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.

Video games are a complex, compelling medium in which established art forms intersect with technology to create an interactive text. Visual arts, architectural design, music, narrative and rules of play all find a place within, and are constrained by, computer systems whose purpose is to create an immersive player experience. In the relatively short life of video game studies, many authors have approached the question of how games function, some focusing on technical aspects of game design, others on rules of play. Taking a holistic view, this study explores how ludology, narratology, visual rhetoric, musical theory and player psychology work (or don't work) together to create a cohesive experience and to provide a unified framework for understanding video games.

Discover how Unreal Engine 4 allows you to create exciting games using C++ and Blueprints. This book starts with installing, launching, and examining the details of Unreal Engine. Next, you will learn about Blueprints and C++ and how to leverage them. The following chapters talk in detail about gameplay, basic physics, and ray-casting for game development in Unreal Engine. Furthermore, you'll create material, meshes, and textures. The last chapter brings all the concepts together by building a demo game. By the end of the book, you'll be equipped with the know-how and techniques needed to develop and deploy your very own game in Unreal Engine. What You Will Learn Discover Blueprints and how to apply them in Unreal Engine 4 Get started with C++ programming in Unreal Engine 4 Apply the concepts of physics and ray-casting Work with the Gameplay Framework Who This Book Is For Beginners interested in learning Blueprints visual scripting and C++ for programming games in Unreal Engine 4 would find this book useful.

The Year of the Raven reaches new heights on dark wings! With a few years under its collective belt, the Hearthstone team needed to find an edge: sharper and more striking than a corvid's beak. In The Art of Hearthstone, Volume IV: Year of the Raven, the designers, engineers, and artists of the smash-hit digital card game pour their cunning into innovative design changes, remarkable animated art, and all-new transmedia content. From the haunted lands of Gilneas in The Witchwood soaring to the laboratories of Outland in The Boomsday Project and touching down to the lively arena of Rastakhan's Rumble, the Year of the Raven has something unique for everyone. Fly alongside the Hearthstone team's creative genius (or madness?) to learn how it was done!

Gain an in-depth knowledge in immersive web development to create augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) applications inside web browsers using WebXR API, WebGL, Three.js, and A-Frame. This project-based book will provide the practice and portfolio content to make the most of what the futures of spatial computing and immersive technology have to offer. Beginning with technical analysis of how web browsers function, the book covers programming languages such as WebGL, JavaScript, and HTML, with an eye on a complete understanding of the WebXR lifecycle. You'll then explore how contemporary web browsers work at the code level and see how to set up a local development server and use it with the Visual Studio Code IDE to create 3D animation in the WebGL programming language. With a familiarity of the web-rendering pipeline in place, you'll venture on to WebGL abstractions such as the Three.js JavaScript library and Mozilla's A-Frame XR Framework, which use WebXR to create high-end visual effects. In the final projects of the book, you'll create an augmented reality web session for an Android phone device, and create a VR scene in A-Frame (built on Three.js) to demo essential components of the WebXR API pertaining to user positioning and interaction. Game engines have become common-place for the creation of mixed reality content. However, developers not interested in learning entirely new workflows may be better suited to work within a medium almost universally open to all-the web; AR and VR Using the WebXR API will show you the way. What You'll Learn Master the creation of virtual reality and augmented reality features for web page Prepare to work as an immersive web developer with a portfolio of projects in sought-after technologies Review the fundamentals of writing shaders in WebGL Experience the unity between client, server, and cloud architecture as it applies to location-based AR Who This Book Is For Aspiring immersive web developers and developers already familiar with the fundamentals of web development who want to further explore topics such as spatial computing, computer vision, spatial anchors, and cloud-computing for multi-user social experiences.

Go on an adventure and build a roguelike from scratch using JavaScript. With the help of the battle-tested Phaser library, you'll go through all the steps to build a small, fun, playable web roguelite game. The author will guide you on how to add further features to the game such as populating the game with enemies, adding treasures, and so on. You will acquire technical knowledge about procedural generation and tile-based mapping as well as learn game design skills such as what makes dungeons fun and how to evoke an emotion in your game. Roguelikes are very popular with indie developers because of their focus on gameplay over graphics. You'll see why they appeal to game designers on a budget and discover that they serve as a good platform to experiment with novel ideas and designs. Along the way, you'll cover the increasingly popular roguelite genre that provides a hyper casual form of the genre that is approachable and often mobile. After reading this book, you'll be ready to create your own roguelikes, to dive deep into procedural generation, and also to bring some of the techniques shown here into other genres and game projects. What You Will Learn Make use of procedural generation for dungeons, mazes, monsters, and treasure Pick up skills to use Phaser to build games Implement turn-based mechanics Use tile-based graphics Who This Book Is For Game developers who want to build something fun and who have at least some prior JavaScript programming experience.

