The Art of Computer Game Design [Kindle Edition]

Chris Crawford (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

The classic book on computer game design first published in 1984, this Kindle version presents the original text along with chapter notes by Chris Crawford reflecting on how game design has changed in the last 30 years.

Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 174 KB
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0052QA5WU
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #109,813 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  • #67 in Books > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > How-to & Home Improvements > Plumbing & Household Automation

More About the Author

Chris Crawford earned a Master of Science degree in Physics from the University of Missouri in 1975. After teaching physics for several years, he joined Atari as a game designer in 1979. There he created a number of games: Energy Czar, an educational simulation about the energy crisis, Scram, a nuclear power plant simulation, Eastern Front (1941), a wargame, Gossip, a social interaction game, and Excalibur, an Arthurian game.
Following the collapse of Atari in 1984, Crawford took up the Macintosh. He created Balance of Power, a game about diplomacy, Patton Versus Rommel, a wargame, Trust & Betrayal, a social interaction game, Balance of the Planet, an environmental simulation game, and Patton Strikes Back, a wargame. In 1992, Crawford decided to leave game design and concentrate his energies on interactive storytelling, a field that he believed would become important. He created a major technology for interactive storytelling systems, patenting it in 1997. He is now commercializing his technology at his company website at storytron.com.
Crawford has written five published books: The Art of Computer Game Design, now recognized as a classic in the field, in 1982; Balance of Power (the book) in 1986; The Art of Interactive Design in 2002; Chris Crawford on Game Design in 2003; and Chris Crawford on Interactive Storytelling in 2004.
He created the first periodical on game design, the Journal of Computer Game Design, in 1987. He founded and served as Chairman of the Computer Game Developers' Conference, now known as the Game Developers' Conference.
Crawford has given hundreds of lectures at conferences and universities around the world, and published dozens of magazine articles and academic papers.
Crawford served as computer system designer and observer for the 1999 and 2002 NASA Leonid MAC airborne missions; he also has done some analysis of the resulting data. He lives in southern Oregon with his wife, 3 dogs, 7 cats, 2 ducks, and 3 burros.
His current work is in interactive storytelling. After seventeen years of work, Crawford's company, Storytron, is releasing its technology to the public at www.storytron.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Pioneer work but only personal opinion, September 3, 2000

By 

Lam, Ho Cheong (Hong Kong) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Art of Computer Game Design (Paperback)

As written in the early eighties, this book is one of the pioneer works seriously about video game. It talks about such topics as what is a game, why people play games, and how to design a game. The author's rich and plentiful experience in game design is undeniable, but the arguments in the book are somewhat restricted only to his own personal opinions. To a certain extent, there is no ground, as backed up from careful research, to justify these claims. Either, the author has not been able to connect his viewpoints to the works of other people. Whether other designers have similar beliefs, thus supporting his arguments? Even though similar works on game design may hardly be found at the time, relating to the experiences transferable from other disciplines is possible. Despite this, as a whole, the author does throw some light on the area, which is enough to make this book well worth reading.

5 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars About the design (not programming) of games., December 9, 1997

By 

[e-mail] (Vancouver, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Art of Computer Game Design (Paperback)

Ever since I played Chris Crawford's "Balance of the Planet" I have been a fan of his. In this book he describes in detail what goes into the game design including many examples from his own experience. The biggest problems with this book are that it is some what dated, and I wish it was thicker. Richard W. Smith