What is computer game programming- What is game design?

Im looking to buy a birthday present for my brother. Im thinking of a book that would help him (he is in college studying computer engineering) with his newly started hobby in making a computer games. He is a beginner in the subject, and he knows C, thats all I know. I would really appreciate it if you have recommendations for books or please tell me which types of books I should be looking at programming or design??

What is computer game programming- What is game design?
Ironically, the best resource for your brother is a website, not a book. Have him take a look at Gamasutra... it's not only articles on how to program games, but articles by game programmers in the industry, writing about techniques they used to develop some of the most popular games out there...





http://gamasutra.com





Of course, that's not much of a gift. You might want to investigate a bit about what TYPE of games he's interested in programming... if it's games for Windows, then search Amazon for "C++ game programming" or "C# Game Programming".





If he's interested in writing games for the web, then again search for game programming, but for Flash or Java.





Java will serve him well in another context that's a hot market right now... writing games for cellphones.
Reply:If he wants to be a game programmer, he will need to know tons of code, which involves actions and etc...





Usually a programmer does not do game programming until he's taken much longer courses regarding this.





In this context I mean making games like Halo, etc...





If he wants to design simple games, just any programming book will do the trick. Probably anything on C will do if that's what he knows.