from the Creator of the Emmy® Winning Neverwinter Nights™ "Don Daglow has survived 40+ years creating games and always retained his positive attitude. Learn from the master." – Jeff Braun, co-founder of Maxis (Sim City, The Sims) "I was impressed with the organizational wisdom. I wish that I had been able to read this book 30 years ago." -- Chris Crawford, pioneering game designer and Founder of the Game Developers Conference "Indie Games: From Dream to Delivery should be on the desk of everyone who’s considering an indie game company. It builds a bridge between books on game development and 'How to Start Your Own Business' books. Daglow starts with holistic questions that cover not only nuts and bolts issues of your games and your business, but the kind of life you want for you and your team. I wish I could go back in time and hand this book to the leaders of several start-ups I’ve watched crash and burn; it might have made them successful. I’ll be recommending it to all of my students with indie dreams." -- Prof. Stephen Jacobs, School of Interactive Games and Media, Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) "I realized I wasn’t reading a book filled with answers to your questions. This is a book filled with questions for you to answer. They’re the questions of someone with the passion and diligence to work in this industry for decades, someone who recognizes that games are both a medium of their own and an extension of other creative efforts throughout history... Your game is yours, and it grows from your vision, your passion, and your effort. Nobody can give you the shortcuts or answers to make it the best it can be. But if you know what questions to ask, you can avoid letting choices slip by, and make decisions where and when they count." -- From the Introduction by Rami Ismail, Vlambeer co-founder and global Indie Games leader The only indie games book that asks, "What do you want to do?" before it starts telling you, "Here's what you need to do." Six sets of questions to review and refine your vision, skills and plans Over 500 pages of “lessons learned” from a 3-time Inc. 500™ CEO and award-winning game designer Based on Don Daglow’s top-rated sessions at major games conferences around the world Introduction by indie games pioneer Rami Ismail The only person who can define the path to creating your indie game is you. Indie Games: from Dream to Delivery helps you do just that, by leading you through a guided conversation with yourself. Section by section, you’ll record your answers to carefully chosen questions. Then we’ll use your unique personal responses to build the customized roadmap you need to turn your indie game into reality. Techniques to use, traps to avoid, terminology to understand. And how to fit it all into your life without damaging your relationships or your future. Never started a business? We’ve got it covered. Skip what you already know, dig deeper on things you want to learn. It’s the one book you need to take your indie game from Dream to Delivery.

    Games User Research is collectively the way we optimise the quality of the user experience (UX) in games, working with all aspects of a game from the mechanics and interface, visuals and art, interaction and progression, making sureevery element works in concert and supports the game UX.This means that Games User Research is essential and integral to the production of games and to shape the experience of players. Today, Games User Research stands as the primary pathway to understanding players and how to design, build, and launch games that provide the right game UX.Until now, the knowledge in Games User Research and Game UX has been fragmented and there were no comprehensive, authoritative resources available. This book bridges the current gap of knowledge in Games User Research, building the go-to resource for everyone working with players and games or otherinteractive entertainment products. It is accessible to those new to Games User Research, while being deeply comprehensive and insightful for even hardened veterans of the game industry. In this book, dozens of veterans share their wisdom and best practices on how to plan user research, obtain theactionable insights from users, conduct user-centred testing, which methods to use when, how platforms influence user research practices, and much, much more.

    Successful educational games adapt to the particular learning needs of their players and facilitate the learning objectives of their designers.Educational Game Design Fundamentals embarks on a journey to explore the necessary aspects to create games that are both fun and help players learn. This book examines the art of educational game design through various perspectives and presents real examples that will help readers make more informed decisions when creating their own games. In this way, readers can have a better idea of how to prepare for and organize the design of their educational games, as well as evaluate their ideas through several prisms, such as feasibility or learning and intrinsic values.Everybody can become education game designers, no matter what their technical, artistic or pedagogic backgrounds. This book refers to educators and designers of all sorts: from kindergarten to lifelong learning, from corporate training to museum curators and from tabletop or video game designers to theme park creators!

    It made human–computer interaction friendly, inviting and intuitive.Mac gaming led to much that is now taken for granted by PC gamers and spawned some of the biggest franchises in video game history. It allowed anyone to create games and playful software with ease, and gave indie developers a home for their products.It welcomed strange ideas and encouraged experimentation. It fostered passionate and creative communities who inspired and challenged developers to do better and to follow the Mac mantra ‘think different’.Drawing on archive material and interviews with key figures from the era – and featuring new material from Craig Fryar, Apple’s first Mac games evangelist and the co-creator of hit game Spectre – The Secret History of Mac Gaming is the story of those communities and the game developers who survived and thrived in an ecosystem that was serially ignored by the outside world. It’s a book about people who followed their hearts first and market trends second, showing how clever, quirky, and downright wonderful video games could be.

