Launched in January 2018, the Overwatch League (OWL) is the first large-scale concerted effort to build a competitive, global framework for an eSport that can rival the largest pro sports leagues. $3.5 million in prize money, a broadcasting deal with ESPN, and the purchase of OWL teams by celebrity owners including Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots, and Stan Kroenke, owner of the Los Angeles Rams, set the stakes for the launch. The first season ended in a tense round of playoffs that climaxed in a suspenseful championship series in a sold-out Barclay's Center. Austin Moorhead, a gamer who found himself fascinated by the emerging world of pro players, embedded himself during OWL's debut season with multiple teams, including the London Spitfire, which would go on to become Overwatch's first world champion. In Young Guns, he takes readers behind the scenes of the wild first season of a competition that just might become as ingrained in our culture as Sunday football, revealing a high-stakes, pressure-cooker world of profane teenagers who earn six-figure salaries, TV executives and traditional sports owners struggling to understand and conquer youth culture, and a game whose innovation progresses so fast that fans watch their favourite gamers practice for hours just to keep up with it. Told with perspective on the subculture and unrivalled access into how both the OWL and the teams that compose it have built themselves to succeed, Young Guns is a fascinating look at the ascendance of competitive gaming and the future of sports.

Containing interviews with the developers of 36 of the coolest games in video game history from Deus Ex and Night Trap to Mortal Kombat, Wasteland and NBA Jam, The Minds Behind the Games gives you an inside look at how some of the most influential, iconic, infamous and forgotten games of all-time were created. From the painstaking hours at the computer developing to problems with mega publishers and with the media after release, The Minds Behind the Games gives you unparalleled access to the minds behind some of your favorite games. It will even introduce you to games that you never knew existed, but should.

Take a journey through the history of Japanese role-playing games-from the creators who built it, the games that defined it, and the stories that transformed pop culture and continue to capture the imaginations of millions of fans to this day.The Japanese roleplaying game (JRPG) genre is one that is known for bold, unforgettable characters; rich stories, and some of the most iconic and beloved games in the industry. Inspired by early western RPGs and introducing technology and artistic styles that pushed the boundaries of what video games could be, this genre is responsible for creating some of the most complex, bold, and beloved games in history-and it has the fanbase to prove it. In Fight, Magic, Items, Aidan Moher guides readers through the fascinating history of JRPGs, exploring the technical challenges, distinct narrative and artistic visions, and creative rivalries that fueled the creation of countless iconic games and their quest to become the best, not only in Japan, but in North America, too. Moher starts with the origin stories of two classic Nintendo titles, Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, and immerses readers in the world of JRPGs, following the interconnected history from through the lens of their creators and their stories full of hope, risk, and pixels, from the tiny teams and almost impossible schedules that built the foundations of the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest franchises; Reiko Kodama pushing the narrative and genre boundaries with Phantasy Star; the unexpected team up between Horii and Sakaguchi to create Chrono Trigger; or the unique mashup of classic Disney with Final Fantasy coolness in Kingdom Hearts. Filled with firsthand interviews and behind-the-scenes looks into the development, reception, and influence of JRPGs, Fight, Magic, Items captures the evolution of the genre and why it continues to grab us, decades after those first iconic pixelated games released.

UDON Entertainment is back with an all-new classy compilation of the creative studio's Capcom artwork! This prestigous 300-page hardcover volume gathers UDON's artists' renditions of the casts of Street Fighter, Mega Man, Darkstalkers, and other classic Capcom franchises. Included are comic covers, video game endings, promotional art, costume designs, tribute art, and much more!

We are living in a world full of games. More than 31 million people in the UK are gamers. The average young person will spend 10,000 hours gaming by the age of twenty-one. The future belongs to those who play games. In this ground-breaking book, visionary game designer Jane McGonigaI challenges conventional thinking and shows that games - far from being simply escapist entertainment - have the potential not only to radically improve our own lives but to change the world.

The success of storytelling in games depends on the entire development team-game designers, artists, writers, programmers and musicians, etc.-working harmoniously together towards a singular artistic vision. Interactive Stories and Video Game Art is first to define a common design language for understanding and orchestrating interactive masterpieces using techniques inherited from the rich history of art and craftsmanship that games build upon. Case studies of hit games like The Last of Us, Journey, and Minecraft illustrate the vital components needed to create emotionally-complex stories that are mindful of gaming's principal relationship between player actions and video game aesthetics. This book is for developers of video games and virtual reality, filmmakers, gamification and transmedia experts, and everybody else interested in experiencing resonant and meaningful interactive stories. Key Features: The first book to define a common visual and interactive language for understanding and orchestrating sophisticated stories in video games Accessible to industry professionals as well as non-developers Featured concepts apply to all media with an interactive component including: transmedia, gamification and interactive art The definitive framework for designing interactive stories

