Game narrative and UX share a deep, interconnected relationship. This book explores the connections between narrative and UX to develop a framework for creating player-centric stories in games by covering best practices in both crafts using a unified language. Games are beautiful motivation engines, and there are three primary gears that power these engines: Context, Action, and Emotion. Each of the three sections of this book will lay out the elements of narrative and UX that lead to a coherent experience, guiding the player through the game world while teaching them the systems and actions of the gameplay. This is very much intended to be a reference book emphasizing fundamentals, but also offers a deep dive into the best practices and methodologies. It will appeal to aspiring and current game narrative designers, UX designers, researchers, writers, developers, students at the graduate level, or anyone interested in expanding their understanding of player centricity or world‐building.
Anyone can master the fundamentals of game design - no technological expertise is necessary. 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 videogames. 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.
Can we learn through play? Can we really play while learning? Of course! But how?! We all learn and educate others in our own unique ways. 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!
Graphic Design School allows students to develop core competencies while understanding how these fundamentals translate into new and evolving media. With examples from magazines, websites, books, and mobile devices, the Fifth Edition provides an overview of the visual communications profession, with a new focus on the intersection of design specialties. A brand-new section on web and interactivity covers topics such as web tools, coding requirements, information architecture, web design and layout, mobile device composition, app design, CMS, designing for social media, and SEO.
Delve into the dynamic world of game development with 'Game Development Essentials: Crafting Immersive and Interactive Games.' This comprehensive guide covers everything from fundamental principles and design methodologies to advanced techniques and industry trends. Whether you're a novice aspiring to create your first game or a seasoned developer looking to enhance your skills, each chapter offers practical insights, case studies, and best practices to help you navigate the complexities of game creation. Discover how to build engaging gameplay mechanics, design captivating worlds, implement immersive audio experiences, and master the art of storytelling. With this book as your companion, embark on a journey to create unforgettable gaming experiences that captivate audiences worldwide.
Apps! Websites! Rubber Ducks! Naked Ninjas! This book has everything. If you want to get started in user experience design (UX), you've come to the right place: 100 self-contained lessons that cover the whole spectrum of fundamentals. Forget dry, technical material. This bookâ??based on the wildly popular UX Crash Course from Joel Marshâ??s blog The Hipper Elementâ??is laced with the author's snarky brand of humor, and teaches UX in a simple, practical way. Becoming a professional doesnâ??t have to be boring. Follow the real-life UX process from start-to-finish and apply the skills as you learn, or refresh your memory before the next meeting. UX for Beginners is perfect for non-designers who want to become designers, managers who teach UX, and programmers, salespeople, or marketers who want to learn more. Start from scratch: the fundamentals of UX Research the weird and wonderful things users do The process and science of making anything user-friendly Use size, color, and layout to help and influence users Plan and create wireframes Make your designs feel engaging and persuasive Measure how your design works in the real world Find out what a UX designer does all day
This book investigates the narrativity of some of the most popular survival horror video games and the gender politics implicit in their storyworlds. In a thorough analysis of the genre that draws upon detailed comparisons with the mainstream action genre, Andrei Nae places his analysis firmly within a political and social context. In comparing survival horror games to the dominant game design norms of the action genre, the author differentiates between classical and postclassical survival horror games to show how the former reject the norms of the action genre and deliver a critique of the conservative gender politics of action games, while the latter are more heterogeneous in terms of their game design and, implicitly, gender politics. This book will appeal not only to scholars working in game studies, but also to scholars of horror, gender studies, popular culture, visual arts, genre studies and narratology.
Demystify UX and its rules, contradictions, and dilemmas. This book provides real-world examples of user experience concepts that empower teams to create compelling products and services, manage social media, interview UX candidates, and oversee product teams. From product decisions to performance reviews, your ability to participate in discussions about UX has become vital to your company's success as well as your own. However, UX concepts can seem complex. Many UX books are written by and for UX professionals. UX Fundamentals for Non-UX Professionals serves the needs of project managers, graphic designers, copyeditors, marketers, and others who wish to understand UX design and research. You will discover how UX has influenced history and continues to affect our daily lives. Entertaining real-world examples demonstrate what a massive, WWII-era tank teaches us about design, what a blue flower tells us about audiences, and what drunk marathoners show us about software. What You'll Learn: Know the fundamentals of UX through real-world examples Acquire the skills to participate intelligently in discussions about UX design and research Understand how UX impacts business, including product, pricing, placement, and promotion as well as security, speed, and privacy.
Making a successful video game is hard. Even games that are successful at launch may fail to engage and retain players in the long term due to issues with the user experience (UX) that they are delivering. The game user experience accounts for the whole experience players have with a video game, from first hearing about it to navigating menus and progressing in the game. UX as a discipline offers guidelines to assist developers in creating the experience they want to deliver, shipping higher quality games (whether it is an indie game, AAA game, or "serious game"), and meeting their business goals while staying true to their design and artistic intent. In a nutshell, UX is about understanding the gamer’s brain: understanding human capabilities and limitations to anticipate how a game will be perceived, the emotions it will elicit, how players will interact with it, and how engaging the experience will be. This book is designed to equip readers of all levels, from student to professional, with neuroscience knowledge and user experience guidelines and methodologies. These insights will help readers identify the ingredients for successful and engaging video games, empowering them to develop their own unique game recipe more efficiently, while providing a better experience for their audience. Key Features Provides an overview of how the brain learns and processes information by distilling research findings from cognitive science and psychology research in a very accessible way. Topics covered include: "neuromyths", perception, memory, attention, motivation, emotion, and learning. Includes numerous examples from released games of how scientific knowledge translates into game design, and how to use a UX framework in game development. Describes how UX can guide developers to improve the usability and the level of engagement a game provides to its target audience by using cognitive psychology knowledge, implementing human-computer interaction principles, and applying the scientific method (user research). Provides a practical definition of UX specifically applied to games, with a unique framework. Defines the most relevant pillars for good usability (ease of use) and good "engage-ability" (the ability of the game to be fun and engaging), translated into a practical checklist. Covers design thinking, game user research, game analytics, and UX strategy at both a project and studio level. Offers unique insights from a UX expert and PhD in psychology who has been working in the entertainment industry for over 10 years. This book is a practical tool that any professional game developer or student can use right away and includes the most complete overview of UX in games existing today.
By putting people at the centre of interactive design, user experience (UX) techniques are now right at the heart of digital media design and development. As a designer, you need to create work that will impact positively on everyone who is exposed to it. Whether it's passive and immutable or interactive and dynamic, the success of your design will depend largely on how well the user experience is constructed. User Experience Design shows how researching and understanding users' expectations and motivations can help you develop effective, targeted designs. The authors explore the use of scenarios, personas and prototyping in idea development, and will help you get the most out of the latest tools and techniques to produce interactive designs that users will love. With practical projects to get you started, and stunning examples from some of today's most innovative studios, this is an essential introduction to modern UXD.
