Ebook: Game Programming Golden Rules (Game Development Series)

First off - this book assumes a familiarity with C or C++. If pointer arithmetic makes you squirm, better hit the language basics books before picking this up. For the rest of you, this book is a valuable resource.

In a few short chapters, the book gives a good primer on some of the more difficult "real" problems beginning game programmers come across. Scripting and using scripted finite state machines is a big focus. Instead of just hooking up LUA to your C engine and using the "magic" macros, the book describes a fly-weight scripting language of your own. The coverage of the resource pipeline and assets is also very good. The book is not the final word on any of these topics, but provides a good grounding and ability to look for more information on each of them. Brownlow has a talent for demystifying some complex topics. One of my all-time favorite game programming books.