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Foreword xxiii Introduction Press Start! xxv No, You Can''t Have My Job xxviii Who is This Book For? xxx Level 1 Welcome N00bs! 1 A (Somewhat) Brief History of Video Games 4 The Brave New World of Gaming: Mobiles, Online Distribution and Touchscreens 9 What''s the Difference Between AAA and Indy? 10 Game Genres 11 Who Makes This Stuff? 14 Programmer 15 Artist 15 Designer 17 Producer 17 Tester 18 Composer 19 Sound Designer 21 Narrative Designer/Writer 22 Community Manager 23 Have You Thought About Publishing? 23 Product Manager 23 Creative Manager 23 Art Director 24 Technical Director 24 Marketing Team 24 And the Rest 25 Level 2 Ideas 27 Ideas: Where to Get Them and Where to Stick Them 27 Getting Ahead of the Game 30 What Do Gamers Want? 33 Brainstorming 34 Breaking Writer''s Block 37 Why I Hate "Fun" 38 Level 3 Writing the Story 43 Once Upon a Time 44 Narrative Design 47 Anything is Gameplay 50 The Triangle of Weirdness 51 A Likely Story 53 Time to Wrap It Up 56 A Note About "Lore" 57 A Game by Any Other Name 59 Creating Characters Your Players Care About 61 Games Are About Everyone 66 A Few Pointers on Writing for Kids of All Ages 67 Writing for Licenses 68 Level 4 You Can Design a Game, but Can You Do the Paperwork? 71 The Game Design Document 73 Game Design Document (again) 74 Writing the GDD, Step
1: The One-Sheet 75 ESRB Ratings 77 The Core Loop 78 Unique Selling Points 79 Competitive Products 79 Writing the GDD, Step
2: The Ten-Pager 79 The Rule of Threes 81 The Ten-Pager Outline 81 Writing the GDD, Step
3: The Beat Chart 88 Writing the GDD, Step
4: The Game Design Document 90 Writing the GDD, Step 4
1: Now, Unlearn What You Have Learned 91 Writing the GDD, Step
5: Be Responsible 94 Writing the GDD, Step 6 - Other Game Genres 96 Role-Playing Games 96 Real-Time Strategy Games 97 First-Person Shooters 98 Battle Royale 99 Match Three Games 100 Sports Games 101 Level 5 The Three Cs,
Part 1: Character 103 Who Do You Want to Be Today? 104 Personality: Do We Really Need Another Kratos? 105 Let''s Get Personal 108 Using All the Parts 112 Games Without Characters 113 We Are Not Alone 114 When More Is More 117 Who Are the People in Your Neighborhood? 119 Finally, We Talk About Gameplay 121 Metrics for Other Player Types 124 Why Walk When You Can Run? 124 The Art of Doing Nothing 128 Might as Well Jump 129 Hoists and Teeters 133 What Goes Up Must Fall Down 134 Me and My Shadow 135 The Water''s Fine or Is It? 136 Level 6 The Three Cs,
Part 2: Camera 139 Get It Right: Camera Views 139 First-Person Camera 144 Virtual Reality 146 Third Person Camera 147 Giving Up Control 150 So, You''ve Decided to Let the Player Control the Camera 151 So, You''ve Decided Not to Let the Player Have Control over the Camera 152 So, You''ve Decided to Let Players Sometimes Have Control over the Camera 154 Two and a Half d 154 Isometric Camera 154 Top-Down Camera 156 AR Cameras 157 Special Case Cameras 157 Tunnel Vision 158 Camera Shot Guide 158 Camera Angle Guide 161 Camera Movement Guide 162 Other Camera Notes 165 Always Point the Camera to the Objective 166 Never Let the Character Get out of the Camera''s Sight 166 Multiple-Player Cameras 167 Level 7 The Three Cs,
Part 3: Controls 171 Control Is in Your Hand 172 You''ve Got the Touch 175 Dance, Monkey, Dance 177 Poetry in motion 180 All the right moves 182 Character or Camera Relative? 183 Shake, Rattle, and Roll 185 Level 8 Sign Language: UI, HUD, and Icon Design 189 How to Create UI 191 Heads Up! 192 Health Bar 193 Targeting Reticule 194 Ammo Gauge 195 Inventory 196 Score/Experience 196 Positive Messaging 197 Money/Resources 198 Radar/Map 198 Context-Sensitive Prompts 200 Timer 201 Player Name/Portrait 201 The Clean Screen 202 Iconography 203 Creating Icons for Mobile Games 206 Don''t Get QTE 208 HUDs and Where to Stick ''Em 210 There Are Other Screens Than the HUD 211 Starting with the Start Screen 211 Let''s Pause (Screen) for a Moment 213 Let Me Load (Screen) that For You 216 Getting in Control 217 What''s the Score? 