Brenda Laurel is best known for her work with Purple Moon, the pioneering game company she cofounded in the 1990s. Purple Moon's games were based on years of research Laurel completed in an effort to understand why computer games seemed to be of so little interest to girls. Using diverse archival sources such as trade journals, newspapers, and recorded interviews, alongside Laurel's completed games and own writings and an original interview with Laurel herself, this volume offers insight into both the early development of the games for girls movement of the 1990s and the lasting impact of Laurel's game design breakthroughs. In her work with Purple Moon, Laurel drew on her background in theatre as well as her expertise in human computer interaction and qualitative research. By relying on this interdisciplinary background, Laurel made significant contributions to our understanding of the design and development of games as a medium for emotional rehearsal and storytelling. Additionally, her dedication to research-informed design has had a longstanding impact as companies and designers increasingly rely on audience research and metrics to shape their practices. The newest in Bloomsbury's Influential Video Game Designers series, Carly Kocurek highlights the contributions of a designer whose work has had a profound impact on the development of both games for girls and empathy games.

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Learn how to build an exciting 3D game with LibGDX from scratch About This Book * Implement an exhaustive list of features that LibGDX unleashes to build your 3D game. * Write, test, and debug your application on your desktop and deploy them on multiple platforms. * Gain a clear understanding of the physics behind LibGDX and libraries like OpenGL and WebGL that make up LibGDX. Who This Book Is For If you are a game developer or enthusiasts who want to build 3D games with LibGDX, then this book is for you. A basic knowledge of LibGDX and Java programming is appreciated. What You Will Learn * Learn the potential of LibGDX in game development * Understand the LibGDX architecture and explore platform limitation and variations * Explore the various approaches for game development using LibGDX * Learn about the common mistakes and possible solutions of development * Discover the 3D workflow with Blender and how it works with LibGDX * Implement 3D models along with textures and animations into your games * Familiarize yourself with Scene2D and its potential to boost your game's design In Detail LibGDX is a hugely popular open source, cross-platform, Java-based game development framework built for the demands of cross-platform game development. This book will teach readers how the LibGDX framework uses its 3D rendering API with the OpenGL wrapper, in combination with Bullet Physics, 3D Particles, and Shaders to develop and deploy a game application to different platforms You will start off with the basic Intellij environment, workflow and set up a LibGDX project with necessary APIs for 3D development. You will then go through LibGDX's 3D rendering API main features and talk about the camera used for 3D. Our next step is to put everything together to build a basic 3D game with Shapes, including basic gameplay mechanics and basic UI. Next you will go through modeling, rigging, and animation in Blender. We will then talk about refining mechanics, new input implementations, implementing enemy 3D models, mechanics, and gameplay balancing. The later part of this title will help you to manage secondary resources like audio, music and add 3D particles in the game to make the game more realistic. You will finally test and deploy the app on a multitude of different platforms, ready to start developing your own titles how you want! Style and approach A step by step guide on building a 3D game with LibGDX and implementing an exhaustive list of features that you would wish to incorporate into your 3D game

Discover an all in one handbook to developing immersive and cross-platform Android games About This Book * Practical tips and tricks to develop powerful Android games * Learn to successfully implement microtransactions and monitor the performance of your game once it's out live. * Integrate Google's DIY VR tool and Google Cardboard into your games to join in on the VR revolution Who This Book Is For This book is ideal for any game developer, with prior knowledge of developing games in Android. A good understanding of game development and a basic knowledge on Android platform application development and JAVA/C++ will be appreciated. What You Will Learn * Learn the prospects of Android in Game Development * Understand the Android architecture and explore platform limitation and variations * Explore the various approaches for Game Development using Android * Learn about the common mistakes and possible solutions on Android Game Development * Discover the top Cross Platform Game Engines and port games on different android platform * Optimize memory and performance of your game. * Familiarize yourself with different ways to earn money from Android Games In Detail Gaming in android is an already established market and growing each day. Previously games were made for specific platforms, but this is the time of cross platform gaming with social connectivity. It requires vision of polishing, design and must follow user behavior. This book would help developers to predict and create scopes of improvement according to user behavior. You will begin with the guidelines and rules of game development on the Android platform followed by a brief description about the current variants of Android devices available. Next you will walk through the various tools available to develop any Android games and learn how to choose the most appropriate tools for a specific purpose. You will then learn JAVA game coding standard and style upon the Android SDK. Later, you would focus on creation, maintenance of Game Loop using Android SDK, common mistakes in game development and the solutions to avoid them to improve performance. We will deep dive into Shaders and learn how to optimize memory and performance for an Android Game before moving on to another important topic, testing and debugging Android Games followed by an overview about Virtual Reality and how to integrate them into Android games. Want to program a different way? Inside you'll also learn Android game Development using C++ and OpenGL. Finally you would walk through the required tools to polish and finalize the game and possible integration of any third party tools or SDKs in order to monetize your game when it's one the market! Style and approach The book follows a handbook approach, focused on current and future game development trend from every possible aspect including monetization and sustainability in the market.

