Surviving Game School speaks about what to expect in a top game design or game development college program, and what to expect once students get out. Making games is not at all the same as playing games. Uncommonly blunt, the book reveals the rigors - and the joys - of working in this industry. Along the way the book touches on themes of time management, creativity, teamwork, and burnout. The authors explore the impact working in the game industry can have on personal relationships and family life. The book closes with advice about life's goals and building and keeping a sensible balance between work and everything else. Key Features: What you can expect from a top college Game Design Program, from an experienced college professor What to expect while working in the games industry, from 25-year veteran game developer. How to find an industry job after gaining a relevant college degree How to build and maintain a satisfying career in the games industry

Quickly emerging from the fast-paced growth of mobile communications and wireless technologies, pervasive games take gaming away from the computer screen and back to the three-dimensional world. Now games can be designed to be played in public spaces like shopping malls, conferences, museums and other non-traditional game venues. Game designers need to understand how to use the world as a gamespace-and both the challenges and advantages of doing so. This book shows how to change the face of play-who plays, when and where they play and what that play means to all involved. The authors explore aspects of pervasive games that concern game designers: what makes these games compelling, what makes them possible today and how they are made. For game researchers, it provides a solid theoretical, philosophical and aesthetic understanding of the genre. Pervasive Games covers everything from theory and design to history and marketing.

This book, written and edited by members of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) Game Writing Special Interest Group, follows the acclaimed Professional Techniques for Video Game Writing to deliver practical advice from seasoned veterans on the special challenges of writing for first-person shooter games (FPS), role-playing games (RPG), and everything in between, including massively multiplayer online games, real-time strategy games, sports games, horror games, serious games, casual games, handheld games, and more. Game writing samples are included with the book, and more are available online.

There are an increasing number of courses on digital games and gaming, following the rise in the popularity of games themselves. Amongst these practical courses, there are now theoretical courses appearing on gaming on media, film and cultural studies degree programmes. The aim of this book is to satisfy the need for a single accessible textbook which offers a broad introductions to the range of literatures and approaches currently contributing to digital game research. Each of the chapters will outline key theoretical perspectives, theorists and literatures to demonstrate their relevance to, and use in, the study of digital games.

In the world of web design, if one wants to create a successful web site, one needs an effective content strategy. Return on Engagement shows web designers and developers how to implement an effective content strategy and how to stay ahead in the rapidly changing industry of web design. It presents best practices in terms of web design through a marketing function: content strategy, SEO, social media marketing, and success measurement to help web designers implement a strategy that ensures success for the site they are building. Return on Engagement shows web designers and developers how to not just design an aesthetically pleasing, functional website. This book shows those professionals how to implement marketing strategies and analysis into their website, thus ensuring its success. Nearly 3 years since the previous edition published, new best practices have been formed. Tools in which web developers use to analyze website metrics have advanced. New social media networks and communities have cropped up. New research in how audiences read and receive content has been done, subsequently refining best digital marketing practices. Return on Engagement features a step-by-step breakdown of how to use new tools, techniques, and technologies. The new edition also includes updated case studies of industry leaders who implement best practices on projects. Return on Engagement also features a regularly updated companion site that offers readers sample content, easy sharing tools, and web-based resources to help measure marketing viability of web properties.

Discover every weapon from the world of Destiny in this comprehensive visual guide, loaded with stunning artwork! From the Thorn and Hawkmoon hand cannon, to the Outbreak Perfected rifle, the Destiny video games feature an incredible arsenal of weaponry. Now, fans of the hit series can experience these weapons like never before, with this definitive guide to the weapons of Destiny. Featuring photorealistic art from both the original game and Destiny 2, this book will be the ultimate word on the weapons of Destiny.

The book provides an up-to-date introduction to the latest version of Unity and its workflow by guiding readers through various prototypes. These range from 2D to 3D game concepts for PC and mobile, will allow readers to get acquainted with several important concepts and allow them to become competent Unity developers able to learn at their own pace. The book starts by introducing Unity and proceeds in building a basic understanding of its main components by developing a first, simple 2D game before proceeding in developing a full casual game to development of a simple but immersive 3D game concept to be tested first on PC before exploring how to port it for mobile VR.using Google Cardboard.

