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

Chapter 2. Game Concept

Every game starts with a concept, an idea of what the player experience will be—a vision of a world coming to life on screen.

The challenge, once this idea takes shape in the creator's mind, is to fix it and communicate it to everyone involved in the game development process.

In this chapter, we're going to learn how to write a game concept and your responsibilities as a game designer in the process of doing so.

We are going to cover topics such as:

  • Defining what a game concept is
  • The formal structure of the game concept document
  • How to compare your idea to what's already out there
  • What are themes, fantasy, and mood, and why are they important at this stage?

We are going to use some practical examples from real-life scenarios and you will be able to follow the tips in each paragraph of this chapter and create your own game concept, based on your own idea or an existing game.