Written by an AAA industry expert with over 20 years of experience, this book offers comprehensive coverage of the practical skills that all successful level designers need to have. It covers everything from practical production skills to the social and soft skills required to thrive in the gaming industry. This book begins with a theoretical and abstract approach that sets a common language for the later hard-skill applications and practical examples. These later chapters cover a wealth of practical skills for use during the concept phase, while creating layouts, scripting, and working with AI. This book includes essential chapters on topics such as social skills, soft skills, world-building, level design direction, production, as well as how to gain employment in the industry. This book will be of great interest to all level designers, content leads, and directors looking to enhance their skillset. It will also appeal to students of level and game design looking for tips on how to break into the industry.
Explore Level Design through the Lens of Architectural and Spatial Experience Theory Written by a game developer and professor trained in architecture, An Architectural Approach to Level Design is one of the first books to integrate architectural and spatial design theory with the field of level design. 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 Applications The 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 Games Bringing 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.
In this book, veteran game developers, academics, journalists, and others provide their processes and experiences with level design. Each provides a unique perspective representing multiple steps of the process for interacting with and creating game levels – experiencing levels, designing levels, constructing levels, and testing levels. These diverse perspectives offer readers a window into the thought processes that result in memorable open game worlds, chilling horror environments, computer-generated levels, evocative soundscapes, and many other types of gamespaces. This collection invites readers into the minds of professional designers as they work and provides evergreen topics on level design and game criticism to inspire both new and veteran designers. Key Features: Learn about the processes of experienced developers and level designers in their own words Discover best-practices for creating levels for persuasive play and designing collaboratively Offers analysis methods for better understanding game worlds and how they function in response to gameplay Find your own preferred method of level design by learning the processes of multiple industry veterans
System Design: A Practical Guide with SpecC presents the system design flow following a simple example through the whole process in an easy-to-follow, step-by-step fashion. Each step is described in detail in pictorial form and with code examples in SpecC. For each picture slide a detailed explanation is provided of the concepts presented. This format is suited for tutorials, seminars, self-study, as a guided reference carried by examples, or as teaching material for courses on system design. Features: Comprehensive introduction to and description of the SpecC language and design methodology; IP-centric language and methodology with focus on design reuse; Complete framework for system-level design from specification to implementation for SOCs and other embedded HW/SW systems. System Design: A Practical Guide with SpecC will benefit designers and design managers of complex SOCs, or embedded systems in general, by allowing them to develop new methodologies from these results, in order to increase design productivity by orders of magnitude. Designers at RTL, logical or physical levels, who are interested in moving up to the system level, will find a comprehensive overview within. The design models in the book define IP models and functions for IP exchange between IP providers and their users. A well-defined methodology like the one presented in this book will help product planning divisions to quickly develop new products or to derive completely new business models, like e-design or product-on-demand. Finally, researchers and students in the area of system design will find an example of a formal, well-structured design flow in this book.
Level design connects the player to the game through challenges, experiences, and emotions. This book is an invaluable introduction to the evolving practices of Level Designers across the games industry. The increasingly complex role of the Level Designer requires technical and creative skill as it brings together architecture, art, player psychology, interaction design, usability, and experience design. This book explores in detail the principles designers employ when planning levels and building engaging spaces for the player. As well as practical approaches to level design, the book delves into the theoretical underpinnings of the processes and charts a path towards thinking like a Level Designer. Throughout the book you will be guided through the fundamentals of level design: each chapter builds on the types of research, ideation, best practices, and methodologies Level Designers employ when creating prototypes and shipped games. A series of interviews with designers and case studies from game studios examine the application of industry-wide expertise used to create triple-A and indie game titles. By the end of this book you will have gained valuable insight into the role of a Level Designer and be able to devise, plan, and build your own engaging and entertaining game levels.