Build HTML5-powered mobile web experiences with the aid of development frameworks that speed the development of Native App-like experiences. Build on your foundation of HTML and JavaScript with a complete understanding of the different mobile Web browser technologies. You get carefully detailed techniques that are illustrated in full color so you can leverage the Web technologies unique to each mobile browser, apply frameworks such as Sencha Touch to rapidly build out your designs, and design techniques expressly suited for tablet devices. Projects provide hands-on practice and code is provided on the companion website, www.visualizetheweb.com.

This book is written by a professional instructor and founder of CartoonSmart.com, a company specializing in new media tutorials for nearly a decade. The book is a start-to-finish guide for anyone looking to begin iOS development using Cocos2d and Xcode and submit their finished app to Apple. Even if you haven't read code before, you can begin with this book. This book is a handy reference guide, with easy to look-up sections of code snippets, pictures and links to video examples. Features: Code Video examples 5 hours of tutorial videos on Box2d, which can take the reader even further beyond what they learned in the book

In the past, not being able to program meant not being able to make video games. Now if you can draw a flow-chart you can use powerful State Machine technology to create your dream game! No-Code Video Game Development using Unity and Playmaker will teach you how to substitute flow-charts for code. As a complete course, it uses a project-based approach. The FPS project comes with over a hundred dollars worth of free #gamedev DLC: Unity Packages, Playmaker Templates, Character Models, Animations, Materials, and more! You'll also learn game design documentation and theory, Mecanim, Particle Systems, and UI. By the time you're done you'll have gained the skills needed to create your own dream game, all without writing any code!

See Why Blender Is Right for Your Studio's Pipeline Blender for Animation and Film-Based Production explores why Blender is ideal for animation films. It demonstrates Blender's capability to do the job in each production department. Whether you are a beginner or more advanced user, you'll see why Blender should be taken into consideration in animation and film production. This Blender reference will help you: Manage your projects from start to finish Understand the different stages in any animation production See how studios work and develop their animation projects Describing the versatility and power of Blender, the book shows you why studios should incorporate Blender in their pipeline. It avoids tedious tutorials and incomprehensible examples. Instead, the book guides you toward finding efficient solutions for issues with your production files or pipeline. It familiarizes you with the animation industry and explores the risks involved in choosing Blender as a primary tool in animation studios.

Most tools developers want to improve the user experience but are not given the time, lack the techniques, or don't know where to begin.Designing the User Experience of Game Development Tools addresses these issues to empower tools developers to make positive steps toward improving the user experience of their tools.The book explains how to improve the user experience of game development tools. The first part of the book details the logic behind why the user experience of game tools must be improved. The second part introduces the concept of user-centered design, a process that revolves around understanding people's goals, watching them work, learning the context in which they work, and understanding how they think.Ideal for anyone who makes, uses, or benefits from game development tools, the book presents complex concepts in a manner that is accessible to those new to user experience design. The book illustrates many proven concepts and techniques using before-and-after examples from tools development to supply you with the real-world understanding you need to become a better game developer. It also describes how to get buy-in from your team.Although concepts have been simplified to make the information more easily accessible, the text includes resources in the footnotes if you want more details. The book includes access to a companion website, www.UXofGameTools.com, that contains the latest revisions for the book as well as contact information. You can also follow the official Twitter account @UXofGameTools to see the latest updates and articles related to the improvement of the user experience.

Unity brings you ever closer to the "author once, deploy anywhere" dream. With its multiplatform capabilities, you can target desktop, web, mobile devices, and consoles using a single development engine. Little wonder that Unity has quickly become the #1 game engine out there. Mastering Unity is absolutely essential in an increasingly competitive games market where agility is expected, yet until now practical tutorials were nearly impossible to find. Creating Games with Unity and Maya gives you with an end-to-end solution for Unity game development with Maya. Written by a twelve-year veteran of the 3D animation and games industry and professor of 3D animation, this book takes you step-by-step through the process of developing an entire game from scratch-including coding, art, production, and deployment. This accessible guide provides a "non-programmer" entry point to the world of game creation. Aspiring developers with little or no coding experience will learn character development in Maya, scripts, GUI interface, and first- and third-person interactions.

