creating a 2D particle system

• Chapter 4: Performing Actions with GameEngine2D

• Introduction
• Handling updates with Scheduler
• Working with the ActionManager object
• Using predefined actions
• Transitioning between scenes
• Simple collision detection
• Playing background music
• Playing sound effects

• Chapter 5: Working with Physics2D

• Introduction
• Creating a simple simulation with gravity
• Switching between dynamic and kinematic
• Creating a (physics!) joint
• Applying force and picking a physics scene object
• Querying if a collision occurred
• Rigid body collision shapes
• Building and using an external library

• Chapter 6: Working with GUIs

• Introduction
• "Hello World" – HighLevel.UI style
• Using the UI library within a GameEngine2D application
• Creating and using hierarchies of widgets
• Creating a UI visually using UIComposer
• Displaying a MessageBox dialog
• Handling touch gestures and using UI effects
• Handling language localization

• Chapter 7: Into the Third Dimension

• Introduction
• Creating a simple 3D scene
• Displaying a textured 3D object
• Implementing a simple camera system
• A fragment (pixel) shader in action
• A vertex shader in action
• Adding lighting to your scene
• Using an offscreen frame buffer to take a screenshot

• Chapter 8: Working with the Model Library

• Introduction
• Importing a 3D model for use in PlayStation Mobile
• Loading and displaying a 3D model
• Using BasicProgram to perform texture and shader effects
• Controlling lighting using BasicProgram
• Animating a model
• Handling multiple animations
• Using bones to add a sword to our animated model

• Chapter 9: Finishing Touches

• Introduction
• Opening and loading a web browser
• Socket-based client and server networking
• Accessing (Twitter) data over the network using REST and HttpWebRequest
• Copying and pasting using Clipboard
• Embedding and retrieving a resource from the application assembly
• Configuring your application using PublishingUtility
• Creating downloadable content (DLC) for your application

• Appendix: Publishing Your Application

• Introduction

• Index

The book is quite literally at the printers right now, I'll post more details once it's available on Amazon, on Safari Books Online or in stores for purchase.  It should be in the next couple of days.  You can of course order the book on the Packt website.

Are trying to figure out what to get your grandmother for her birthday?  I have the perfect recommendation! :)

Hope you enjoy the book!

Books, PlayStation Mobile, PSSDK