Master the art of game creation with MonoGame-the cross-platform framework of choice for independent developers. Learn the various aspects needed to create your next game by covering MonoGame framework specifics, engine creation, graphics, patterns, and more. The MonoGame framework provides an incredible canvas for the programmer to create their next 2D game, and this book teaches you to make the most of it. You will start from the ground up, beginning with the basics of what MonoGame is, the pipeline, and then how to build a reusable game engine on top of the framework. You will deep dive into various components of each aspect of a game, including graphics, input, audio, and artificial intelligence. The importance of game tooling is also covered. By the end, you will have a mastery level of understanding of how to create a 2D game using MonoGame. With a fully functional 2D game, aspiring developers will have the ideal blueprint to tackle their next fully featured game. The material covered is applicable for almost any 2D game project ranging from side scrolling adventures to fighting games. What You Will Learn Learn to build a game with the MonoGame framework. Understand game engine architecture and how to build an engine onto the MonoGame framework. Grasp common design patterns used in game development and in fully featured engines, such as Unity. Who This Book Is For Beginner to advanced MonoGame programmer would find this book helpful. The audience is expected to have a working knowledge of C#.

Do you have an awesome idea for the next break-through mobile gaming title? This updated edition will help you kick-start your project as it guides you through the process of creating several example game apps using APIs available in Android. You will learn the basics needed to join the ranks of successful Android game app developers. the book starts with game design fundamentals using Canvas and Android SDK 10 or earlier programming basics. You then will progress toward creating your own basic game engine and playable game apps that work on Android 10 or earlier smartphones and tablets. You take your game through the chapters and topics in the book to learn different tools such as OpenGL ES. And you will learn about publishing and marketing your games to monetize your creation. What You Will Learn Gain knowledge on the fundamentals of game programming in the context of Android Use Android's APIs for graphics, audio, and user input to reflect those fundamentals Develop two 2D games from scratch, based on Canvas API and OpenGL ES Create a full-featured 3D game Publish your games, get crash reports, and support your users Complete your own playable 2D OpenGL games Who This Book Is For Those with basic knowledge of Java who want to write games on the Android platform, and experienced game developers who want to know about the pitfalls and peculiarities of the platform

Start your video game development journey by learning how to build a 2D game engine from scratch. Using Java (with NetBeans as your IDE and using Java's graphics framework) or by following along in C# (with Visual Studio as your IDE and using the MonoGame framework), you'll cover the design and implementation of a 2D game engine in detail. Each class will be reviewed with demonstration code. You'll gain experience using the engine by building a game from the ground up. Introduction to Video Game Engine Development reviews the design and implementation of a 2D game engine in three parts. Part 1 covers the low-level API class by class. You'll see how to abstract lower-level functionality and design a set of classes that interact seamlessly with each other. You'll learn how to draw objects, play sounds, render text, and more. In Part 2, you'll review the mid-level API that is responsible for drawing the game, loading resources, and managing user input. Lastly, in Part 3, you'll build a game from the ground up following a step-by-step process using the 2D game engine you just reviewed. On completing this book, you'll have a solid foundation in video game engine design and implementation. You'll also get exposure to building games from scratch, creating the solid foundation you'll need to work with more advanced game engines, and industry tools, that require learning complex software, APIs, and IDEs. What You Will Learn Gain experience with lower-level game engine APIs and abstracting framework functionality Write application-level APIs: launching the game, loading resources, settings, processing input, and more Discover cross-platform APIs in the game engine projects written in both Java and C#/MonoGame Develop games with an SDK-based game engine and simplified tool chain focused on direct control of the game through code Master creating games by using the game engine to build a game from the ground up with only code and an IDE Who This Book Is For Those of you out there with some programming experience, moderate to advanced, who want to learn how to write video games using modern game engine designs.

