Now in full color, the 10th anniversary edition of this classic book takes you deep into the influences that underlie modern video games, and examines the elements they share with traditional games such as checkers. At the heart of his exploration, veteran game designer Raph Koster takes a close look at the concept of fun and why it's the most vital element in any game. Why do some games become boring quickly, while others remain fun for years? How do games serve as fundamental and powerful learning tools? Whether you're a game developer, dedicated gamer, or curious observer, this illustrated, fully updated edition helps you understand what drives this major cultural force, and inspires you to take it further. You'll discover that: Games play into our innate ability to seek patterns and solve puzzles Most successful games are built upon the same elements Slightly more females than males now play games Many games still teach primitive survival skills Fictional dressing for modern games is more developed than the conceptual elements Truly creative designers seldom use other games for inspiration Games are beginning to evolve beyond their prehistoric origins

Featuring interviews with the creators of 35 popular video games-including John Madden Football, Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3, WCW/nWo Revenge, and RBI Baseball-this book gives a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of some of the most influential and iconic (and sometimes forgotten) sports video games of all time. Recounting endless hours of painstaking development, the challenges of working with mega-publishers and the uncertainties of public reception, the interviewees reveal the creative processes that produced some of gaming's classic titles.

A host of digital affordances, including reduced cost production tools, open distribution platforms, and ubiquitous connectivity, have engendered the growth of indie games among makers and users, forcing critics to reconsider the question of who makes games and why. Taking seriously this new mode of cultural produciton compells analysts to reconsider the blurred boundaries and relations of makers, users and texts as well as their respective relationship to cultural power and hierarchy. The contributions to Indie Games in the Digital Age consider these questions and examine a series of firms, makers, games and scenes, ranging from giants like Nintendo and Microsoft to grassroots games like Cards Against Humanity and Stardew Valley, to chart more precisely the productive and instructive disruption that this new site of cultural production offers.

In the age of digital media, superheroes are no longer confined to comic books and graphic novels. Their stories are now featured in films, video games, digital comics, television programs, and more. In a single year alone, films featuring Batman, Spider-Man, and the Avengers have appeared on the big screen. Popular media no longer exists in isolation, but converges into complex multidimensional entities. As a result, traditional ideas about the relationship between varying media have come under striking revision. Although this convergence is apparent in many genres, perhaps nowhere is it more persistent, more creative, or more varied than in the superhero genre. Superhero Synergies: Comic Book Characters Go Digital explores this developing relationship between superheroes and various forms of media, examining how the superhero genre, which was once limited primarily to a single medium, has been developed into so many more. Essays in this volume engage with several of the most iconic heroes including Batman, Hulk, and Iron Man through a variety of academic disciplines such as industry studies, gender studies, and aesthetic analysis to develop an expansive view of the genre s potency. The contributors to this volume engage cinema, comics, video games, and even live stage shows to instill readers with new ways of looking at, thinking about, and experiencing some of contemporary media s most popular texts. This unique approach to the examination of digital media and superhero studies provides new and valuable readings of well-known texts and practices. Intended for both academics and fans of the superhero genre, this anthology introduces the innovative and growing synergy between traditional comic books and digital media."

For the first time in print, step into the fantasy world of The Elder Scrolls Online. Tales of Tamriel - Vol. II: The Lore takes readers on adventure throughout the war-torn landscapes and battlefields of Tamriel, featuring a horde of in-game texts and exclusive artwork. Lavishly bound and produced, this series of books is the definitive guide to lore from the Elder Scrolls Online.

Is the art for your video game taking too long to create? Learning to create Pixel Art may be the answer to your development troubles. Uncover the secrets to creating stunning graphics with Pixel Art for Game Developers. The premier how-to book on Pixel Art and Pixel Art software, it focuses on the universal principles of the craft. The book provides an introduction to Pixel Art, its utility, foundational elements, and concepts such as light and shadow. It offers tutorials on creating animations and serves as a functional guide for the most common methodology in 2D game development. Gamers love the retro feel of Pixel Art, and lucky for you it is easy to create. You'll love the tiny file sizes that will reduce compile times and help your game run faster. Providing you with the skills to create the characters and environments needed for 2D games, this book will help you: Create tilesets to build game environments Understand light and shadow Work efficiently with pixels Use atmospheric and linear perspective Create professional-quality Pixel Art This book has chapters dedicated to theory as well as step-by-step tutorials, both of which describe the process explicitly. Whether you are an artist, programmer, indie developer, or certified public accountant, after reading this book, you'll understand the steps necessary to create production-quality Pixel Art graphics. Praise for the Book:Pixel Art and Pixel Art games are very popular and the technique is a great way for independent creators to create very good-looking games with limited resources. It's frankly shocking that there hasn't been a resource like this before ... a very timely book.-Chris Totten, George Mason University, Washington, DC, USA

El ambito de los videojuegos no deja de crecer a diario y, con el, surgen nuevas oportunidades laborales para diversos entornos profesionales. Entre ellos, destaca especialmente un campo de nueva especializacion que suele pasar desapercibido, como es el de la interpretacion en el ambito de los videojuegos (IAVJ), la cual tiene un calado cada vez mayor dentro de la industria. En este estudio se repasan todos los contextos en los que es necesaria la IAVJ, asi como tambien se analizan algunos ejemplos de trabajos en este ambito y se plantean una serie de recomendaciones de cara a una adecuada formacion y a un correcto desempeno de la practica profesional.

