Design accessible and creative games across genres, platforms, and development realities About This Book ? Implement the skills and techniques required to work in a professional studio ? Ace the core principles and processes of level design, world building, and storytelling ? Design interactive characters that animate the gaming world Who This Book Is For Whether you are a student eager to design a game or a junior game designer looking for your first role as a professional, this book will help you with the fundamentals of game design. By focusing on best practices and a pragmatic approach, Practical Game Design provides insights into the arts and crafts from two senior game designers that will interest more seasoned professionals in the game industry. What You Will Learn ? Define the scope and structure of a game project ? Conceptualize a game idea and present it to others ? Design gameplay systems and communicate them clearly and thoroughly ? Build and validate engaging game mechanics ? Design successful business models and prepare your games for live operations ? Master the principles behind level design, worldbuilding and storytelling ? Improve the quality of a game by playtesting and polishing it In Detail If you are looking for an up-to-date and highly applicable guide to game design, then you have come to the right place! Immerse yourself in the fundamentals of game design with this book, written by two highly experienced industry professionals to share their profound insights as well as give valuable advice on creating games across genres and development platforms. Practical Game Design covers the basics of game design one piece at a time. Starting with learning how to conceptualize a game idea and present it to the development team, you will gradually move on to devising a design plan for the whole project and adapting solutions from other games. You will also discover how to produce original game mechanics without relying on existing reference material, and test and eliminate anticipated design risks. You will then design elements that compose the playtime of a game, followed by making game mechanics, content, and interface accessible to all players. You will also find out how to simultaneously ensure that the gameplay mechanics and content are working as intended. As the book reaches its final chapters, you will learn to wrap up a game ahead of its release date, work through the different challenges of designing free-to-play games, and understand how to significantly improve their quality through iteration, polishing and playtesting. Style and approach A practical step by step guide to get you up and running with Game Design from scratch

Jill Barklem was born in Epping and led a quiet childhood enjoying being close to nature. On leaving school, she studied illustration at St Martin’s in London. The inspiration for Brambly Hedge appeared during Jill’s daily train journey between Epping and London: shutting herself off from the outside world, she became obsessed with the way of life of a band of hedgerow mice, later to be developed as the world of Brambly Hedge.

Now that she’s healed… can she heal him? Armed with a clean bill of health, ER doctor April Sprader is ready to check off items on her bucket list. After meeting Zach Harrison, number four–start dating–shoots to the top. But the workaholic sports agent and caregiver has no spare time. Unless April can persuade Zach that this could be a second chance for them both…

Now that she’s healed… can she heal him? Armed with a clean bill of health, ER doctor April Sprader is ready to check off items on her bucket list. After meeting Zach Harrison, number four–start dating–shoots to the top. But the workaholic sports agent and caregiver has no spare time. Unless April can persuade Zach that this could be a second chance for them both…

HE'S CALLLING IN BACK-UP As the law in Rodeo, Montana, Sheriff Cole Payette can handle just about anything. Taking in his orphaned niece and nephew, though, puts him out of his depth. Grief-stricken himself, Cole turns to bar owner Honey Armstrong. Cole’s long-time crush on Honey has always made him tongue-tied, but now she’s the only one he can ask. Honey is shocked by Cole’s request. He rarely says two words to her and now he needs her to help care for the children? She’s willing to pitch in, but bonding with the kids starts to feel a lot like being a family. And that’s not something Honey has ever let herself dream about–no matter how tempting Cole is…

When Queen Leyna took the throne, she walked away from her first love, the king of another country, putting duty first. Now their kingdoms are under threat – and knowing only an heir will save them, can they fight to find a way back to each other?

Former army captain Giles Wainwright is shocked to learn he has a daughter and even more shocked at how attracted he is to her adoptive mother, Mya Lawson. But Mya doesn't trust Giles's motives and he will have to work hard if he wants to claim Mya's love.

He found his target and lost his heart… SEAL Dalton “Diesel” Landon knows that Reese Brantley is no damsel in distress – but she does need rescuing! Diesel and Reese are on the run. In the middle of the jungle, it’s clear that Diesel’s real danger is losing his heart to Reese…

A sordid past, a killer secret… When Keira Spencer is targeted by a killer, only handsome Omega agent Roman can save her. From entirely different worlds, Roman needs to get over Keira’s infamous past to win her heart.

