Update to include:
Expansion on themes
Touch and touch screen controls
AR enabled games & incorporating real-world camera in to your game
Motion controls
Designing an app icon
Real world level design
Voice over for games and much more...
"Level Up! "covers the entire video game creation process. Readers will learn how to develop marketable ideas, learn what perils and pitfalls await them during a game's pre-production, production and post-production stages. Rogers' also provides creative ideas to serve as fuel for the reader's own projects from game theme and environments to gameplay mechanics.
Inside, video game industry veteran Scott Rogers provides clear and well-thought out examples that forgo theoretical gobbledygook with charmingly illustrated concepts and solutions based on Rogers' years of professional experience. "Level Up! "is the "Understanding Comics" of video game design - an indispensable guide for video game designers both "in the field" and the classroom.
Topics covered include: Understanding what gamers wantCompelling character designWorking with player actionsTechniques for non-human charactersCamera techniques - the camera as a characterDesigning UI and HUDBeautiful level designWhat games designers can learn from theme parksCombat, puzzles and game mechanicsFun and UNFUNHow to make the world's greatest Boss battle (and why not to do it)
and tons more - including the business of design, creating design documents, the pitch and more.
Author(s): Scott Rogers
Edition: 1
Level Up!
Contents
Foreword by Danny Bilson
About the Author
Press Start!
Acknowledgments: Everything I Learned about Writing a Book
Level 1 Welcome, N00bs!
A Brief History of Video Games
Game Genres
Who Makes this Stuff?
Programmer
Artist
Designer
Producer
Tester
Composer
Sound Designer
Writer
Have You Thought about Publishing?
Product Manager
Creative Manager
Art Director
Technical Director
And the Rest. . .
Level 1’s Universal Truths and Clever Ideas
LeveI 2 Ideas
Ideas: Where to Get Them and Where to Stick Them
What do Gamers Want?
Why I Hate “Fun”
Brainstorming
Breaking Writer’s Block
Level 2’s Universal Truths and Clever Ideas
Level 3 Writing the Story
The Triangle of Weirdness
Time to Wrap It Up
Creating Characters
A Few Pointers on Writing for Kids of All Ages
Writing for Licenses
Level 3’s Universal Truths and Clever Ideas
Level 4 You Can Design a Game, But Can You Do the Paperwork?
Writing the GDD, Step 1 : The One-Sheet
ESRB Ratings
Writing the GDD, Step 2 : The Ten-Pager
The Rule of Threes
Ten-Pager Outline
The Game Design Document (and the Awful Truth about Writing Them)
Gameplay Progression
The Beat Chart
Above All, Don’t Be a Schmuck
Level 4’s Universal Truths and Clever Ideas
Level 5 The Three Cs, Part 1—Character
Personality: Do We Really Need Another Badass?
Let’s Get Personal
Finally, We Talk about Gameplay
Why Walk When You Can Run?
The Art of Doing Nothing
Might as Well Jump
Hoists and Teeters
What Goes Up, Must Fall Down
Me and My Shadow
The Water’s Fine… or Is It?
Be Kind to Our Four-Legged Friends
Using All of the Parts
We Are Not Alone
Who Are the People in Your Neighborhood?
Level 5’s Universal Truths and Clever Ideas
Level 6 The Three Cs, Part 2—Camera
Get It Right: Camera Views
First Person Camera
Third Person Camera
Giving Up Control
So You’ve Decided to Let the Player Control the Camera
So You’ve Decided to Not Let the Player Have Control Over the Camera
So You’ve Decided to Let the Player Sometimes Have Control Over the Camera
Two and a Half D
Isometric Camera
Top-Down Camera
Special Case Cameras
Tunnel Vision
Camera Shot Guide
Camera Angle Guide
Camera Movement Guide
Other Camera Notes
Always Point the Camera to the Objective
Never Let the Character Get Out of the Camera’s Sight
Multiple Player Cameras
Level 6’s Universal Truths and Clever Ideas
Level 7 The Three Cs, Part 3—Controls
Dance, Monkey, Dance
Character or Camera Relative?
Shake, Rattle and Roll
Level 7’s Universal Truths and Clever Ideas
Level 8 Sign Language—HUD and Icon Design
Health Bar
Targeting
Ammo gauge
Inventory
Score
Radar/Map
Context-Sensitive Prompt
The Clean Screen
Icon Has Cheezburger?
Don’t Get QTE
HUDS, and Where To Stick‘Em
There Are Other Screens Than the HUD
The Pause that Refreshes
A Final Word on Fonts
Level 8’s Universal Truths and Clever Ideas
LeveI 9 Everything I Learned About Level Design, I Learned from Level 9
The Top 10 Cliché Video Game Themes
The Name Game
Everything I Learned About Level Design, I Learned from Disneyland
The Beat Chart
Re-using Re-use
The Gary Gygax 13 Memorial Mapping Section
The Dave Arnenson Memorial Mapping Section
Wrapping Up Mapping
Illusional Narrative
Gray Matters
Leave the Training Level for Last
Level 9 ’ s Universal Truths and Clever Ideas
Level 10 The Elements of Combat
400 Quatloos on the Newcomer!
Now You Have to Kiss Me
On Moving
On Guarding
State of the Art Bang Bang
The Best Gun for You
Run and Gun
Not Just Shooting
Dammit Jones, Where Doesn’t It Hurt?
Death: What is It Good For?
Level 10’s Universal Truths and Clever Ideas
LeveI 11 They All Want You Dead
Bring on the Bad Guys
I Love Designing Enemies
I Hate You to Pieces
Non-Enemy Enemies
How to Create the World’s Greatest Boss Battle
Who’s the Boss?
Size Matters
Location, Location, Location
Why Not to Create the World’s Greatest Boss Battle
Level 11’s Universal Truths and Clever Ideas
LeveI 12 The Nuts and Bolts of Mechanics
Holy Death Trap!
Time to Die
The Music of Mechanics
A Nice Little Calm Spot
Riddle Me This
A Short Word on Minigames and Microgames
Level 12’s Universal Truths and Clever Ideas
LeveI 13 Now You’re Playing with Power
“Love Thy Player”
More Wealth Than You Can Imagine!
Level 13's Universal Truths and Clever Ideas
LeveI 14 Multiplayer — the More the Merrier
How Many is the Right Number?
MMORPGS, or Hell is Other People
Level 14’s Universal Truths and Clever Ideas
LeveI 15 Some Notes on Music
Sounds Like a Game to Me
Level 15’s Universal Truths and Clever Ideas
Level 16 Cutscenes, or No One’s Gonna Watch ‘Em Anyway
How to Write a Screenplay in Eight Easy Steps
Level 16’s Universal Truths and Clever Ideas
LeveI 17 And Now the Hard Part
No One Cares About Your Stupid Little World
Video Games is a Haaaard Business
What to Do for an Encore?
Level 17’s Universal Truths and Clever Ideas
Continue?
Bonus Level 1: The One-Sheet Sample
Bonus Level 2: The Ten-Page Design Document Sample
Bonus Level 3: Game Design Document Template
Bonus Level 4: The Medium -Sized List of Story Themes
Bonus Level 5: The Big List of Environments
Bonus Level 6: Mechanics and Hazards
Bonus Level 7: Enemy Design Template
Bonus Level 8: Boss Design Template
Bonus Level 9: High Concept Pitch Presentation
Achievement Unlocked: Exactly Like Making Chili
Index
