Level Up!: The Guide to Great Video Game Design
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Product Description
Product Description
Design and build cutting–edge video games with help from video game expert Scott Rogers!
If you want to design and build cutting–edge video games but aren’t sure where to start, then this is the book for you. Written by leading video game expert Scott Rogers, who has designed the hits Pac Man World, Maxim vs. Army of Zin, and SpongeBob Squarepants, this book is full of Rogers′s wit and imaginative style that demonstrates everything you need to know about designing great video games.
- Features an approachable writing style that considers game designers from all levels of expertise and experience
- Covers the entire video game creation process, including developing marketable ideas, understanding what gamers want, working with player actions, and more
- Offers techniques for creating non–human characters and using the camera as a character
- Shares helpful insight on the business of design and how to create design documents
So, put your game face on and start creating memorable, creative, and unique video games with this book!
From the Back Cover
Want to learn how to create cutting–edge video games? Need some advice to improve your current game? Then get ready to Level Up!
Scott Rogers, the video game designer behind hits such as Pac–Man World, God of WarTM, the Maximo Series, and SpongeBob SquarePants, shares his years of knowledge and experience with you on how to make video games great. Learn how to:
- Create what gamers want
- Bring compelling (and playable) characters to life
- Build game levels that tell stories and challenge players
- Design everything from controls to cutscenes to combat
- Structure your game documents for success
- Pitch your game like the professionals
Level Up! has been written with all levels of game designers in mind. Over 400 drawings illustrate design concepts and common pitfalls of game design, making Level Up! an indispensible guide for video game designers both ′in the field′ and the classroom.
So what are you waiting for? Grab this book and prepare to Level Up!
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
I'm approached this book as a web designer in the process of creating a number of game concepts for the web - so I needed some authentic and directly useful direction and ideas. I genuinely appreciate the author for writing this.
There are 478 pages, each packed with concise, readable and detailed info. Topic detailed include the story, character development, and controls, as well a esoteric concepts like 'fun'. There's more detail and wisdom than I know how to summarize. Each double page spread has at least one picture (a minimal, cartoony drawing) which works brilliantly to explain each point, and makes it handy to navigate the book by flicking rapidly through it.
The concepts are so fundamental that I believe this is useful if you're creating the next Call of Duty, or making a modest Flash app for the web. I also think this book will be interesting to gamers who care about the thought processes behind making games.
There are 478 pages, each packed with concise, readable and detailed info. Topic detailed include the story, character development, and controls, as well a esoteric concepts like 'fun'. There's more detail and wisdom than I know how to summarize. Each double page spread has at least one picture (a minimal, cartoony drawing) which works brilliantly to explain each point, and makes it handy to navigate the book by flicking rapidly through it.
The concepts are so fundamental that I believe this is useful if you're creating the next Call of Duty, or making a modest Flash app for the web. I also think this book will be interesting to gamers who care about the thought processes behind making games.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
The first thing to make clear about this book, if it's not already from the description given above, is that it does not contain a single line of programming code. Instead, this is all about what should be going on before the programmer sits down at the keyboard and starts merrily tapping away!
Being a bit of an amateur game-maker myself, I've really enjoyed this book and recommended my son (who has similar ambitions) read it next. I've aborted too many little projects because I've become caught up in feature-creep or been unable to add specific features that I believed were required. The common thread in all these aborted projects was that I didn't have a clear design in mind before starting. They all started with a "Can I do...?" question and progressed from there, with that question eventually being answered with a "No I can't!".
Armed with this book I am compiling a clear and concise design document and will soon be hacking away with the Unreal Development Kit to see if I can finally make my dreams a reality!
Being a bit of an amateur game-maker myself, I've really enjoyed this book and recommended my son (who has similar ambitions) read it next. I've aborted too many little projects because I've become caught up in feature-creep or been unable to add specific features that I believed were required. The common thread in all these aborted projects was that I didn't have a clear design in mind before starting. They all started with a "Can I do...?" question and progressed from there, with that question eventually being answered with a "No I can't!".