Design accessible and creative games across genres, platforms, and development realities Key Features Implement the skills and techniques required to work in a professional studio Ace the core principles and processes of level design, world building, and storytelling Design interactive characters that animate the gaming world Book Description If you are looking for an up-to-date and highly applicable guide to game design, then you have come to the right place! Immerse yourself in the fundamentals of game design with this book, written by two highly experienced industry professionals to share their profound insights as well as give valuable advice on creating games across genres and development platforms. Practical Game Design covers the basics of game design one piece at a time. Starting with learning how to conceptualize a game idea and present it to the development team, you will gradually move on to devising a design plan for the whole project and adapting solutions from other games. You will also discover how to produce original game mechanics without relying on existing reference material, and test and eliminate anticipated design risks. You will then design elements that compose the playtime of a game, followed by making game mechanics, content, and interface accessible to all players. You will also find out how to simultaneously ensure that the gameplay mechanics and content are working as intended. As the book reaches its final chapters, you will learn to wrap up a game ahead of its release date, work through the different challenges of designing free-to-play games, and understand how to significantly improve their quality through iteration, polishing and playtesting. What you will learn Define the scope and structure of a game project Conceptualize a game idea and present it to others Design gameplay systems and communicate them clearly and thoroughly Build and validate engaging game mechanics Design successful business models and prepare your games for live operations Master the principles behind level design, worldbuilding and storytelling Improve the quality of a game by playtesting and polishing it Who this book is for Whether you are a student eager to design a game or a junior game designer looking for your first role as a professional, this book will help you with the fundamentals of game design. By focusing on best practices and a pragmatic approach, Practical Game Design provides insights into the arts and crafts from two senior game designers that will interest more seasoned professionals in the game industry.
A practical approach to better customer experience through service design Service Design for Business helps you transform your customer's experience and keep them engaged through the art of intentional service design. Written by the experts at Livework, this practical guide offers a tangible, effective approach for better responding to customers' needs and demands, and provides concrete strategy that can be implemented immediately. You'll learn how taking a design approach to problem solving helps foster creativity, and how to apply it to the real issues that move businesses forward. Highly visual and organized for easy navigation, this quick read is a handbook for connecting market factors to the organizational challenge of customer experience by seeing your company through the customers' eyes. Livework pioneered the service design industry, and guides organizations including Sony, the British Government, Volkswagen Procter & Gamble, the BBC, and more toward a more carefully curated customer experience. In this book, the Livework experts show you how to put service design to work in your company to solve the ongoing challenge of winning with customers. Approach customer experience from a design perspective See your organization through the lens of the customer Make customer experience an organization-wide responsibility Analyze the market factors that dovetail with customer experience design The Internet and other digital technology has brought the world to your customers' fingertips. With unprecedented choice, consumers are demanding more than just a great product—the organizations coming out on top are designing and delivering experiences tailored to their customers' wants. Service Design for Business gives you the practical insight and service design perspective you need to shape the way your customers view your organization.
Designing experiences for humans requires balancing many needs, including business, behavior, technology, and aesthetics. The Practical Guide to Experience Design focuses on the entire process of design, from research and discovery to actual production and choreography of an experience. Design and strategy consultant Shannon E. Thomas leads the reader through the process in four phases: discovering, defining, refining, and building. Each chapter covers a single methodology, providing insight via detailed descriptions, step-by-step guidance, and high-fidelity examples. The book can either be read front to back or by following along with one of the sample designs. With an emphasis on empowering the reader to find the most appropriate method based on context and desired outcome, goal-oriented descriptions help readers understand the big picture of how design processes work together and inform each other. Whether you're well versed in the field of experience design or just getting started, this book will support you in your practice as you make decisions, influence stakeholders, and bring experiences to life.
This new volume presents principles, rules, guidelines, and tips that are useful in designing mechanical parts and assemblies. It includes examples of real world, practical ideas that come from successful design experience and which result in superior mechanical design. Special Features: focuses on mechanical design at the detail level; examines high-level principles that have general significance for all mechanical design; describes in depth the basic design practices that will improve the strength, robustness, function, user handling, and manufacturability of parts and assemblies; presents guidelines for electing plastic rubber, and metal materials; includes useful tips for selecting and designing components, such as bolts, nuts, screws, springs, and adhesive joints.
