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

Level design practices


In the previous sections, we have explained what level design is, and how the process of creating new content can be approached. Now it's time for some practical tips and tricks that should help you with the design process!

Functional level design and realism

Game worlds range from highly realistic to completely made-up, and most fall somewhere in the middle of the spectrum. Worlds do not become more believable because of visual clutter, high-resolution textures, and detailed geometry. They become believable if we can imagine the life that keeps on going when we look away. Even the simplest AI systems can yield surprising results. Humans are naturally prone to connecting strings of random behaviors into larger, more meaningful stories, a phenomenon known as apophenia.

Note

A simple way to create more coherent designs is to imagine the inhabitants of the world interacting with their surroundings. Don't settle for a set of walls with haphazardly placed furniture that acts...