Successfully Navigate the Evolving World of Mobile and Social Game Design and Monetization Completely updated, Mobile & 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.

The Game Design Deep Dive series examines specific game systems or mechanics over the course of the history of the industry. This book examines the history of jumping - one of the oldest mechanics in the industry - and how it has evolved and changed over the years. The author looks at the transition from 2D to 3D and multiple elements that make jumping more complicated than it looks from a design perspective. Key Selling Points: The first in a series of books that focus entirely on a singular game design system or mechanic, in this case: jumping. A perfect read for anyone interested in understanding game design, or just curious from a historical standpoint. A must read for anyone interested in building their own platformer or just interested in the history of the game industry's most famous game mechanic. This book is a perfect companion for someone building their first game or as part of a game design classroom. Includes real game examples to highlight the discussed topics and mechanics. Joshua Bycer is a Game Design Critic with more than seven years of experience critically analyzing game design and the industry itself. In that time, through Game-Wisdom, he has interviewed hundreds of game developers and members of the industry about what it means to design video games. He also strives to raise awareness about the importance of studying game design by giving lectures and presentations; his first book was titled 20 Essential Games to Study.

- The first book dedicated to exploring key video games from the 1970s to present day. - Provides a highly accessible overview of the history of video games from PONG, Pac-Man and Tetris to Minecraft, Animal Crossing and Assassin's Creed. - The selection covers a range of historical periods and platforms, genres, commercial impact, artistic choices, contexts of play, typical and atypical representations, uses of games for specific purposes, uses of materials or techniques, specific subcultures, repurposing, transgressive aesthetics, interfaces, moral or ethical impacts, and more.

Written by a game developer and professor trained in architecture, An Architectural Approach to Level Design is one of the first books to integrate architectural and spatial design theory with the field of level design. It explores the principles of level design through the context and history of architecture. Now in its second edition, An Architectural Approach to Level Design presents architectural techniques and theories for you to use in your own work. The author connects architecture and level design in different ways that address the practical elements of how designers construct space and the experiential elements of how and why humans interact with that space. It also addresses industry issues like how to build interesting tutorial levels and how to use computer-generated level design systems without losing the player-focused design of handmade levels. Throughout the text, you will learn skills for spatial layout, evoking emotion through gamespaces, and creating better levels through architectural theory. FEATURES Presents case studies that offer insight on modern level design practices, methods, and tools Presents perspectives from industry designers, independent game developers, scientists, psychologists, and academics Explores how historical structures can teach us about good level design Shows how to use space to guide or elicit emotion from players Includes chapter exercises that encourage you to use principles from the chapter in digital prototypes, playtesting sessions, paper mock-ups, and design journals Bringing together topics in game design and architecture, this book helps you create better spaces for your games. Software independent, the book discusses tools and techniques that you can use in crafting your interactive worlds.

Perhaps no arcade game is so nostalgically remembered, yet so critically bemoaned, as Dragon's Lair. A bit of a technological neanderthal, the game implemented a unique combination of videogame components and home video replay, garnering great popular media and user attention in a moment of contracted economic returns and popularity for the videogame arcade business. But subsequently, writers and critics have cast the game aside as a cautionary tale of bad game design. In Dragon's Lair and the Fantasy of Interactivity, MJ Clarke revives Dragon's Lair as a fascinating textual experiment interlaced with powerful industrial strategies, institutional discourse, and textual desires around key notions of interactivity and fantasy. Constructing a multifaceted historical study of the game that considers its design, its makers, its recording medium, and its in-game imagery, Clarke suggests that the more appropriate metaphor for Dragon's Lair is not that of a neanderthal, but a socio-technical network, infusing and advancing debates about the production and consumption of new screen technologies. Far from being the gaming failure posited by evolutionary-minded lay critics, Clarke argues, Dragon's Lair offers a fascinating provisional solution to still-unsettled questions about screen media.

The indie game developer's complete guide to running a studio. The climate for the games industry has never been hotter, and this is only set to continue as the marketplace for tablets, consoles and phones grow. Seemingly every day there is a story of how a successful app or game has earned thousands of downloads and revenue. As the market size increases, so does the number of people developing and looking to develop their own app or game to publish. The Indie Game Developer Handbook covers every aspect of running a game development studio-from the initial creation of the game through to completion, release and beyond. Accessible and complete guide to many aspects of running a game development studio from funding and development through QA, publishing, marketing, and more. Provides a useful knowledge base and help to support the learning process of running an indie development studio in an honest, approachable and easy to understand way. Case studies, interviews from other studies and industry professionals grant an first-hand look into the world of indie game development

Delve deeper into the lore behind one of the most successful and critically acclaimed fantasy games of all time, Skyrim. Featuring in-game texts on factions, landscapes, creatures, heroes, and dragons.

