Spelutveckling och spelprogrammering

SPELMAKAREN är inte bara berättelsen om hur jag förverkligade mina drömmar – det är också en inspirerande resa genom en bransch som på bara fyra decennier har vuxit till en global miljardindustri. Boken ger en unik inblick i de lärdomar jag har samlat under min resa och ger samtidigt läsaren en djupare förståelse för den dynamiska och ständigt föränderliga världen av dataspel. Du kan också läsa den som en rolig och annorlunda berättelse, kryddad med många underhållande anekdoter. Röster om boken: "You tell an interesting story, and it was an honor to have a part in your tale as well!” - Tom Hall, id Software ”En magisk bok – HELVETE vad inspirerande att läsa, jag blir förtrollad av varje ord.” - Linda Wallin, Power Challenge ”Our paths crossed early and often. Tomas brings our shared experiences to life with remarkable insight.” - David Helgasson, grundare av Unity ”Boken är en resa utöver det vanliga – fylld av skratt, nostalgi, ödets nyckfullhet och helt vansinniga situationer.” - Björn Larsson, Legendo

En bok om hur Nintendo erövrade Sverige och banade väg för tv-spelsintresset.

Nintendo har sedan tidigt 80-tal haft en stark position i Sverige. En hel generation tv-spelare växte upp med NES-Nintendo Entertainment System, även i folkmun kallad Nintendo 8-bitars. Odödliga spelklassiker som Super Mario Bros och The Legend of Zelda såg dagens ljus på NES. En kombination av dessa unika spelidéer samt ett flitigt och finurligt arbete av den svenska generalagenten Bergsala ledde till stor framgång i Sverige. NES har än idag ett starkt följe och präglar dagens spelkultur.

Denna bok berättar historien bakom succén från Bergsalas tidiga möten med Nintendo i Japan till det bittra 90-talet när valutan devalverades och hårda år drabbade Bergsala. Minnen från Owe Bergsten, Lars Jarhamn, Jens Ohlin och andra nyckelpersoner återberättas i en fascinerande historia då pionjärsanda rådde i dataspelsbranschen.

Denna den fjärde upplagan är rejält reviderad och uppdaterad med nya intervjuer, bildmaterial och omdanad text.

Enbart i Sverige såldes det mellan åren 1986-1996 hela 420 000 enheter av NES och som flest hade Nintendoklubben hela 450 000 medlemmar! Dessutom är idag intresset för klassiska spel enormt stort, något som märks på evenemang som Retrospelsmässan i Göteborg som årligen lockar tusentals besökare samt priser på gamla NES-spel som ofta slutar på flera tusentalskronor på nätets auktionssajter. Det finns en kultur som bygger på nostalgi och nyfikenhet på den växande spelvärldens historik och rötter.

SPELMAKAREN är inte bara berättelsen om hur jag förverkligade mina drömmar – det är också en inspirerande resa genom en bransch som på bara fyra decennier har vuxit till en global miljardindustri. Boken ger en unik inblick i de lärdomar jag har samlat under min resa och ger samtidigt läsaren en djupare förståelse för den dynamiska och ständigt föränderliga världen av dataspel. Du kan också läsa den som en rolig och annorlunda berättelse, kryddad med många underhållande anekdoter. Röster om boken: "You tell an interesting story, and it was an honor to have a part in your tale as well!” - Tom Hall, id Software ”En magisk bok – HELVETE vad inspirerande att läsa, jag blir förtrollad av varje ord.” - Linda Wallin, Power Challenge ”Our paths crossed early and often. Tomas brings our shared experiences to life with remarkable insight.” - David Helgasson, grundare av Unity ”Boken är en resa utöver det vanliga – fylld av skratt, nostalgi, ödets nyckfullhet och helt vansinniga situationer.” - Björn Larsson, Legendo

Video games have become an increasingly ubiquitous part of society due to the proliferation and use of mobile devices.� Video Games and Creativity explores research on the relationship between video games and creativity with regard to play, learning, and game design.� It answers such questions as:

Can video games be used to develop or enhance creativity? Is there a place for video games in the classroom? What types of creativity are needed to develop video games?

While video games can be sources of entertainment, the role of video games in the classroom has emerged as an important component of improving the education system.� The research and development of game-based learning has revealed the power of using games to teach and promote learning.� In parallel, the role and importance of creativity in everyday life has been identified as a requisite skill for success.

