Buy new:
$84.66$84.66
$19.55
delivery:
April 10 - 22
Ships from: Seated Scribe Books Sold by: Seated Scribe Books
Buy used: $23.63
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Creating Emotion in Games: The Craft and Art of Emotioneering
Purchase options and add-ons
- ISBN-101592730078
- ISBN-13978-1592730070
- PublisherNew Riders Pub
- Publication dateJanuary 1, 2003
- LanguageEnglish
- Dimensions7.75 x 1 x 9.75 inches
- Print length300 pages
Editorial Reviews
From the Inside Flap
- Will Wright, creator of "The Sims"
"I can't imagine a developer who wouldn't benefit from learning the lessons Freeman offers in these pages."
- Warren Spector, Studio Director of Ion Storm, developer of "Deus Ex" and "Deus Ex: Invisible War"
"David Freeman brings to bear the tools of a writer expert at his craft, providing a blueprint for taking video games to the next level. This is an important and valuable book for any game designer."
- Raph Koster, Chief Creative Officer of Sony Online Entertainment; Creative Director of "Star Wars Galaxies"
About the Author
Coming from a background as a Hollywood screenwriter and screenwriting teacher, David Freeman has become one of the world¹s authorities on bringing emotion into games. David, along with his game design and writing consultancy The Freeman Group, is currently working, or has worked, as a designer and/or writer on games for Electronic Arts, Vivendi Universal Games, Atari, Activision, Microsoft Game Studios, Ubi Soft, 3D Realms, and others. In "Beyond Structure," his renown writing course, he has taught executives and game designers from many of the world's top game publishers and development studios--as well as the writers, producers, and key players behind such films and TV shows as "Lord of the Rings," "Austin Powers," "Good Will Hunting," "Minority Report," "The X-Files" and many others. As a writer and producer, David has had scripts and ideas bought or optioned by MGM, Paramount, Columbia Pictures, Castle Rock, and many other film and television companies.
Product details
- Publisher : New Riders Pub (January 1, 2003)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 300 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1592730078
- ISBN-13 : 978-1592730070
- Item Weight : 2.55 pounds
- Dimensions : 7.75 x 1 x 9.75 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #2,667,665 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #679 in Software Design & Engineering
- #1,877 in Game Programming
- #3,415 in Software Development (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
But to be fair, I've met David Freeman and spent time with him on 3 different occasions. Once, when he attended a 3-day course I was teaching in Austin, and twice when he was teaching his exceptional Beyond Structure screenwriting course at the Los Angeles Film School. I like David, so it shouldn't be surprising that I would understand his book, appreciate its insights, and highly recommend it.
But I think I would probably have liked his book and recommended it regardless of whether I had ever met him or sat through his class.
In a nutshell, anyone who needs a linear, sequential, step-by-step method for creating emotion in games is going to be disappointed by this book's lack of numbered "steps." Seven Habits of Highly Effective People it ain't.
But if you're capable of:
(1.) meeting a person who is a bit of an innocent, and
(2.) accepting his style of creating intimacy with the reader through personal disclosure, and
(3.) intuitively perceiving the big-picture principles he colorfully describes,
you'll like this book and learn a lot from it.
Think of this book as an early introduction to a new artform. David's later books on this subject will doubtless be more detailed and specific. God knows he's capable of it, as anyone who has ever taken his Beyond Structure screenwriting course will testify.
Pioneers like David Freeman always excite the open-minded and frustrate those little men who hide behind technicalities.
If you know yourself and are honest in your self-appraisal, you now know whether or not you would like this book.
For those of us interested in writing/designing pc and videogames, a book like this one really comes in handy.
But before I ramble with the good side of it, I'll mention the three aspects I disliked about it:
First, I was a bit annoyed with the cocky attitude. Most of the time it sounded as if, either you use emotioneering techniques (term created by David Freeman) or your game will never have emotion or be any good at all. This might sound like a big deal, but I have to accept it, after reading the explanation of what emotioneering is and why it is better than simple writing, well, he does make some very good points... nonetheless, the attitude bothered me a bit so you might want to be ready for it.