Create assets for history-based games. This book covers the fundamental principles required to understand and create architectural visualizations of historical locations using digital tools. You will explore aspects of 3D design visualization and VR integration using industry-preferred software. Some of the most popular video games in recent years have historical settings (Age of Empires, Call of Duty, etc.). Creating these games requires creating historically accurate game assets. You will use Blender to create VR-ready assets by modeling and unwrapping them. And you will use Substance Painter to texture the assets that you create. You will also learn how to use the Quixel Megascans library to acquire and implement physically accurate materials in the scenes. Finally, you will import the assets into Unreal Engine 4 and recreate a VR integrated heritage that can be explored in real time. Using VR technology and game engines, you can digitally recreate historical settings for games. What You Will Learn Create high-quality, optimized models suitable for any 3D game engine Master the techniques of texturing assets using Substance Painter and Quixel Megascans Keep assets historically accurate Integrate assets with the game engine Create visualizations with Unreal Engine 4 Who Is This Book For Game developers with some experience who are eager to get into VR-based games

Gain the skills that will get you into game design

Bring fantasy creatures and settings to life, and launch a lucrative career

There's gold in them thar games, and here's your mining kit! Find out how to design, model, and animate characters, give your settings detail and dimension, create a storyboard, add dialogue, produce special effects, plan a game, and more. You'll even get an overview of essential software, and tips for landing a job in the game industry.

Discover how to Create realistic motion Develop a game concept Model a complete character from scratch Add a skeleton rig to your character Find out how to use particles and dynamics Sync facial movements with soundtracks

This book addresses emerging issues in usability, interface design, human-computer interaction, user experience and assistive technology. It highlights research aimed at understanding human interactions with products, services and systems and focuses on finding effective approaches for improving the user experience. It also discusses key issues in designing and providing assistive devices and services for individuals with disabilities or impairment, offering them support with mobility, communication, positioning, environmental control and daily living. The book covers modeling as well as innovative design concepts, with a special emphasis on user-centered design, and design for specific populations, particularly the elderly. Further topics include virtual reality, digital environments, gaming, heuristic evaluation and forms of device interface feedback (e.g. visual and haptic). Based on the AHFE 2020 Virtual Conference on Usability and User Experience, the AHFE 2020 Virtual Conference on Human Factors and Assistive Technology, the AHFE Virtual Conference on Human Factors and Wearable Technologies, and the AHFE 2020 Virtual Conference on Virtual Environments and Game Design, held on July 16-20, 2020, it provides academics and professionals with an extensive source of information and a timely guide to tools, applications and future challenges in these fields.

From the text adventures of Zork, to the arcade game of Pac-Man, to the corridors of Doom, and on to the city streets of Grand Theft Auto IV, the maze has often been used as a space to trap and confuse players in their navigation of gameworlds. However, the maze as a construction on the landscape has a long history before the invention of the videogame. By examining the change in the maze from the landscapes of open spaces and closed gardens through to the screen of the videogame, both mazes and labyrinths are discussed in terms of historical reference, alongside the author's personal experiences of walking and playing these structures. This book shows how our cultural experiences of real world maze landscapes may have changed, and how we negotiate videogame worlds along the various paths and meanings they so often create for us.

Are you a Unity developer looking to switch to the Godot engine quickly? If so, this no-nonsense book is your guide to mastering the most popular open-source game engine. Godot is a completely free game engine for creating high-quality 2D and 3D games that can be launched on multiple platforms. You'll see how to transition seamlessly from Unity to Godot, getting up and running quickly and effectively, using practical case studies. In addition to building functional worlds from meshes and physical interactions, you'll work with reusable assets, such as textures. The book then moves on to lighting and rendering 2D and 3D scenes with baked and real-time lighting. You'll also work with navigation and path-finding for NPCs, and see how to create save-game states with JSON. With Moving from Unity to Godot you'll be ready to create amazing 2D and 3D games that will supercharge your business. What You Will Learn Explore the similarities and differences between Unity and Godot Maximize the benefits from Unity and Godot Create believable game world and characters with Godot Master the unique aspects of C# coding in Godot Who This Book is For Developers familiar with Unity who want to master another game engine, such as Godot.

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.

