Leverage the power of LibGDX to create a fully functional, customizable RPG game for your own commercial title About This Book Learn game architecture and design patterns with concrete examples using proper software engineering principles Save time and money with this handy reference guide for future game development with LibGDX Design and develop a fully functional RPG video game from scratch with a hands on, step-by-step approach using LibGDX Who This Book Is For If you are an intermediate-level game developer who wants to create an RPG video game but found the creation process overwhelming, either by lack of tutorials or by getting lost in a sea of game-related technologies, engines, or frameworks, then this book is for you. This book assumes familiarity with Java and some basic knowledge of LibGDX. What You Will Learn Develop characters with stat attributes, player movement, animation, physics, and collision detection Create interactive NPC characters with speech windows and build immersion via dialog trees Build inventory management system UIs with drag and drop items to sell, buy, and equip Design a quest system to expand out the content of your game Form interesting enemies with battle mechanics and spawn points Devise *ed cutscenes to add an element of story and drama Develop save and load game profiles Create special effects to give the game extra “juiciness” and polish, and help build the atmosphere In Detail LibGDX is a Java-based framework developed with a heavy emphasis on performance, and includes cross-platform support out of the box (Windows, OS X, Linux, iOS, Android, and HTML5) as well as providing all the low-level functionality so that you can focus on developing your game and not battling with the platform. LibGDX also has an engaged and responsive community, active maintenance, and is available for free without a prohibitive license. Starting from the beginning, this book will take you through the entire development process of creating an RPG video game using LibGDX. First, this book will introduce you to the features specific to RPG games, as well as an overview of game architecture. Then, you will create map locations, develop character movement, add animation, integrate collision detection, and develop a portal system. Next, you will learn and develop a HUD and other UI components, as well as an inventory management system. You will then develop NPC interactions including dialog trees, shopkeepers, and quest givers. After this, you will design and create battle features for fighting enemies, as well as event triggers for world events. Finally, you will add the final polish with sound, music, and lighting effects. By the end of this book, you will have learned and applied core components from the LibGDX framework, as well as have a finished game to use as a springboard for customization and story development for your own commercial video game. Style and approach This book walks you through the concepts and implementation of developing a complete RPG game, unfolding chapter by chapter and building upon previous concepts. Each chapter can be used as an individual reference with diagrams to explain core concepts with concrete example code explained in detail.

Create your own massively scalable Cassandra database with highly responsive database queries About This Book Create a Cassandra cluster and tweak its configuration to get the best performance based on your environment Analyze the key concepts and architecture of Cassandra, which are essential to create highly responsive Cassandra databases A fast-paced and step-by-step guide on handling huge amount of data and getting the best out of your database applications Who This Book Is For If you are a developer who is working with Cassandra and you want to deep dive into the core concepts and understand Cassandra’s non-relational nature, then this book is for you. A basic understanding of Cassandra is expected. What You Will Learn Install and set up your Cassandra Cluster using various installation types Use Cassandra Query Language (CQL) to design Cassandra database and tables with various configuration options Design your Cassandra database to be evenly loaded with the lowest read/write latencies Employ the available Cassandra tools to monitor and maintain a Cassandra cluster Debug CQL queries to discover why they are performing relatively slowly Choose the best-suited compaction strategy for your database based on your usage pattern Tune Cassandra based on your deployment operation system environment In Detail Apache Cassandra Essentials takes you step-by-step from from the basics of installation to advanced installation options and database design techniques. It gives you all the information you need to effectively design a well distributed and high performance database. You’ll get to know about the steps that are performed by a Cassandra node when you execute a read/write query, which is essential to properly maintain of a Cassandra cluster and to debug any issues. Next, you’ll discover how to integrate a Cassandra driver in your applications and perform read/write operations. Finally, you’ll learn about the various tools provided by Cassandra for serviceability aspects such as logging, metrics, backup, and recovery. Style and approach This step-by-step guide is packed with examples that explain the core concepts as well as advanced concepts, techniques, and usages of Apache Cassandra.

Filled with practical, step-by-step instructions and clear explanations for the most important and useful tasks. This is a Packt Instant How-to guide, which provides concise and clear recipes for getting started with PHPUnit for performing code testing and improving code quality."Instant Hands-on Testing with PHPUnit How-to" is for PHP developers that have an appreciation for writing accurate code. If you are new to PHPUnit, it will give you a solid foundation for understanding how to use PHPUnit to write tests for your projects. If you already have a cursory understanding of PHPUnit it will whet your appetite for some of the more difficult-to-understand concepts in PHPUnit.

Full of easy-to-follow recipes and images that will teach powerful techniques and algorithms, building from basic projects to challenging applications. This book is for artists, designers, and programmers who have previous knowledge of C++, but not necessarily of Cinder.

Presented in an easy-to-follow, step-by-step tutorial, "Getting Started with Dynamics NAV 2013 Application Development" introduces the reader to the main concepts of developing with Dynamics NAV."Getting Started with Dynamics NAV 2013 Application Development" is for any user who uses Dynamics NAV as their main business software. This is also for any developers who may be familiar with other accounting software and wish to get into developing within the Dynamics NAV field.

Filled with practical, step-by-step instructions and clear explanations for the most important and useful tasks. This is a Packt Instant How-to guide, which provides concise and clear recipes for getting started with Hadoop.This book is for big data enthusiasts and would-be Hadoop programmers. It is also meant for Java programmers who either have not worked with Hadoop at all, or who know Hadoop and MapReduce but are not sure how to deepen their understanding.

