You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
Game designers spend their lives solving extraordinary problems and facing mind-bending paradoxes. It’s their job to make a meticulous plan for “spontaneous fun” players will want to experience over and over again. Pressure is heaped on with demands for innovation and blockbuster status. So designers find themselves facing an abyss of problems, pressure, and possibilities, armed only with their brains and an assortment of design principles they picked up over years of experience. For the first time, 100 Principles of Game Design gathers some of the best of these big ideas into one toolkit. Seasoned designers will be glad they don’t have to hold it all in their heads anymore, and begi...
This book by the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) Game Writing Special Interest Group focuses on various aspects of working as a professional game writer, including how to break in to game writing, writing manuals, narrative design, writing in a team, working as a freelancer, working with new intellectual property, and more. It incl
Artists and programmers often work together on complex projects in stressful environments and things don’t always go smoothly. Miscommunication and misunderstandings are common as these two disciplines often use the same words to mean different things when they talk to each other. Unintentional slights can turn into long-held grudges and productivity grinds to a crawl. This is a "flip book" that contains two narratives in one. Turn the book one way and read one perspective; turn the book over and upside down and read the other perspective. The narratives can be read separately, one after the other, or in alternating chapters. Talking to Artists / Talking to Programmers can help anyone who ...
This second edition of Professional Techniques for Video Game Writing is updated with new chapters and new authors, but it’s still a no-nonsense guide to the professional craft of writing for video games. Not only does the text cover story and narrative elements, but it also addresses dialogue, documentation, and strategy guides. Seasoned video game writers each address a different topic, including the best way to break into the video game industry, how to be an efficient part of a team, and the principles of narrative design. The book also offers script samples, technical writing advice, effective writing tips, and suggestions for how to innovate in game narrative. Key Features Comprehens...
Creating Games offers a comprehensive overview of the technology, content, and mechanics of game design. It emphasizes the broad view of a games team and teaches you enough about your teammates' areas so that you can work effectively with them. The authors have included many worksheets and exercises to help get your small indie team off the ground. Special features: Exercises at the end of each chapter combine comprehension tests with problems that help the reader interact with the material Worksheet exercises provide creative activities to help project teams generate new ideas and then structure them in a modified version of the format of a game industry design document Pointers to the best resources for digging deeper into each specialized area of game development Website with worksheets, figures from the book, and teacher materials including study guides, lecture presentations, syllabi, supplemental exercises, and assessment materials
This book examines the practices of writers in the AAA video game industry, to provide a model for game writing pedagogy that highlights the roles and skills utilized by these innovative storytellers. Based on a two-year qualitative study, gathering data through conversational interviews, Seth Hudson combines theory, practice, and his experience as an educator-researcher to shed light on the phenomenon of game writing and writers who drive innovation in game storytelling. The author gives context for a range of audiences, examining the role of computer game design (CGD) in higher education, the role of writing and narrative design within those programs, the current and historical challenges game writers face, and the purpose of the research underpinning this book. Hudson frames a synthesis of research findings and relevant theory to illustrate new teaching practices informed by his findings that will help better serve students. This book will provide an essential resource for game studies and game design educators and researchers, as well as game narrative enthusiasts.
From the complex city-planning game SimCity to the virtual therapist Eliza: how computational processes open possibilities for understanding and creating digital media. What matters in understanding digital media? Is looking at the external appearance and audience experience of software enough—or should we look further? In Expressive Processing, Noah Wardrip-Fruin argues that understanding what goes on beneath the surface, the computational processes that make digital media function, is essential. Wardrip-Fruin looks at “expressive processing” by examining specific works of digital media ranging from the simulated therapist Eliza to the complex city-planning game SimCity. Digital media, he contends, offer particularly intelligible examples of things we need to understand about software in general; if we understand, for instance, the capabilities and histories of artificial intelligence techniques in the context of a computer game, we can use that understanding to judge the use of similar techniques in such higher-stakes social contexts as surveillance.
Is your loved one constantly monopolizing your computer or TV to play video games? Is your schedule constantly set back by entreaties of ?five more minutes? or ?let me find a save point?? If so, you might be a game widow. Wendy Kays, former game widow, is here to help. In this book, she successfully bridges the gap between those who game and those who don?t by sharing invaluable advice and practical strategies for reclaiming your relationship with a video-gaming spouse, friend, or family member.?This timely and insightful book?provides some remarkably well-balanced answers to why online games can be so seductive and what you can do when your partner has a gaming problem."?Nick Yee, founder o...
Learn the mechanics that take your game from an idea to a playable product. Do you aspire to be a game designer but aren’t sure where to begin? Tabletop Game Design for Video Game Designers guides you through your initial attempts to design game mechanics. It goes beyond simple description and definition to explore in detail the issues that designers grapple with for every game they create. Learning to design tabletop games builds a solid foundation for game designers and provides methods that can be applied towards creating paper prototypes of computer-targeted games. Presented in a step-by-step format, Tabletop Game Design for Video Game Designers helps the reader understand how the game...