Written by leading video game expert Scott Rogers, who has designed the hits Pac Man World, Maxim vs. Army of Zin, and SpongeBob Squarepants, this book is full of Rogers's wit and imaginative style that demonstrates everything you need to know about designing great video games.Features an approachable writing style that considers game designers from all levels of expertise and experience Covers the entire video game creation process, including developing marketable ideas, understanding what gamers want, working with player actions, and more Offers techniques for creating non-human characters and using the camera as a character Shares helpful insight on the business of design and how to create design documents So, put your game face on and start creating memorable, creative, and unique video games with this book!

    Media like "The New York Times" and ABC News report a return to old-fashioned, low-cost game night, and retailers have seen sales of games rise 20 percent in the last year. Now comes "The Games Bible," an extraordinary collection of more than 300 games for friends and family. Here are games for two and games for a group. Parlor games and party games. Indoor games and outdoor games. Quick games to break the ice and afternoon-long games for a whole family reunion. Guessing games, card games, trivia games, strategy games. Games for math geeks and games for word freaks, games for left-brainers and games for right-brainers, and silly games where it's best to shut off the brain altogether.Leigh Anderson, a writer who grew up playing Kick the Can and SPUD and spent years playing and mastering hundreds of games and out-Hoyling Hoyle to become one of the world's leading game experts, has written the book that belongs in every home, apartment, vacation house, summer cottage, dorm room, and community center. "The Games Bible" is a jam-packed, 448-page cornucopia of games, all organized by type.It's time to have fun again with this celebration of play and essential 21st century game book. All the classics are here--Botticelli, Exquisite Corpse, Marco Polo, Mafia, Charades (in fact, not just Charades, but 8 variations including Charades Fortune Cookie, Charades One Word, Charades iPod)--plus newer favorites--Japanese Snow-Ball Fight, Six-Word Memoir, Iron Chef--and, from contributors like Will Shortz and 14 other game experts, 15 brand-new games, created for the book. Each of the 300 plus entries includes number of players, how to play (with rules), gear if needed, time, strategies, and game plans.

    It's no wonder so many development studios are struggling to survive. Fortunately, there is a solution. Scrum and Agile methods are already revolutionizing development outside the game industry. Now, long-time game developer Clinton Keith shows exactly how to successfully apply these methods to the unique challenges of game development. Keith has spent more than fifteen years developing games, seven of them with Scrum and agile methods. Drawing on this unparalleled expertise, he shows how teams can use Scrum to deliver games more efficiently, rapidly, and cost-effectively; craft games that offer more entertainment value; and make life more fulfilling for development teams at the same time. You'll learn to form successful agile teams that incorporate programmers, producers, artists, testers, and designers--and promote effective collaboration within and beyond those teams, throughout the entire process. From long-range planning to progress tracking and continuous integration, Keith offers dozens of tips, tricks, and solutions--all based firmly in reality and hard-won experience. Coverage includes Understanding Scrum's goals, roles, and practices in the context of game development Communicating and planning your game's vision, features, and progress Using iterative techniques to put your game into a playable state every two to four weeks-- even daily Helping all team participants succeed in their roles Restoring stability and predictability to the development process Managing ambiguous requirements in a fluid marketplace Scaling Scrum to large, geographically distributed development teams Getting started: overcoming inertia and integrating Scrum into your studio's current processes Increasingly, game developers and managers are recognizing that things can't go on the way they have in the past. Game development organizations need a far better way to work. Agile Game Development with Scrum gives them that--and brings the profitability, creativity, and fun back to game development.

    As part of an international dialogue between researchers in educational technology, this title investigates where games can motivate students to learn and improve their knowledge and skills.

    But, what is a game engine? What does it do? How are they useful to both developers and the game? And how are they made? These, and other important engine related questions, are explored and discussed in this book. In clear and concise language, this book examines through examples and exercises both the design and implementation of a video game engine. Specifically, it focuses on the core components of a game engine, audio and sound systems, file and resource management, graphics and optimization techniques, scripting and physics, and much more. Suitable for students, hobbyists, and independent developers, this no-nonsense book helps fine-tune an understanding of solid engine design and implementation for creating games that sell.

    The area of game design and development has been focusing on user experience evaluation for the last 20 years, although a clear definition of user experience is still to be established.The contributors to this volume explore concepts that enhance the overall user experience in games such as fun, playability, flow, immersion and many others. Presenting an overview of current practice from academia and industry in game development, the book shows a variety of methods that can be used to evaluate user experience in games, not only during game-play but also before and after the game play.Evaluating User Experiences in Games:Presents a broad range of user experience evaluation methods and concepts;Provides insights on when to apply the various user experience evaluation methods in the development cycle and shows how methods can be also applied to a more general HCI context;Includes new research on evaluating user experience during game play and after; and social play;Describes new evaluation methods;Details methods that are also applicable for exertion games or tabletop games.This comprehensive book will be welcomed by researchers and practitioners in the field.