Book description
To create a great video game, you must start with a solid game
design: A well-designed game is easier to build, more entertaining,
and has a better chance of succeeding in the marketplace. Here to
teach you the essential skills of player-centric game design is one
of the industry’s leading authorities, who offers a
first-hand look into the process, from initial concept to final
tuning.
Now in its second edition, this updated classic reference by Ernest
Adams offers a complete and practical approach to game design, and
includes material on concept development, gameplay design, core
mechanics, user interfaces, storytelling, and balancing. In an
easy-to-follow approach, Adams analyzes the specific design
challenges of all the major game genres and shows you how to apply
the principles of game design to each one. You’ll learn how
to:
Define the challenges and actions at the heart of the gameplay.
Write a high-concept document, a treatment, and a full design script.
Understand the essentials of user interface design and how to define a game’s look and feel.
Design for a variety of input mechanisms, including the Wii controller and multi-touch iPhone.
Construct a game’s core mechanics and flow of resources
(money, points, ammunition, and more).
Develop appealing stories, game characters, and worlds that players will want to visit, including persistent worlds.
Work on design problems with engaging end-of-chapter exercises, design worksheets, and case studies.
Make your game accessible to broader audiences such as children, adult women, people with disabilities, and casual players.
“Ernest Adams provides encyclopedic coverage of process and
design issues for every aspect of game design, expressed as
practical lessons that can be immediately applied to a design
in-progress. He offers the best framework I’ve seen for
thinking about the relationships between core mechanics, gameplay,
and player—one that I’ve found useful for both teaching
and research.” — Michael Mateas, University of
California at Santa Cruz, co-creator of Façade
Table of contents
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- About the Technical Editor
- Contents
- Introduction
-
Part One. The Elements of Game Design
- Chapter 1. Games and Video Games
- Chapter 2. Design Components and Processes
- Chapter 3. Game Concepts
- Chapter 4. Game Worlds
- Chapter 5. Creative and Expressive Play
- Chapter 6. Character Development
- Chapter 7. Storytelling and Narrative
- Chapter 8. User Interfaces
- Chapter 9. Gameplay
- Chapter 10. Core Mechanics
- Chapter 11. Game Balancing
- Chapter 12. General Principles of Level Design
- Part Two. The Genres of Games
- Appendix. Designing to Appeal to Particular Groups
- Glossary
- References
- Index
Product information
- Title: Fundamentals of Game Design, Second Edition
- Author(s):
- Release date: September 2009
- Publisher(s): New Riders
- ISBN: None
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