Book picks similar to
Pattern Language for Game Design by Christopher Barney


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Lessons in Love


Barbara Cartland - 1974
    And what better place to gather information than Vox Castle, home of the Duke of Milverley, an attractive widower noted for enjoying the favors of married women.So Mrisa set off disguised as governess to the Duke's young daughter. She was resolved never to fall in love with any man until she met the Duke and found him to be devastatingly handsome. The Due himself was inflamed by Marisa's pure, innocent beauty -- her Titian hair and luminous green eyes.But one day he unexpectedly discovered her manuscript and, in a violent rage, banished her from his house. Only then did Marisa realize that her one, true love might be lost to her forever.

Toon: The Cartoon Roleplaying Game Deluxe Edition


Greg Costikyan - 1991
    Remember those great Saturday morning cartoons? Now they're back – and you're the star!Toon lets you be a rabbit, duck, mouse, moose, woodpecker, wombat, crocodile, caveman . . . whatever you want.In Toon, anything can happen, and nobody ever gets killed. Been punched? Blown up? Steamrollered? Don't worry – you'll bounce back in the next scene, ready for more!This book includes quick, simple rules, plenty of silly charts and tables, and lots of cartoon adventures – a joker's dozen! This edition of Toon includes all the material from the original version, plus everything from Toon Silly Stuff, Son of Toon, and Toon Strikes Again – and lots of brand-new material, including two new Feature Films!Ready to get silly? Get in Toon!

Wellies and Westies


Cressida McLaughlin - 2015
    After all, Primrose Terrace where she lives, is full of home-alone hounds…Wellies and Westies is the first part of a serialized novel told in four parts – all set in Primrose Terrace.

Game Development Essentials: An Introduction


Jeannie Novak - 2004
    This book not only examines content creation and the concepts behind development, but it also give readers a background on the evolution of game development and how it has become what it is today. GAME DEVELOPMENT ESSENTIALS also includes chapters on project management, development team roles and responsibilities, development cycle, marketing, maintenance, and the future of game development. With the same engaging writing style and examples that made the first two editions so popular, this new edition features all the latest games and game technology. Coverage of new game-related technology, development techniques, and the latest research in the field make this an invaluable resource for anyone entering the exciting, competitive, ever-changing world of game development.

Eat Rich, Live Long: Mastering the Low-Carb & Keto Spectrum for Weight Loss and Longevity


Ivor Cummins - 2018
    The unique nutritional program outlined in Eat Rich, Live Long is designed by experts to help you feel great while you eat delicious and satisfying foods. Millions of people have gotten healthy through low-carb plans over the years--and a growing number have discovered the wonderful benefits of ketogenic (Keto) nutrition. Many are confused, though, about how low-carb they should go. Now, Eat Rich, Live Long reveals how mastering the low-carb/Keto spectrum can maximize your weight loss and optimize your health for the long term. In this book, Ivor Cummins, a world-class engineer and technical master for a huge global tech corporation, and Dr. Jeff Gerber, a family doctor who is widely regarded as a global leader in low-carb nutrition, team up to present their unique perspectives from their extensive clinical, medical, and scientific/research experience. Together, Cummins and Gerber crack the code that shows you how to eat the foods you enjoy, lose weight, and regain robust health. They reveal how the nutritional "experts" have gotten it so wrong for so long by demonizing healthy natural fats in our diets and focusing on cholesterol and LDL as the villains. In fact, as the authors reveal by drawing on the latest peer-reviewed global research, eating a high percentage of natural fats, a moderate amount of protein, and a low percentage of carbs can help you lose weight, prevent disease, satisfy your appetite, turn off your food cravings, and live longer. The heart of Eat Rich, Live Long is the book's prescriptive program, which includes a 7-day eating plan, a 14-day eating plan, and more than 50 gourmet-quality low-carb high-fat recipes -- illustrated with gorgeous full-color photographs -- for breakfasts, lunches, appetizers, snacks, dinners, drinks, and desserts. Low-carb never tasted so good! Nutritional sacred cows are constantly being challenged in the media. How much fat should we eat -- and which kinds of fats are best? Which fats can contribute to diabetes, heart disease, and early mortality? Does a high-protein diet increase muscle mass and lead to vigorous health -- or can it promote aging, cancer, and early mortality? Which vitamins and minerals should we be taking, if any? How do we change our metabolism so that our bodies burn fat instead of all the sugars we consume? Does intermittent fasting really work? Eat Rich, Live Long lays out the truth based on the latest scientific research. Eat Rich, Live Long will change the way you look at eating. Meanwhile you will lose weight – and look and feel great.

Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals


Katie Salen - 2003
    In Rules of Play Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman present a much-needed primer for this emerging field. They offer a unified model for looking at all kinds of games, from board games and sports to computer and video games. As active participants in game culture, the authors have written Rules of Play as a catalyst for innovation, filled with new concepts, strategies, and methodologies for creating and understanding games. Building an aesthetics of interactive systems, Salen and Zimmerman define core concepts like play, design, and interactivity. They look at games through a series of eighteen game design schemas, or conceptual frameworks, including games as systems of emergence and information, as contexts for social play, as a storytelling medium, and as sites of cultural resistance.Written for game scholars, game developers, and interactive designers, Rules of Play is a textbook, reference book, and theoretical guide. It is the first comprehensive attempt to establish a solid theoretical framework for the emerging discipline of game design.

Game Mechanics: Advanced Game Design


Ernest Adams - 2012
    You'll discover at what stages to prototype, test, and implement mechanics in games and learn how to visualize and simulate game mechanics in order to design better games. Along the way, you'll practice what you've learned with hands-on lessons. A free downloadable simulation tool developed by Joris Dormans is also available in order to follow along with exercises in the book in an easy-to-use graphical environment.In Game Mechanics: Advanced Game Design, you'll learn how to:* Design and balance game mechanics to create emergent gameplay before you write a single line of code. * Visualize the internal economy so that you can immediately see what goes on in a complex game. * Use novel prototyping techniques that let you simulate games and collect vast quantities of gameplay data on the first day of development. * Apply design patterns for game mechanics--from a library in this book--to improve your game designs. * Explore the delicate balance between game mechanics and level design to create compelling, long-lasting game experiences. * Replace fixed, scripted events in your game with dynamic progression systems to give your players a new experience every time they play."I've been waiting for a book like this for ten years: packed with game design goodness that tackles the science without undermining the art." --Richard Bartle, University of Essex, co-author of the first MMORPG"Game Mechanics: Advanced Game Design by Joris Dormans & Ernest Adams formalizes game grammar quite well. Not sure I need to write a next book now!" -- Raph Koster, author of A Theory of Fun for Game Design.

Those Devils in Baggy Pants


Ross S. Carter - 1951
    Carter participated in every major campaign that the 504th was involved with from Sicily in 1943 to the end of the war in Germany in May of 1945.

We Were Wolves


Jason Cockcroft - 2021
    Unsettling but beautiful, sparse but packed with heart, it’s a real invasion of the senses' Phil Earle'Yearning regret punctuated by glimpses of real companionship and pure dread. What a joy to see Jason’s pictures matched by such an unsentimental but tender story' Geraldine McCaughreanBoy lives in a caravan on his own in the woods. His dad, John, is in prison and promises to get out soon. All the boy needs to do is survive alone for a little while longer.But dark forces are circling - like the dangerous man in the Range Rover, who is looking for his stolen money. And then there are the ancient forces that have lain asleep in the woods for an age...

In the Shadow of Greatness: Voices of Leadership, Sacrifice, and Service from America's Longest War