Get to grips with a new technology, understand what it is and what it can do for you, and then get to work with the most important features and tasks. This book is for IT professionals who have no previous experience with Netcat but need to understand it quickly and easily.

If you are a developer who has been tasked with building service-oriented BizTalk Server solutions, this book is for you. It will help you to envision an enterprise solution and implement the software blueprint.

Taking a highly practical approach and a playful tone, Kali Linux CTF Blueprints provides step-by-step guides to setting up vulnerabilities, in-depth guidance to exploiting them, and a variety of advice and ideas to build and customize your own challenges. If you are a penetration testing team leader or individual who wishes to challenge yourself or your friends in the creation of penetration testing assault courses, this is the book for you. The book assumes a basic level of penetration skills and familiarity with the Kali Linux operating system.

This book follows a step-by-step approach to learning the building blocks of SharePoint application development. This book focuses on SharePoint 2010 development using Visual studio 2010. The book provides a hands-on approach to solving problems and creating business solutions for enhancing SharePoint 2010 environment. This book is for .NET developers to understand the building blocks for SharePoint 2010. Although the book can be used by beginners, it is recommended to have understanding of the previous versions of SharePoint. Developing SharePoint solutions needs solid understanding of ASP.NET architecture. The book assumes that the reader is familiar with ASP.NET technology and development concepts.

This book has step-by-step instructions to solve data manipulation problems using PDI in the form of recipes. It has plenty of well-organized tips, screenshots, tables, and examples to aid quick and easy understanding. If you are a software developer or anyone involved or interested in developing ETL solutions, or in general, doing any kind of data manipulation, this book is for you. It does not cover PDI basics, SQL basics, or database concepts. You are expected to have a basic understanding of the PDI tool, SQL language, and databases.

This book offers practical, task-based, and immediately usable recipes covering a wide range of advanced techniques for administering a high-performance SQL Server 2008 R2 system. In addition to its cookbook style, which ensures the solutions are presented in a clear step-by-step manner, its explanations go into great detail, which makes it good learning material for everyone who has experience in SQL Server and wants to improve. The book is designed in such a way that you can either read it chapter by chapter or refer to recipes that you want in no particular order. Although the book is focused on specific Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2, most of the concepts and explanations are also applicable to SQL Server 2008. If you are an experienced database administrator and database architect who wants to design, administer, and manage a scalable and high-performance SQL Server 2008 R2 system, then this book is for you. The book assumes that you have a good understanding of database management systems, specifically experience in Microsoft SQL Server 2008 administration.

This guide to SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.0 (formerly Xcelsius )is a cookbook packed full of practical recipes written in a clear, concise manner with annotated examples to empower readers to quickly accomplish specific dashboard tasks. If you are a developer with a good command and knowledge of creating dashboards, but are not yet an advanced Dashboard Design user, then this is the perfect book for you. You should have a good working knowledge of Microsoft Excel as well as knowledge of basic dashboard practices, though experience of Dashboard Design as a specific dashboard tool is not essential.

This book is a step-by-step tutorial with a lot of screenshots that help to explain the concept better. This book will cover the building of a 3D game for Windows Phone using XNA. We won’t explain the C# programming language itself, nor object-oriented programming.We will however explain the aspects of game development thoroughly, so don’t worry if you have never written a 3D game. We will cover all the basics, included the much dreaded math. This is the right book for anyone, regardless of age and gender, if: You are interested in game development You want to start building games for Windows Phone You have some programming knowledge. In this book, we will first go over the technical topics, and end up building a 3D game for Windows Phone 7 together!

Filled with practical, step-by-step instructions and clear explanations for the most important and useful tasks. Get the job done and learn as you go. Step-by step application of the features of Moodle Quiz provides a good grounding in creating effective assessment FOR and OF learning. Filled with practical, step-by-step instructions and clear explanations for the most important and useful tasks. Get the job done and learn as you go. If you are doing any kind of instruction using Moodle as your Learning Management System, this book is for you! Strong assessment is one of the keys to effective instruction and successful learners. Readers are expected to have a basic working knowledge of Moodle and access to a course they are instructing.

Filled with practical, step-by-step instructions and clear explanations for the most important and useful tasks. Get the job done and learn as you go. Presented in a hands-on reference manual style, with real-world scenarios to lead you through each process. This book is intended for Windows server administrators who are performing migrations from their existing Windows Server 2008 / 2008 R2 environment to Windows Server 2012. The reader must be familiar with Windows Server 2008.

This book is for those Splunk developers who want to learn advanced strategies to deal with big data from an enterprise architectural perspective. You need to have good working knowledge of Splunk.

This book is for those who want to learn how to build exciting Arduino projects by interfacing it with Android. You will need to have some basic experience in electronics and programming. However, you don't need to have any previous experience with the Arduino or Android platforms.

This book is aimed at virtualization professionals who want to improve their skills in infrastructure monitoring and management. You need a good understanding of server virtualization and management of virtual environments.

This book is perfect for IT administrators who are looking to enhance their skills on system and asset management. A fair understanding of the core elements and applications related to SCCM would be helpful.

This book is for new BeagleBone owners who are looking to quickly get their microboard up and running. It would be helpful to have an understanding of embedded concepts or Linux but neither is essential.