Summarizes research relating to creativity and video games Incorporates creativity research on both game design and game play Discusses physical design, game mechanics, coding, and more Investigates how video games may encourage creative problem solving Highlights applications of video games for educational purposes

Learn the essentials of the Unity game engine, the C# programming language, and the art of object-oriented programming. This book is aimed at beginners with no knowledge or experience in game development or programming. Packed with examples, new concepts are not only explained, but thoroughly demonstrated.

Starting with an introduction to Unity, you will learn the essentials of the engine: navigating the various windows, managing the objects that make up your game, and understanding the concepts that are fundamental to the engine. After that, you will gain a solid foundation in the concepts of object-oriented programming and the syntax of the C# language. Then the fun really begins, as you get hands-on experience building three playable example projects that drill you on the concepts you've learned until they stick. Guided at each step by author Casey Hardman, you will outline and implement bare-bones, simple games designed to exercise your development skills: a top-down obstacle course, a tower defense game, and a 3D playground that demonstrates Unity's physics features. As you progress through the book, you'll put to use more and more of the features of C# and Unity, adding tools to your belt and strengthening you as a game developer.

By the time you've completed the book, you will be empowered to strike out on your own and build the game mechanics of your choice.

What You Will Learn

Understand the fundamentals of object-oriented computer programming and the C# programming languageLeverage the features of Unity to implement game mechanics with reusable, clean, and elegant codeDesign and implement your own mechanics and independently solve problems as they arise

Who Is This Book For

Beginners who have no prior experience with programming or game development, who would like to learn to create games with a solid foundation that prepares them to further develop their skills.

This engaging book presents the essential mathematics needed to describe, simulate, and render a 3D world. Reflecting both academic and in-the-trenches practical experience, the authors teach you how to describe objects and their positions, orientations, and trajectories in 3D using mathematics. The text provides an introduction to mathematics for game designers, including the fundamentals of coordinate spaces, vectors, and matrices. It also covers orientation in three dimensions, calculus and dynamics, graphics, and parametric curves.

Game communities are inevitable – in fact, they’re one of the main features of a game. How can our online interactions be better, kinder, and more productive conversations? How can community managers design online spaces with inherent kindness in mind and create places that encourage member growth and engagement? This book provides a step-by-step strategy for creating long-term, sustainable, and intentional online spaces that matter – ones that care, grow, and connect.Using real-world experience in multiple genres of games, this book covers the fundamental concepts of designing an online community from the core basics of what it is, and then the journey from pre-launch to post-launch. With a deep dive into the practical framework for building stronger communities, it reveals the advantages and reasons why positive, cohesive, and unified spaces are more productive than their less structured counterparts. Additional engagement tips, and why these positive communities drive both business and ethical value, will be explored as an extremely relevant topic for our ever-increasing online world. The content will focus mainly on game communities and independent games, but lessons may be applied to larger studios and industries.Consumers are more inundated with typical marketing schemes than ever, and social media has only become a more powerful, yet chaotic tool over the years. Leave the high-level concepts behind to dig deep and see how community managers can tackle ever-changing algorithms and an entirely digital world.The theories and summaries will also help this book remain timeless – no matter how much social media tools or the internet applications may change, the values and core ways people understand each other and feel belonging will not.Pre-launch to post-launch guide – specifically directed toward activities and strategies for each stage of development.Review activities in key sections to help readers reflect and actively engage with the material.Case studies, step-by-step infrastructure, and background theory will help solidify the framework more practically.

If you like playing computer games, why not make your own? This book has all you need to build amazing games, including thrilling racing challenges, zany platform games, and fiendish puzzles.Computer Coding Games for Kids is the ideal guide for children ages 9-12 who want to learn more about computer programming using scratch. It can also be used by parents who want to help their children learn to code. Follow the simple steps to become an expert coder, using the popular programming language Scratch™ 3.0. This updated edition is the first to be tablet-computer friendly, making it even easier to get coding.With this coding book for kids, you can: - Improve your coding skills and create your own games, before remixing and customizing them.- Pick up the fundamentals of computer programming in steps that make even the most difficult coding concepts fun and easy to understand.- Share your games online and challenge friends and family to beat each other's scores. Fun games engage children and help teach them to learn code. Jumpy Monkey will show you how to simulate gravity in your games, or give Dog's Dinner a go to learn about collision detection. With this book, children won’t just learn how computer code works - they will understand why it's done that way. Once they have whizzed through the book, the possibilities are endless!