With a vast selection of typefaces now available, there is no excuse for using boring typography in web design. The New Web Typography: Create a Visual Hierarchy with Responsive Web Design shows you how to implement web-safe fonts to create visually appealing and multi-browser-friendly websites while encouraging you to develop designs that express your own unique typographic voice. This book discusses general principles for choosing typefaces for on-screen display and tips for creating a visual hierarchy that works on monitors, tablets, and smartphones. It shares some of the authors' personal experiences to illustrate situations where one font would be more effective than another in giving readers an optimized experience that includes quick download times and an overall aesthetically pleasing presentation. Since good typography is good web design, font selection is a critical aspect of web design. The New Web Typography is more than a simple overview of web typography. It provides practical advice and examples that help you make good decisions in choosing fonts for web design.

Holistic Mobile Game Development with Unity: An All-In-One Guide to Implementing Mechanics, Art Design and Programming for iOS and Android Games Master mobile game design and development in this all-in-one guide to creating iOS and Android games in the cutting-edge game engine, Unity. By using Penny de Byl s holistic method, you will learn about the principles of art, design, and code and gain multidisciplinary skills needed to succeed in the independent mobile games industry. In addition, hands-on exercises will help you throughout the process from design to publication in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. Over 70 practical step-by-step exercises recreating the game mechanics of contemporary mobile games, including Angry Birds, Temple Run, Year Walk, Minecraft, Curiosity Cube, Fruit Ninja, and more. Design principles, art, and programming in unison the one-stop shop for indie developers requiring interdisciplinary skills in their small teams. An introduction to essential two- and three-dimensional mathematics, geometry and physics concepts. A portfolio of royalty free reusable game mechanics and assets. Accompanying website, www.holistic3d.com, features project source code, instructional videos, art assets, author blog, and teaching resources. Challenge questions and lesson plans are available online for an enhanced learning experience.

Successfully Navigate the Evolving World of Mobile and Social Game Design and Monetization Completely updated, Mobile and Social Game Design: Monetization Methods and Mechanics, Second Edition explains how to use the interconnectedness of social networks to make "stickier," more compelling games on all types of devices. Through the book's many design and marketing techniques, strategies, and examples, you will acquire a better understanding of the design and monetization mechanics of mobile and social games as well as working knowledge of industry practices and terminology. Learn How to Attract and Retain Gamers and Make Money The book explores how the gaming sector has changed, including the evolution of free-to-play games on mobile and tablet devices, sophisticated subscription model-based products, and games for social media websites, such as Facebook. It also demystifies the alphabet soup of industry terms that have sprouted up around mobile and social game design and monetization. A major focus of the book is on popular mechanisms for acquiring users and methods of monetizing users. The author explains how to put the right kinds of hooks in your games, gather the appropriate metrics, and evaluate that information to increase the game's overall stickiness and revenue per user. He also discusses the sale of virtual goods and the types of currency used in games, including single and dual currency models. Each chapter includes an interview with industry leaders who share their insight on designing and producing games, analyzing metrics, and much more.

Add professional-level video to your Web communications toolbox with a complete understanding of the process, potential and limitations of Web video. Step up from the mini-cam experience with this solid introduction to professional planning and production techniques, ensuring that your video meets the same standards you set for every other communication program element. Audio, lighting, editing, encoding, are just a few of the essentials you learn how the pros produce top notch video for the Web. The companion Web site includes planning and production templates, demo files, and blog updates to help you put it all to work for you on a daily basis.

