Anyone can master the fundamentals of game design - no technological expertise is necessary. The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses shows that the same basic principles of psychology that work for board games, card games and athletic games also are the keys to making top-quality videogames. Good game design happens when you view your game from many different perspectives, or lenses. While touring through the unusual territory that is game design, this book gives the reader one hundred of these lenses - one hundred sets of insightful questions to ask yourself that will help make your game better. These lenses are gathered from fields as diverse as psychology, architecture, music, visual design, film, software engineering, theme park design, mathematics, writing, puzzle design, and anthropology. Anyone who reads this book will be inspired to become a better game designer - and will understand how to do it. * Jesse Schell is a highly recognizable name within the game industry - he is the former chair of the International Game Developer's Association, and has designed many successful games, including Disney's award-winning Toontown Online. * The book's design methodology was developed at Carnegie Mellon University's Entertainment Technology Center, co-founded by Dr. Randy Pausch of "Last Lecture" fame. * 100 'lenses' are scattered throughout the book. These are boxed sets of questions, each a different way of seeing a game that will inspire the creative process. * 500 pages of detailed, practical instruction on creating world-class games that will be played again and again. * Winner of Game Developer's 2008 Front Line Award in the book category
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 5.0 / 5.0
A Milestone in Game Design Texts:
"The Art of Game Design" is one of the only game design textbooks that uses clear, plain English to teach the fundamentals of game design. It is packed with wisdom and inspiration. If you are an aspiring game designer, or even a working professional, Jesse's book will push you to see your game concept from several new perspectives.
Fun to read, insightful and inspirational:
This is the must-have book for anyone in game design. For me personally, the book highlighted many fundamental aspects of game design I didn't realize I didn't know, even though I consider myself a fairly experienced game designer. The book is fun to read. The author has a very engaging writing style, and interesting and relevant examples makes the subject matter of each chapter very easy to relate to. The book is well designed to bring even a novice very quickly up to speed, yet it's also a... more info
Exactly what I was looking for and cheap!:
This book is the new standard for game design! Jesse knows his stuff. Outside of this book, any of the Ernest Adams books will give you a great intro to this subject.
Great Book:
It really opened my eyes to a lot of the different variables that go into successful game design.
