Focal Press Game Design Workshops – serie

Learn how to create compelling game storylines.Four experienced narrative designers from different genres of game development have banded together to create this all-inclusive guide on what it's like to work as a writer and narrative designer in the video game industry. From concept to final testing, The Game Narrative Toolbox walks readers through what role a narrative designer plays on a development team and what the requirements are at every stage of development. Drawing on real experiences, authors Tobias Heussner, Toiya Kristen Finley, PhD, Ann Lemay, and Jennifer Brandes Hepler provide invaluable advice for writing compelling player-centered stories and effective dialogue trees to help readers make the switch from writing prose or screenplay to interactive.Thoroughly revised, the Second Edition includes updated content reflecting the industry’s latest developments. In addition to revised and updated chapters, this new edition features two additional chapters covering more advanced topics that are applicable to the lessons learned from the original chapters.Accompanying every chapter are exercises that allow the reader to develop their own documentation, outlines, and game-dialogue samples for use in applying for industry jobs or developing independent projects.

Learn how to create compelling game storylines.Four experienced narrative designers from different genres of game development have banded together to create this all-inclusive guide on what it's like to work as a writer and narrative designer in the video game industry. From concept to final testing, The Game Narrative Toolbox walks readers through what role a narrative designer plays on a development team and what the requirements are at every stage of development. Drawing on real experiences, authors Tobias Heussner, Toiya Kristen Finley, PhD, Ann Lemay, and Jennifer Brandes Hepler provide invaluable advice for writing compelling player-centered stories and effective dialogue trees to help readers make the switch from writing prose or screenplay to interactive.Thoroughly revised, the Second Edition includes updated content reflecting the industry’s latest developments. In addition to revised and updated chapters, this new edition features two additional chapters covering more advanced topics that are applicable to the lessons learned from the original chapters.Accompanying every chapter are exercises that allow the reader to develop their own documentation, outlines, and game-dialogue samples for use in applying for industry jobs or developing independent projects.

This book teaches students and entry-level novices how to create games using the GameMaker engine. Readers will quickly hone their design skills with tutorials that are written so that beginners can quickly start building games while also providing lessons on how designers can ‘level up’ and add advanced options to their games. Readers will also have access to a website containing all the assets and resources to create their games, including sprites and animations, walk-through video tutorials of each lesson and music composed by professional musicians. Also provided are rubrics for instructors to use when grading student work or for readers learning on their own to evaluate their own work.

This book teaches students and entry-level novices how to create games using the GameMaker engine. Readers will quickly hone their design skills with tutorials that are written so that beginners can quickly start building games while also providing lessons on how designers can ‘level up’ and add advanced options to their games. Readers will also have access to a website containing all the assets and resources to create their games, including sprites and animations, walk-through video tutorials of each lesson and music composed by professional musicians. Also provided are rubrics for instructors to use when grading student work or for readers learning on their own to evaluate their own work.

In introducing new students to video game development, there are two crucial components to consider: design and implementation. Unity 3D and PlayMaker Essentials: Game Development from Concept to Publishing provides theoretical background on topics such as characters, stories, level design, interface design, audio, game mechanics, and tools and skills needed.Each chapter focuses on a specific topic, with topics building upon each other so that by the end of the book you will have looked into all the subjects relevant to creating your own game. The book transitions from discussion to demonstrations of how to implement techniques and concepts into practice by using Unity3D and PlayMaker. Download boxes are included throughout the book where you can get the version of the game project under discussion or other content to add to the project, as well as any supplementary video tutorials that have been developed.Addressing both theoretical and practical aspects, Unity 3D and PlayMaker Essentials enables you to understand how to create a game by having you make a game. By gradually completing your own design document through the course of the book, you will become familiar with core design principles while learning the practical skills needed to bring your unique game to life.