    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.

    In addition to the fundamentals, you'll learn best practices, helpful game-architectural patterns, and how to customize Unity to suit your needs, all in the context of building a working 2D game. While many books focus on 3D game creation with Unity, the easiest market for an independent developer to thrive in is 2D games. 2D games are generally cheaper to produce, more feasible for small teams, and more likely to be completed. If you live and breathe games and want to create them then 2D games are a great place to start. By focusing exclusively on 2D games and Unity’s ever-expanding 2D workflow, this book gives aspiring independent game developers the tools they need to thrive. Various real-world examples of independent games are used to teach fundamental concepts of developing 2D games in Unity, using the very latest tools in Unity’s updated 2D workflow.  New all-digital channels for distribution, such as Nintendo eShop, XBox Live Marketplace, the Playstation Store, the App Store, Google Play, itch.io, Steam, and GOG.com have made it easier than ever to discover, buy, and sell games. The golden age of independent gaming is upon us, and there has never been a better time to get creative, roll up your sleeves, and build that game you’ve always dreamed about. Developing 2D Games with Unity can show you the way. What You'll Learn Delve deeply into useful 2D topics, such as sprites, tile slicing, and the brand new Tilemap feature. Build a working 2D RPG-style game as you learn. Construct a flexible and extensible game architecture using Unity-specific tools like Scriptable Objects, Cinemachine, and Prefabs. Take advantage of the streamlined 2D workflow provided by the Unity environment.  Deploy games to desktop Who This Book Is For Hobbyists with some knowledge of programming, as well as seasoned programmers interested in learning to make games independent of a major studio.

    In a quarter-century of writings and talks, he has offered up game design lessons, online community theories, and candid self-evaluation.This first volume of a three-book set of selected essays collects previously written postmortems and many brand new pieces. They are accompanied by historical material such as posts written for players, chat logs, speeches, design sketches, and more. The result is an inspiring historical look back at the development of virtual worlds.These are the stories behind Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies, the story of the early art game Andean Bird and the story of the ambitious project Metaplace that aimed to build the Metaverse, including:"A Story About a Tree," the classic piece from MUD days about whether our online bonds are real. "The Ultima Online Resource System," a detailed design breakdown of the pioneering world simulation. "A Jedi Saga," the popular tale of how an impossible design dilemma broke a world. "Influences," a challenge to the game development community to pursue art.

    Since it's used throughout their enormous code bases, studios use it to maintain and improve their games, and look for it constantly when hiring new developers. Game Programming in C++ is a practical, hands-on approach to programming 3D video games in C++. Modeled on Sanjay Madhav's game programming courses at USC, it's fun, easy, practical, hands-on, and complete.Step by step, you'll learn to use C++ in all facets of real-world game programming, including 2D and 3D graphics, physics, AI, audio, user interfaces, and much more. You'll hone real-world skills through practical exercises, and deepen your expertise through start-to-finish projects that grow in complexity as you build your skills. Throughout, Madhav pays special attention to demystifying the math that all professional game developers need to know.Set up your C++ development tools quickly, and get started Implement basic 2D graphics, game updates, vectors, and game physics Build more intelligent games with widely used AI algorithms Implement 3D graphics with OpenGL, shaders, matrices, and transformations Integrate and mix audio, including 3D positional audio Detect collisions of objects in a 3D environment Efficiently respond to player input Build user interfaces, including Head-Up Displays (HUDs) Improve graphics quality with anisotropic filtering and deferred shading Load and save levels and binary game dataWhether you're a working developer or a student with prior knowledge of C++ and data structures, Game Programming in C++ will prepare you to solve real problems with C++ in roles throughout the game development lifecycle. You'll master the language that top studios are hiring for--and that's a proven route to success.

    From the practicalities of investigating the video game as a musical source to the critical perspectives on game music - using examples including Final Fantasy VII, Monkey Island 2, SSX Tricky and Silent Hill - these explorations not only illuminate aspects of game music, but also provide conceptual ideas valuable for future analysis. Music is not a redundant echo of other textual levels of the game, but central to the experience of interacting with video games. As the author likes to describe it, this book is about music for racing a rally car, music for evading zombies, music for dancing, music for solving puzzles, music for saving the Earth from aliens, music for managing a city, music for being a hero; in short, it is about music for playing.

    Video games also serve as archaeological sites in the traditional sense as a place, in which evidence of past activity is preserved and has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology, and which represents a part of the archaeological record. This book serves as a general introduction to "archaeogaming"; it describes the intersection of archaeology and video games and applies archaeological method and theory into understanding game-spaces as both site and artifact.

