The Game Artist's Guide to Maya

Want to design your own video games? Let expert Scott Rogers show you how! If you want to design and build cutting-edge video games but aren’t sure where to start, then the SECOND EDITION of the acclaimed Level Up! is for you! Written by leading video game expert Scott Rogers, who has designed the hits Pac Man World, Maximo and SpongeBob Squarepants, this updated edition provides clear and well-thought out examples that forgo theoretical gobbledygook with charmingly illustrated concepts and solutions based on years of professional experience. Level Up! 2nd Edition has been NEWLY EXPANDED to teach you how to develop marketable ideas, learn what perils and pitfalls await during a game’s pre-production, production and post-production stages, and provide even more creative ideas to serve as fuel for your own projects including: Developing your game design from the spark of inspiration all the way to production Learning how to design the most exciting levels, the most precise controls, and the fiercest foes that will keep your players challenged Creating games for mobile and console systems – including detailed rules for touch and motion controls Monetizing your game from the design up Writing effective and professional design documents with the help of brand new examples Level Up! 2nd Edition is includes all-new content, an introduction by David “God of War” Jaffe and even a brand-new chili recipe –making it an even more indispensable guide for video game designers both “in the field” and the classroom. Grab your copy of Level Up! 2nd Edition and let’s make a game!

Learn to design games for tablets from a renowned game designer! Eager to start designing games for tablets but not sure where to start? Look no further! Gaming guru Scott Rogers has his finger on the pulse of tablet game design and is willing to impart his wisdom and secrets for designing exciting and successful games. As the creator of such venerable games as God of War, the SpongeBob Squarepants series, and Pac-Man World, to name a few, Rogers writes from personal experience and in this unique book, he hands you the tools to create your own tablet games for the iPad, Android tablets, Nintendo DS, and other touchscreen systems. Covers the entire tablet game creation process, placing a special focus on the intricacies and pitfalls of touch-screen game design Explores the details and features of tablet game systems and shows you how to develop marketable ideas as well as market your own games Offers an honest take on what perils and pitfalls await you during a game's pre-production, production, and post-production stages Features interviews with established tablet game developers that serve to inspire you as you start to make your own tablet game design Swipe This! presents you with an in-depth analysis of popular tablet games and delivers a road map for getting started with tablet game design.

"Steve Bull is a true expert in his field. Anyone interested in winning will profit from his experience and knowledge." —Andrew 'Freddie' Flintoff «Steve Bull’s ideas and techniques will equip anyone in business with a game plan for acquiring the winning edge.» —From the Foreword by Michael Vaughan Mental toughness goes hand in hand with success and yet it is often misunderstood. True mental toughness is about preparation, resilience, control, risk management and above all execution. So, how do you utilise this elusive but critical attribute? By starting with a “game plan.” The Game Plan is about winning. More importantly, it’s about you winning. It’s about how you can create a personal performance environment that enables you to deliver at the crucial times. The Game Plan explores different types of mental toughness and examines how each one can give you the platform for significantly increased levels of self-confidence and resilience. Learn the easy-to-apply lessons that have created an environment of success for a host of world-beating performers in the business world and beyond. Imagine being able to apply a winning performance mindset to everyday work situations such as: Making presentations razor sharp Wowing new clients Being in control during performance appraisals Staying cool during even the most hectic and pressurized days Maintaining your self-belief even when things go wrong Making the right decision at the right time. Read and learn from The Game Plan and you will have at your fingertips a robust strategy to give you the edge over your closest competitors and the very best chance of success.

The irreverent guide to investing, Boglehead style The Boglehead's Guide to Investing is a DIY handbook that espouses the sage investment wisdom of John C. Bogle. This witty and wonderful book offers contrarian advice that provides the first step on the road to investment success, illustrating how relying on typical «common sense» promoted by Wall Street is destined to leave you poorer. This updated edition includes new information on backdoor Roth IRAs and ETFs as mainstream buy and hold investments, estate taxes and gifting, plus changes to the laws regarding Traditional and Roth IRAs, and 401k and 403b retirement plans. With warnings and principles both precisely accurate and grandly counterintuitive, the Boglehead authors show how beating the market is a zero-sum game. Investing can be simple, but it's certainly not simplistic. Over the course of twenty years, the followers of John C. Bogle have evolved from a loose association of investors to a major force with the largest and most active non-commercial financial forum on the Internet. The Boglehead's Guide to Investing brings that communication to you with comprehensive guidance to the investment prowess on display at Bogleheads.org. You'll learn how to craft your own investment strategy using the Bogle-proven methods that have worked for thousands of investors, and how to: Choose a sound financial lifestyle and diversify your portfolio Start early, invest regularly, and know what you're buying Preserve your buying power, keeping costs and taxes low Throw out the «good» advice promoted by Wall Street that leads to investment failure Financial markets are essentially closed systems in which one's gain garners another's loss. Investors looking for a roadmap to successfully navigating these choppy waters long-term will find expert guidance, sound advice, and a little irreverent humor in The Boglehead's Guide to Investing.

