Customer Reviews

Challenges for Game Designers

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Finally! A book that talks about HOW to become a good game designer instead of merely addressing WHAT game design is. Most of the game design textbooks I've read taught me a bunch of academic buzz words (ludology, emergent game play, etc.), but they didn't leave much in the way of practical application. Brathwaite and Schreiber cap each chapter with a series of game design challenges that let the reader put their new knowledge to the test with good old pen and paper.

I found these challenges really helpful. In fact, they got me in the right mindset for taking design tests with game companies. After interviewing with one company, I was asked to take their design test. Thanks to Challenges, I was comfortable working under all sorts of real-world constraints, from genre-specific/technological limitations to IP restraints. The company liked my test and invited me to more interviews! So as an aspiring game designer, I extend my highest recommendation for this book to those looking to expand their design portfolio and prepare themselves for breaking into the game industry.

Brathwaite and Schreiber's "Challenges" is a great introductory work for those starting to learn about game design, a helpful training tool for the intermediate designer, and a good candidate for a textbook for educators teaching design.

For the beginner, the book is clearly laid and approaches design from the very basics, giving a reader who possesses a zero knowledge base a solid grasp of the core concepts and processes of game design. The first two parts of the book cover individual topics of design chapter by chapter, walking the new designer through different elements of design, from incorporating elements of chance to playtestesting for balance. Even more importantly, the book takes a hands-on approach to design and requests that the reader try out their new-found knowledge by completing "Challenges" - short exercises found at the end of each of these chapters which ask the reader to build a game using a specific core concept. Each of these challenges require that the reader build a non-digital game, so even readers with no programming ability can quickly jump in and try out their new skills. Overall the book is written in a friendly, informative and professional manner, and should be on any beginner designer's must read list.

For the intermediate designer, the book has even more to offer. The afore mentioned Challenges are great tests for thinking about design in new and different ways, with the "Iron Designer" challenges offering an even more complex task. The latter half of the book discusses design from a more theoretical and professional approach, with topics ranging from games as art to working with an IP. The beginner may also find many of these discussions useful and informative, but some of the topics are definitely aimed towards those already in the professional industry.

Finally, the book even manages to cater towards the education and serious market, with topics dedicated to games as a learning, training and socializing tool. Teachers may find the book useful as a textbook because of its concise writing yet exhaustive depth and breadth, and many of the Challenges are well-suited for student assignments exactly as they are written. There is easily enough material for at least a semester's worth of study, and the book's low cost for content makes it more affordable for students and institutions than other volumes on the market.

This is possibly the best intro/intermediate design book I've read to date and can't recommend it highly enough to anyone interested at all in game design.

I really thought I knew something about designing games. Then I read Challenges for Game Designers.
Boy, did it open my eyes! First, Challenges for Game Designers cover the foundations by giving a useful definition of game design and explaining terms like "core dynamic", "prototype", "balance" and "playtesting".

Next, Challenges for Game Designers takes you through the game design process, first by examining what it refers to as Game Design Atoms, then dissecting elements of chance and skill. Finally, the book allows you to branch off into areas that interest you, whether it be marketing your game, creating games on social networks or creating games that tell a story.

At the end of each chapter, Challenges for Game Designers has five design challenges of increasing complexity and a section called Non-Digital Shorts, which are topics that foster brainstorming non-digital games.

Here is the best part. The authors created a fantastic course online (it was free during Summer 2009). The book was a requirement, so if you buy this book, you can get the most from it by reading it along with the course [...].

If you're serious into making games, you really need to learn how gamers get into games, why they do it, and how they do it.

This books takes a different approach from every other design or programming book about games you've ever read. How to implement player actions that make sense, how to balance the element of chance, how they can be used as a teaching tool.

The best part is that there is no need to know computer programming, or to even touch a computer. The book has a lot of exercises for you to make that only need paper, pencil and scissors. The author asserts that board games have a lot in common with videogames, and are faster to make and test with your friends.