This book will introduce you to the controls and steer you towards understanding what Blender can do. With this program you can create 3D models of objects and characters. The objects and characters can be placed in scenes. The scenes are captured by camera and rendered into digital images. The objects and characters can be animated and then, again, captured by camera and rendered to video files. Video files can then be compiled into movies. This book will show you how to make the Blender program go through some of its paces and give you an insight into this fantastic world. You will be shown the controls and given operation instructions allowing you to activate a variety of features.

Create your first 2D, 3D, and AR/VR games with the awesome Unity game platform.  With this hands-on beginner's guide, you'll start building games fast! In Unity in Action, Third Edition, you will learn how to: Create characters that run, jump, and bump into things Build 3D first-person shooters and third-person action games Construct 2D card games and side-scrolling platformers Script enemies with AI Improve game graphics by importing models and images Design an intuitive user interface for your games Play music and spatially-aware sound effects Connect your games to the internet for online play Deploy your games to desktop, mobile, and the web Thousands of new game developers have chosen Joe Hocking's Unity in Action as their first step toward Unity mastery. This fully updated third edition comes packed with fully refreshed graphics, Unity's latest features, and coverage of the augmented and virtual reality toolkits. Using your existing coding skills, you'll write custom code instead of just clicking together premade scripts. You'll master the Unity toolset from the ground up, adding the skills you need to go from application coder to game developer. Build your next game without sweating the low-level details. The Unity game engine handles the heavy lifting, so you can focus on game play, graphics, and user experience. With support for C#, a huge ecosystem of production-quality prebuilt assets, and a strong dev community, Unity will get your game idea off the drawing board and onto the screen! You can even use Unity for more than game development, with new tools for VR and augmented reality that are perfect for developing useful apps.

The Game Boy is an iconic handheld console and a remarkable piece of gaming history. Programming the Game Boy is rewarding but can be challenging especially to newcomers. Game Boy Coding Adventure gives readers an organized, hands-on explanation of the hardware, covering everything from the very basics to advanced topics. This book doesn't assume any prior knowledge of assembly language or the Game Boy hardware. Whether you want to create games or applications, are interested in ROM hacking, or are looking for a fun way to level up your engineering skills, this book will give you a strong understanding of the hardware and the programming techniques to leverage it properly.

"Game Feel" exposes "feel" as a hidden language in game design that no one has fully articulated yet. The language could be compared to the building blocks of music (time signatures, chord progressions, verse) - no matter the instruments, style or time period - these building blocks come into play. Feel and sensation are similar building blocks where game design is concerned. They create the meta-sensation of involvement with a game.The understanding of how game designers create feel, and affect feel are only partially understood by most in the field and tends to be overlooked as a method or course of study, yet a game's feel is central to a game's success. This book brings the subject of feel to light by consolidating existing theories into a cohesive book.The book covers topics like the role of sound, ancillary indicators, the importance of metaphor, how people perceive things, and a brief history of feel in games.The associated web site contains a playset with ready-made tools to design feel in games, six key components to creating virtual sensation. There's a play palette too, so the desiger can first experience the importance of that component by altering variables and feeling the results. The playset allows the reader to experience each of the sensations described in the book, and then allows them to apply them to their own projects. Creating game feel without having to program, essentially. The final version of the playset will have enough flexibility that the reader will be able to use it as a companion to the exercises in the book, working through each one to create the feel described.

Quickly emerging from the fast-paced growth of mobile communications and wireless technologies, pervasive games take gaming away from the computer screen and back to the three-dimensional world. Now games can be designed to be played in public spaces like shopping malls, conferences, museums and other non-traditional game venues. Game designers need to understand how to use the world as a gamespace-and both the challenges and advantages of doing so.This book shows how to change the face of play-who plays, when and where they play and what that play means to all involved. The authors explore aspects of pervasive games that concern game designers: what makes these games compelling, what makes them possible today and how they are made. For game researchers, it provides a solid theoretical, philosophical and aesthetic understanding of the genre.Pervasive Games covers everything from theory and design to history and marketing.

