Game Development Essentials: Game Story & Character Development (Paperback)

by Marianne Krawczyk (Author), Jeannie Novak (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Game Story & Character Development-the newest installment in Cengage Learning's acclaimed Game Development Essentials series-shows how to create compelling stories and characters specifically for games. The book examines the history of storytelling, traditional and game-specific story structure, and all aspects of character development, including physical, psychological, sociological, and verbal. Filled with commentary from game industry professionals-and featuring a companion CD containing game story documentation and demos-Game Story & Character Development is an essential guide for game designers, writers, students, and professionals.

About the Author
An established and successful author for John Wiley. An innovative and much-in-demand instructor. An energetic and very visible member of the gaming community. Jeannie Novak is an ideal lead author for our Game Development Essentials series. An Internet pioneer, Jeannie Novak established her writing credentials during the Internet boom with three successful titles at Wiley. Managing a diverse portoflio of activity, she is a subject matter expert and instructor for the Game Art & Design program at The Art Institute Online. She consults with various colleges and universities to help them develop game certificate and online distance learning programs. She teaches at UCLA Extension and at the Academy of Entertainment & Technology at Santa Monica College. And she is conducting research at USC on educational applications of online games. Novak is a frequent speaker at conferences and presented earlier this year at Macworld, where she delivered an enthusiastically received presentation on game development.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Delmar Cengage Learning; 1 edition (March 23, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401878857
• ISBN-13: 978-1401878856
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #167,938 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Too much of the obvious, May 21, 2008

By	S. Balkau - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book would have been nice if it had more practical tips on story and plot development and innovative examples on how to create interesting characters. But at least 50% of the book just describes what is common sense and stuff that you know already if you are interested in this topic. Also most of the thrown-in comments from people in the industry are just the obvious blather and no really useful tips. Everybody keeps telling you how storytelling for games is different from storytelling for film and TV but none of them give you any innovative examples on how to approach creating ideas for your game or creating intricate plot layouts and interesting character backgrounds.

4 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent game design resource, February 3, 2007

By	P. E. Kelly (Santa Barbara, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This comprehensive guide is an excellent resource for anyone interested in game design and story writing. It systematically details all of the elements necessary to good storytelling, framing them in the context of various video game genres. The conversational style is engaging and easy to read, with numerous examples illustrating each concept. Review questions and prompts at the end of each chapter provide a variety of opportunities to work with the ideas and put them into practice. This is a must-read for all students of game development and anyone interested in honing their storytelling skills.

0 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible read!, December 14, 2006

By	Karen Marie Cupp "Karen Martin" (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As a student in interactive writing for video games, this book is a must-have!