It explores the principles of level design through the context and history of architecture, providing information useful to both academics and game development professionals.Understand Spatial Design Principles for Game Levels in 2D, 3D, and Multiplayer ApplicationsThe book presents architectural techniques and theories for level designers to use in their own work. The author connects architecture and level design in different ways that address the practical elements of how designers construct space and the experiential elements of how and why humans interact with this space. Throughout the text, readers learn skills for spatial layout, evoking emotion through gamespaces, and creating better levels through architectural theory.Create Meaningful User Experiences in Your GamesBringing together topics in game design and architecture, this book helps designers create better spaces for their games. Software independent, the book discusses tools and techniques that designers can use in crafting their interactive worlds.

    Digital game players happily pay for avatars, power-ups, and other game items. But behind every virtual sale, there is a virtual economy, simple or complex. In this book, Vili Lehdonvirta and Edward Castronova introduce the basic concepts of economics into the game developer's and game designer's toolkits. Lehdonvirta and Castronova explain how the fundamentals of economics—markets, institutions, and money—can be used to create or analyze economies based on artificially scarce virtual goods. They focus on virtual economies in digital games, but also touch on serious digital currencies such as Bitcoin as well as virtual economies that emerge in social media around points, likes, and followers. The theoretical emphasis is on elementary microeconomic theory, with some discussion of behavioral economics, macroeconomics, sociology of consumption, and other social science theories relevant to economic behavior.Topics include the rational choice model of economic decision making; information goods versus virtual goods; supply, demand, and market equilibrium; monopoly power; setting prices; and externalities. The book will enable developers and designers to create and maintain successful virtual economies, introduce social scientists and policy makers to the power of virtual economies, and provide a useful guide to economic fundamentals for students in other disciplines.

    Over the years, his most successful students have always been those who effectively combined game design theory, concrete rapid-prototyping practices, and programming skills. Introduction to Game Design, Prototyping, and Development is the first time that all three of these disciplines have been brought together into a single book. It is a distillation of everything that Gibson has learned teaching hundreds of game designers and developers in his years at the #1 university games program in North America. It fully integrates the disciplines of game design and computer programming and helps you master the crucial practice of iterative prototyping using Unity. As the top game engine for cross-platform game development, Unity allows you to write a game once and deliver it to everything from Windows, OS X, and Linux applications to webpages and all of the most popular mobile platforms. If you want to develop games, you need strong experience with modern best practices and professional tools. There's no substitute. There's no shortcut. But you can get what you need in this book. COVERAGE INCLUDES In-depth tutorials for eight different game prototypes Developing new game design concepts Moving quickly from design concepts to working digital prototypes Improving your designs through rapid iteration Playtesting your games and interpreting the feedback that you receive Tuning games to get the right "game balance" and "game feel" Developing with Unity, today's best engine for independent game development Learning C# the right way Using Agile and Scrum to efficiently organize your game design and development process Debugging your game code Getting into the highly competitive, fast-changing game industry

    

    Drawing on twenty years of professional experience in the game industry, Michael Sweet helps you master the unique language of music storytelling in games. Next, he walks you through the entire music composition process, from initial conceptualization and creative direction through implementation. Inside, you'll find dozens of examples that illustrate adaptive compositional techniques, from small downloadable games to multimillion dollar console titles. In addition, this guide covers the business side of video game composition, sharing crucial advice about contracts, pricing, sales, and marketing. Coverage includes Overcoming the unique challenges of writing for games Composing music that can adapt in real time to player actions Developing thematic ideas Using audio middleware to create advanced interactive scores Working effectively with game development teams Understanding the life of a video game composer Managing contracts, rights, estimating, and negotiation Finding work The companion website contains software tools to help you master interactive music concepts explored in this book, with additional resources and links to learn more about scoring for games. See Appendix A for details.

    Created to resemble an artist sketchbook, flipping through the pages will elicit the feeling of looking at private, treasured drawings. A visual journal of mech development, this book will provide insight into the techniques of a talented video game concept designer.

    Carroll, Bernie DeKoven, Bill Gaver, Jane McGonigal, Frank Lantz, Jesse Schell, Kevin Slavin, McKenzie Wark, and Eric Zimmerman. They outline major disciplinary approaches, including rhetorics, economics, psychology, and aesthetics; tackle issues like exploitation or privacy; and survey main application domains such as health, education, design, sustainability, or social media.

    Fans of IF will find this collection an abundant resource from which to draw inspiration, as you embark on becoming an author as well as a player. Contains Emily Short's overview of NPC Conversation techniques, Graham Nelson's paper surveying Natural Language as the basis for writing IF, and the seminal essay in modern IF theory and thought, "Crimes Against Mimesis" by Roger S.G. Sorolla. As a final bookend, this electronic edition of the IF Theory Reader now includes for the the first time "The Craft of Adventure," an essay series so widely-referenced by authors within this volume that it only made sense to add it as an appendix. Anyone interested in adventure games, Zork, Infidel, Trinity, Curses, Metamorphoses, So Far, Varicella, or anything in between, the interaction fiction games of Infocom, or those that came after, those that want to be authors, rather than players -- yes, You. Come in. Read. Interact. Imagine. Do. Program. Write. Be an author. Yes. Do.

    

    The author deciphers years of research in game studies, education, psychology, human-computer interaction, and user interface and experience that equip you to make dynamic tutorials that help players enjoy your games.The book links game design principles with psychology through the game tutorial. It offers easy-to-implement changes that can make a huge difference in how players receive your games. It explains how you can educate new players and engage experienced players at the same time through a combination of good design and basic understanding of human educational, motivational, and cognitive psychologies.Transcending disciplinary boundaries, this book improves your understanding of the science of learning and the art of teaching. It helps you design game mechanics, or tutorials, that teach people how to have fun with your games without ever feeling as though they're being instructed.

    Learning from the work of experts is the path that most experienced CG designers recommend. Successful CG artwork grows from hard work, constant experiment, and realistic self-criticism. This book shows how experts develop and improve their skills.

    I generated a lot of duff concepts that never reached fruition and it seemed like a good idea to keep them all documented somewhere should someone finally decide that the world was ready for a game about masturbating dolphins/monkey butlers/ice-cream ant-farms.