Kerbal Space Program (KSP) is a critically acclaimed, bestselling space flight simulator game. It's making waves everywhere from mainstream media to the actual space flight industry, but it has a bit of a learning curve. In this book, five KSP nerds-including an astrophysicist-teach you everything you need to know to get a nation of tiny green people into space. KSP is incredibly realistic. When running your space program, you'll have to consider delta-V budgets, orbital mechanics, Hohmann transfers, and more. This book is perfect for video game players, simulation game players, Minecrafters, and amateur astronomers. Design, launch, and fly interplanetary rockets Capture an asteroid and fly it into a parking orbit Travel to distant planets and plant a flag Build a moon rover, and jump off a crater ridge Rescue a crew-mate trapped in deep space

This book will introduce you to the controls and steer you towards understanding what Blender can do. With this program you can create 3D models of objects and characters. The objects and characters can be placed in scenes. The scenes are captured by camera and rendered into digital images. The objects and characters can be animated and then, again, captured by camera and rendered to video files. Video files can then be compiled into movies. This book will show you how to make the Blender program go through some of its paces and give you an insight into this fantastic world. You will be shown the controls and given operation instructions allowing you to activate a variety of features.

Beginning 3D Game Development with Unity 4 is perfect for those who would like to come to grips with programming Unity. You may be an artist who has learned 3D tools such as 3ds Max, Maya, or Cinema 4D, or you may come from 2D tools such as Photoshop and Illustrator. On the other hand, you may just want to familiarize yourself with programming games and the latest ideas in game production. This book introduces key game production concepts in an artist-friendly way, and rapidly teaches the basic scripting skills you'll need with Unity. It goes on to show how you, as an independent game artist, can create interactive games, ideal in scope for today's casual and mobile markets, while also giving you a firm foundation in game logic and design. The first part of the book explains the logic involved in game interaction, and soon has you creating game assets through simple examples that you can build upon and gradually expand. In the second part, you'll build the foundations of a point-and-click style first-person adventure game-including reusable state management scripts, dialogue trees for character interaction, load/save functionality, a robust inventory system, and a bonus feature: a dynamically configured maze and mini-map. With the help of the provided 2D and 3D content, you'll learn to evaluate and deal with challenges in bite-sized pieces as the project progresses, gaining valuable problem-solving skills in interactive design. By the end of the book, you will be able to actively use the Unity 3D game engine, having learned the necessary workflows to utilize your own assets. You will also have an assortment of reusable scripts and art assets with which to build future games.

Fantasy sports have the opportunity to provide a sporting community in which gendered physical presence plays no role-a space where men and women can compete and interact on a level playing field. Whose Game? shows, however, that while many turn to this space to socialize with friends or participate in a uniquely active and competitive fandom, men who play also depend on fantasy sports to perform a boyhood vision of masculinity otherwise inaccessible to them. Authors Rebecca Kissane and Sarah Winslow draw on a rich array of survey, interview, and observational data to examine how gender, race, and class frame the experiences of everyday fantasy sports players. This pioneering book examines gendered structures and processes, such as jock statsculinity-a nerdish form of masculine one-upmanship-and how women are often rendered as outsiders. Ultimately, Whose Game? demonstrates that fantasy sports are more than just an inconsequential leisure activity. This online world bleeds into participants' social lives in gendered ways-forging and strengthening relationships but also taking participants' time and attention to generate negative emotions, stress, discord, and unproductivity.

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!

So you have a great idea for an iPhone or iPad game, but you've never programmed before. Where to start? Here With GameSalad, you can design, build, and publish a 2D game in the App Store using an easy-to-use, no-programming-requiredgame creation tool. Learn GameSalad for iOSshows you how to set up your development environment and how to create a variety of simple 2D games from a breakout-style game to an arcade shooter to a maze game. You'll also learn how to use GameSalad to create a non-game app as well.This book also takes you beyond game development into getting your game into the App Store, using iAd, and marketing your game.A clear, step-by-step approach to GameSalad for the complete beginner Create fun, complete, and fully functional game projects An idea to App Store publishing guide What you'll learn How to set up your game design environment How to design a complete game from idea to publication with GameSalad The basics, but also some of the more advanced functions of GameSalad How to submit your game on the App Store How to start promoting your game Who this book is for

If you have web development experience or no programming experience at all, you'll be able to design, build and publish a game with the help ofLearn GameSalad for iOS. Table of Contents PreparingYour Design EnvironmentYour First Game from Scratch: The Pong GameFinishing Pong: Scoring and Game Interaction Break a Wall: Implementing Comments, Accelerometer Movements, LifeManagement, and Pause Making a Shoot 'Em Up Game: Carrot Invader LearningGravity, Basic Physics and Camera Controls: An Angry Birds-like Game, Part I Creating a Game Menu and a Particles Effect: An Angry Birds-like Game, Part II Graphics and Sound Effects: Labyrinth Bonuses, Game Center, and iAd: Break a Wall Device Internal Clock and Cyclic Movement: Non-Game Apps Submitting Your Game to the App Store Introduction to Game Promotion

