Tony Gaddis’s accessible, step-by-step presentation helps beginning students understand the important details necessary to become skilled programmers at an introductory level. Gaddis motivates the study of both programming skills and the C++ programming language by presenting all the details needed to understand the “how” and the “why”—but never losing sight of the fact that most beginners struggle with this material. His approach is both gradual and highly accessible, ensuring that readers understand the logic behind developing high-quality programs. In Starting Out with Games and Graphics in C++, Gaddis covers the essentials of programming for a novice using the C++ language. Like all Gaddis books, it covers each and every step. Throughout the book, programming topics are illustrated with graphical examples, including full chapter long case studies that implement simple, but complete, video games. This approach insures that students remain motivated by the material, while still getting a solid CS1 foundation. Only enough game- and graphics-theory is covered for students to understand the examples.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1: Introduction to Computers and Programming 1.1       Introduction 1.2       Hardware 1.3       How Computers Store Data 1.4       How a Program Works 1.5       C++ and the Dark GDK Library   Chapter 2: Graphics Programming with C++ and the Dark GDK Library 2.1       Getting Your Feet Wet with the Dark GDK Library 2.2       The Screen Coordinate System 2.3       Basic 2D Shapes 2.4       Displaying Text 2.5       In the Spotlight: The Orion Constellation Program 2.6       The Program Development Cycle   Chapter 3: Variables, Calculations, and Colors 3.1       Introduction 3.2       Literal Data 3.3       Variables 3.4       Calculations 3.5       In the Spotlight: Drawing Simple Bar Charts 3.6       Getting Values from Functions 3.7       Colors 3.8       In the Spotlight: Drawing the Italian Flag 3.9       Named Constants   Chapter 4: void Functions 4.1       Modularizing a Program with Functions 4.2       Defining and Calling a void Function 4.3       Designing a Program to Use Functions 4.4       Local Variables 4.5       Passing Arguments to Functions 4.6       Global Variables and Constants   Chapter 5: Working with Images 5.1       Introduction 5.2       Bitmaps 5.3       Images and Transparency   Chapter 6: Control Structures 6.1       Introduction 6.2       Single-Alternative Decision Structures: The if Statement 6.3       Dual-Alternative Decision Structures: The if-else Statement 6.4       Nested Decision Structures and the if-else-if Statement 6.5       Repetition Structures: The while Loop and the do-while Loop 6.6       The Increment and Decrement Operators 6.7       Repetition Structures: The for Loop 6.8       Using the for Loop to Process Pixels in an Image 6.9       Logical Operators 6.10     The switch Statement 6.11     Numeric Truth, Flags, and bool Variables   Chapter 7: The Game Loop and Animation 7.1       The Game Loop 7.2       Simple Animation 7.3       Controlling Objects with the Keyboard 7.4       Sprites 7.5       Cel Animation and Sprite Sheets 7.6       Sprite Collision Detection   Chapter 8: The Vulture Trouble Game: Introducing Audio, Physics, and Text Effects 8.1       Introduction 8.2       Playing Sound Effects and Music 8.3       Simulating Falling Objects 8.4       Text Effects 8.5       The Vulture Trouble Game   Chapter 9: Value-Returning Functions and Mouse Input 9.1       Writing a Value-Returning Function 9.2       Working with the Mouse 9.3       The Bug Zapper Game   Chapter 10: Arrays and Tile Mapping 10.1     Array Basics 10.2     Sorting Arrays 10.3     Two-Dimensional Arrays 10.4     Tile Maps   Chapter 11: Strings and Files 11.1     Working with Strings 11.2     Introduction to File Input and Output 11.3     Saving a Game's High Score   Chapter 12: Object-Oriented Programming 12.1     Procedural and Object-Oriented Programming 12.2     Classes and Objects 12.3     An Object-Oriented Game: Balloon Target 12.4     Inheritance   Appendix A: Downloading and Installing the Required Software Appendix B: The ASCII Character Set   Online: Case Study: Scones McNabb Case Study: Object-Oriented Vulture Trouble