Beginning Lua with World of Warcraft Add-ons

If you play World of Warcraft, chances are you know what Deadly Boss Mods is: it's the most widely downloaded modification available for WoW, considered required software for many professional raid guilds, and arguably the most popular modern video game mod in history.

Paul Emmerich, the author of Deadly Boss Mods, will take you from novice to elite with his approachable, up-to-date guide to building addons for the most popular video game in history. Using the powerful Lua scripting language and XML, you'll learn how to build and update powerful mods that can fundamentally remake your World of Warcraft experience and introduce you to the field of professional software development.

Beginning Lua with World of Warcraft Addons teaches you the essentials of Lua and XML using exciting code examples that you can run and apply immediately. You'll gain competence in Lua specifics like tables and metatables and the imperative nature of Lua as a scripting language. More advanced techniques like file persistence, error handling, and script debugging are made clear as you learn everything within the familiar, exciting context of making tools that work in Azeroth.

You'll not only learn all about the World of Warcraft API and programming, and gain coding skills that will make all your online friends think you're a coding god, but also gain hands-on Lua scripting experience that could translate into an exciting job in the video game industry!

What you'll learn

• See how to program Lua using basic and advanced techniques applicable to WoW and video game coding.
• Explore the unique design, modeling, and workflow constraints of video game mod makers from one of its most successful practitioners.
• Become the coolest character on your server–with tools and scripts that will make your friends gasp.

Who is this book for?

This book is for World of Warcraft players, developers, and mod makers who want to learn how to program addons in Lua and XML, either to learn Lua or to improve their game experience. Working coders who don't know Lua and want to learn about this exciting, popular scripting language will also benefit.

The advanced material in this book will also be useful to those with World of Warcraft addon programming experience, so prior programming experience is an advantage, but not a requirement.