218 The Rest of the Stuff 219 A Final Word on Fonts 219 Game Over 220 Wrapping it up 221 Level 9 Everything I Learned About Level Design, I Learned from Level 9 223 The Top 10 Cliché Video Game Themes 226 The Name Game 232 Everything I Learned About Level Design, I Learned from Disneyland 234 Mapping the World 235 Foreshadowing 236 Goal Setting 237 Following Procedure 239 You''ve Got the Beat 240 Re-using Re-use 243 The Gary Gygax Memorial Mapping Section 243 Sandbox Play 246 Illusional Narrative 249 The Dave Arneson Memorial Mapping Section 250 Wrapping Up Mapping 261 Gray Matters 264 Let''s Get Fighty 266 Leave the Training Level for Last 266 Levels without Characters 267 Level 10 The Elements of Combat 269 400 Quatloos on the Newcomer! 271 Put ''Em Up! 274 And a One and a Two 278 The Big Finish 280 Live by the Sword 282 Now You Have to Kiss Me 285 Let''s Get Defensive 285 Dodging the Bullet 288 On Guarding 289 Watch Out! 289 State of the Art Bang Bang 293 The Best Gun for You 298 Run and Gun 302 Not Just Shooting 305 Dang it, Jones! Where Doesn''t It Hurt? 309 Death: What Is It Good For? 311 Conflict Without Combat 313 Level 11 They All Want You Dead 317 Sizing Up the Enemy 319 Bad Behavior 320 How Rapid is Rapid? 324 Movement Style 327 Bring on the Bad Guys 329 I Love Designing Enemies 338 I Hate You to Pieces 340 Non-Enemy Enemies 342 How to Create the World''s Greatest Boss Battle 343 Who''s the Boss? 344 Size Matters 346 Location, Location, Location 350 Why Not to Create the World''s Greatest Boss Battle 352 Level 12 The Nuts and Bolts of Mechanics 355 The Mechanics of Mechanics 355 Other Types of Mechanics 359 Match Three Mechanics 359 Racing Game Mechanics 361 Holy Death Trap! 362 What I Learned from Making Kids Cry 365 Time to Die 366 The Music of Mechanics 369 Chip Off the Old Block 372 A Nice Little Calm Spot 375 Riddle Me This 376 Puzzle Me That 380 Minigames and Microgames 382 Level 13 Now You''re Playing with Power 385 Powering Up 385 "Love Thy Player" 392 Seriously "Love Thy Player" 394 More Wealth Than You Can Imagine! 395 High Score 398 Achievements 399 Money! Money! Money! 400 Souvenirs 403 Bonus Section about Bonus Features 404 How to Win at Losing 407 Level 14 Multiplayer--The More the Merrier 411 How Many Is the Right Number? 416 MMORPGS, or Hell Is Other People 417 Designing Multiplayer Levels 422 Planning Your Level 422 Mapping Your Level 423 Building Your Level 424 The Dirty Half Dozen 424 Level 15 Reality Check: VR, AR, XR, and Beyond 427 Designing for VR 431 Practically Unreal 433 The Many Worlds of Virtual Reality 435 Real Life, but Better 437 Augment This 439 The X Factor 440 Reality Is the Best Virtual World 441 The Happiest Places on Earth 442 Level 16 Everybody Wins: Monetization and Marketing 445 Back to Business 448 Cashing In 449 Money Is the Root of Something Something 451 Designing It In 455 Marketing: A Million Voices Yelling "Look at Me" 458 Catch and Release 459 Level 17 Some Notes on Music 463 Pitch Perfect Design 464 I Know It When I Hear It 465 Music with Style 466 And the Beat Goes On 467 Sounds Like a Game to Me 470 Orchestrating it all 474 Level 18 No One''s Going to Watch Them Anyway 477 A Cut Above 478 How to Write a Screenplay in Eight Easy Steps 480 Finding Your Voice 483 Level 19 The Play''s the Thing 487 Thinking in Systems 487 A Delicate Balancing Act 492 Emergence, Eschmergence 493 Up to the Test 494 Play''s the Thing 495 Level 20 And Now the Hard
Part 499 The Pitch 499 No One Cares About Your Stupid Little World 502 Who''s Paying? 505 Video Games Is a Haaaard Business 507 When Reality Gets in the Way 507 Vertical or Horizontal? 510 Expectations of the Game Designer Position 513 What to Do for an Encore? 514 Level 21 Continue? 517 Bonus Level 1 The One-Sheet Sample 519 Bonus Level 2 The Ten-Page Design Document Sample 523 Page
1: Title Page 524 Page
2: Story and Game