This is an astonishing collection of ideas, information, and instruction from one of the true pioneers of Massively-Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games. MMOs from the Inside Out: The History, Design, Fun, and Art of Massively-Multiplayer Role-playing Games speaks to the designers and players of MMOs, taking it as axiomatic that such games are inspirational and boundless forces for good. The aim of this book is to enthuse an up-coming generation of designers, to inspire and educate players and designers-to-be, and to reinvigorate those already working in the field who might be wondering if it's still all worthwhile. Playing MMOs is about fun, immersion, and identity. Creating MMOs is about imagination, expression, and art. MMOs are so packed with potential that today's examples are little more than small, pioneering colonies on the shore of a vast, uncharted continent. What wonders wait beyond the horizon? What treasures will explorers bring back to amaze us? MMOs from the Inside Out is for people with a spark of creativity: it pours gasoline on that spark. It: Explains what MMOs are, what they once were, and what they could - and should - become. Delves into why players play, and why designers design. Encourages, enthuses, enrages, engages, enlightens, envisions, and enchants. Doesn't tell you what to think, it tells you to think. What You Will Learn: Myriad ways to improve MMOs - and to decide for yourself whether these are improvements. What MMOs are; who plays them, and why. How MMOs became what they are, and what this means for what they will become. That you have it in you to make MMOs yourself. Whom This Book is For:MMOs from the Inside Out is a book for those who wish to know more about game design in general and MMO design in particular. It's for people who play MMOs, for people who design MMOs, and for people who study MMOs. It's for people with a yearning to see beyond the world around them and to make manifest the worlds of their imagination.

Learn simple yet powerful, modern-day techniques used in various gaming genres, including casual and puzzle, strategy and simulation, action-adventure, and role-playing. This book is your pocket-sized guide to designing interesting and engaging mechanics for any type of game. Exploring Game Mechanics is a cornucopia of concepts related to gameplay mechanics that you can use to create games that are fun and rewarding to play. Dive into key gameplay elements that improve the player experience, such as implementing in-game tutorials, controlling the flow of player-choice-based games, and building a game narrative through storytelling. Understand how to establish the game's end goal for the player to work towards by creating quests, missions, and objectives. Explore the key ideas behind creating immersive game worlds, generating better NPCs and enemies, and controlling the in-game economy. Finally, discover the unique mechanics that make established industry games so successful. What You Will Learn Discover the key elements that make gameplay immersive and entertaining Develop players and NPCs through customization and levelling up Gain insight into the tried-and-tested concepts behind modern-day games Who Is This Book ForGame development enthusiasts with little to no knowledge of game mechanics will find the content informative and useful.

Corona SDK is one of the most powerful tools used to create games and apps for mobile devices. The market requires speed; new developers need to operate quickly and efficiently. Create 2D Mobile Games with Corona SDK gives you the tools needed to master Corona - even within the framework of professional constraints. A must-read guide, this book gives you fast, accurate tips to learn the programming language necessary to create games. Read it sequentially or as an FAQ and you will have the tools you need to create any base game before moving on to advanced topics. The tutorial-based format: Contains step-by-step directions complete with coding and screenshots Is filled with tutorials, tips, and links to useful online resources Includes a comprehensive companion website featuring online exercise files to practice coding, full build samples from the text, additional book details, and more!

Japan has produced thousands of intriguing video games. For any number of reasons, not all of them were ever released outside of the country, especially in the '80s and '90s. While many of these titles have since been documented by the English-speaking video game community - and in some cases, even unofficially translated - a huge proportion of the Japanese game output is unknown outside of their native territory (and even, in some cases, within it). Some of these games are oddities, the kind of uniquely Japanese title that wouldn't have been commercial viable outside of the country; others may have done well but were victims of circumstance. Plus, for quite a long time, the Japanese industry developed separately from American and European output, with their own landmark titles that created trends and inspired later games. Even the older games have a visual and aural style that make them distinct from similar games from around the globe. Hardcore Gaming 101 Presents: Japanese Video Game Obscurities seeks to catalogue many of these titles - games that are weird, compelling, strange, cool or historically important. Some of these may be familiar if you've comprehensively read Hardcore Gaming 101 website archives (though the actual text for this book is completely original), but we've also included a large number of titles that aren't (currently) reviewed, and in some cases, have little to no English-language coverage whatsoever. Most of these games are Japanese exclusive, though we've also picked some that are suitably obscure outside of the country, or were only localized many years after their original release. In some cases, they're games that were hugely successful in Japan but barely made a mark in the West.