From Windows Solitaire to Bejeweled to Wii Tennis, casual games have radically changed the landscape of games. By simplifying gameplay and providing quick but intense blasts of engaging play, casual games have drawn in huge new audiences of players. To entertain and engage the casual player, game designers must learn to think about what makes casual games work, from game mechanics to narrative content. Through the close examination of a number of casual games, you will learn how to inject the necessary game design elements into your casual games and give your designs the complexity and strategy they need to hook gamers. You will learn:

Physics is really important to game programmers who need to know how to add physical realism to their games. They need to take into account the laws of physics when creating a simulation or game engine, particularly in 3D computer graphics, for the purpose of making the effects appear more real to the observer or player.The game engine needs to recognize the physical properties of objects that artists create, and combine them with realistic motion. The physics ENGINE is a computer program that you work into your game that simulates Newtonian physics and predict effects under different conditions. In video games, the physics engine uses real-time physics to improve realism. This is the only book in its category to take readers through the process of building a complete game-ready physics engine from scratch. The Cyclone game engine featured in the book was written specifically for this book and has been utilized in iPhone application development and Adobe Flash projects.  There is a good deal of master-class level information available, but almost nothing in any format that teaches the basics in a practical way. The second edition includes NEW and/or revised material on collision detection, 2D physics, casual game physics for Flash games, more references, a glossary, and end-of-chapter exercises. The companion website will include the full source code of the Cyclone physics engine, along with example applications that show the physics system in operation.

The play-focused, step-by-step guide to creating great game designs

This book offers a play-focused, process-oriented approach for designing games people will love to play. Drawing on a combined 35 years of design and teaching experience, Colleen Macklin and John Sharp link the concepts and elements of play to the practical tasks of game design. Using full-color examples, they reveal how real game designers think and work, and illuminate the amazing expressive potential of great game design.

Focusing on practical details, this book guides you from idea to prototype to playtest and fully realized design. You’ll walk through conceiving and creating a game’s inner workings, including its core actions, themes, and especially its play experience. Step by step, you’ll assemble every component of your “videogame,” creating practically every kind of play: from cooperative to competitive, from chance-based to role-playing, and everything in between.

Macklin and Sharp believe that games are for everyone, and game design is an exciting art form with a nearly unlimited array of styles, forms, and messages. Cutting across traditional platform and genre boundaries, they help you find inspiration wherever it exists.

Games, Design and Play is for all game design students, and for beginning-to-intermediate-level game professionals, especially independent game designers. Bridging the gaps between imagination and production, it will help you craft outstanding designs for incredible play experiences!

Coverage includes:

Understanding core elements of play design: actions, goals, rules, objects, playspace, and players Mastering “tools” such as constraint, interaction, goals, challenges, strategy, chance, decision, storytelling, and context Comparing types of play and player experiences Considering the demands videogames make on players Establishing a game’s design values Creating design documents, schematics, and tracking spreadsheets Collaborating in teams on a shared design vision Brainstorming and conceptualizing designs Using prototypes to realize and playtest designs Improving designs by making the most of playtesting feedback Knowing when a design is ready for production Learning the rules so you can break them!

Program 3D Games in C++: The #1 Language at Top Game Studios Worldwide C++ remains the key language at many leading game development studios. Since it’s used throughout their enormous code bases, studios use it to maintain and improve their games, and look for it constantly when hiring new developers. Game Programming in C++ is a practical, hands-on approach to programming 3D video games in C++. Modeled on Sanjay Madhav’s game programming courses at USC, it’s fun, easy, practical, hands-on, and complete. Step by step, you’ll learn to use C++ in all facets of real-world game programming, including 2D and 3D graphics, physics, AI, audio, user interfaces, and much more. You’ll hone real-world skills through practical exercises, and deepen your expertise through start-to-finish projects that grow in complexity as you build your skills. Throughout, Madhav pays special attention to demystifying the math that all professional game developers need to know. Set up your C++ development tools quickly, and get started Implement basic 2D graphics, game updates, vectors, and game physics Build more intelligent games with widely used AI algorithms Implement 3D graphics with OpenGL, shaders, matrices, and transformations Integrate and mix audio, including 3D positional audio Detect collisions of objects in a 3D environment Efficiently respond to player input Build user interfaces, including Head-Up Displays (HUDs) Improve graphics quality with anisotropic filtering and deferred shading Load and save levels and binary game data Whether you’re a working developer or a student with prior knowledge of C++ and data structures, Game Programming in C++ will prepare you to solve real problems with C++ in roles throughout the game development lifecycle. You’ll master the language that top studios are hiring for—and that’s a proven route to success.

