The Game Maker's Apprentice

Mark Overmars

Mark is a full professor in Computer Science at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. Here he heads the center for Advanced Gaming and Simulation. One of his research domains is computer games. He is one of the founders of the Utrecht Platform for Game Education and Research and teaches courses on computer game design at Utrecht University. Mark is the author of many software packages. In particular, he is the author of the Game Maker software package which will be used as development tool in this book.

Jacob Habgood

Jacob worked in the UK Games Industry for seven years, writing console games for Gremlin Interactive and Infogrames/Atari. During this time he contributed to a wide range of titles and lead the programming teams on MicroMachines (PS2, Xbox and Game Cube) and Hogs of War (PlayStation). Jacob is now a Ph.D. student at the University of Nottingham, researching the educational potential of computer games. As part of this research Jacob runs clubs and workshops teaching children and teenagers how to make their own computer games, providing free activities and resources through his website (www.gamelearning.net).