This entry in the BEA Electronic Media Research Series, born out of the April 2017 BEA Research Symposium, takes a look at video games, outlining the characteristics of them as cognitive, emotional, physical, and social demanding technologies, and introduces readers to current research on video games. The diverse array of contributors in this volume offer bleeding-edge perspectives on both current and emerging scholarship. The chapters here contain radical approaches that add to the literature on electronic media studies generally and video game studies specifically. By taking such a forward-looking approach, this volume aims to collect foundational writings for the future of gaming studies.

When making games for kids, it's tempting to simply wing-it on the design. We were all children once, right? The reality is that adults are far removed from the cognitive changes and the motor skill challenges that are the hallmark of the developing child. Designing Games for Children, helps you understand these developmental needs of children and how to effectively apply them to games. Whether you're a seasoned game designer, a children's media professional, or an instructor teaching the next generation of game designers, Designing Games for Children is the first book dedicated to service the specific needs of children's game designers. This is a hands-on manual of child psychology as it relates to game design and the common challenges designers face. Designing Games for Children is the definitive, comprehensive guide to making great games for kids, featuring: Guidelines and recommendations divided by the most common target audiences - babies and toddlers (0-2), preschoolers (3-5), early elementary students (6-8), and tweens (9-12). Approachable and actionable breakdown of child developmental psychology, including cognitive, physical, social, and emotional development, as it applies to game design Game design insights and guidelines for all aspects of game production, from ideation to marketing

This book is aimed at giving novice coders an understanding of the methods and techniques used in professional games development. Designed to help develop and strengthen problem solving and basic C/C++ skills, it also will help to develop familiarity targeting and using fixed/restricted hardware, which are key skills in console development. It allows the reader to increase their confidence as game programmers by walking them through increasingly involved game concepts, while maintaining the understanding that despite the increased complexity, the core methods remain consistent with the advancement of the technology; the technology only enhances the gaming experience. It also demonstrates underlying principles of game coding in practical step by step ways to increase exposure and confidence in game coding concepts. Key Features: Increases the confidence of new coders by demonstrating how to get things done. Introduces evolving projects to reinforce concepts, both directly and indirectly that the reader will use to produce and then enhance the project. Provides tutorials on Graphics API's that can be easily understood by a novice. Demystifies hardware used to gain new effects without blinding the user to the technical wizardry going on under the system. Gives a sense of achievement to the reader and pushes them toward improvement.

Despite the rise of HTML5-based game engines, there is no comprehensive book that compares these engines to help developers decide which one is best for their project. This how-to guide covers game design and development and shows how to distribute an HTML5-based game. The book presents an introduction to game development using HTML5 engines, an analysis of the top engines, example game implementations using the engines, and techniques for packaging and distributing the final app. It also contains code, best practices, and many complete game examples.

Beginning Android C++ Game Development introduces general and Android game developers like you to Android's powerful Native Development Kit (NDK). The Android NDK platform allows you to build the most sophisticated, complex and best performing game apps that leverage C++. In short, you learn to build professional looking and performing game apps like the book's case study, Droid Runner. In this book, you'll learn all the major aspects of game design and programming using the Android NDK and be ready to submit your first professional video game app to Google Play and Amazon Appstore for today's Android smartphones and tablet users to download and play. The techniques contained in this book have been learned by the author, Bruce Sutherland, over a seven-year career which has involved programming on several AAA titles. Versions of these techniques have been used towards shipping game titles on hardware sold by all of the major console manufacturers: Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo.What you'll learn * How to build your first real-world quality game app for Android smartphones and tablets using the power of the Android C++ APIs as found in the NDK * How to do professional level, quality game design, starting the Droid Runner case study that's used throughout this book to illustrate the key concepts * How to build a game engine * How to write a renderer * How to build the Droid Runner game app with entities, game levels and collisions * How to insert perspectives using cameras and more *How to create or integrate audio into your game app * How to submit to the Android app stores like Google Play and Amazon Appstore Who this book is for This book is for game developers looking to get into Android development for the first time, as well as Android game developers who have never used the Native Development Kit (NDK).

The idea that such pervasive and ever-growing immersion in digital gaming affects gamers' real life seems obvious and is the focus of this volume. A wide range of topics was collected under the "Psychology of Gaming" header. The eight chapters in this edited book do not represent all the topics in the psychology of gaming, however, this book includes a variety of topics in this field: game theory, emotional engagement, fantasy world, game designs and development, and gambling with on-line games. This book discusses the psychological impact of games shaping gamer's self-perception and self-concept, socio-psychological implications of gaming, design criteria in games, educational uses, the role of fantasy in game play, psychological treatment of gambling-related behaviours, psychological factors of collaborative learning, and gaming as a means of gaining empathy and understanding for another culture.

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.