Game Ideas Journal


Book Description

This handy notebook is perfect for game developers to quickly jot down ideas for video games . If you're an game Developer or game designer, chances are that you're constantly coming up with ideas for cool and interesting games to make. This journal allows you to quickly record and keep track of them for brainstorming purposes, or for future use. Would make a perfect gift for anyone interested in game design or becoming a game developer. Each page has a space at the top for writing the title or name of the game idea, a space for filling in how long you estimate that the project would take and a space for the game's "elevator pitch". (a sentence or two that explains your game) as well as a game developing progress to keep traking your level of progress . The rest of each page is simply filled with blank lines to write whatever you want about the game idea.




Gaming the Past


Book Description

Despite the growing number of books designed to radically reconsider the educational value of video games as powerful learning tools, there are very few practical guidelines conveniently available for prospective history and social studies teachers who actually want to use these teaching and learning tools in their classes. As the games and learning field continues to grow in importance, Gaming the Past provides social studies teachers and teacher educators help in implementing this unique and engaging new pedagogy. This book focuses on specific examples to help social studies educators effectively use computer simulation games to teach critical thinking and historical analysis. Chapters cover the core parts of conceiving, planning, designing, and implementing simulation based lessons. Additional topics covered include: Talking to colleagues, administrators, parents, and students about the theoretical and practical educational value of using historical simulation games. Selecting simulation games that are aligned to curricular goals Determining hardware and software requirements, purchasing software, and preparing a learning environment incorporating simulations Planning lessons and implementing instructional strategies Identifying and avoiding common pitfalls Developing activities and assessments for use with simulation games that facilitate the interpretation and creation of established and new media Also included are sample unit and lesson plans and worksheets as well as suggestions for further reading. The book ends with brief profiles of the majority of historical simulation games currently available from commercial vendors and freely on the Internet.




Learning Video Game Design on the Tabletop


Book Description

Learn the mechanics that take your game from an idea to a playable product. Do you aspire to be a game designer but aren’t sure where to begin? Learning Video Game Design on the Tabletop guides you through your initial attempts to design game mechanics. It goes beyond simple description and definition to explore in detail the issues that designers grapple with for every game they create. Learning to design tabletop games builds a solid foundation for game designers and provides methods that can be applied towards creating paper prototypes of computer-targeted games. Presented in a step-by-step format, this book helps the reader understand how the game design skills that are acquired through creating tabletop games can be used when designing video games. Fully playable games accompany every topic so you can truly understand and experience each component that goes into game creation. The Second Edition includes: Simple, highly focused games that can be played, analyzed, improved, and/or modified in conjunction with a particular topic in the book Integrated game design exercises, chapter learning objectives, and in-text sidebars to provide further examples to apply directly to your game creation process Essays from professional tabletop and video game designers in which they describe their professional journeys and design philosophies.




Tabletop Game Design for Video Game Designers


Book Description

Learn the mechanics that take your game from an idea to a playable product. Do you aspire to be a game designer but aren’t sure where to begin? Tabletop Game Design for Video Game Designers guides you through your initial attempts to design game mechanics. It goes beyond simple description and definition to explore in detail the issues that designers grapple with for every game they create. Learning to design tabletop games builds a solid foundation for game designers and provides methods that can be applied towards creating paper prototypes of computer-targeted games. Presented in a step-by-step format, Tabletop Game Design for Video Game Designers helps the reader understand how the game design skills that are acquired through creating tabletop games can be used when designing video games. Fully playable games accompany every topic so you can truly understand and experience each component that goes into game creation. Tabletop Game Design for Video Game Designers includes: Simple, highly focused games that can be played, analyzed, improved, and/or modified in conjunction with a particular topic in the book. Integrated game design exercises, chapter learning objectives, and in-text sidebars to provide further examples to apply directly to your game creation process. A companion website (www.funmines.com) which includes: "print & play" tabletop games, links to online games, game design resources, and articles about designing and developing games.




Theory of Fun for Game Design


Book Description

Discusses the essential elements in creating a successful game, how playing games and learning are connected, and what makes a game boring or fun.




Chris Crawford on Game Design


Book Description

Chris Crawford on Game Design is all about the foundational skills behind the design and architecture of a game. Without these skills, designers and developers lack the understanding to work with the tools and techniques used in the industry today. Chris Crawford, the most highly sought after expert in this area, brings an intense opinion piece full of personality and flare like no other person in this industry can. He explains the foundational and fundamental concepts needed to get the most out of game development today. An exceptional precursor to the two books soon to be published by New Riders with author Andrew Rollings, this book teaches key lessons; including, what you can learn from the history of game play and historical games, necessity of challenge in game play, applying dimensions of conflict, understanding low and high interactivity designs, watching for the inclusion of creativity, and understanding the importance of storytelling. In addition, Chris brings you the wish list of games he'd like to build and tells you how to do it. Game developers and designers will kill for this information!




Designing Your Life


Book Description

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • At last, a book that shows you how to build—design—a life you can thrive in, at any age or stage • “Life has questions. They have answers.” —The New York Times Designers create worlds and solve problems using design thinking. Look around your office or home—at the tablet or smartphone you may be holding or the chair you are sitting in. Everything in our lives was designed by someone. And every design starts with a problem that a designer or team of designers seeks to solve. In this book, Bill Burnett and Dave Evans show us how design thinking can help us create a life that is both meaningful and fulfilling, regardless of who or where we are, what we do or have done for a living, or how young or old we are. The same design thinking responsible for amazing technology, products, and spaces can be used to design and build your career and your life, a life of fulfillment and joy, constantly creative and productive, one that always holds the possibility of surprise.




Game & Puzzle Design, vol. 1, no. 1, 2015 (B&W)


Book Description

Game & Puzzle Design is a peer-reviewed research journal publishing high quality work on all aspects of game and puzzle design. The journal is published twice a year and is sponsored by the Queensland University of Technology (QUT). Black & white edition (with full colour cover).







A to Z of Computer Scientists, Updated Edition


Book Description

Praise for the previous edition: "Entries are written with enough clarity and simplicity to appeal to general audiences. The additional readings that end each profile give excellent pointers for more detailed information...Recommended."—Choice "This well-written collection of biographies of the most important contributors to the computer world...is a valuable resource for those interested in the men and women who were instrumental in making the world we live in today. This is a recommended purchase for reference collections."—American Reference Books Annual "...this one is recommended for high-school, public, and undergraduate libraries."—Booklist The significant role that the computer plays in the business world, schools, and homes speaks to the impact it has on our daily lives. While many people are familiar with the Internet, online shopping, and basic computer technology, the scientists who pioneered this digital age are generally less well-known. A to Z of Computer Scientists, Updated Edition features 136 computer pioneers and shows the ways in which these individuals developed their ideas, overcame technical and institutional challenges, collaborated with colleagues, and created products or institutions of lasting importance. The cutting-edge, contemporary entries explore a diverse group of inventors, scientists, entrepreneurs, and visionaries in the computer science field. People covered include: Grace Hopper (1906–1992) Dennis Ritchie (1941–2011) Brian Kernighan (1942–present) Howard Rheingold (1947–present) Bjarne Stroustrup (1950–present) Esther Dyson (1951–present) Silvio Micali (1954–present) Jeff Bezos (1964–present) Pierre Omidyar (1967–present) Jerry Yang (1968–present)