The Essential Guide to Game Audio: The Theory and Practice of Sound for Games is a first of its kind textbook and must-have reference guide for everything you ever wanted to know about sound for games. This book provides a basic overview of game audio, how it has developed over time, and how you can make a career in this industry. Each chapter gives you the background and context you will need to understand the unique workflow associated with interactive media. The practical, easy to understand interactive examples provide hands-on experience applying the concepts in real world situations.

This book takes you step-by-step through the process of creating a playable 3D character using 3DS Max. Offering a complete overview of the 3D real-time character asset creation pipeline. Yancey Clinton will take you through the five major subjects used in the asset pipeline: 1. 3D modeling, including techniques specifically for both the body and head. 2. Unwrapping a model, which is one of the most misunderstood processes. 3. An overview of creating textures for your Unwrapped chararacter using Photoshop. 4. Rigging or Skinning a Character, using the industry standard Character Studio 4. 5. 'How to make your character move' with an overview of game animation and deeper into Character Studio. But it doesn't end there! Yancey also shows you the final step; how to actually put the model into the Unreal editor and compile it for play in Unreal Tournament.

Whether trying to land that first big gig or working to perfect the necessary skills to fill a game world with sound, Aaron Marks' Complete Guide to Game Audio 3rd edition will teach the reader everything they need to know about the audio side of the multi-million dollar video game industry. This book builds upon the success of the second edition with even more expert advice from masters in the field and notes current changes within the growing video game industry. The tools of the trade excerpts will showcase what professionals, like Marty O'Donnell, Richard Jacques and Tom Salta, use to create their work and to help newcomers in the field prepare their own sound studios. Sample contracts are reviewed within the text as well as helpful advice about contractual terms and negotiable points. These sample contracts can also be found as a downloadable zip for the reader's convenience. Aaron Marks also explores how to set your financial terms and network efficiently along with examples of how projects can go completely awry and achieving the best results in often complicated situations. Aaron Marks' Complete Guide to Game Audio serves as the ultimate survival guide to navigating an audio career in the video game industry. Key Features New, full color edition with a complete update of information. Added and expanded coverage of field recording for games, creating voiceovers, adaptive and interactive audio and other cutting edge sound creation and implementation techniques used within games. Update/Replacement of interviews. Include interviews/features on international game audio professionals New and expanded interview features from game composers and sound designers of every experience level such as Keith Arem, Bradley Meyer, Christopher Tin and Rodney Gates including many international professionals like Pasi Pitkanen, Henning Nugel and Christos Panayides. Expanded and updated game console coverage of the Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3 and PS4. Includes new scripting and middleware concepts and techniques and review of powerful tools such as FMOD and Wwise.

In the world of web design, if one wants to create a successful web site, one needs an effective content strategy. Return on Engagement shows web designers and developers how to implement an effective content strategy and how to stay ahead in the rapidly changing industry of web design. It presents best practices in terms of web design through a marketing function: content strategy, SEO, social media marketing, and success measurement to help web designers implement a strategy that ensures success for the site they are building. Return on Engagement shows web designers and developers how to not just design an aesthetically pleasing, functional website. This book shows those professionals how to implement marketing strategies and analysis into their website, thus ensuring its success. Nearly 3 years since the previous edition published, new best practices have been formed. Tools in which web developers use to analyze website metrics have advanced. New social media networks and communities have cropped up. New research in how audiences read and receive content has been done, subsequently refining best digital marketing practices. Return on Engagement features a step-by-step breakdown of how to use new tools, techniques, and technologies. The new edition also includes updated case studies of industry leaders who implement best practices on projects. Return on Engagement also features a regularly updated companion site that offers readers sample content, easy sharing tools, and web-based resources to help measure marketing viability of web properties.

A novel approach for the classroom or self-study, Learn to Code with Games makes coding accessible to a broad audience. Structured as a series of challenges that help you learn to code by creating a video game, each chapter expands and builds your knowledge while providing guidelines and hints to solving each challenge. The book employs a unique problem-solving approach to teach you the technical foundations of coding, including data types, variables, functions, and arrays. You will also use techniques such as pseudocode and process mapping to formulate solutions without needing to type anything into a computer, and then convert the solutions into executable code. Avoiding jargon as much as possible, Learn to Code with Games shows you how to see coding as a way of thinking and problem solving rather than a domain of obscure languages and syntaxes. Its practical hands-on approach through the context of game development enables you to easily grasp basic programming concepts.

