American English

Game Designer's Playlist, The: Innovative Games Every Game Designer Needs to Play ,1st edition::9780134873299

Published by Addison-Wesley Professional (August 14, 2018) © 2019

Zack Hiwiller
    VitalSource eTextbook (Lifetime access)
    €36,99
    Adding to cart… The item has been added
    ISBN-13: 9780134873299

    Game Designer's Playlist, The: Innovative Games Every Game Designer Needs to Play ,1st edition

    Language: American English

    Game Designers: Learn from the Masters!

     

    In The Game Designers Playlist, top game design instructor Zack Hiwiller introduces more than 70 remarkable games, revealing how they work, why they’re great, and how to apply their breakthrough techniques in your own games.

     

    Ranging from Go to Texas Hold’em and Magic: The Gathering to Dishonored 2, Hiwiller teaches indispensable lessons about game decision-making, playability, narrative, mechanics, chance, winning, originality, cheats, and a whole lot more. He gleans powerful insights from virtually every type of game: console, mobile, PC, board, card, and beyond.

     

    Every game is presented in full color, with a single purpose: to show you what makes it exceptional, so you can create legendary games of your own.

    • Discover how game designers use randomness and luck
    • Make the most of narrative and the narrator’s role
    • Place the game challenge front and center
    • Optimize game mechanics, and place mechanics in a broader context
    • Uncover deep dynamic play in games with the simplest rules
    • Find better ways to teach players how to play
    • See what games can teach about the process of game design
    • Build games with unusual input/output modalities
    • Explore winning, losing, and game dynamics beyond “one-vs.-all”

    Register your book for convenient access to downloads, updates, and/or corrections as they become available. See inside book for details.

    Preface xiii

    Acknowledgments xxi

    About the Author xxii

     

    Chapter 1: From Simplicity, The Universe 1

    A Universe, Conquered 2

    The Simplicity and Complexity of Go 3

    More Than Thinking, Learning 6

    Play to Win 9

    Summary 11

     

    Chapter 2: Randomness and Cholesterol 13

    A Short History of Randomness 14

    Pass the Chips 14

    Mate 15

    Stranger and Stranger Danger 18

    Goofspiel 19

    Agency and Uncertainty 21

    Types of Uncertainty in Mechanics 23

    Randomness and Perceptions of Fairness 26

    Summary 28

     

    Chapter 3: Pushing One’s Luck 31

    Press Your Luck or Press Your Skill? 32

    No Whammy 34

    It’s in the Name 35

    Greed and Risk 38

    Let Them Eat Cake 39

    Equity 43

    Summary 44

     

    Chapter 4: Piecemeal Perspectives 45

    Interactive Fictions 46

    Actors and Interactions 47

    Armchair Jurors 48

    Her Story 49

    Orwell 52

    The Eye Above 53

    Summary 54

     

    Chapter 5: Permanence 57

    Interactive Fictions 58

    Fiero 58

    Memories of Places That Have Never Been 62

    Summary 65

     

    Chapter 6: Mechanics as Message 67

    Where Meaning Exists 68

    Marriage of Theme and Interaction 70

    September 12th 71

    Passage 72

    Dissonance 73

    Bioshock and Dissonance 74

    Systems as Politics 76

    Parable of the Polygons 78

    Summary 82

     

    Chapter 7: Requiem for a Pewter Shoe 85

    Pieces and Meaning 86

    The Buddha Nature 86

    Nomic 89

    Eying Basic Grammars 90

    Summary 91

     

    Chapter 8: The Second Chance Phenomenon 93

    Flexibility 94

    Hearthstone 96

    Dominion 97

    7 Wonders 98

    Summary 99

     

    Chapter 9: Challenging Complexity 101

    Retracing Your Steps 102

    Drop7 103

    Triple Town 107

    Game of Life 109

    Pair Solitaire 111

    Love Letter 114

    Summary 115

     

    Chapter 10: Learning to Walk 117

    The Price of Entry 118

    Building a Structure 119

    Thinking with Portals 121

    Summary 124

     

    Chapter 11: Mechanics in Milieu 127

    Taste and Distaste 128

    Agency and Dilemma 130

    Depression Quest and Indirect Representation 131

    Papers, Please 133

    A Mind Forever Voyaging 135

    One Vision 136

    Summary 138

     

    Chapter 12: The Clone Wars 141

    Here Comes the Flood 142

    What If Clones Are Necessary First Steps? 143

    How Mechanically Different Can a Clone Be? 144

    Summary of Questions 146

     

    Chapter 13: The Discipline of Game Design 149

    The Worst Game Design Question 150

    So Then What Is a Game Designer? 151

    Accidental Game Design 154

    Write What You Love … or Not? 156

    Why Rewards? 158

    Summary 159

     

    Chapter 14: Winning and Losing 163

    Playing Together 164

    Communication 164

    Diplomacy 167

    Informal Rules 168

    Summary 169

     

    Chapter 15: Inputs and Outputs 171

    Mimicry 172

    Jousting 173

    Life as Game Inputs 174

    Waiting Is the Hardest Part 176

    Verbal Communication as Game Inputs 178

    Summary 179

     

    Chapter 16: Whose Stories? 183

    Negotiated Storytelling 184

    Automated Dungeon Masters 186

    Symbolic Worlds 187

    Who Are You? 188

    Summary 189

     

    Chapter 17: Cheat Codes 191

    On Cheating 192

    Katamari Damacy 194

    Terry Cavanaugh 195

    Dream Quest 196

    Desert Golfing 196

    Summary 197

     

    Chapter 18: Conclusion and Final Playlist 199

    Mindset 200

    Final Playlist, Divided by Platform 200

    Mobile 201

    Consoles 201

    PC 201

    Analog 203

     

    Index 205