Level Up! The Guide to Great Video Game Design, 2nd Edition

Level Up! The Guide to Great Video Game Design, 2nd Edition

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Book description

Want to design your own video games? Let expert Scott Rogers show you how!

If you want to design and build cutting-edge video games but aren't sure where to start, then the SECOND EDITION of the acclaimed Level Up! is for you! Written by leading video game expert Scott Rogers, who has designed the hits Pac Man World, Maximo and SpongeBob Squarepants, this updated edition provides clear and well-thought out examples that forgo theoretical gobbledygook with charmingly illustrated concepts and solutions based on years of professional experience.

Level Up! 2nd Edition has been NEWLY EXPANDED to teach you how to develop marketable ideas, learn what perils and pitfalls await during a game's pre-production, production and post-production stages, and provide even more creative ideas to serve as fuel for your own projects including:

Level Up! 2nd Edition is includes all-new content, an introduction by David "God of War" Jaffe and even a brand-new chili recipe -making it an even more indispensable guide for video game designers both "in the field" and the classroom.

Grab your copy of Level Up! 2nd Edition and let's make a game!

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Table of contents

    1. Foreword
    2. Introduction: Press Start!
      1. If You Are Anything Like Me . . .
      2. No, You Can’t Have My Job
      3. Who Is This Book For?
      4. Why a Second Edition?
      1. A Brief History of Video Games
      2. The Brave New World of Gaming: Mobiles, Online Distribution, and Touchscreens
      3. Game Genres
      4. Who Makes This Stuff?
        1. Programmer
        2. Artist
        3. Designer
        4. Producer
        5. Tester
        6. Composer
        7. Sound Designer
        8. Writer
        1. Product Manager
        2. Creative Manager
        3. Art Director
        4. Technical Director
        5. Marketing Team
        6. And the Rest . . .
        1. Ideas: Where to Get Them and Where to Stick Them
        2. Getting Ahead of the Game
        3. What Do Gamers Want?
        4. Brainstorming
        5. Breaking Writer’s Block
        6. Why I Hate “Fun”
        1. Once Upon a Time . . .
        2. The Triangle of Weirdness
        3. A Likely Story
        4. Time to Wrap It Up
        5. A Game by Any Other Name
        6. Creating Characters Your Players Care About
        7. A Few Pointers on Writing for Kids of All Ages
        8. Writing for Licenses
        1. Writing the GDD, Step 1: The One-Sheet
          1. ESRB Ratings
          2. Unique Selling Points
          3. Competitive Products
          1. The Rule of Threes
          2. The Ten-Pager Outline
          1. Who Do You Want To Be Today?
            1. Personality: Do We Really Need Another Kratos?
            2. Let’s Get Personal
            3. Using All the Parts
            4. Games Without Characters
            5. We Are Not Alone
            6. When More Is More
            7. Who Are the People in Your Neighborhood?
            1. Metrics for Non-Characters
            2. Be Kind to Our Four-Legged Friends
            3. Why Walk When You Can Run?
            4. The Art of Doing Nothing
            5. Might as Well Jump
            6. Hoists and Teeters
            7. What Goes Up Must Fall Down
            8. Me and My Shadow
            9. The Water’s Fine . . . or Is It?
            1. Get It Right: Camera Views
            2. First Person Camera
            3. Third Person Camera
            4. Giving Up Control
              1. So You’ve Decided to Let the Player Control the Camera
              2. So You’ve Decided Not to Let the Player Have Control over the Camera
              3. So You’ve Decided to Let Players Sometimes Have Control over the Camera
              1. Always Point the Camera to the Objective
              2. Never Let the Character Get out of the Camera’s Sight
              1. Control Is in Your Hand
              2. You’ve Got the Touch
              3. Dance, Monkey, Dance
              4. Character or Camera Relative?
              5. Shake, Rattle, and Roll
              1. Heads Up!
                1. Health Bar
                2. Targeting Reticule
                3. Ammo Gauge
                4. Inventory
                5. Score/Experience
                6. Positive Messaging
                7. Radar/Map
                8. Context-Sensitive Prompts
                9. The Clean Screen
                10. Icon Has Cheezburger?
                11. Creating Icons for Mobile Games
                12. Don’t Get QTE
                13. HUDs and Where to Stick ‘Em
                1. The Top 10 Cliché Video Game Themes
                2. The Name Game
                3. Everything I Learned About Level Design, I Learned from Disneyland
                  1. Mapping the World
                  2. Foreshadowing
                  3. Goal Setting
                  1. 400 Quatloos on the Newcomer!
                  2. Put ‘Em Up!
                  3. And a One and a Two . . .
                  4. The Big Finish
                  5. Live by the Sword . . .
                  6. Now You Have to Kiss Me
                  7. Let’s Get Defensive
                  8. Dodging the Bullet
                  9. On Guarding
                  10. State of the Art Bang Bang
                  11. The Best Gun for You
                  12. Run and Gun
                  13. Not Just Shooting
                  14. Dang it, Jones! Where Doesn’t It Hurt?
                  15. Death: What Is It Good For?
                  16. Conflict Without Combat
                  1. Sizing Up the Enemy
                  2. Bad Behavior
                  3. How Rapid is Rapid?
                  4. Movement Style
                  5. Bring on the Bad Guys
                  6. I Love Designing Enemies
                    1. The Alphabetical Bestiary of Choices
                    1. The Mechanics of Mechanics
                    2. Holy Death Trap!
                    3. What I Learned from Making Kids Cry
                    4. Time to Die
                    5. The Music of Mechanics
                    6. Chip Off the Old Block
                    7. A Nice Little Calm Spot
                    8. Riddle Me This
                    9. Puzzle Me That
                    10. Minigames and Microgames
                    1. Powering Up
                    2. “Love Thy Player”
                    3. Seriously. “Love Thy Player.”
                    4. More Wealth Than You Can Imagine!
                      1. High Score
                      2. Achievements
                      3. Money! Money! Money!
                      4. Souvenirs
                      1. How Many Is the Right Number?
                      2. MMORPGS, or Hell Is Other People
                      3. Designing Multiplayer Levels
                        1. Planning Your Level
                        2. Mapping Your Level
                        3. Building Your Level
                        4. The Dirty Half Dozen
                        1. Cashing In
                        2. Money Is the Root of Something Something
                        1. I Know It When I Hear It
                        2. Music with Style
                        3. And the Beat Goes On. . .
                        4. Sounds Like a Game to Me
                        1. A Cut Above
                        2. How to Write a Screenplay in Eight Easy Steps
                        3. Finding Your Voice
                        1. No One Cares About Your Stupid Little World
                        2. Who’s Paying?
                        3. Video Games Is a Haaaard Business
                          1. When Reality Gets in the Way
                          2. Emergent, Vertical, or Horizontal?
                          1. Time to Level Up!
                          Show and hide more

                          Product information

                          • Title: Level Up! The Guide to Great Video Game Design, 2nd Edition
                          • Author(s): Scott Rogers
                          • Release date: April 2014
                          • Publisher(s): Wiley
                          • ISBN: 9781118877166