Vintage Game Consoles tells the story of the most influential videogame platforms of all time, including the Apple II, Commodore 64, Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy, Sega Genesis, Sony PlayStation, and many more. It uncovers the details behind the consoles, computers, handhelds, and arcade machines that made videogames possible. Drawing on extensive research and the authors own lifelong experience with videogames, Vintage Game Consoles explores each system s development, history, fan community, its most important games, and information for collectors and emulation enthusiasts. It also features hundreds of exclusive full-color screenshots and images that help bring each system s unique story to life. Vintage Game Consoles is the ideal book for gamers, students, and professionals who want to know the story behind their favorite computers, handhelds, and consoles, without forgetting about why they play in the first place the fun! Bill Loguidice is a critically acclaimed technology author who has worked on over a dozen books, including CoCo: The Colorful History of Tandy s Underdog Computer, written with Boisy G. Pitre. He s also the co-founder and Managing Director for the popular Website, Armchair Arcade. A noted videogame and computer historian and subject matter expert, Bill personally owns and maintains well over 400 different systems from the 1970s to the present day, including a large volume of associated materials. Matt Barton is an associate professor of English at Saint Cloud State University in Saint Cloud, Minnesota, where he lives with his wife Elizabeth. He s the producer of the "Matt Chat," a weekly YouTube series featuring in-depth interviews with notable game developers. In addition to the original Vintage Games, which he co-authored with Bill, he s author of Dungeons and Desktops: The History of Computer Role-Playing Games and Honoring the Code: Conversations with Great

Artists and programmers often work together on complex projects in stressful environments and things don't always go smoothly. Miscommunication and misunderstandings are common as these two disciplines often use the same words to mean different things when they talk to each other. Unintentional slights can turn into long-held grudges and productivity grinds to a crawl. This is a "flip book" that contains two narratives in one. Turn the book one way and read one perspective; turn the book over and upside down and read the other perspective. The narratives can be read separately, one after the other, or in alternating chapters. Talking to Artists / Talking to Programmers can help anyone who wants to improve communication with artists and programmers. It's set up like a foreign language dictionary, so it addresses the cultural norms, attitudes and customs surrounding the words each group uses, so you'll know not just what the words in the glossary mean, you'll know why they're used that way and how to get communication flowing again. It addresses common reasons for communication problems between these two groups and provides specific suggestions for solutions. The unusual format allows for each side to be given equal weight - learn how to talk to artists starting on one side of the book, turn it over and learn how to talk to programmers. The whole book stresses the things artists and programmers have in common. Focused primarily on videogame developers, it also applies to other fields where tech and art have to work together, including web developers and teams building mobile apps. Anyone who wants to communicate better with programmers or artists - this book can help Features Lists of common problems and strategies for solving them Specific ideas for building bridges between departments Case studies from real teams Glossary of terms causing the most confusion Explanations for common friction points Approaches for fostering goodwill Solutions for team dynamics problems Specific suggestions for providing feedback Ideas for holding successful meetings

Understand Video Games as Works of Science Fiction and Interactive Stories Science Fiction Video Games focuses on games that are part of the science fiction genre, rather than set in magical milieux or exaggerated versions of our own world. Unlike many existing books and websites that cover some of the same material, this book emphasizes critical analysis, especially the analysis of narrative. The author analyzes narrative via an original categorization of story forms in games. He also discusses video games as works of science fiction, including their characteristic themes and the links between them and other forms of science fiction. Delve into a Collection of Science Fiction GamesThe beginning chapters explore game design and the history of science-fictional video games. The majority of the text deals with individual science-fictional games and the histories and natures of their various forms, such as the puzzle-based adventure and the more exploratory and immediate computer role-playing game (RPG).