In Advanced Game Design, pioneering game designer and instructor Michael Sellers situates game design practices in a strong theoretical framework of systems thinking, enabling designers to think more deeply and clearly about their work, so they can produce better, more engaging games for any device or platform. Sellers offers a deep unifying framework in which practical game design best practices and proven systems thinking theory reinforce each other, helping game designers understand what they are trying to accomplish and the best ways to achieve it. Drawing on 20+ years of experience designing games, launching game studios, and teaching game design, Sellers explains:

What games are, and how systems thinking can help you think about them more clearly How to systematically promote engagement, interactivity, and fun What you can learn from MDA and other game design frameworks How to create gameplay and core loops How to design the entire player experience, and how to build game mechanics that work together to create that experience How to capture your game’s “big idea” and Unique Selling Proposition How to establish high-level and background design and translate it into detailed design How to build, playtest, and iterate early prototypes How to build your game design career in a field that keeps changing at breakneck speed

In just 24 lessons of one hour or less, Sams Teach Yourself Unity Game Development in 24 Hours will help you master the Unity 2018 game engine at the heart of Ori and the Blind Forest, Firewatch, Monument Valley, and many other sizzling-hot games! This book’s straightforward, step-by-step approach teaches you everything from the absolute basics through sophisticated game physics, animation, and mobile device deploymenttechniques. Every lesson builds on what you’ve already learned, giving you a rock-solid foundation for real-world success.

Step-by-step instructions carefully walk you through the most common Unity game development tasks.Practical, hands-on examples show you how to apply what you learn.Quizzes and exercises help you test your knowledge and stretch your skills.Notes and Tips point out shortcuts and solutions

Learn how to…

Get up and running fast with the Unity 2018 game engine and editor Work efficiently with Unity’s graphical asset pipeline Make the most of lights and cameras Sculpt stunning worlds with Unity’s terrain and environmental tools Script tasks ranging from capturing input to building complex behaviors Quickly create repeatable, reusable game objects with prefabs Implement easy, intuitive game user interfaces Control players through built-in and custom character controllers Build realistic physical and trigger collisions Leverage the full power of Unity’s Animation and new Timeline systems Integrate complex audio into your games Use mobile device accelerometers and multi-touch displays Build engaging 2D games with Unity’s 2D tools and Tilemap Apply the “finishing touches” and deploy your games

The definitive guide to more effective and personally fulfilling game development with Agile Methods—now revamped to reflect ten more years of experience and improvements Game development is in crisis—facing bloated budgets, impossible schedules, unmanageable complexity, and death-march overtime. It's no wonder so many development studios are struggling to survive. Fortunately, there is a solution. Agile and Lean methods have revolutionized development in the game development industry. In Agile Game Development, long-time game developer and consultant Clinton Keith shows exactly how these methods have been successfully applied to the unique challenges of modern game development. Clint has spent more than 25 years developing games and training and coaching hundreds of game development teams. Drawing on this unparalleled expertise, he shows how teams can use the practices of Scrum and Kanban, customized to game development, to deliver games more efficiently, rapidly, and cost-effectively; craft games that offer more entertainment value; and make life more fulfilling for development teams at the same time. Contains several new chapters on live games, leadership, and coaching, including an all-new section on Agile for large teams of up to 1000 developers Updates to all chapters to reflect a decade of experience with more than 200 studios Now covering Kanban and other Agile approaches alongside Scrum Understanding Agile goals, roles, and practices in the context of game development Discovering how Agile benefits every specialty in game development from art to QA Communicating and planning your game's vision, features, and progress Game developers and leaders are recognizing the modern challenges of gaming. Game development organizations need a far better way to work. Agile Game Development gives them that—and brings the profitability, creativity, and fun back to game development.

Learn All the Design & Development Skills You Need to Make Great Games with Unity, the World's Most Popular Professional Game Engine

If you want to design and develop games, there is no substitute for strong, hands-on experience with modern techniques and tools. That is exactly what this book provides. Leading instructor and indie game developer Jeremy Gibson Bond covers all three disciplines that you need to succeed: game design theory, rapid iterative prototyping, and practical programming.