    This book suggests another approach, offering a guide to designing games that integrates content and play and creates learning experiences that connect to many areas of learners' lives. These games are not gamified workbooks but are embedded in a long-form experience of exploration, discovery, and collaboration that takes into consideration the learning environment. Resonant Games describes twenty essential principles for designing games that offer this kind of deeper learning experience, presenting them in connection with five games or collections of games developed at MIT's educational game research lab, the Education Arcade.Each of the games--which range from Vanished, an alternate reality game for middle schoolers promoting STEM careers, to Ubiquitous Bio, a series of casual mobile games for high school biology students--has a different story, but all spring from these fundamental assumptions: honor the whole learner, as a full human being, not an empty vessel awaiting a fill-up; honor the sociality of learning and play; honor a deep connection between the content and the game; and honor the learning context--most often the public school classroom, but also beyond the classroom.

    More than ever before, storylines from the world's most popular narratives cross from the pages of books to the movie theatre, to our television screens and in comic books series. Plots intersect and intertwine, allowing audiences many different entry points to the narratives. In this sometimes bewildering array of stories across media, one thing binds them together: their large-scale fictional world.Collaborative Worldbuilding for Writers and Gamers describes how writers can co-create vast worlds for use as common settings for their own stories. Using the worlds of Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, A Game of Thrones, and Dungeons & Dragons as models, this book guides readers through a step-by-step process of building sprawling fictional worlds complete with competing social forces that have complex histories and yet are always evolving. It also shows readers how to populate a catalog with hundreds of unique people, places, and things that grow organically from their world, which become a rich repository of story making potential.The companion website collaborativeworldbuilding.com features links to online resources, past worldbuilding projects, and an innovative card system designed to work with this book.

    After twenty years in the gaming industry,creating such games as Solforge, Ascension, and theWorld of Warcraft Miniatures Game, Justin is nowsharing all his secrets in Think Like a Game Designer.Best of all, Justin’s secrets are really simple, practical,and common sense steps you can take yourself. Justinwill walk you through each step and provide exercisesfor you to formulate your own game concepts and bringthem to fruition.In Think Like a Game Designer, you will learnhow to:• Overcome mental blocks to great creative work• Understand players’ emotional reactions andevoke the right ones• Brainstorm ideas and then refine them intouseable ones• Follow the six steps of the core design loop forsuccessfully designing a game• Capitalize on the excitement of Big Momentsin a game• Get a job in the game industry and get yourgames published• Remove the grind of gaming or use it to youradvantage• Integrate monetization into your designs• Deliver an enjoyable experience to your playersso your game stands the test of timeWhether you want to create video games, board games,or just discover how a true creative mind works, it’s allhere in Think Like a Game Designer. It’s time to takethe first step toward your game designer dream. Areyou game?WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT JUSTIN GARY AND THINK LIKE A GAME DESIGNER“Every journey starts with a single step, and if your desired journey is to become a game designer,I can think of no better fi rst step than reading and doing the exercises in Justin’s book. Justin hasmanaged to capture and communicate the process for designing games starting from the blanksheet of paper all the way to thousands of fans playing your game.”— Jordan Wiesman, Creator of Shadowrun and BattleTech,and Founder of WizKids game studio“Justin Gary went from world champion Magic: The Gathering pro-tour competitor toaward-winning game designer and then to multi-million-dollar CEO. He has a lot to teach andyou can fi nd that wisdom clearly articulated in these pages.”— Peter Adkinson, Founder of Wizards of the Coast and Owner of Gen Con,the largest tabletop gaming convention in North America“Think Like a Game Designer should be on the shelf of anyone interested in game design, or evenjust in playing games. Plus, even people with no interest in games will learn valuable lessonsabout innovation, marketing, and how games motivate their players.”— Ethan Mollick, Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship,Wharton School of Business“Justin Gary has crafted a fun book that takes the essentials of game design and presentsthem in a light, personable format that anyone can understand. If you are new togame design, this is a great way to get started!”— Jesse Schell, CEO, Schell Games and Author ofThe Art of Game Design“Straightforward and relentlessly practical, this book efficiently guides you throughthe key steps involved in designing and publishing a game.”— Raph Koster, Lead Designer of Ultima Online and Author ofA Theory of Fun for Game Design

    In turn, players have become more emotionally involved--taking on, in essence, the role of coauthors in an interactive narrative. Through the lens of game studies and narratology--traditional storytelling concepts applied to the gaming world--this book explores the synergy of board games, designers and players in story-oriented designs. The author provides development guidance for game designers and recommends games to explore for hobby players.