The second thing that bothered me is that the author teases TOO much about the hundreds of other techniques that exist... but that is it. I do understand that there had to be a limit as to how long the book would be and mentioning all the techniques and explaining them in a proper way would take way too much, but still, where am I supposed to learn about the rest? I WANT MORE!
The last issue doesn't really have to do with content as it does with form. And is definitely not a very big issue, as a matter of fact, I only mention it because I thought that, in order to stay as objective as possible, I needed more "bad points".
The thing is there are many typing mistakes. They aren't orthographic mistakes, they definitely look just like typos, but still they hinder a bit the quality of the book.
And that is it, as far as I am concerned, the rest of the book is just good stuff.
For starters I have to praise the great pointers on creating characters. The ideas for both the physical and internal aspects of an NPC and PC opened my eyes to a whole new way of giving life to characters. And the goodness doesn't stop there. You also get techniques for plot, dialogue, relationship between NPCs and PCs, ways to make the game more immersive, pointers on cinematics, etc.
Trust me, even when David Freeman cuts back on the list of techniques available (and if you are like me, you'll also be left craving for more), there are many more than the ones I mentioned, and most of them have subdivisions with great explanations and examples of how to use them or how they have been used.
I am sure you'll also enjoy the foreword by Will Wright (The Sims guy) and the lovely art scattered throughout the book. Another point in favor of Mr. Freeman is the fact that he gives credit where credit is due. There is even a section at the end of the book that mentions every artist, where you can find more about them and comments on most of them.
The last tidbits of ideas are very interesting, very fun to read because they seem like the ramblings most of us write in that old notebook, the scattered ideas that someday might find their way into a book and/or game.
Now I think I've written too much, so I'll wrap this up by saying that if you are interested in game designing/writing, this book is a must for you. You won't regret buying it and if you do... nah, that won't happen if you are interested in games , I'm confident about that =)
My disclaimer: I am a playwright and a choreograher so I am jumping genres here.
That disclaimed, I devoured the book and am now going back section by section, rewriting my current script utilizing his methods for creating deep and interesting characters, plot structures, dialogue, etc.
Mr. Freeman makes the claim, and I concur, that it is the subtle things, not easily discernable, that raises the magic and artistry and captures the audience.
He teaches carefully layered "deepening and interesting" techniques, i.e. "simple ways to create complexity" that he says will bring the players to your game and develop a loyal following for your product.
I believe the book is improving my competency by (the cliched) leaps and bounds. (Freeman suggests "find the cliche and throw it away".) We shall see what audiences think when my next play opens!
The book can be comparable to a core paper-pencil rpg book for storytellers.
As far as "emotioneering," I think its a catch phrase. And many of the dimensions used for creating characters you could get out of a white-wolf book.
Overall, the book is good at telling you how to use techniques for characters and story/plot. Its cheaper than taking a scriptwriting class or a creative writing class.
Top reviews from other countries
Man bekommt erklärt wie man seinen Charakteren Leben einhaucht (sie charakterisiert) und sie zu einem "greifbaren" Menschen macht, der verschiedene Charaktereigenschaften besitzt und diese auch in seiner Handlung und Sprache zeigt und ausdrückt.
Hier eine kleine Auflistung der Themen welche behandelt werden:
- Interessantes und tiefgehendes gestalten von NPC's, Parteien (Gruppen), der gesamten Erzählung, Dialogen usw.
- Intro-Sequenzen spannend gestalten
- Wie man dem Spieler die Spielwelt vorstellt
- In-Game-Cinematics spannend erzählen
- Wie man den Spieler dazu motiviert der Story zu folgen
- Wie man durch "Symbole" Emotionen erzeugt (visuell und verbal)
Das vermittelte Wissen kann man ebenso auf Filme und andere Erzählungen übertragen.
Grafiken sowie sehr gute Illustrationen verdeutlichen das Geschriebene.
Angehende Spiele-Designer die viel Wert auf eine gute Geschichte legen, sollten dieses Buch unbedingt lesen.
mit freundlichen grüßen
Benjamin Spang, Dragon Productions
[...]