Building on two previous best-sellers, this Third Edition contains hundreds of improvements across more than 400 new pages, all designed to make it even easier to understand and more useful in modern game development.

The five game tutorials have been thoroughly revised and expanded to cover even more best practices for prototyping and development, and all examples now use Unity 2020.3 LTS (Long Term Support), a stable and feature-rich standard for years to come. The new content includes greatly enhanced tutorials, a chapter on Unity's high-performance Data-Oriented Tech Stack (DOTS), new Coding Challenges to help you transition to making your own games from scratch, and tips on next steps after you have finished the book. The revamped website includes playable versions of all example games, plus an exciting new tool that provides immediate feedback on potential errors in your own code.

Part I: Game Design and Paper Prototyping

Use the Layered Tetrad to understand and design powerful interactive experiences. Explore the core game design practices of paper prototyping, testing, and iteration. Learn effective strategies for staying on track and on schedule. Get tips for finding a rewarding job in today's industry.

Part II: Programming C# in Unity

Learn C# from the basics through class inheritance, object-oriented programming, and data-oriented design.

Part III: Game Prototype Tutorials

Implement games across five genres: arcade, casual physics, space shooter, solitaire card game, and top-down adventure game. Each game is designed to be easily extensible into your own projects.Take three games from prototype to “first playable” through new extended tutorial chapters that refi ne the games further than in previous editions of the book.

NEW! Part IV: Next Steps

Tackle the new, growing library of Coding Challenges, a proven method for transitioning from tutorials to creating your own projects from scratch.Get ideas and resources for new projects to tackle on your own.

In just 24 lessons of one hour or less, Coding with Roblox Lua in 24 Hours: The Official Roblox Guide helps you learn all the skills and techniques you'll need to code your own Roblox games. Perfect for beginners, each short and easy lesson builds upon everything that's come before, helping you quickly master the essentials of Lua programming. Step-by-step instructions walk you through common questions, issues, and tasks Q&As, Quizzes, and Exercises build and test your knowledge 'Did You Know?' tips offer insider advice and shortcuts 'Watch Out!' alerts help you avoid pitfalls Coding with Roblox Lua in 24 Hours covers all this, and much more: Learn code with properties, variables, functions, if/then statements, and loopsOrganise information using arrays and dictionariesWork with events to make things move, explode, count down, and do whatever you can imagineKeep your code manageable with abstractions and object-oriented programmingStore data permanently to create leaderboards, inventories, and custom currencyUse raycasting to allow visitors to place their own objects, such as furniture and props, within your worldSamples Preview sample pages from Coding with Roblox Lua in 24 Hours: The Official Roblox Guide >

Every month, hundreds of millions of people around the world are spending billions of hours on Roblox--and Roblox's fast-growing community of developers has already earned hundreds of millions of dollars from their creations. For every burgeoning game developer who is looking to take their Roblox skills to the next level fast, look no further than Roblox Game Development in 24 Hours: The Official Roblox Guide.

In just 24 lessons of one hour or less, you will deepen your understanding of virtually every facet of Roblox game development. Each short and easy lesson builds upon everything that has come before, helping you take full advantage of this remarkable platform. Step-by-step instructions walk you through common questions, issues, and tasks; Q&As, Quizzes, and Exercises build and test your knowledge; "Try It Yourself" exercises encourage independent practice. By the time you're finished, you'll be a true Roblox game development expert.

Learn how to...

* Build immersive natural environments using built-in terrain and lighting tools * Model and import assets, models, weapons, and textures * Code game mechanics, animations, and camera movement * Design GUIs for store fronts, player HUDs, and interactive elements * Teleport players between multiple game places * Publish your game to multiple platforms with cross-platform play * Attract players, monetize your game, and earn real cash

As games grow more complex and gamers' expectations soar, the discipline of game systems design becomes ever more important. Game systems designers plan a game's rules and balance, its characters' attributes, most of its data, and how its AI, weapons, and objects work and interact. Introduction to Game Systems Design is the first complete beginner's guide to this crucial discipline. Writing for all aspiring game professionals, even those with absolutely no experience, leading game designer and instructor Dax Gazaway presents a step-by-step, hands-on approach to designing game systems with industry-standard tools. Drawing on his experience building AAA-level game systems (including games in the Star Wars and Marvel franchises), Gazaway covers all this, and more: Exploring the essentials of game design and its emerging subdisciplines Asking the essential questions at the heart of all design Getting started with modern game system design tools, including the spreadsheets most professionals now use Creating systems and data from a blank page Populating and quantifying a world of data into a game Tuning and balancing game systems Testing game systems and data Leveraging communication, psychology, and rewards within your games Balancing game probability within systems Whether you're a college freshman entering a game design program, an indie developer using Unreal or Unity, a Dungeon Master, or anyone who wants to really understand modern games, this guide will help you get where you want to go.  

