Video Game Design Revealed

Description

Whether you are a professional game developer working in an established studio or a creative thinker interested in trying your hand at game design, "Video Game Design Revealed" will show you the steps and processes involved in bringing a video game from concept to completion. Beginning with an overview of the history of video games and an examination of the elements of successful games, the book breaks down the video game design process into its simplest elements and builds from there. You'll learn how to take an idea and tweak it into a viable game based on the genre, market, game style, and subject matter, moving on to creating and organizing a timeline for the production of the game. Once you've mapped out your game production plan and gathered all the information you need, you'll learn how to choose the development platform and other technologies that best suit the game you've designed, add sound and graphics, and apply game mechanics such as whether the game will be single-player or multiplayer and what levels and objects to add to your game to make it challenging and interesting. "Video Game Design Revealed" concludes with guidelines on how to compose a proposal to be used to present your idea to the game industry as well as tips and information on how to find and contact game studios, publishers, and investors to help you make your game design a reality..

CONTENTS:

Chapter 1 : A Brief History of Videogames

In which we look at the evolution of videogaming, from the first `real game Spacewar! was created on an immensely powerful mainframe, to the amazing things we can do with $300 of kit.

Chapter 2 : Introduction to Videogame Design

A discussion on different genres, markets and perspectives as well as vital information about how to take an idea and create a game out of it. While this sounds vague and unrealistic, there are many tips and techniques for knowing if an idea can be made into a game, as well as how to tidy it up so that it makes a good game.

The use of narrative, backstories, and other descriptive elements also play a large part in videogame design, and should not be neglected.

Chapter 3 : Videogame Design in Practice

Timelining the project, trying to pull together the glut of ideas into a cohesive mesh, organizing yourself are some of the key principles discussed in this chapter; which deals with everything that needs to be done before the actual technologies, and `look and feel of the game are considered.

Other principle topics include how planning, good documentation and information organization affect the videogame design are also discussed.

Chapter 4 : Platforms & Technologies

From consoles and PCs to arcade machines and mobile gaming devices, this chapter takes the reader through the strengths, weaknesses, and technologies associated with each platform on the market.

Chapter 5 : Sound, Music & Graphics

Details the importance of designing in these features, rather than trying to bolt them on during the development phase. Covers different graphics styles, as well as guidelines for creating concept art and sound.

Chapter 6 : Object Oriented Game Design

Breaking the game universe, and everything in it into a coherent object model may seem more like software engineering, but it should also be done at the design level too. Otherwise something vital, be it an object, or a connection between two objects, will get lost.

Chapter 7 : Game Mechanics

This chapter concentrates on how to define the enveloping world that the player will find themselves in. Includes sections on single- vs multiplayer game design, game physics and other key topics.

Chapter 8 : MODding, Scripting and Developing Explained

There are many ways of realizing the videogame, but different approaches will need different designs. It may well be that the idea can be implemented using a simple level map in Quake, along with a quick modification to the engine; but many potential videogame designers are not aware of all the options.

Chapter 9 : User Interface Design

From the graphical to the physical, this chapter looks at ways in which the player controls the game as well as ways in which the game feeds information back to the player.

Chapter 10 : Levels & Mission Design

In this chapter, the reader is exposed to a number of different techniques and theories for creating levels, maps, missions, or simply just ways of dividing up their play session such that the player has a sense of achievement, coupled with differences in difficulty and storyline.

Chapter 11 : Using Vehicles and Objects

For those games that rely on either non-player characters, vehicles, or objects with which the player can cause an effect on the gaming environment, there are a number of issues to contend with. Of course, the relevancy of the elements will change depending on the kind of game being created.

Chapter 12 : Videogame AI Design

All games need a certain amount of AI, whether it just be knee-jerk reaction style or full strength soccer simulation-style. This chapter deals with all aspects of AI, from the rudimentary to the complex, as well as some tricks for `simulated AI .

Chapter 13 : The Official Design Document

Once the design is clear, there is a certain approach needed to correctly document the idea, and associated technology before taking it any further. The Design Document, as proposed by industry professional