Michael Dawson has worked as both a programmer and a computer game designer and producer. In addition to real-world game industry experience, Dawson earned his bachelor's degree in Computer Science from the University of Southern California. He currently teaches game programming and design to students of all ages through UCLA Extension courses and private lessons. Visit his Web site at www.programgames.com to learn more or to get support for any of his books.

• Introduction.1. Getting Started: The Game Over Program.2. Types, Variables, and Simple I/O: The Useless Trivia Program.3. Branching, while Loops, and Program Planning: The Guess My Number Game.4. for Loops, Strings, and Tuples: The Word Jumble Game.5. Lists and Dictionaries: The Hangman Game.6. Functions: Tic-Tac-Toe.7. Files and Exceptions: The Trivia Challenge Game.8. Software Objects: The Critter Caretaker Program.9. Object-Oriented Programming: The Blackjack Game.10. GUI Development: The Mad Lib Program.

Introduction. 1. Getting Started: The Game Over Program. 2. Types, Variables, and Simple I/O: The Useless Trivia Program. 3. Branching, while Loops, and Program Planning: The Guess My Number Game. 4. for Loops, Strings, and Tuples: The Word Jumble Game. 5. Lists and Dictionaries: The Hangman Game. 6. Functions: Tic-Tac-Toe. 7. Files and Exceptions: The Trivia Challenge Game. 8. Software Objects: The Critter Caretaker Program. 9. Object-Oriented Programming: The Blackjack Game. 10. GUI Development: The Mad Lib Program.