Joshua Welle - 2012
    And classmates working together, under a blanket of trust and friendship, was the only way to allow people to open up. It was a three year journey into the hearts and souls of America's youngest heroes to gather these important historical accounts, but it was worth every hour spent. Inside this book are the voices the first Annapolis graduates into a decade of war and they remind us that America is in good hands. They were walking to class on 9/11, wearing Naval Academy -summer working blues-, when the towers were struck. The campus went to general quarters, battle stations. They would be the first class after this attack to graduate into a nation at war and would be faced, like so many past graduates, of rising to the challenge to keeping America great. President Bush and Vice President Cheney articulated a world at the crossroads, and the U.S. would preemptively in seek enemies who threatened the national interest, America would not again be terrorized.In the Shadow of Greatness addresses issues that go beyond one USNA class, it explains the trials of most military veterans of this era. Understanding how a young person enlists to serve, deploys to the fight, and returns home is unknown to most Americans. Veterans pack up their uniforms, but never lose the call for service when the return to civilian society. The profiles in this book represent the -Next Great Generation- of American leaders. Men and women who lost their innocence in battle and their youths to a decade of deployments, throughout which they never gave up hope. In exchange for down range scars, they gained an unbreakable sense of purpose to America's ideals--freedom, equality, and democracy. The compilation is the most authentic and raw narrative to emerge from the Wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and beyond. The reader enjoys a spectrum of stories, each patriotic and honorable. The narratives are meant to inspire, educate, and reveal a world many don't understand. Its contents are readable and easy to appreciate.The Class of 2002--and more broadly, the one million veterans of the Long War--are America's leaders of tomorrow. Read this book to learn what they endured and why they are prepared.

A Theory of Fun for Game Design


Raph Koster - 2004
    It features a novel way of teaching interactive designers how to create and improve their designs to incorporate the highest degree of fun. As the book shows, designing for fun is all about making interactive products like games highly entertaining, engaging, and addictive. The book's unique approach of providing a highly visual storyboard approach combined with a narrative on the art and practice of designing for fun is sure to be a hit with game and interactive designers.At first glance A Theory of Fun for Game Design is a book that will truly inspire and challenge game designers to think in new ways; however, its universal message will influence designers from all walks of life. This book captures the real essence of what drives us to seek out products and experiences that are truly fun and entertaining. The author masterfully presents his engaging theory by showing readers how many designs are lacking because they are predictable and not engaging enough. He then explains how great designers use different types of elements in new ways to make designs more fun and compelling. Anyone who is interested in design will enjoy how the book works on two levels--as a quick inspiration guide to game design, or as an informative discussion that details the insightful thinking from a great mind in the game industry.

Ironsworn: A Tabletop RPG Of Perilous Quests


Shawn Tomkin - 2018
    You will explore untracked wilds, fight desperate battles, forge bonds with isolated communities, and reveal the secrets of this harsh land.Are you ready to swear iron vows and see them fulfilled—no matter the cost?

The Game Inventor's Guidebook: How to Invent and Sell Board Games, Card Games, Role-Playing Games, & Everything in Between!


Brian Tinsman - 2003
    Do you have an idea for a board game, card game, role-playing game or tabletop game? Have you ever wondered how to get it published? For many years Brian Tinsman reviewed new game submissions for Hasbro, the largest game company in the US. With The Game Inventor's Guidebook: How to Invent and Sell Board Games, Card Games, Role-playing Games & Everything in Between! he presents the only book that lays out step-by-step advice, guidelines and instructions for getting a new game from idea to retail shelf.

Challenges for Game Designers


Brenda Brathwaite - 2008
    Each chapter covers a different topic important to game designers, and was taken from actual industry experience. After a brief overview of the topic, there are five challenges that each take less than two hours and allow you to apply the material, explore the topic, and expand your knowledge in that area. Each chapter also includes 10 -non-digital shorts- to further hone your skills. None of the challenges in the book require any programming or a computer, but many of the topics feature challenges that can be made into fully functioning games. The book is useful for professional designers, aspiring designers, and instructors who teach game design courses, and the challenges are great for both practice and homework assignments. The book can be worked through chapter by chapter, or you can skip around and do only the challenges that interest you. As with anything else, making great games takes practice and Challenges for Game Designers provides you with a collection of fun, thoughtprovoking, and of course, challenging activities that will help you hone vital skills and become the best game designer you can be.

The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses


Jesse Schell - 2008
    The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses shows that the same basic principles of psychology that work for board games, card games and athletic games also are the keys to making top-quality video games. Good game design happens when you view your game from many different perspectives, or lenses. While touring through the unusual territory that is game design, this book gives the reader one hundred of these lenses—one hundred sets of insightful questions to ask yourself that will help make your game better. These lenses are gathered from fields as diverse as psychology, architecture, music, visual design, film, software engineering, theme park design, mathematics, writing, puzzle design, and anthropology. Anyone who reads this book will be inspired to become a better game designer—and will understand how to do it.