FUNDAMENTALS OF GAME DESIGN, SECOND EDITION
FUNDAMENTALS OF GAME DESIGN, SECOND EDITION
In the past three years, the field of interactive entertainment has changed in a number of ways, and I felt it was time to update the book to reflect them. Most significant among these changes has been the arrival of the Nintendo Wii with its motion-sensitive controller; the Apple iPhone with its multitouch screen; the huge success of Guitar Hero and other music-based games; and Spore with its unique concept of “massively single-player online gaming." I have addressed these advances where appropriate in this new edition. Unfortunately, Microsoft's Project Natal—a camera-based motion-sensitive control system—is still too new and experimental at the moment to get more than a brief mention.
If you already own the previous edition, you'll notice that Fundamentals, Second Edition is still organized the same way. I have retained, and tried to enhance, the practical approach of the previous work. The book remains unashamedly commercial, generally avoiding academic theory and debate. I assume that you want to make video games for sale, and a certain amount of the discussion relates to questions of markets and target audiences.
Another change has been the departure of my co-author on the previous edition, Andrew Rollings. It was Andrew who first gave me the opportunity to work on a book about game design, and I'm forever grateful to him for that. Andrew was too busy to contribute to this edition, and not much of his original prose remains. Any errors or omissions you find should be laid at my door and not his.
Fundamentals of Game Design Second Edition is entirely about game design. It does not cover programming, art, animation, music, audio engineering, or writing. Nor is it about project management, budgeting, scheduling, or producing. A budding game designer should learn something about all of these subjects, and I encourage you to consult other books to broaden your education as much as you can. All the greatest game designers are Renaissance men and women, interested in everything.
Each chapter ends with a section called "Design Practice," consisting of two subsections. In Part One, "The Elements of Game Design," the "Design Practice" sections include exercises that your instructor may assign to you (or that you may do on your own, if you're not a student). In Part Two, "The Genres of Games," each chapter (except the last one) includes instructions for doing a case study of a famous game from the genre that the chapter addresses. Finally, all the chapters include a series of discussion or design questions that you should ask yourself about the game that you're designing.
