Game Plan: The Insider's Guide to Breaking In and Succeeding in the Computer and Video Game Business [Paperback]

Alan Gershenfeld (Author), Mark Loparco (Author), Cecilia Barajas (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 5, 2003

The $20 billion computer and video gaming business is the fastest-growing entertainment medium in the worldæon track to surpass both the movie and record businesses. More than 200 million computer and video games are sold to the 140 million gamers in America every year.
Game Plan: The Insiders Guide to Breaking In and Succeeding in the Computer and Video Game Business is the first book that clearly explains how to get a foot in the door to this incredibly dynamic and exciting field.

This essential guide includes everything job seekers need to know about:

· How the computer and video game business really works
· How to break into the industry
· How to get your dream game made
· The many different jobs in the field
· Surviving and thriving in the marketplace

Three top game veterans provide all the information readers need to begin their search: Alan Gershenfeld, former senior vice-president of Activison Studios, Mark Loparco, one of the industry’s top edutainment producers, and Cecilia Barajas, an acclaimed game producer/ director and a design consultant on hundreds of games.

Game Plan also features expert advice by top gamemakers from such leading game publishers and developers as Electronic Arts, Activision, Microsoft, Midway, LucasArts, and THQ.

No matter what your background or job qualifications are, Game Plan will help you to decide which area of the video and computer game business appeals to you the most, and how to attain your goals of working in the industry.

For anyone who’s ever dreamed of one day making a game, or is simply curious if this is the field to go intoæthis book is a must-read.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Alan Gershenfeld is a full-time writer/producer for the interactive entertainment industry and former Senior Vice President of Activision.

Mark Loparco is an interactive designer, producer and programmer and former Senior Producer at Disney Interactive.

Cecilia Barajas is a software consultant who has worked on hundreds of games, providing creative and production guidance in addition to game design.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; 1st edition (May 5, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312275048
• ISBN-13: 978-0312275044
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,063,234 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Nice Book to read in your spare time, July 31, 2003

By 

Kosta Kondratenko (Sydney, N.S.W Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Game Plan: The Insider's Guide to Breaking In and Succeeding in the Computer and Video Game Business (Paperback)

The best part of this book is a chapter that explains how a game goes from an idea to a finished product and even explains how games are marketed as well as recounting how much difficulty game programmers and artists have trying to meet milestones.

While I enjoyed the book I think it is more suited to people wanting to know how the game industry works and what the key players are instead of how to actually BREAK into the game industry.

It has some suggestions on how to make it big in the computer video game world but these are more common sense then anything, for example it suggests finding people that are in the business and becoming friends with them.

One thing that keeps this book above average is the countless tips from actual experts from big publishers and developers.
One thing this book will not tell you is what you should learn and what technologies are specifically involved in creating games. This is my one big gripe with the book. However other then that, I give this book 4 stars...

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great little book, March 1, 2006

By 

Jose Romao "developer" (Europe) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Game Plan: The Insider's Guide to Breaking In and Succeeding in the Computer and Video Game Business (Paperback)

This 280 pages are for sure the most simple, direct and usefull text about the game development careers. We not only get the all picture, also great advices and directions in what we have as options in this game business, I recommend this reading not only for programmers (like me) but to everybody who feel lost and is looking for some path to follow. I tooked 2 days to read it, very clear writing.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Full of details, I couldn't put this book down., July 31, 2005

By 

Adam Larson (Sturgeon Bay, WI United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Game Plan: The Insider's Guide to Breaking In and Succeeding in the Computer and Video Game Business (Paperback)

I am currently attending college for a BA in game software engineering. I saw this book and I knew I had to read it. The authors are very knowledgeable about the game industry. I am really impressed with the amount of resources listed in the back with websites, schools, software companies addresses, and suggested readings. This book is perfect for anyone looking to break in. I finished the 280 pg book in less than 2 days. It is written very well, and it is very easy to follow. I will be using this book for a long time to come.