When you play both sides…there’s always a price Ty Redhorse finds himself tied at a crossroads when he meets FBI agent Beth Hoosay. Forced to choose between his gang and Beth, Ty isn’t sure how much longer he can ignore their sizzling attraction.

Her Holiday Hero Widow Corinne Gallagher’s plans for a peaceful Christmas with her kids go astray when longtime crush Gabe Cutler moves in next door. As if having the hunky state trooper in snowball-throwing distance isn’t distracting enough, Gabe is suddenly in custody of an orphaned infant—and in need of Corinne’s help! She agrees, but her heart draws a line—she can't fall for another lawman. After a devastating loss, Gabe has avoided fatherhood and love. Yet with Corinne and the children, his new house is starting to feel like home. Will Gabe run again, or finally fulfill his secret Christmas wish for a family? Grace Haven: A town full of heart, happiness and home.

The Rancher’s Special Delivery The “package” is addressed to him, but rancher Sterling Blackwell certainly didn’t order a baby! More scandalous still, he and the town’s pretty teacher are named as parents. With gossip running wild, only a marriage of convenience can protect little Gracie and their reputations until her real family is found. Heather O’Connor is content to be Valentine, Montana’s spinster schoolmarm…until Gracie’s arrival stirs her heart. She can’t keep the adorable child without Sterling’s help, though she promises not to interfere with his life. But staying aloof from her handsome husband isn’t easy with a tiny matchmaker in tow. A mistake brought them together, but love might just make them a family by Christmas… Montana Courtships: Romance unfolds under the Big Sky

Improve the speed of your code and optimize the performance of your apps About This Book ? Understand the common performance pitfalls and improve your application’s performance ? Get to grips with multi-threaded and asynchronous programming in C# ? Develop highly performant applications on .NET Core using microservice architecture Who This Book Is For This book is for .NET developers looking at improving the speed of their code or simply wanting to take their skills to the next level. Basic C# knowledge is assumed. What You Will Learn ? Measure application performance using BenchmarkDotNet ? Explore the techniques to write multithreaded applications ? Leverage TPL and PLinq libraries to perform asynchronous operations ? Get familiar with data structures to write optimized code ? Understand design techniques to increase your application’s performance ? Learn about memory management techniques in .NET Core ? Develop a containerized application based on microservices architecture ? Learn tools and techniques to monitor application performance In Detail While writing an application, performance is paramount. Performance tuning for realworld applications often involves activities geared toward fnding bottlenecks; however, this cannot solve the dreaded problem of slower code. If you want to improve the speed of your code and optimize an application's performance, then this book is for you. C# 7 and .NET Core 2.0 High Performance begins with an introduction to the new features of what?explaining how they help in improving an application's performance. Learn to identify the bottlenecks in writing programs and highlight common performance pitfalls, and learn strategies to detect and resolve these issues early. You will explore multithreading and asynchronous programming with .NET Core and learn the importance and effcient use of data structures. This is followed with memory management techniques and design guidelines to increase an application’s performance. Gradually, the book will show you the importance of microservices architecture for building highly performant applications and implementing resiliency and security in .NET Core. After reading this book, you will learn how to structure and build scalable, optimized, and robust applications in C#7 and .NET. Style and approach This book will be a step by step easy to follow guide with focused examples to increase performance of applications and provide optimization techniques.

Explore powerful R packages to create predictive models using ensemble methods Key Features *Implement machine learning algorithms to build ensemble-efficient models *Explore powerful R packages to create predictive models using ensemble methods *Learn to build ensemble models on large datasets using a practical approach Book Description Ensemble techniques are used for combining two or more similar or dissimilar machine learning algorithms to create a stronger model. Such a model delivers superior prediction power and can give your datasets a boost in accuracy. Hands-On Ensemble Learning with R begins with the important statistical resampling methods. You will then walk through the central trilogy of ensemble techniques – bagging, random forest, and boosting – then you'll learn how they can be used to provide greater accuracy on large datasets using popular R packages. You will learn how to combine model predictions using different machine learning algorithms to build ensemble models. In addition to this, you will explore how to improve the performance of your ensemble models. By the end of this book, you will have learned how machine learning algorithms can be combined to reduce common problems and build simple efficient ensemble models with the help of real-world examples. What you will learn *Carry out an essential review of re-sampling methods, bootstrap, and jackknife *Explore the key ensemble methods: bagging, random forests, and boosting *Use multiple algorithms to make strong predictive models *Enjoy a comprehensive treatment of boosting methods *Supplement methods with statistical tests, such as ROC *Walk through data structures in classification, regression, survival, and time series data *Use the supplied R code to implement ensemble methods *Learn stacking method to combine heterogeneous machine learning models Who this book is for This book is for you if you are a data scientist or machine learning developer who wants to implement machine learning techniques by building ensemble models with the power of R. You will learn how to combine different machine learning algorithms to perform efficient data processing. Basic knowledge of machine learning techniques and programming knowledge of R would be an added advantage.