    While process can help or hinder, great games require talent, creativity and teamwork of developers. This book helps them reach their potential by sharing practices that other developers have used to: Improve how teams execute on a day-to day basis, overcome barriers to becoming great teams, facilitate change and engagement though improved coaching and leadership, respect and aide the personal growth of developers, stream-line iterations, guide projects and manage risk, raise the quality bar throughout a studio, enhance your studio’s environment for developers and more.Authors Clinton Keith and Grant Shonkwiler have combined decades of game development experience on dozens of shipped games. Now they’ve collaborated with other veterans across the game development industry to bring this collection of advanced practices to you. The second addition brings over a dozen more!

    Akash Thakkar was the sound designer for both. How did Akash achieve such stunning results--producing sound for two best-selling indie games? The answer is simple, and you can learn it too in the short pages of this book: the Maximizing Method. It’s called “Maximizing,” because it maximizes the quality of the sound on your games. It maximizes the emotional stickiness and game feel of your games, through vastly better and more integrated sound. It maximizes creativity, flow, ease, and stress-reduction in your team’s creative process around sound. It maximizes cost savings. And it maximizes potential profit, prestige, and awards from your games. All this from one simple change in sound-design methodology? Yes. In this groundbreaking book, written for creative directors, game designers, and sound designers, you will learn: - The #1 under-exploited advantage to turn your games in to bestsellers. - Why this revolutionary method is so much cheaper than the “Status Quo” method, while producing far superior results with less stress. - The secrets that Akash used to create award-winning audio on mega-bestsellers such as Hyper Light Drifter and Destiny. - The 5 key differences between OK sound designers and Great sound designers. - Why you need to be implementing “Customized Conceptual Sound Reels” in your workflow. - Secrets for maximizing communication and feedback for best results between the game design team and the sound designer. - The #1 easy-to-implement technical fix to massively improve the efficiency of your sound design process, all while cutting costs. As a game designer, you mostly have two of your players’ five main senses to work with in maximizing game feel: sight and sound. Why does so much of the industry focus on sight, while treating sound as an afterthought to be tacked on in the final part of 1-5 year game development process? Arguing that killer sound is a massively under-explored area for explosive improvements in game feel, Akash shows you in this step-by-step guide--which can be absorbed in less than an hour--just how to take advantage of the sound design secrets that your competitors are ignoring, thus leaving them in the dust when it comes to game feel. The first comprehensive sound design methodology in the industry, discover why Maximizing Method is the hidden advantage you’ve always wanted but never knew you needed. Until now.

    Whether you want to get a sale on something, make a sale, get money, go on a date, get a raise or a promotion, get more slack from your boss, grow your business, or do virtually anything else that requires other people to cooperate with your desires, you will be able to do so with everything you learn in this book. In addition to learning the important skills and techniques required to brainwash others, you will also learn how to never get caught. HYPNOSIS You’re about to learn 21 little known hypnotic techniques that could change your life. Don’t worry, this book is not about magically creating “zombie people” that will follow every order. That is not hypnosis, it’s fantasy. You’re about to learn the real thing. The same methods world's most famous hypnotists use. MANIPULATION In this book you’ll find 21 of the best manipulation techniques, the ones that can easily give you access to almost anybody’s mind. By learning and applying them, you will have the chance to create a great positive change in your life and reach your goals faster. This book will teach you: 21 Proven Techniques to Manipulate And Brainwash Anyone The Right Way To Disagree Without Sounding Disagreeable Common Mistakes And How To Avoid Them (The Majority of People Doesn’t Know This) HOW TO ANALYZE PEOPLE This book will teach you 21 of the best techniques you can use to secretly analyze people and learn more about them, the same techniques the most successful FBI agents use on a daily basis. Whether you simply want to understand people better, learn more about their motives, thoughts and feelings or develop deeper connections with others, this book will help you do just that. You’ll also find real-life examples to better understand how successfully apply the techniques you’ll learn. Some of the techniques you’ll discover: How To Effectively Read Body Language Core Principles Of Eye Reading How To Understand Someone’s Values And Desires Through Actions And Cognitive Thoughts What The Way People Walk Reveals About Them How To Identify Different Personality Types How To Understand Someone Else's Thought Pattern 11 Of The Most Important Facial Expressions And How To Read Them How To Read A Person By Looking At His Or Her Environment A Simple Yet Effective Process To Re-brand Yourself To Be More Likeable HOW TO SECRETLY MANIPULATE PEOPLE Manipulation is a practice whereby you look into someone’s natural psychological tendencies and use them to help you get your way.