This book presents 71 practical game design tools that readers can use to solve real-world game design problems. Written to be a "toolbox" for game designers, it offers a hands-on approach with clear and easy-to-use tools so that readers can quickly find the right solution to the problem they are facing. This book is divided into six game design phases: ideation, exploration, commitment, problem solving, balancing, and tuning. Each category contains an array of relevant tools, and the accompanying indexes offer suggestions for tools to use for specific problems. Support Materials for this book offer further teaching materials, exercises, and complementary FAQs. Written to be a practical resource, this book will be a useful toolbox for junior and veteran game designers alike.

This book provides a series of transdisciplinary tools to help game designers improve their design pipeline and design output. Using approaches from psychology, anthropology, and sociology, it offers practical tools for all the main aspects of game design from conception through to testing. Drawing on game design theory, the book looks at the relationship between game design and other disciplines to create a toolbox of modern tools for game designers. It covers archetypes, praxeology, behavioural game design, and emotional game design. Covering a wide breadth of content, the book includes chapters on: Documentation Production Evaluation Analysis and Marketing tools This book will be of great interest to students on game design courses, as well as early-career game designers and those looking to break into the industry. It will also be of interest to more experienced game designers looking for new game design tools.

This book brings the insights of game professionals, DCC creators, hardware vendors, and current researchers together into a collection that focuses on the most underrepresented and critical part of game production: tools development. The first gems-type book dedicated to game tools, this volume focuses on practical, implementable tools for game de

"Level Up! The Guide to Great Video Game Design" is the ultimate handbook for gamers of all levels. Whether you're a casual player or a seasoned pro, this book has something for everyone. With detailed guides on popular games, tips and tricks to improve your skills, and insights into the gaming industry, you'll be able to take your gaming to the next level. Learn how to master your favorite games with step-by-step instructions and expert advice. Discover new games and genres to explore, and get insider knowledge on the latest gaming trends. From PC to console to mobile gaming, this book covers it all. But "Level Up! The Guide to Great Video Game Design" isn't just about playing games – it's also about building a community around your passion. Find out how to connect with other gamers, join online communities, and even start your own gaming channel or stream. Packed with valuable information and entertaining anecdotes, "Guide to Gaming" is a must-read for anyone who loves gaming.

Classic and cutting-edge writings on games, spanning nearly 50 years of game analysis and criticism, by game designers, game journalists, game fans, folklorists, sociologists, and media theorists. The Game Design Reader is a one-of-a-kind collection on game design and criticism, from classic scholarly essays to cutting-edge case studies. A companion work to Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman's textbook Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals, The Game Design Reader is a classroom sourcebook, a reference for working game developers, and a great read for game fans and players. Thirty-two essays by game designers, game critics, game fans, philosophers, anthropologists, media theorists, and others consider fundamental questions: What are games and how are they designed? How do games interact with culture at large? What critical approaches can game designers take to create game stories, game spaces, game communities, and new forms of play? Salen and Zimmerman have collected seminal writings that span 50 years to offer a stunning array of perspectives. Game journalists express the rhythms of game play, sociologists tackle topics such as role-playing in vast virtual worlds, players rant and rave, and game designers describe the sweat and tears of bringing a game to market. Each text acts as a springboard for discussion, a potential class assignment, and a source of inspiration. The book is organized around fourteen topics, from The Player Experience to The Game Design Process, from Games and Narrative to Cultural Representation. Each topic, introduced with a short essay by Salen and Zimmerman, covers ideas and research fundamental to the study of games, and points to relevant texts within the Reader. Visual essays between book sections act as counterpoint to the writings. Like Rules of Play, The Game Design Reader is an intelligent and playful book. An invaluable resource for professionals and a unique introduction for those new to the field, The Game Design Reader is essential reading for anyone who takes games seriously.

You understand the basic concepts of game design: gameplay, user interfaces, core mechanics, character design, and storytelling. Now you want to know how to apply them to the shooter games genre. This focused guides gives you exactly what you need. It walks you through the process of designing for the shooter game genre and shows you how to use the right techniques to create fun and challenging experiences for your players.