Make the most of Angular by leveraging design patterns and best practices to build stable and high performing apps Key Features *Get to grips with the benefits and applicability of using different design patterns in Angular with the help of real-world examples *Identify and prevent common problems, programming errors, and anti-patterns *Packed with easy-to-follow examples that can be used to create reusable code and extensible designs Book Description This book is an insightful journey through the most valuable design patterns, and it will provide clear guidance on how to use them effectively in Angular. You will explore some of the best ways to work with Angular and how to use it to meet the stability and performance required in today's web development world. You’ll get to know some Angular best practices to improve your productivity and the code base of your application. We will take you on a journey through Angular designs for the real world, using a combination of case studies, design patterns to follow, and anti-patterns to avoid. By the end of the book, you will understand the various features of Angular, and will be able to apply well-known, industry-proven design patterns in your work. What you will learn *Understand Angular design patterns and anti-patterns *Implement the most useful GoF patterns for Angular *Explore some of the most famous navigational patterns for Angular *Get to know and implement stability patterns *Explore and implement operations patterns *Explore the official best practices for Angular *Monitor and improve the performance of Angular applications Who this book is for If you want to increase your understanding of Angular and apply it to real-life application development, then this book is for you.

The first secret is personal. The second one is a killer… This school reunion was a shot at redemption and maybe a second chance for army man Dylan Burkhart and his old flame, Ava North. But a secret-telling game turns up a murder confession, with the killer hiding among them…

‘Just friends’ is just perfect…until love finds her at Willow’s Haven Her dreams of love haven’t worked out, but veterinarian Haley Calhoun intends to grant an orphaned boy’s wish. She’ll heal Eli’s injured puppy—while resisting his charming counselor at the children’s home, Gavin Thomason. Still mourning the loss of his wife and baby, Gavin believes he can’t commit again. But in losing their hearts to Eli, will Haley and Gavin discover they’ve found the family they need?

Return to Lancaster County Love blooms in the Amish Seasons series. Widowed single mother Ava Jane Graber can't believe her eyes. Her first love is back in Lancaster County. Years ago Jeremiah did the unthinkable: left the Amish—and her—for the Navy SEALS. Now the prodigal hero wants redemption from his community, his family and from the woman he never forgot. For the ex-soldier, becoming Ava’s husband is his ultimate mission.

Suddenly a Family After Rena Livingston's secret fiancé leaves her pregnant and unwed, her mayor father insists upon a marriage of convenience to Sheriff Scott Braden. Though his motivations are as much about protecting his political career as her reputation, Rena is grateful the standoffish sheriff agrees to the arrangement. At least her child will grow up without the burden of her shame… Scott believed his one chance at love fled with his ex-fiancée, but caring for Rena and her unborn baby exposes a vulnerability he vowed he'd never allow again. When the upcoming election stirs nasty gossip, though, Scott must choose between his commitment to the town and his growing love for Rena and the baby.

Unexpected Father The pretty redhead Seth Halloway pulls from a derailed train has surprising news for him. The children she’s accompanied to Cowboy Creek aren’t hers—they’re his, thanks to the last wishes of a late friend. Busy rancher Seth must suddenly cope with three rambunctious boys…and try to ignore his growing feelings for independent Marigold Brewster. Marigold hopes to start over as the town's new schoolteacher. She’ll choose her own path, and stay aloof from the adorable Radner boys—and their guardian. But the man who rescued her from a wrecked railcar might just be the one to save her from loneliness…if she dares to let him in. Return to Cowboy Creek: A bride train delivers the promise of new love and family to a Kansas boom town.

Ten years ago, he was a suspect in her parents’ murder. Now he’s back to protect the family he never knew he had. DEA agent Theo Carter has gone back home to protect the family he never knew he had while a murderer is on the loose. Ivy Beckett broke his heart once, will he let her break down his barriers again?