Explores the basics of indie game marketing Helps the reader with how to communicate to talk to investors, pbulishers, and major platforms Illustrates different negotiation tactics

As the Allies advance towards Germany, they face dogged resistance from the hard-pressed German forces. Take command of the Allies in their final push to end the war in Europe, or hold fast as the German defenders as the fight is brought to your door. This new Campaign Book for Bolt Action offers new linked scenarios, rules, troop types and Theatre Selectors, and provides plenty of options for novice and veteran players alike.

This Open Access book is a must-have for anyone interested in real-time rendering. Ray tracing is the holy grail of gaming graphics, simulating the physical behavior of light to bring real-time, cinematic-quality rendering to even the most visually intense games. Ray tracing is also a fundamental algorithm used for architecture applications, visualization, sound simulation, deep learning, and more. Ray Tracing Gems II is written by industry experts with a particular focus on ray tracing, and it offers a practical means to master the new capabilities of current and future GPUs with the latest graphics APIs. What You'll Learn: The latest ray tracing techniques for developing real-time applications in multiple domains Case studies from developers and studios who have shipped products that use real-time ray tracing. Guidance, advice and best practices for rendering applications with various GPU-based ray tracing APIs (DirectX Raytracing, Vulkan Ray Tracing) High performance graphics for 3D graphics, virtual reality, animation, and more Who This Book Is For:Game and graphics developers who are looking to leverage the latest hardware and software tools for real-time rendering and ray tracing to enhance their applications across a variety of disciplines.

Every month, hundreds of millions of people around the world are spending billions of hours on Roblox--and Roblox's fast-growing community of developers has already earned hundreds of millions of dollars from their creations. For every burgeoning game developer who is looking to take their Roblox skills to the next level fast, look no further than Roblox Game Development in 24 Hours: The Official Roblox Guide. In just 24 lessons of one hour or less, you will deepen your understanding of virtually every facet of Roblox game development. Each short and easy lesson builds upon everything that has come before, helping you take full advantage of this remarkable platform. Step-by-step instructions walk you through common questions, issues, and tasks; Q&As, Quizzes, and Exercises build and test your knowledge; "Try It Yourself" exercises encourage independent practice. By the time you're finished, you'll be a true Roblox game development expert. Learn how to... * Build immersive natural environments using built-in terrain and lighting tools * Model and import assets, models, weapons, and textures * Code game mechanics, animations, and camera movement * Design GUIs for store fronts, player HUDs, and interactive elements * Teleport players between multiple game places * Publish your game to multiple platforms with cross-platform play * Attract players, monetize your game, and earn real cash

Collecting the dark and haunting artwork behind the critically-acclaimed Dark Souls II in a prestigious hardcover tome. Dark Souls II: Design Works features armor and weapon designs, character concepts, creatures, locations, rough sketches, an exclusive interview with the game's creators, and more!

A mysterious group of phantom thieves skulks in the shadows of Tokyo, changing the hearts of corrupt adults. But behind their masks are--normal teenagers and a talking black cat?! PERSONA 5: MEMENTOS MISSION is an all-new mystery featuring the cast of PERSONA 5. IN THIS VOLUME: Rivals Ren Amamiya and the famous high school detective Goro Akechi team up to bring this mystery to an end. Will the true identity of the mysterious Twin Fang Killer be revealed? Mystery solving, fishing, and homework... this slice of Ren's extremely busy phantom thief life comes to an end!

Video games have seemingly taken over our lives. Whereas gamers once constituted a small and largely male subculture, today 67 percent of American households play video games. The average gamer is now thirty-four years old and spends eight hours each week playing-and there is a 40 percent chance this person is a woman. In Bit by Bit, Andrew Ervin sets out to understand the explosive popularity of video games. He travels to government laboratories, junk shops, and arcades. He interviews scientists and game designers, both old and young. In charting the material and technological history of video games, from the 1950s to the present, he suggests that their appeal starts and ends with the sense of creativity they instill in gamers. As Ervin argues, games can be art because they are beautiful, moving, and even political.

Computer games are one of the most exciting and rapidly evolving media of our time. Revenues from console and computer games have now overtaken those from Hollywood movies; and online gaming is one of the fastest-growing areas of the internet. Games are no longer just kids' stuff: the majority of players are now adults, and the market is constantly broadening. The visual style of games has become increasingly sophisticated, and the complexities of game-play are ever more challenging. Meanwhile, the iconography and generic forms of games are increasingly influencing a whole range of other media, from films and television to books and toys.
This book provides a systematic, comprehensive introduction to the analysis of computer and video games. It introduces key concepts and approaches drawn from literary, film and media theory in an accessible and concrete manner; and it tests their use and relevance by applying them to a small but representative selection of role-playing and action-adventure games. It combines methods of textual analysis and audience research, showing how the combination of such methods can give a more complete picture of these playable texts and the fan cultures they generate. Clearly written and engaging, it will be a key text for students in the field and for all those with an interest in taking games seriously.