Introduction to Game Design, Prototyping, and Development by
Master the Unity Game Engine to Design and Develop Games for Web, Mobile, Windows, macOS, and More! If you want to design and develop games, there's no substitute for strong hands-on experience with modern techniques and tools--and that is exactly what this book provides. The first edition was frequently the top-selling game design book on Amazon, with more than 70% of the reviews being 5 stars. In a testament to the iterative process of design, this new edition includes hundreds of improvements throughout the text, all designed to make the book easier to understand and even more useful. This book was written with Unity 2017; the book.prototools.net website will cover changes for later versions of the software. Award-winning game designer and professor Jeremy Gibson Bond has spent more than a decade teaching game design and building great games. In that time, his most successful students have been those who combine knowledge of three critical disciplines: game design theory, rapid iterative prototyping, and practical programming. In this book, Bond distills the most important aspects of all three disciplines into one place. Part I: Game Design and Paper Prototyping * The Layered Tetrad framework: a synthesis of 50 years of game design theory * Proven practices for brainstorming and refining game designs through the iterative process of design * Methods and tools to manage game projects and small teams * Processes to make playtesting and feedback easier Part II: Digital Prototyping with Unity and C# * Chapters that guide you through learning C# the right way * Instruction that takes you from no prior programming knowledge through object-oriented programming * Deep exploration of Unity, today's most popular game engine on both macOS and Windows * Methods for understanding and debugging code issues you encounter Part III: Game Prototype Examples and Tutorials * In-depth tutorials for seven different game prototypes, including a simple action game, a space shooter, a solitaire card game, a word game, and a top-down adventure * Instructions to compile these games for PC, web, or any of the dozens of other release platforms supported by Unity * Improved structure and layout that makes the steps of each tutorial easier to follow * A completely new Dungeon Delver prototype not present in the first edition
Game Feel by
"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.
Software for developing a game (e.g. Unity, UE4)
IDE (e.g. Visual Studio)