Chris Crawford on Game Design View Larger Image | Chris Crawford
New Riders Publishing, Paperback, Published June 2003, 496 pages, ISBN 0131460994 | List Price: $44.99
Our Price: $24.50
You Save: $20.49 (46% Off)
| | | Availability: Out-Of-Stock |
Be the First to Write a Review and tell the world about this title!Books on similar topics, in best-seller order: Books from the same publisher, in best-seller order:
Chris Crawford on Game Design is all about the foundational skills behind the
design and architecture of a game. Without these skills, designers and developers
lack the understanding to work with the tools and techniques used in the industry
today. Chris Crawford, the most highly sought after expert in this area, brings
an intense opinion piece full of personality and flare like no other person
in this industry can. He explains the foundational and fundamental concepts
needed to get the most out of game development today.
An exceptional precursor to the two books soon to be published by New Riders
with author Andrew Rollings, this book teaches key lessons; including, what
you can learn from the history of game play and historical games, necessity
of challenge in game play, applying dimensions of conflict, understanding low
and high interactivity designs, watching for the inclusion of creativity, and
understanding the importance of storytelling. In addition, Chris brings you
the wish list of games he'd like to build and tells you how to do it. Game developers
and designers will kill for this information!
Table of Contents
Introduction.
1. Definitions, Definitions.
2. Some Milestone Games.
Old-Style Games. Board Wargames. Other Non-Computer
Games. Videogames. Computer Games.
3. Play.
History of Play. Play Is Metaphorical. Play Must
Be Safe. Play Need Not Be Exotic. The Fun Factor.
4. Challenge.
Challenge Necessitates Rules. The Point Is the
Challenge, Not the Goal. Dimensions of Challenge. Challenge and Identity.
5. Conflict.
Mars, Venus, and Conflict. Dimensions of Conflict.
Directness of Conflict. Intensity of Conflict. Intensity and the Evolution of
Taste.
6. Interactivity.
History. Other Attributes of the Computer. So
What Is Interactivity? Is More Interactivity Better? How Do We Measure Interactivity?
Low-Interactivity Entertainment Designs. Process Intensity Versus Data Intensity.
7. Creativity: The Missing Ingredient.
How Serious Is the Problem? Where Does Creativity
Come From? How to “Get Creative”. A Tyrannosaurus Rex for Ideas. The Politics
of Innovation.
8. Common Mistakes.
Obsession with Cosmetics. Incremental Accretive
Design.
9. The Education of a Game Designer.
Get a Degree. Education Versus Schooling.
10. Games I'd Like to Build.
Galilean Relativity. Napoleonic Cavalry. Napoleon
in Space. Attack of the Cellular Automata. Volkerwanderung. Third-World Dictator.
Lies. Spies. The Wheels of Commerce. Corporate Politics. Evolution. The Self-Modifying
Game. Mooser-Gooser. So What Does All This Mean?
11. Storytelling.
Adventure Games. Backstory. Cut Scenes. Integrated
Cut Scenes. Here Come the Academics! Role-Playing Games. The Real Problem. Tackling
the Problem.
12. Random Sour Observations.
Massively Multiplayer Monsters. Licensed Games.
New Input Devices. The Sims. Short-Term Thinkers. Everybody's a Game Designer.
Hollywood Envy. Young Males. Sleaze.
13. Tanktics.
Map. Calculating Line of Sight. Planning Moves.
Initial Programming. Enter the KIM-1. Input and Output. Linguistic Input. Sound
Effects. Showing It Off. Porting. Production, Marketing, and Sales. Avalon-Hill.
Fade Away. Results.
14. Legionnaire.
A Record-Setting Blunder. Disruption. Terrain.
Sales. First Draft Design. Conclusions.
15. Wizard.
VCS Technology. Designing the Game. Asymmetric
Combat. Lines of Sight (LOS). Disposition and Conclusion.
16. Energy Czar.
17. Scram.
Input Structures. Oh Yes, It Was Supposed to
Be a Game, Wasn't It? Coda.
18. Eastern Front (1941).
The Scrolling Map. The Combat System. AI. Tuning.
Conclusion.
19. Gossip.
AI. Implementation Woes. Conclusions.
20. Excalibur.
Camelot. The Interpersonal Subgame. Diplomacy.
The Strategic Map. The Battle Subgame. Overall Course of Play. The Manual. Conclusions.
21. Balance of Power.
The UnWar Game. Early Efforts. The Rubber Map.
Thank You, National Enquirer. Research. Building the Map. Memory Headaches.
Making It a Game. Publisher Woes. I Get by with a Little Help from the Press.
The Wheel of Fortune.
22. Patton Versus Rommel.
To Hell with Grids. Geometric AI.
23. Siboot.
A Lesson for Designers. First Draft Proposal.
The First Proposal. Design Essays. Economies. Intransitive Combat Relationships.
The Inverse Parser. The Display. Interstitial Stories. The Novella. Conclusions.
24. Guns & Butter.
Designing the World. Building Provinces. Adding
Mountains, Deserts, and Forests. Naming Names. First-Person Firing Squad. The
Economic System. Combat. Faces. The Ideas behind the Game. Results.
25. Balance of the Planet.
Values. Implementing a Value System. The Politics
of the Game. Higher Levels of Play. Balancing the Equations. Artwork. Schedule
Hassles. Results.
26. Patton Strikes Back.
Simple Rules. Clean User Interface and Strong
Visual Presentation. Explain the History. Color Hassles. Anti-Piracy. Results.
27. Themes and Lessons.
People, Not Things! Faces. Gameplay Help. Language.
Art Over Money. The Harsh Realities of Business.
28. Old Fart Stories.
Early Sound and Music. An Early Multiplayer Game.
Getting a Job. E.T. Alan Kay. Lost in the Shuffle. International Sales. The
Locked File Cabinet. Bill Carris. Marketing Wisdom. The Dragon Speech. The Great
Pratfall. A More Serious Pratfall. Problems of Decentralization. The Unrevenged
Review. Failed Humor. The Sins of Youth. Corporate Politics. Blinded by Your
Own Equipment. Thinking Big. The CGDC.
Glossary.
Index.
About The Author
Chris Crawford started his career with the top name in the industry, Atari,
in 1979 where he worked under Alan Kay as a manager of games research. He has
published 14 computer games and 5 books, including the cult publication "The
Art of Computer Game Design."Chris founded the Game Developers Conference
(GDC) and chaired the conference for many years. Since 1991 he has been focusing
on interactive storytelling technology.
|
