San Antonio College Library

This book talks about the importance of social mechanics in games and how these mechanics evolved over time to accommodate new technologies and new social contexts. It looks at the innovation happening in the field of new-age social games, discussing in detail what has been learnt from designing for the younger generation, how these findings can inform game design philosophy and how this can be applied to game development more broadly. Part 1of this...

This book draws on aesthetic theory, including ideas from the history of painting, music and dance, to offer a fresh perspective on the video game as a popular cultural form. It argues that games like Grand Theft Auto and Elektroplankton are aesthetic objects that appeal to players because they offer an experience of form, as this idea was understood by philosophers like Immanuel Kant and Theodor Adorno. Video games are awkward objects that have defied...

Many designers, policy makers, teachers, and other practitioners are beginning to understand the usefulness of using digital games beyond entertainment. Games have been developed for teaching, recruiting and to collect data to improve search engines. This book examines the fundamentals of designing any game with a serious purpose and provides a way of thinking on how to design one successfully. The reader will be introduced to a design philosophy...

"The topics explored include the varying types of games, vital preliminaries of making a game, the nuts and bolts of devising a game, creating a prototype, testing, designing levels, technical aspects, and assessing nature of the audience. With practice challenges, a list of resources for further exploration, and a glossary of industry terms, this manual is essential"--Provided by publisher.

"The business of videogames is both a prestige industry and a very opaque one. Based on dozens of firsthand interviews and covering the development of landmark games including Bioshock: Infinite, Epic Mickey, Dead Space, and more, and through the studios' shocking closures, this book will tell the stories of how real people are affected by game studio shutdowns--and how and if they recover. Jason Schreier has made a name for himself as gaming's preeminent...

"The games industry is serious business and the role of a games designer has dramatically changed over just the last few years. Developers now have to rethink everything they know about the creative, technical and business challenges to adapt to the transition to games as a service. Games as a Service: How Free to Play Design Can Make Better Games has been written to help designers overcome many of the fears and misconceptions surrounding freemium...

"Uncover the secrets to creating stunning graphics with Pixel Art for Game Developers. ... The book provides an introduction to Pixel Art, its utility, foundational elements, and concepts such as light and shadow. It offers tutorials on creating animations and serves as a functional guide for the most common methodology in 2D game development."--Back cover.

"The success of storytelling in games depends on the entire development team-game designers, artists, writers, programmers and musicians, etc.-working harmoniously together towards a singular artistic vision. Interactive Stories and Video Game Art is first to define a common design language for understanding and orchestrating interactive masterpieces using techniques inherited from the rich history of art and craftsmanship that games build upon. Case...

In On the Way to Fun, Roberto Dillon goes back to the roots of gaming and shows how early games, as well as modern indie productions, captivated generations of players without the need for fancy graphics and effects, relying on basic emotions and instincts instead. He looks at the basics of how to make a game "fun" and uses case studies to look at why certain games succeeded and others didn't. Dillon's analysis will be extremely useful to aspiring...

During the last few years, a new area of creative media industry, namely Serious Games, has started to emerge around the world. The term serious games has become more popular for example in the fields of education, business, welfare and safety. Despite this, there has been no single definition of serious games. A key question, what the concept itself means, has stayed unsolved though most have agreed on a definition that serious games are games or...