Category: Game Design

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Game Design Game Development

50 Books for Game Developers

50 Books For Everyone In the Game Industry is a compilation by Ernest Adams.

Because I’m a game developer, I naturally gravitate towards books on development; but clearly 3DS Max tutorials and books on Java aren’t appropriate. At the same time, there are relatively few books on the shelves that teach how to create a marketing campaign for a videogame, or how to negotiate with Wal-Mart’s buyers.

In the end I decided to concentrate on the one thing that binds us all together: the games themselves. What I’ve done is to assemble a collection of books that address the following questions:

* What are games (and videogames)?
* What has been the history of video games?
* How are games related to other media, and what might we learn from those media?
* How and why do people play games? And finally, how (in general terms) should we design and build them?

So we won’t find books like “Game Coding Complete” or “The Indie Game Development Survival Guide” on this list, but we will find books that should be useful for anyone involved game development. Whether you are an artist, a programmer, a tester, or a producer, these books should give you greater insight into what makes for a better video game.

It is broken down into twelve topics:
1. Theory
2. Design Practice
3. Writing
4. Graphic Design
5. Music / Audio
6. Online Community
7. The History of Games
8. Sociology
9. People, Projects, and Businesses
10. Other Media and Useful Disciplines
11. Deep Background
12. Inspirations

Among the books listed are “Game Over: Press Start to Continue” by David Sheff, which documents Nintendo’s life from playing card manufacturer to the bringer of life to a dying industry. I found it fascinating when I read it a few years ago. “The Mythical Man-Month” by Fredrick Brooks was suggested to me recently by Larry. “Everything Bad is Good For You” by Steven Johnson has been touted as a good counter-example to the “video games are evil” crowd.

I’ve read some of the books and have more on my wishlist, but I did not know about quite a few of them. Quite a few of his choices are interesting, such as “The Hunt for Red October”. You could do worse than to follow Adams’ suggestions.

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Game Design Game Development Games

Indie Game Dev Podcast: Interview with Squashy Software

“YOOOOOOOOOU are listening to the Indie Game Development Podcast Show…” I don’t know why, but I really like that intro.

Anyway, Action posted a new podcast, this time featuring an interview with Anthony Flack of Squashy Software. Anthony is well known as the creator of Platypus and the upcoming Cletus Clay, each utilizing the latest in Clay-Based Graphics Processing.

Especially interesting are Anthony’s thoughts on character and game design.

It is the first part of the interview, which is readily apparent when it cuts off at the end, leaving you wanting more.

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Game Design Game Development Games

Kudos Game Design Post-mortem

Cliffski has posted a Kudos game design post-mortem.

Witness the powers of Johnny Depp and Mel Gibson as they help to develop the concept and UI for one of the most anticipated indie games of the year! Cliffski noted that GUI design is especially tough when you are creating something that is different from anything else out there. While the article is short, it does provide some insight into the design process of a successful indie game developer.

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Game Design Game Development Games Personal Development

New Book on Game Writing Released

Chris Bateman announced the release of his new book Game Writing: Narrative Skills for Videogames.

This is a book about how we currently get stories into games. Anyone interested in learning these skills would do well to pick up a copy.

Bateman’s blog posts on game design are thought-provoking, such as Non-verbal Communication and Toru Iwatani’s Escalator, so I imagine this book will also be of high quality.

While I think that narrative shouldn’t be the sole focus of games to the exclusion of, you know, gameplay, it is still painful to play games with horrible dialogue and a joy to play those that are written well. Developers who want to avoid causing the pain might want to look into this book.

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Game Design

Richness vs Complexity

The Design of Everyday Games analyzes Advance Wars and what makes it so much fun to play, even with older technology and gameplay.

The argument is that Advance Wars is incredibly rich and yet is not complex. You press a single button to do almost any action, unlike some games that have a different key mapped to do even the most similar things. Advance Wars is enjoyable, has plenty of variety, and yet doesn’t require too much brain power just to interface with it. You don’t have to think too hard about what physical action to take, leaving you more brain cycles to concentrate on playing the game.

There isn’t a focus on the engine, either. The game is more or less the same as it was when it was first released, and it is still fun because it was improved. It didn’t change drastically to allow for the latest tech. The game dictated the tech needed, not the other way around.

If your game isn’t as good as it should be, maybe you shouldn’t be asking yourself what you can add.

Maybe you should be asking yourself what you can cut.

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Game Design Game Development Marketing/Business

Lower Barrier to Market: Physics?

Chuck Arellano argues that indie game developers can compete on physics.

