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

Tips and tricks


Before we close this chapter, let's delve into a collection of tips and tricks that may help you in designing and running your live games:

Player spending should build up your community, not divide it Avoid splitting your audience based on their ability to spend. While early access to new content is fine, introducing things such as premium map DLCs is going to split friend groups, reduce matchmaking opportunities, and ultimately hurt both sides of the paying spectrum.

Spending should feel good, but the gratification should not come from gaining unfair advantages and penalizing everyone else. In western markets, most players will quickly rebel against a game that's 100% pay to win (where skill, experience, or strategy mean nothing, and the only way to stay competitive is to outspend their rivals).

Turn premium content into something that makes the game more fun for everyone else:

  • Everyone likes to hang around a player with cool-looking gear, impressive visual effects, and amusing...