If you are a hobbyist, novice game developer, or programmer who wants to learn about developing games/apps using Cocos2d-x, this book is ideal for you.

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Master everything you need to build a 2D game using Unity 5 by developing a complete RPG game framework! Key Features Explore the new features of Unity 5 and recognize obsolete code and elements Develop and build a complete 2D retro RPG with a conversation system, inventory, random map battles, full game menus, and sound This book demonstrates how to use the new Unity UI system effectively through detailed C# scripts with full explanations Book DescriptionThe Unity engine has revolutionized the gaming industry, by making it easier than ever for indie game developers to create quality games on a budget. Hobbyists and students can use this powerful engine to build 2D and 3D games, to play, distribute, and even sell for free! This book will help you master the 2D features available in Unity 5, by walking you through the development of a 2D RPG framework. With fully explained and detailed C# scripts, this book will show you how to create and program animations, a NPC conversation system, an inventory system, random RPG map battles, and full game menus. After your core game is complete, you'll learn how to add finishing touches like sound and music, monetization strategies, and splash screens. You'll then be guided through the process of publishing and sharing your game on multiple platforms. After completing this book, you will have the necessary knowledge to develop, build, and deploy 2D games of any genre! What you will learn Create a 2D game in Unity 5 by developing a complete retro 2D RPG framework Effectively manipulate and utilize 2D sprites Create 2D sprite animations and trigger them effectively with code Write beginning to advanced-level C# code using MonoDevelop Implement the new UI system effectively and beautifully Use state machines to trigger events within your game Who this book is forThis book is for anyone looking to get started developing 2D games with Unity 5. If you're already accomplished in Unity 2D and wish to expand or supplement your current Unity knowledge, or are working in 2D in Unity 4 and looking to upgrade Unity 5, this book is for you. A basic understanding of programming logic is needed to begin learning with this book, but intermediate and advanced programming topic are explained thoroughly so that coders of any level can follow along. Previous programming experience in C# is not required.

Master performance optimization for Unity3D applications with tips and techniques that cover every aspect of the Unity3D Engine About This Book * Optimize CPU cycles, memory usage, and GPU throughput for any Unity3D application * Master optimization techniques across all Unity Engine features including Scripting, Asset Management, Physics, Graphics Features, and Shaders * A practical guide to exploring Unity Engine's many performance-enhancing methods Who This Book Is For This book is intended for intermediate and advanced Unity developers who have experience with most of Unity's feature-set, and who want to maximize the performance of their game. Familiarity with the C# language will be needed. What You Will Learn * Use the Unity Profiler to find bottlenecks anywhere in our application, and discover how to resolve them * Implement best-practices for C# scripting to avoid common pitfalls * Develop a solid understanding of the rendering pipeline, and maximize its performance through reducing draw calls and avoiding fill rate bottlenecks * Enhance shaders in a way that is accessible to most developers, optimizing them through subtle yet effective performance tweaks * Keep our scenes as dynamic as possible by making the most of the Physics engine * Organize, filter, and compress our art assets to maximize performance while maintaining high quality * Pull back the veil on the Mono Framework and the C# Language to implement low-level enhancements that maximize memory usage and avoid garbage collection * Get to know the best practices for project organization to save time through an improved workflow In Detail Competition within the gaming industry has become significantly fiercer in recent years with the adoption of game development frameworks such as Unity3D. Through its massive feature-set and ease-of-use, Unity helps put some of the best processing and rendering technology in the hands of hobbyists and professionals alike. This has led to an enormous explosion of talent, which has made it critical to ensure our games stand out from the crowd through a high level of quality. A good user experience is essential to create a solid product that our users will enjoy for many years to come. Nothing turns gamers away from a game faster than a poor user-experience. Input latency, slow rendering, broken physics, stutters, freezes, and crashes are among a gamer's worst nightmares and it's up to us as game developers to ensure this never happens. High performance does not need to be limited to games with the biggest teams and budgets. Initially, you will explore the major features of the Unity3D Engine from top to bottom, investigating a multitude of ways we can improve application performance starting with the detection and analysis of bottlenecks. You'll then gain an understanding of possible solutions and how to implement them. You will then learn everything you need to know about where performance bottlenecks can be found, why they happen, and how to work around them. This book gathers a massive wealth of knowledge together in one place, saving many hours of research and can be used as a quick reference to solve specific issues that arise during product development. Style and approach This book is organized based on the major features of Unity engine and should be treated as a reference guide. It is written as a series of investigations into both common and unusual performance pitfalls, each including a study on why the bottleneck is causing us problems, and a list of enhancements or features that can be used to work around them. Differences in effectiveness, behaviors, or feature-sets between Unity 4.x and Unity 5.x will be highlighted.