Players are expecting higher quality artwork in their games, especially with the advances in hardware we’re seeing. Creating said artwork, however, is generally expensive, and can easily be outside of the budget of an indie. So what do you do, especially if you want to compete with much more established companies?

Compete on physics. Physics is basically an application of math. You don’t need to pay experts to create physics assets. You just code it! And with some of the libraries listed in the article, you may be able to plug-and-play. Make it realistic or make it fantastic, but with physics, your game can be innovative and fun.

I will agree with Erik that physics isn’t the only place where indies can innovate. What about sound? What about input? I think that games like Platypus show that even with graphics, there is room for growth.

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Game Design Game Development Marketing/Business

Which Project Do You Choose Next?

In Another Indie Quandary: Short v. Long, Tim faces the problem a lot of indies face. Do you pick the shorter project in order to make some cash sooner, or do you pick the longer project, the one you really WANT to make, hoping not to go bust in the process?

The short project, if successful, means you are one step closer to being financially independent of employee-dom. Of course, shorter projects are probably short because they aren’t very hard to make, which means anyone could make it and probably has. How successful can the game be? If it becomes successful, how hard would it be for competitors to encroach on your turf?

The longer project would require funding to help keep you alive long enough to finish, which usually means working for The Man for a little while longer. And that’s assuming you finish. Longer projects are notorious for becoming nothing more than tech demos. Tech demos don’t sell, unless you are trying to find a better The Man, but it is probably not why you wanted to make the game in the first place. Still, this project will probably be more enjoyable and, if successful, much more rewarding.

Is it a question of suffering for your art? Being timid vs being bold? What do you do?

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Game Design

No Twinkie For You!

I didn’t know if he was still writing them, but Ernest Adams has just published The Designer’s Notebook: ‘Bad Game Designer, No Twinkie!’ VII. The series has always been enjoyable and informative.

In this installment, he focuses quite a bit on interface issues. I haven’t played a lot of the example games listed, but I couldn’t believe that you couldn’t configure the controls for Driver until after you finish the first race. And if your game does allow the player to configure the controls, let the player have some way to save and load the configuration!

Adams also announced the new edition of the book “Ernest Adams and Andrew Rollings on Game Design”, which has a new name, Fundamentals of Game Design.

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Game Design Game Development

Converting Table Top Games to Video Games

Table Top versus Video Games: Part 1 – The Dice kicks off a three-part series on converting a table-top game to a video game. To make a successful conversion takes a bit of dedication and hard work. This series provides some idea of what it would take.

The other two parts:
Table Top versus Video Games: Part 2 – Jabber, Jingle, Google and 360
Table Top versus Video Games: Part 3 – Reaching Your Audience

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Game Design Marketing/Business

Blaming Innovation

Some of you may have been reading Spiderweb Software’s Jeff Vogel’s “View from the Bottom” series of articles. I think he is generally pessimistic when it comes to indie games, and his previous articles basically show that he thinks innovation won’t come from them. His latest article, #3, seems to make the argument that innovation isn’t rewarded, giving Jeff’s personal account as an example.

I really hate trying to do something new. Sure, it gives personal satisfaction. But you know what else is fulfilling? Staying in business. Not losing your house. And you can’t pay for food with Creativity checks.

…

If you are an indie and your game flops… well, small companies have a real hard time surviving the blow. And I don’t want to lose my house.

Remember that the next time you look to the independent developer to be the source of innovation in this industry. There is nothing scarier that aiming at a market that doesn’t exist yet. It might not exist at all.

It’s hard for me not to get upset about such words. Unfortunately, I also don’t have the authority to say anything to it. I don’t have my first game published yet, let alone sales figures to argue against Vogel.

Luckily, David Michael has something to say. Blaming Innovation is Michael’s take on the issue of innovation. He agrees that it makes sense to continue investing in what already works. Innovating means you’re leaving your established audience and trying to find new ones.

But if you never move past what you know works, you’re in what’s called a “rut”. And I’ve never heard that described as a good thing.

Sometimes you just have to face the uncertainty.

You might as well try to enjoy it.

I’d argue that finding new audiences is a good thing. Yes, you may have your loyal customers, and yes, innovating might turn some of them off. I think that if you have a core audience and great customers, you should reward them well.

But isn’t it possible that doing something refreshing and unexpected means you’re expanding and diversifying your base? Are you stretching yourself too thin? It’s possible, but it is also possible that by not innovating, you’re locking your potential audience to the same exact audience you already have. Game players grow older and stop playing games. Without new customers, you’re not only stuck with the same customers, but it’s also possible that your customers will leave you. Who will replace them if you don’t try to appeal outside of them?