The path to business success is an open road and you'd better be ready for anything! What do businesspeople and entrepreneurs have in common with bikers? More than you'd suspect. The freedom of hitting the open road is a concrete extension of the need for freedom that encourages entrepreneurs to start businesses. The desire to succeed in business by doing it your own way is no different than the desire to hit the road and plot your own course on two wheels. The Biker's Guide to Business explores these parallels and offers hard-won business wisdom specially suited for Business Bikers who do it their way-whether out on the highways or in the corporate boardroom. Introduces DeVille's Navigation Process that helps you develop your own action plan for achieving your own unique vision of success Shows you how to tailor a road map to guide your personal journey from where you are now to where you want to be tomorrow Uses biker terminology, analogies, and parallels to communicate real business wisdom Though written to appeal to bikers, the book is a handy business guide for anyone willing to take the ride Whether or not you're a biker, the passion to ride is the same passion that pushes people to succeed professionally by taking their own path. Hop on, rev up, and succeed.

The Blackwell Guide to Aesthetics is the most authoritative survey of the central issues in contemporary aesthetics available. The volume features eighteen newly commissioned papers on the evaluation of art, the interpretation of art, and many other forms of art such as literature, movies, and music. Provides a guide to the central traditional and cutting edge issues in aesthetics today. Written by a distinguished cast of contributors, including Peter Kivy, George Dickie, No?l Carroll, Paul Guyer, Ted Cohen, Marcia Eaton, Joseph Margolis, Berys Gaut, Nicholas Wolterstrorff, Susan Feagin, Peter Lamarque, Stein Olsen, Francis Sparshott, Alan Goldman, Jenefer Robinson, Mary Mothersill, Donald Crawford, Philip Alperson, Laurent Stern and Amie Thomasson. Functions as the ideal text for undergraduate and graduate courses in aesthetics, art theory, and philosophy of art.

…The cardiac unit is a jungle, inhabited by fierce nurses, killer intensivists, marauding attendings, various flesh-eating specialists, sick patients, and lots of arrhythmias. –from the Preface Can you recognize the call of the normal sinus rhythm? Name the natural habitat of Multifocal Atrial Tachycardia or Ventricular Fibrillation? Are you well-versed in the proper care and feeding of Asystole and Atrial Flutter? If you answered “no” to any of these questions, then you need this trusty guide to help you identify and respond to arrhythmias in the veritable wilderness of the busy hospital ward. Created by a seasoned physician educator at a major urban medical center and inspired by the “field guides” used by birders, botanists and the like to identify flora or fauna in the wild, this new book offers a unique – and uniquely humorous – approach to mastering the ever-vexing challenge of arrhythmia identification. Each arrhythmia is covered beginning with a sample ECG strip, followed by brief text describing its significant characteristics; where and when it is likely to be encountered (its “Habitat”); comments, questions and queries likely to be heard from physicians and other colleagues on the ward (the “Call”); and finally what steps the reader needs to take upon identifying the arrhythmia in a patient (“Care and Feeding”). Dr. Lader’s approach brings the sights and sounds of a modern hospital to life, enabling you to understand arrhythmia diagnosis and clinical response in context, and his offbeat, sometimes irreverent humor makes each detail memorable. Fifty self-assessment questions are included to help you master arrhythmia essentials and test your knowledge.

This second edition of the popular guide to critical appraisal is a fully updated revision of the previous edition. Written in the same easily accessible style, The Pocket Guide to Critical Appraisal now provides annotated checklists of the most common research designs. Consistent with recent developments in evidence-based medicine, these checklists distinguish between the risk of bias in the conduct of published studies and the value of the findings for healthcare delivery. Five new chapters have been added and the original chapters have been rewritten, making the new edition a complete and concise guide for the evaluation of research quality. In addition to the checklists, the book also: describes how to quickly identify the information needed for the critical appraisal provides simple explanations of statistical significance and the interpretation of confidence intervals reviews the major sources of bias and their impact on research findings explains how to summarise the risk of bias outlines the concept of certainty of evidence and how to calculate it identifies the challenges in assessing the value of research findings The Pocket Guide to Critical Appraisal is an essential guide for all health professions and students who read research papers and use their findings.

Quick answers to your GAAP questions The Vest Pocket Guide to GAAP is the handy pocket problem-solver that gives today's busy financial executives the GAAP advice they need in a quick-reference format. Whether in public practice or private industry, professionals will always have this reliable reference tool at their fingertips because it easily goes anywhere-to a client's office, on a business trip, or to an important lunch meeting. Provides succinct answers to common GAAP questions Easy-to-use Q & A format offers hundreds of explanations supported by a multitude of examples, tables, charts, and ratios Other titles by Bragg: Running an Effective Investor Relations Department: A Comprehensive Guide, Accounting Best Practices, Sixth Edition, and Just-in-Time Accounting, Third Edition Convenient and comprehensive, The Vest Pocket Guide to GAAP is the handy reference you'll turn to again and again for quick answers to your GAAP questions.

The definitive, behind-the-scenes guide to mastering information design Finally, in one usable format, here's your single-volume resource for designing clear projects that really work for your audience. The Practical Guide to Information Design provides all the tools, resources, and best practices that designers need to create highly successful print and digital information design projects. A brilliant combination of practice and theory, this highly visual book covers the principles of design, perception, and usability, complete with step-by-step examples that feature the work of today's leading professionals. Comprehensively illustrated with hundreds of valuable graphs, maps, tables, line drawings, and photos, The Practical Guide to Information Design features: * Complete descriptions and comparisons of various formats * A range of helpful exercises to reinforce covered material * Handy summary boxes, bulleted lists, captions, and examples * A wealth of useful resources for professionals and students