Game Development Essentials: Game Interface Design [Paperback]

Kevin Saunders (Author), Jeannie Novak (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2, 2006

As an introduction to the complex topic of user interface design, this in-depth book discusses player interface design conventions and looks at the effects of platform, genre, and design goals related to electronic games. Readers will explore everything from the history of game interface design and basic design theories to practical strategies for creating a winning, interactive interface. A host of professional applications, revealing insights, and illuminating anecdotes from dozens of pioneering game designers will inspire readers to explore this fascinating aspect of the electronic games industry.

Product Details

• Paperback: 296 pages
• Publisher: Delmar Cengage Learning; 1 edition (November 2, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1418016209
• ISBN-13: 978-1418016203
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #347,989 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars It's not about design, April 25, 2008

By 

Dmitry Nozhnin (Moscow, Russian Federation) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Game Development Essentials: Game Interface Design (Paperback)

This is very colourful, well written, structured and history extensive book.

But within those 271 pages only last 16 are about design. Other 255 feed you with obvious information well known to any gamer.

Such book might be great for some artists who never played any computer or console games. Everybody else should keep away from it.

18 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Appalling, March 14, 2007

By 

Sebastian Lopez Cardoso (Frankfurt am Main) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Game Development Essentials: Game Interface Design (Paperback)

I'm deeply disappointed. I've been working in the games industry for a few years now, so I've read quite a few books about game development and, I must say, this one takes the prize for worst book in the industry by a landslide. Absolutely awful.

The information contained in this book is irrelevant, aggravatingly repetitive, dead obvious and hardly pedagogic. The actual, useful information about user interface design in this book could easily fit in a napkin, so 271 pages of ranting, countless students' opinions and the history of consoles, hardware and whatnot feel like nothing more than fluffy fillers to a book that should have never been published due to lack of material.

CONCLUSION: If you're looking to learn anything about UI design, this book is most definitely not for you. If you're looking to be reminded about the most evident things common sense could possibly dictate, then by all means, go ahead and get it.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very good resource, August 3, 2007

By 

M. J Roberti "Mario Roberti" (San Diego , CA USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Game Development Essentials: Game Interface Design (Paperback)

This is an excellent book. For those of us one and two-man programming operations as hobbyist programmers, we don't always have the artistic skill or aesthetic intuition to just whip up a GUI. This book explains concepts behind an interface SPECIFICALLY FOR GAMES. THIS is what I found awesome. All the books and articles I've looked up have been for interface design FOR WEBSITES, or stupid, dry, tasteless business-app type programs. This book focuses on game interface design ONLY.

It cites examples of interfaces in games you've played most likely, from the ancient consoles and computers of yesteryear (Atari 2600, colecovision, intellivision, commodore 64) to the more modern consoles (PS, Dreamcast, N64, PS2) and cites examples of what makes a good interface and a bad interface.

They make some good points too, such as interface design for the disabled. (This cool example they gave was for a healthbar that only changed color. What happens if the player was color blind? If the bar went from green to red, the color blind user would have nothing to gauge his health by; so they reccomended making the bar shorten, and/or change color.)

THERE IS NO SOURCE CODE. This book only focuses on concepts and design ideas. Its nice and abstract. It's made to push push push the ideas into your head, even if it is a bit repetitive.

Bottom line is, if you're already Joe Game Programmer for a big company, don't buy this book. Have your art department and UI design team make your game interface for you.

If you're like me, a hobbyist programmer of a small team with dreams of making it big someday, GRAB THIS BOOK. The more resources you can get, the better.

This book doesn't disappoint.

Get it.

Now.