The Art of Game Design: A book of lenses

by Schell; Jesse

• ISBN13: 9780123694966
• ISBN10: 0123694965
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2008-08-04
• Publisher: CRC Press

Summary

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. * Jesse Schell is a highly recognizable name within the game industry - he is the former chair of the International Game Developer's Association, and has designed many successful games, including Disney's award-winning Toontown Online. * The book's design methodology was developed at Carnegie Mellon University's Entertainment Technology Center, co-founded by Dr. Randy Pausch of "Last Lecture" fame. * 100 'lenses' are scattered throughout the book. These are boxed sets of questions, each a different way of seeing a game that will inspire the creative process. * 500 pages of detailed, practical instruction on creating world-class games that will be played again and again.

Table of Contents

A book of Lenses

Introduction

The History of Games

The Most Important Skill

Holographic Design

The Cycle of Design

Excerpt: Lehman and Witty: The Psychology of Play (1927)

The Psychology of Play

The Spectrum of Humanity

Excerpt: Julian Jaynes: The Orgin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind,

The Consciousness of Consciousness

The Subconscious Mind

The Player

Excerpt

Salvador Dali

Fifty Secrets of Magic Craftsmanship

Secret Number Three

Slumber With a Key

The Subconscious Mind

The Designer

Essay: Greg Costikyan: I Have No Words and I Must Design

What is a Game?

The Elements of Game Mechanics

Toy Design

State and State Change

Skill and Chance

Decisions

Feedback- The Heart of Interactivity

Interfaces

Patterns of Rewards

Game Balancing

Case Study: Deconstructing Pac-Man

Essay: Scott Kim: What is a Puzzle?

Puzzle Principles

The Psychology of Story

Interactive Stories: The Promise and the Problem

Story and Gameplay- The Conflict and Solution

Story and Game Worlds

Lessons from Tabletop RPGs

Essay: Henry Jenkins: Transmedia Worlds

Transmedia Worlds

Excerpt: Scott McCloud: The Vocabulary of Comics (from Understanding Comics)

Characters in Games

Excerpts: (various) Christopher Alexander: A Pattern Language

Architecture in Games (Level Design)

Elegance

Character in Games

Essay: Brian Moriarty: The Point

Social Principles in Multiplayer Games

Online Communities

Technology

Iteration

Playtesting

Brainstorming

Team Communication

Design Documents

Business

The Art of the Pitch

Excerpt: Mills Penny Arcade (1920)

Location Based Entertainment

Serious Games

The Ethics of Games

The Deepest Theme

The Future

Your Secret Responsibility

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