Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games / Edition 2

by Tracy Fullerton

Overview

“Create the digital games you love to play.”

Discover an exercise-driven, non-technical approach to game design without the need for programming or artistic experience with Game Design Workshop, Fifth Edition.

Tracy Fullerton demystifies the creative process with clear and accessible guidance on the formal, dramatic, and dynamic systems of game design. Using examples of classic and popular games, illustrations of design techniques, and refined exercises to strengthen your understanding of how game systems function, this book gives you the skills and tools necessary to create a compelling and engaging game.

This updated 5th edition brings deeper coverage of playcentric design techniques, including setting emotion-focused experience goals and managing the design process to meet them. It includes a host of new diverse perspectives from top industry game designers.

Game Design Workshop puts you to work prototyping, playtesting, and revising your own games with time-tested methods and tools. These skills will provide the foundation for your career in any facet of the game industry including design, producing, programming, and visual design.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780240809748
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	02/08/2008
Series:	Gama Network Series
Pages:	496
Product dimensions:	7.50(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Tracy Fullerton is an award-winning game designer and educator with over 30 years of professional experience, including winning the Games for Change Game of the Year Award for her independent game Walden, a game. She has also been awarded the 2016 GDC Ambassador Award, the 2015 Games for Change Game Changer Award, and the IndieCade 2013 Trailblazer award for her pioneering work in the independent games community. Tracy is a Professor of Interactive Media & Games ad the USC School of Cinematic Arts and the founding Director (emeritus) of the USC Games Program, which has regularly been ranked the #1 game design program in North America by the Princeton Review.

Table of Contents

Foreword. Preface. Acknowledgments. Image Credits and Copyright Notices. Introduction. Part 1 Game Design Basics. Chapter 1 The Role of the Game Designer. Chapter 2 The Structure of Games. Chapter 3 Working with Formal Elements. Chapter 4 Working with Dramatic Elements. Chapter 5 Working with System Dynamics. Part 2 Designing a Game. Chapter 6 Ideation. Chapter 7 Prototyping. Chapter 8 Digital Prototyping. Chapter 9 Playtesting. Chapter 10 Functionality, Completeness, and Balance. Chapter 11 Fun and Accessibility. Part 3 Working as a Game Designer. Chapter 12 Team Structures. Chapter 13 Stages and Methods of Development. Chapter 14 Communicating Your Designs. Chapter 15 Understanding the New Game Industry. Chapter 16 Selling Yourself and Your Ideas to the Game Industry. Conclusion. Index.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Game design is something of a black art. The trick to doing it well is retaining the black magic but training oneself to control it. There are a lot of books on game design out there, but "Game Design Workshop" is among the very few that develops a wizard rather than a drone.
-Ian Bogost, professor of digital media, the Georgia Institute of Technology and co-founder, Persuasive Games

Editorial Reviews

Game design is something of a black art. The trick to doing it well is retaining the black magic but training oneself to control it. There are a lot of books on game design out there, but "Game Design Workshop" is among the very few that develops a wizard rather than a drone.
-Ian Bogost, professor of digital media, the Georgia Institute of Technology and co-founder, Persuasive Games

From the Publisher