In just 24 lessons of one hour or less, Sams Teach Yourself Unity Game Development in 24 Hours will help you master the Unity 2021 game engine at the heart of Inside, Kerbal Space Program, Subnautica, and many other sizzling-hot games! This book's straightforward, step-by-step approach teaches you everything from the absolute basics through sophisticated game physics, animation, and mobile device deployment techniques. Every lesson builds on what you've already learned, giving you a rock-solid foundation for real-world success. * Step-by-step instructions carefully walk you through the most common Unity game development tasks. * Four sample game projects illustrate the topics. * Practical, hands-on examples show you how to apply what you learn. * Quizzes and exercises help you test your knowledge and stretch your skills. * Notes and Tips point out shortcuts and solutions. Learn how to... * Get up and running fast with the Unity 2021 game engine and editor * Work efficiently with Unity's graphical asset pipeline * Make the most of lights and cameras * Sculpt stunning worlds with Unity's terrain and environmental tools * Script tasks ranging from capturing input to building complex behaviors * Quickly create repeatable, reusable game objects with prefabs * Implement easy, intuitive game user interfaces * Control players through built-in and custom character controllers * Build realistic physical and trigger collisions * Leverage the full power of Unity's Animation and Timeline systems * Integrate complex audio into your games * Use mobile device accelerometers and multi-touch displays * Build engaging 2D games with Unity's 2D tools and Tilemap * Apply the "finishing touches"and deploy your games

Classical music is everywhere in video games. Works by composers like Bach and Mozart fill the soundtracks of games ranging from arcade classics, to indie titles, to major franchises like BioShock, Civilization, and Fallout. Children can learn about classical works and their histories from interactive iPad games. World-renowned classical orchestras frequently perform concerts of game music to sold-out audiences. But what do such combinations of art and entertainment reveal about the cultural value we place on these media? Can classical music ever be video game music, and can game music ever be classical? Delving into the shifting and often contradictory cultural definitions that emerge when classical music meets video games, Replay Value offers a new perspective on the possibilities and challenges of trying to distinguish between art and pop culture in contemporary society.

Video games have captivated us for over 50 years, giving us entire worlds to explore, new ways to connect with friends, thought-provoking stories, or just a fun way to pass the time. Creating games is a dream for many, but making great games is challenging. The Game Designer's Playbook is about meeting that challenge. More specifically, it's a book about game interaction design; in other words, shaping what players can do and how they do it to make a game satisfying and memorable. Our time with a game is built on interaction, from basic things like pushing buttons on a controller, to making complicated strategic decisions and engaging with the narrative. If you've ever felt the adrenaline rush from beating a perfectly tuned boss fight or been delighted by the fanfare of picking up that last collectible, you've experienced good interaction design firsthand. The Game Designer's Playbook is about learning what makes for great (or terrible!) interaction design in games, exploring things like controls, feedback, story, and tutorial design by analyzing existing games. It also looks at how newer and still-developing tech like VR and streaming are changing the ways we play, and how you can bring great interaction design to your own games.

You're part of a new venture, an independent gaming company, and you are about to undertake your first development project. The client wants a serious game, one with instructional goals and assessment metrics. Or you may be in a position to green light such a project yourself, believing that it can advance your organization's mission and goals. This book provides a proven process to take an independent game project from start to finish.In order to build a successful game, you need to wear many hats. There are graphic artists, software engineers, designers, producers, marketers - all take part in the process at various (coordinated) stages, and the end result is hopefully a successful game. Veteran game producers and writers (Iuppa and Borst) cover all of these areas for you, with step by step instructions and checklists to get the work done.The final section of the book offers a series of case studies from REAL indy games that have been developed and launched succesfully, and show exactly how the principles outlined in the book can be applied to real world products.The book's associated author web site offers ancillary materials & references as well as serious game demos and presentations.