An addictive thriller from the most sensational new voice in YA fiction. When sixteen-year-old Asha Kennedy discovers her older sister Maya's dead body in their home, her world falls apart. Desperate for answers, and to stay out of the hands of the social services she grew up in, Asha turns to her hacker friends for help. Her search leads her to Zu Tech, the hit games studio where Maya was a lead coder. As Asha begins to unravel the riddle of her death, she realises that the only way to uncover the truth is from the inside. Asha ghosts her old life and infiltrates a Zu Tech eSport tournament as they launch 'SHACKLE', the revolutionary Virtual Reality video game Maya was working on - and which hides a monstrous secret... Perfect for fans of The Hunger Games and A Good Girl's Guide to Murder A guaranteed page turner full of heart, tension and twists you won't see coming! The first book in a major new YA series

The perfect gift for any fan of World of Warcraft. Journey through Azeroth and prepare to feast on new culinary delights inspired by World of Warcraft. This official gift set comes with World of Warcraft: New Flavors of Azeroth and an exclusive apron featuring celebrated Pandaren chef Nomi, equipped with a large front pocket and adjustable straps. As a young boy in Pandaria, Nomi answered the beckoning call of the Cooking School Bell and quickly grew into a promising chef. Through the years, this intrepid cook has traveled across Azeroth, learning countless regional recipes and techniques from Pandaria, the Broken Isles, and even the mysterious Shadowlands. In this cookbook, Nomi has collected the best recipes gathered during his travels, including: --Bladespire Bagel --Wild Berry Bread --Chewy Fel Taffy Equip your apron and let culinary expert Nomi be your guide in World of Warcraft: New Flavors of Azeroth Gift Set.

Digital Playgrounds explores the key developments, trends, debates, and controversies that have shaped children's commercial digital play spaces over the past two decades. It argues that children's online playgrounds, virtual worlds, and connected games are much more than mere sources of fun and diversion - they serve as the sites of complex negotiations of power between children, parents, developers, politicians, and other actors with a stake in determining what, how, and where children's play unfolds. Through an innovative, transdisciplinary framework combining science and technology studies, critical communication studies, and children's cultural studies, Digital Playgrounds focuses on the contents and contexts of actual technological artefacts as a necessary entry point for understanding the meanings and politics of children's digital play. The discussion draws on several research studies on a wide range of digital playgrounds designed and marketed to children aged six to twelve years, revealing how various problematic tendencies prevent most digital play spaces from effectively supporting children's culture, rights, and - ironically - play. Digital Playgrounds lays the groundwork for a critical reconsideration of how existing approaches might be used in the development of new regulation, as well as best practices for the industries involved in making children's digital play spaces. In so doing, it argues that children's online play spaces be reimagined as a crucial new form of public sphere in which children's rights and digital citizenship must be prioritized.

This student-friendly book provides an accessible overview of the primary debates about the effects of video games. It expands on the original The Video Game Debate to address the new technologies that have emerged within the field of game studies over the last few years. Debates about the negative effects of video game play have been evident since their introduction in the 1970s, but the advent of online and mobile gaming has revived these concerns, reinvigorating old debates and generating brand new ones. The Video Game Debate 2 draws from the latest research findings from the top scholars of digital games research to address these concerns. The book explores key developments such as virtual and augmented reality, the use of micro-transactions, the integration of loot boxes, and the growth of mobile gaming and games for change (serious games). Furthermore, several new chapters explore contemporary debates around e-sports, gamification, sex and gender discrimination in games, and the use of games in therapy. This book offers students and scholars of games studies and digital media, as well as policymakers, the essential information they need to participate in the debate.

This book explores the ways in which the broad range of technologies that make up the smart city infrastructure can be harnessed to incorporate more playfulness into the day-to-day activities that take place within smart cities, making them not only more efficient but also more enjoyable for the people who live and work within their confines. The book addresses various topics that will be of interest to playable cities stakeholders, including the human-computer interaction and game designer communities, computer scientists researching sensor and actuator technology in public spaces, urban designers, and (hopefully) urban policymakers. This is a follow-up to another book on Playable Cities edited by Anton Nijholt and published in 2017 in the same book series, Gaming Media and Social Effects.

The media vampire has roots throughout the world, far beyond the shores of the usual Dracula-inspired Anglo-American archetypes. Depending on text and context, the vampire is a figure of anxiety and comfort, humor and fear, desire and revulsion. These dichotomies gesture the enduring prevalence of the vampire in mass culture; it can no longer articulate a single feeling or response, bound by time and geography, but is many things to many people. With a global perspective, this collection of essays offers something new and different: a much needed counter-narrative of the vampire's evolution in popular culture. Divided by geography, this text emphasizes the vampiric as a globetrotting citizen du monde rather than an isolated monster.