So once again, if you want to learn game design, this is a definitive resource you should read and consult.

This is a great book that clearly explains some of the key issues that any designer of both digital and non-digital games should be aware of. It provides references to further expand you knowledge of area discussed

There are loads of basic and more challenging exercises that help you to put what you have learned into practice and also start you on the way to having great examples of your design work for you portfolio.

This book is an amazing practice box for all designers, professional or starter does not matter, helps you brainstorm alot and have great ideas while reading. Waiting for another book from the writers. Thanks to Amazon for delivery.

As an instructor, I am constantly on the look out for new information and ways to expand my toolbox. Over the past year I have made many exciting discoveries, one of which is the book Challenges for Game Designers by Brenda Brathwaite and Ian Schreiber. This book is perfect for the game design classroom. Not only does it comprehensively cover an array of relevant topics, it features an inexhaustible list of fun non-digital class activities and exercises, fully outfitted with practical objectives, rules, and expected deliverables. In fact, the focus of the book is the activities, which means it is more application, and less lecture - which I adore. Because the exercises are not particularly technology dependent, this book has a timeless value that transcends its current edition. This book will not only be useful to game designers today, but will be useful fifty years from now. I wish I had discovered this book years ago, but it hadn't been written yet. After reading this book, I made a number of organizational changes to my Game Design and Gameplay class. And, in class, if I found myself in a pinch, I can just pull it out and assign an exercise from its creative pages.

I was reading Brenda's recommended reading for people who want to design games, and she mentioned some great books for students interested in game design or classes. I decided to read two books she recommended, but in the end I picked up this book instead of those two simply because it really sounded like it had tactile practices I could actually use. This reeeeeeally helped me with my prototyping class which is unrelated to where they teach and use this book.

As mentioned those wishing to work in teams within the industry - this book REALLY makes sense for those helping teams with "outside the box" thinking. I am still reading it alone though, and find no problems gaining helpful knowledge from the ideas set forth and doing the challenges alone (for us small town folk :P).

It has really been a lot of fun approaching this solo and it's hard to come up with balancing out ideas presented in the book. I think anyone could read it and skim through the game ideas thinking about what might work, but really making the suggested prototypes at least on paper would help readers get the most from this book. I would have paid more for such an excellent, helpful book.

The challenges within the book are definitely present because it's almost 100% likely that you have not tried to come up with prototypes or games for every type of idea mentioned.

If you are going at this alone I encourage you as a fellow reader to try out the strategies and see what you come up with. The team creating this book did an excellent job, the book does exactly what it says and more. If you're brand new to games the first 35 pages or so will get you up to speed on what to start thinking about.... if you have been in game design a while you might skip ahead to the good stuff (i.e. the excellent challenges set forth, but those first pages give the point of view of the book and set up the rest well).

I can descript this book as a compressive, accurate and easy to read text (Importat because my english level is not so high) . I like how it is structured, step by step.

The half of it is about challenges, which is great! I often refer to it to find inspiration.

All the challenges have examples and a suggested process to handle it.
I only wish it had more illustrations.

Although it is intended for video game designers, it is a must have for game board game designers.

This book is extremely repetitive. The entire contents could easily have been condensed (challenges aside, which I'll discuss in a moment) to about thirty pages total.

But if you need to hear about what "skill" and "strategy" and "chance" are, and need each of those concepts explained to you five times, then this may be the perfect book for you.

There's nothing new or even remotely interesting here, except the "challenges", which are just simple exercises allegedly intended to hone your design chops. These are things like, "Add a random element to Chess". Personally, I'd rather spend my time designing a game that will actually be played and that is actually of interest to me than trying to make "Risk for Children".

If you've got even half a brain (most of the five-star reviewers don't; look no further than the 5-star guy who said he "thought he was a designer until he learned terms like 'playtesting'" (really?)), look for something a bit meatier.