An easy-to-follow primer on the fundamentals of digital game design The quickly evolving mobile market is spurring digital game creation into the stratosphere, with revenue from games exceeding that of the film industry. With this guide to the basics, you'll get in on the game of digital game design while you learn the skills required for storyboarding, character creation, environment creation, level design, programming, and testing. Teaches basic skill sets in the context of current systems, genres, and game-play styles Demonstrates how to design for different sectors within gaming including console, PC, handheld, and mobile Explores low-poly modeling for game play Addresses character and prop animation, lighting and rendering, and environment design Discusses the path from concept to product, including pre- and post-production Includes real-world scenarios and interviews with key studio and industry professionals With Game Design Essentials, you'll benefit from a general-but-thorough overview of the core art and technology fundamentals of digital game design for the 21st century.
Through hundreds of photographs, this dynamic guide demonstrates how to expertly apply design principles in a variety of devices, desktops, web pages, mobile and other touchscreen devices.
Game designers today are expected to have an arsenal of multi-disciplinary skills at their disposal in the fields of art and design, computer programming, psychology, economics, composition, education, mythology—and the list goes on. How do you distill a vast universe down to a few salient points? Players Making Decisions brings together the wide range of topics that are most often taught in modern game design courses and focuses on the core concepts that will be useful for students for years to come. A common theme to many of these concepts is the art and craft of creating games in which players are engaged by making meaningful decisions. It is the decision to move right or left, to pass versus shoot, or to develop one’s own strategy that makes the game enjoyable to the player. As a game designer, you are never entirely certain of who your audience will be, but you can enter their world and offer a state of focus and concentration on a task that is intrinsically rewarding. This detailed and easy-to-follow guide to game design is for both digital and analog game designers alike and some of its features include: A clear introduction to the discipline of game design, how game development teams work, and the game development process Full details on prototyping and playtesting, from paper prototypes to intellectual property protection issues A detailed discussion of cognitive biases and human decision making as it pertains to games Thorough coverage of key game elements, with practical discussions of game mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics Practical coverage of using simulation tools to decode the magic of game balance A full section on the game design business, and how to create a sustainable lifestyle within it
Basics of Game Design is for anyone wanting to become a professional game designer. Focusing on creating the game mechanics for data-driven games, it covers role-playing, real-time strategy, first-person shooter, simulation, and other games. Written by a 25-year veteran of the game industry, the guide offers detailed explanations of how to design t
Written as a concise yet practical guide with an explicit focus on utilizing jQuery for game development, you'll learn how to create stunning games that look great without the hassle of learning about a complex game engine in the process.Knowledge of JavaScript and jQuery as well as basic experience with frontend development is all you need to start making games in a matter of hours with this essential guide. Whilst also suitable for those who simply want to start making games with jQuery, it's specifically targeted at web developers that want to experiment with and utilize their existing skills.
Create games on multiple platforms from a single codebase using Haxe and the HaxeFlixel engine About This Book Learn the modern, cross-platform language Haxe to build games without any trouble Create engaging 2D games that are compatible with desktop, web, and mobile platforms Learn how to speed up your workflow with OpenFL and HaxeFlixel using this useful and compact guide Who This Book Is For This book is for game developers with some experience programming games on one or more platforms already. If you want to leverage your game development experience on one platform to develop for multiple platforms and to get up and running quickly, this book is for you. Having prior experience with a language similar to Haxe, such as ActionScript or JavaScript will help, but isn't required. What You Will Learn Understand the fundamentals of the Haxe programming language Set up a development environment that will work on Windows, Mac, and Linux Create fun 2D games using OpenFL and HaxeFlixel Understand how to implement a user interface Enhance the gameplay experience with cool animations Improve immersion by adding sound Make your game modular and easily expandable using configuration files Compile games that will work on desktop, web, and mobile platforms In Detail Haxe is a powerful and high-level multi-platform language that's incredibly easy to learn. Used by thousands of developers and many high-profile companies, Haxe is quickly emerging as a forerunner in the area of cross-platform programming. OpenFL builds on top of Haxe to make developing for multiple platforms quick and painless. HaxeFlixel provides you with the tools you need to build amazing 2D games easier than ever before. Cross-platform development has been supercharged using the Haxe programming language, making it increasingly easy and hassle-free to develop multi-platform games. If you've programmed games before and want to learn out how to deliver games across multiple platforms, or develop games faster, then Haxe Game Development Essentials is the book for you. It starts by showing you how to set up your development environment, then running you through some Haxe language fundamentals, and finally taking you through the process of programming a game from start to finish. You will learn how to create a side scrolling shooter game using HaxeFlixel. Next you will learn to enhance the game with new gameplay features, user interfaces, animations, sound, and configuration files to make your game expandable. Once your game is built and ready, you will learn how to deploy it to web, Android, iOS, and desktop systems. By the end of this book, you will be confident about creating multi-platform games using Haxe, OpenFL, and HaxeFlixel in a faster and easier way. Style and approach Since this book is aimed at people who have worked on games before, this book is written in a way that will get you quickly up to speed with a new set of tools, but will still be accessible for less experienced developers. Each chapter covers an essential milestone in building a game from start to finish. The chapters move in a logical fashion, starting with the basics of Haxe development and ending with preparing a game for deployment.
An impassioned look at games and game design that offers the most ambitious framework for understanding them to date. As pop culture, games are as important as film or television—but game design has yet to develop a theoretical framework or critical vocabulary. 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.
This book follows an informal, demystifying approach to the world of game development with the Unity game engine. With no prior knowledge of game development or 3D required, you will learn from scratch, taking each concept at a time working up to a full 3D mini-game. You'll learn scripting with C# or JavaScript and master the Unity development environment with easy-to-follow stepwise tasks. If you're a designer or animator who wishes to take their first steps into game development or prototyping, or if you've simply spent many hours sitting in front of video games, with ideas bubbling away in the back of your mind, Unity and this book should be your starting point. No prior knowledge of game production is required, inviting you to simply bring with you a passion for making great games.
