Fundamentals of Game Design: Edition 2

Ernest Adams

Apr 2010 · New Riders

About this ebook

To create a great video game, you must start with a solid game design: A well-designed game is easier to build, more entertaining, and has a better chance of succeeding in the marketplace. Here to teach you the essential skills of player-centric game design is one of the industry’s leading authorities, who offers a first-hand look into the process, from initial concept to final tuning.

Now in its second edition, this updated classic reference by Ernest Adams offers a complete and practical approach to game design, and includes material on concept development, gameplay design, core mechanics, user interfaces, storytelling, and balancing. In an easy-to-follow approach, Adams analyzes the specific design challenges of all the major game genres and shows you how to apply the principles of game design to each one. You’ll learn how to:

• Define the challenges and actions at the heart of the gameplay.
• Write a high-concept document, a treatment, and a full design script.
• Understand the essentials of user interface design and how to define a game’s look and feel.
• Design for a variety of input mechanisms, including the Wii controller and multi-touch iPhone.
• Construct a game’s core mechanics and flow of resources (money, points, ammunition, and more).
  
• Develop appealing stories, game characters, and worlds that players will want to visit, including persistent worlds.
• Work on design problems with engaging end-of-chapter exercises, design worksheets, and case studies.
• Make your game accessible to broader audiences such as children, adult women, people with disabilities, and casual players.

“Ernest Adams provides encyclopedic coverage of process and design issues for every aspect of game design, expressed as practical lessons that can be immediately applied to a design in-progress. He offers the best framework I’ve seen for thinking about the relationships between core mechanics, gameplay, and player—one that I’ve found useful for both teaching and research.” — Michael Mateas, University of California at Santa Cruz, co-creator of Façade

Ratings and reviews

Your an idiot, true I have all the source code I need I was just curious but I was shocked that some was honest about the worth of source code but you gave none, the only example given was one of someone who played a game... Your an idiot this book set is all faked. To mock this idiot I'm gonna put source code to get started on your new games while this moron can be sad they never done anything but be a scheoster and a ninny, I mean I can't though it's too much typing especially. For free.. I can't lie. This is dumb. Just don't spend money on this. ITs dumber than talking to a friend who got his first gameboy. #include #include #inclide " " Scene Count<< ; , () () 🖕Even funny since these are literally in three seconds of your time how to make a game,. 😔

Fundamentals of Game Design is the most apt description of the book for it is exactly that. It takes the fundamentals of commercial video games and put it is black and white for you to see. While it is not exactly a good read for an experienced designer is a great starting point for a novice, and it can never hurt to see some of the basic put down in simple terms.

Sorry sounds cool but 60 bucks :(

About the author

Ernest Adams (Normandy, U.K.) is an independent game designer, writer, and teacher. He has worked in the game industry for 20 years. Ernest was most recently employed as a lead designer at Bullfrog Productions on the Dungeon Keeper series, and for several years before that he was the audio/video producer on the Madden NFL Football product line for Electronic Arts. For the last ten years he has written a regular column on game design for the Gamasutra developers' webzine. He was the founder of the International Game Developers' Association, and is a frequent lecturer at conferences and arts festivals around the world. His professional web site is at http://www.designersnotebook.com.