Book Image

Practical Game Design

By : Adam Kramarzewski, Ennio De Nucci
Book Image

Practical Game Design

By: Adam Kramarzewski, Ennio De Nucci

Overview of this book

If you are looking for an up-to-date and highly applicable guide to game design, then you have come to the right place! Immerse yourself in the fundamentals of game design with this book, written by two highly experienced industry professionals to share their profound insights as well as give valuable advice on creating games across genres and development platforms. Practical Game Design covers the basics of game design one piece at a time. Starting with learning how to conceptualize a game idea and present it to the development team, you will gradually move on to devising a design plan for the whole project and adapting solutions from other games. You will also discover how to produce original game mechanics without relying on existing reference material, and test and eliminate anticipated design risks. You will then design elements that compose the playtime of a game, followed by making game mechanics, content, and interface accessible to all players. You will also find out how to simultaneously ensure that the gameplay mechanics and content are working as intended. As the book reaches its final chapters, you will learn to wrap up a game ahead of its release date, work through the different challenges of designing free-to-play games, and understand how to significantly improve their quality through iteration, polishing and playtesting.
Table of Contents (22 chapters)
Title Page
Copyright and Credits
Packt Upsell
Contributors
Preface
Index

Summary


What a chapter! This has been probably the most difficult so far. We've been through a lot of concepts, principles, and examples. I suggest you reflect on what you have read before proceeding. Let this chapter settle and go back to any part that you think might be worth re-reading, it's a lot to take on!

Our journey started with understanding how it is important to come up with new game mechanics and to transform a vision into a playable experience. We then explained some of the fundamental theories behind game design: how to classify game mechanics, player types, and the fun they enjoy by playing games.

We briefly explored the art of teaching a game using tutorials. We approached games as systems of conflicts and studied how to design a combat system and which elements are important to them - specifically, depth and complexity.

There has been quite a lot of theory, but as Abraham Lincoln once said, "Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the...