Game Design Workshop: Designing, Prototyping, and Playtesting Games (Gama Network Series) [ILLUSTRATED] (Paperback)

by Tracy Fullerton; Christopher Swain; Steven Hoffman (Author) "The game designer envisions how a game will work during play..." (more)
Key Phrases: five favorite games, playtesting session, original game idea, The Sims, Neverwinter Nights, Super Mario Bros (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Master the craft of game design so you can create that elusive combination of challenge, competition, and interaction that players seek. This design workshop begins with an examination of the fundamental elements of game design; then puts you to work in prototyping, playtesting, and redesigning your own games with exercises that teach essential design skills. Workshop exercises require no background in programming or artwork, releasing you from the intricacies of electronic game production, so you can develop a working understanding of the essentials of game design.

The ideas and exercises in this Game Design Workshop answer the questions asked by every aspiring game designer: How do I learn to design games? What skills do I need to become a professional game designer? Game design is demystified with a clear, accessible analysis of the formal and dramatic systems of game design. Examples, illustrations, and exercises strengthen your understanding of what makes game systems function; and teach you the skills and tools that you need to create a compelling game.

Refined over a number of years, this workshop curriculum has provided the foundation for hundreds of careers in all areas of the game industry including game design, producing, programming, visual design, quality assurance, and marketing. This guide to the language and business of game design will help anyone pursuing a career in the industry.

About the Author
Tracy Fullerton, M.F.A., is a game designer, educator and writer with fifteen years of professional experience. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Interactive Media Division of the USC School of Cinema-Television where she serves as Co-Director of the Electronic Arts Game Innovation Lab. Recent credits include faculty advisor for the award-winning student game Cloud, and game designer for The Night Journey a unique game/art project with media artist Bill Viola.

Prior to joining the USC faculty, she was president and founder of the interactive television game developer, Spiderdance, Inc. Spiderdances games included NBCs Weakest Link, MTVs webRIOT, The WBs No Boundaries, History Channels History IQ, Sony Game Show Networks Inquizition and TBSs Cyber Bond. Before starting Spiderdance, Tracy was a founding member of the New York design firm R/GA Interactive. As a producer and creative director she created games and interactive products for clients including Sony, Intel, Microsoft, AdAge, Ticketmaster, Compaq, and Warner Bros. among many others. The authors have designed dozens of games for Microsoft, Sony, Sega, Disney, Activision, Acclaim, Spectrum Holobyte, and others. Tracy Fullerton and Chris Swain teach game design at the USC School of Cinema-Television. Steve Hoffman founded game developer Lavamind, where he created simulation hits Gazillionaire and Zapitalism. In addition he was an executive with Sega in Japan, and CEO of developer, Spiderdance. Collectively, their work has received dozens of honors including Best Family/Board Game from the AIAS, IBC?s Nombre D?Or, and PC Computing?s Strategy Game of the Year

Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: CMP Books; illustrated edition edition (February 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1578202221
• ISBN-13: 978-1578202225
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #185,687 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not programming, Not Graphics, Overall Game Design, April 13, 2005

By	John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Few people realize just how big a business digital gaming has become. Think of it this way: It's bigger than the domestic box office of the film industry. The amount of time spent playing games by young people now exceeds everything but television in time spent on entertainment. The main factor driving the development of the new extremely powerful computers is gaming, slower machines are capable of handling almost all office tasks.

The authors of this book have a great deal of experience in both designing games and teaching how to design games. This has given them an understanding of how beginning designers grasp the structured elements of games, common traps they fall into, and certain developmental exercises that help the student learn to make better games.

Note that this is not a programming manual, nor is it a graphics design manual. It is on game design. What are the characteristics that make a game, how can you prototype and play test the game without a horrendous programming expense, and finally some input on the game industry and how to decide on how you might like to be employeed in that industry.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Practical Book of Game Design, July 18, 2007

By	Frederick E. Watt IV "Mr. Papisito" (Redmond, WA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I consider this an excellent book on game design. As an amatuer board game and basic computer game designer, I found a lot of the material extremely useful in the *process* of coming up with a game from start to finish.

The chapter on prototyping did a great job in showing how to go ahead and create a prototype from a game idea, while keeping it simple and concentrating on the "core gameplay mechanism."

The chapter on "Playtesting" and "Functionality, Completeness, and Balance" builds on the prototype chapter by emphasizing the iterative nature of design where one go aheads and evaluates, tries new things, identify problems and keep evolving.

The next chapter following is maybe the most important chapter that discusses whether you game is fun, goes in to some theory of what makes a game fun, and relates various techniques of improving player's choices so as to make the game fun.

This is a great book that gives you the necessary tools to go ahead and be able to at the very least create a viable prototype of a game that is possibly fun and playable.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars good book for educational use, June 3, 2006

By	W. Baars "Wouter Baars" (Netherlands) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This might be a good book for teachers looking for material in their classes gamedesign or gamedevelopment. It may also be a good book for selfstudy, if you have the discipline to do the exercises. You need to have played a lot of the classic videogames though, otherwise you might not be able to do the exercises, which are mostly about thinking about gamedesigns and making little designs or design alterations on existing games.