Learn how to create compelling game storylines. Four experienced narrative designers from different genres of game development have banded together to create this all-inclusive guide on what it's like to work as a writer and narrative designer in the video game industry. From concept to final testing, The Game Narrative Toolbox walks readers through what role a narrative designer plays on a development team and what the requirements are at every stage of development. Drawing on real experiences, authors Tobias Heussner, Toiya Kristen Finley, PhD, Ann Lemay, and Jennifer Brandes Hepler provide invaluable advice for writing compelling player-centered stories and effective dialogue trees to help readers make the switch from writing prose or screenplay to interactive. Thoroughly revised, the Second Edition includes updated content reflecting the industry’s latest developments. In addition to revised and updated chapters, this new edition features two additional chapters covering more advanced topics that are applicable to the lessons learned from the original chapters. Accompanying every chapter are exercises that allow the reader to develop their own documentation, outlines, and game-dialogue samples for use in applying for industry jobs or developing independent projects.

iPhone games are hot! Just look at the numbers. Games make up over 25 percent of total apps and over 70 percent of the most popular apps. Surprised? Of course not! Most of us have filled our iPhone or iPod touch with games, and many of us hope to develop the next best-selling, most talked-about game. You've probably already read and mastered Beginning iPhone 3 Development; Exploring the iPhone SDK, the best-selling second edition of Apress's highly acclaimed introduction to the iPhone and iPod touch by developers Dave Mark and Jeff LaMarche. This book is the game-specific equivalent, providing you with the same easy-to-follow, step-by-step approach, more deep technical insights, and that familiar friendly style. While games are all about fun, at the same time, they're serious business. With this Beginning iPhone Games Development book, you're going to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty with some hardcore coding. While you may have written games before, this book will take you further, immersing you in the following topics: Game graphics and animation with UIKit, Quartz, Core Animation, and OpenGL ES Game audio with OpenAL, MediaPlayer Framework, AV Foundation, and AudioSession Game networking with GameKit, Bonjour, and Internet sharing For those looking for iPad game development coverage and/or iOS 5 SDK specific game coverage, check out the published Beginning iOS 5 Games Development by Lucas Jordan from Apress.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Entertainment Computing, ICEC 2013, held in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in October 2013. The 13 full papers, 6 short papers, 11 posters presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 75 submissions. In addition to these papers, the program featured 2 demos, 3 workshops, 3 tutorials and 3 art installations, also summarized in this book. The papers cover various topics in the multi-disciplinary field of entertainment computing.

Game design is changing. The emergence of service games on PC, mobile and console has created new expectations amongst consumers and requires new techniques from game makers. In The Pyramid of Game Design, Nicholas Lovell identifies and explains the frameworks and techniques you need to deliver fun, profitable games. Using examples of games ranging from modern free-to-play titles to the earliest arcade games, via PC strategy and traditional boxed titles, Lovell shows how game development has evolved, and provides game makers with the tools to evolve with it. Harness the Base, Retention and Superfan Layers to create a powerful Core Loop. Design the player Session to keep players playing while being respectful of their time. Accept that there are few fixed rules: just trade-offs with consequences. Adopt Agile and Lean techniques to "learn what you need you learn" quickly Use analytics, paired with design skills and player feedback, to improve the fun, engagement and profitability of your games. Adapt your marketing techniques to the reality of the service game era Consider the ethics of game design in a rapidly changing world. Lovell shows how service games require all the skills of product game development, and more. He provides a toolset for game makers of all varieties to create fun, profitable games. Filled with practical advice, memorable anecdotes and a wealth of game knowledge, the Pyramid of Game Design is a must-read for all game developers. Key Features Harness the Base, Retention and Superfan Layers to create a powerful Core Loop. Design the player Session to keep players playing while being respectful of their time. Accept that there are few fixed rules: just trade-offs with consequences. Adopt Agile and Lean techniques to "learn what you need you learn" quickly. Use analytics, paired with design skills and player feedback, to improve the fun, engagement and profitability of your games. Adapt your marketing techniques to the reality of the service game era. Consider the ethics of game design in a rapidly changing world.