Armed with this book I am compiling a clear and concise design document and will soon be hacking away with the Unreal Development Kit to see if I can finally make my dreams a reality!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
If you are a programmer and want to read a book about games programming, stop reading this review and do another search. This book has absolutely nothing to do with the programming side of gaming. However, if you want a book that goes through the fundamentals of game design in a readable manner then keep reading because this book is for you.
Its starts off giving a history of games. I skipped this as I already know this - although there are a couple of useful nuggets in there. Each chapter is actually called a level (keeping the theme) and that one is called Welcome Noobs. From that I think you can probably gather that there is a good degree of humour within these pages. It covers design elements, character design, HUD design, icons, idea generation and how to sell your game amongst other things. But its always shot through with a practical element and advice that should be beneficial to anyone reading. I'll give an example of this that should give you an idea. A small section is entitled 'Walking is never, ever gameplay'. This goes through the idea that walking is for lazy game designers and that you should avoid the player walking for an extended period. It then gives some advice on alternatives (Jumping, sneaking, swinging etc). Very practical. And yes it might be common sense but some of the advice makes you step back and think.
You probably won't read it cover to cover, thats not the point. But as a good guide to design mechanics with advice this really is a very good source book.
Its starts off giving a history of games. I skipped this as I already know this - although there are a couple of useful nuggets in there. Each chapter is actually called a level (keeping the theme) and that one is called Welcome Noobs. From that I think you can probably gather that there is a good degree of humour within these pages. It covers design elements, character design, HUD design, icons, idea generation and how to sell your game amongst other things. But its always shot through with a practical element and advice that should be beneficial to anyone reading. I'll give an example of this that should give you an idea. A small section is entitled 'Walking is never, ever gameplay'. This goes through the idea that walking is for lazy game designers and that you should avoid the player walking for an extended period. It then gives some advice on alternatives (Jumping, sneaking, swinging etc). Very practical. And yes it might be common sense but some of the advice makes you step back and think.
You probably won't read it cover to cover, thats not the point. But as a good guide to design mechanics with advice this really is a very good source book.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Inspiring, but slightly too focused
It's a nice book, full of very nice information, detailed examples, a lot of insight.
It's well written and fun to read, has nice pictures detailing the author's... Read more
It's well written and fun to read, has nice pictures detailing the author's... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Alessandro Ricci
Read this, even if you think you know games design!
Great book that should be essential reading to all aspiring and existing games designer. Sure a lot of it seems obvious when you are reading but having the fundamentals of good... Read more
Published 5 months ago by NickWal
A must read for Gamers and Designers
Scott Rogers does a great job of offering information that is easy to understand, while also being applicable to those with vast amounts of game design experience and to those... Read more
Published 10 months ago by colin j wyllie
Excellent book!
Even after I went on a university course for game design I still found this to be packed full of things I didn't necessarily think of straight away. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Mr. J. Meller
a book about creating games on any platform, not how to code it.
I wanted a book to help with the essential element of game design that is often over-looked, that being the reason for a game,the character development, its environments, the... Read more
Published 15 months ago by android/ iphone fan
A Good Introduction
This book gives a readable, intelligent overview of video game design that will appeal to a wide spectrum of readers. Read more
Published 15 months ago by The Man from the Ministry
Absolute Riot of a Read
While I'm sure many of us would love to be games designers, we will never get the chance - but they say everyone has at least one good idea! Read more
Published 17 months ago by S. Smith
Amazing
I got this as my 10 year son has just discovered Scratch.
It is a really really good book. Read more
It is a really really good book. Read more
Published 17 months ago by artemisrhi
Will help you to know that you're barking up the wrong tree. Probably.
This is a good book, well and engagingly written, about (surprise, surprise) the process of designing video games. Read more
Published 18 months ago by P. M. Fernandez
A Well Written Introduction
As a gamer myself, I was intrigued by this book and the insights it might lend into the process of designing a game. Having received the book, I was not disappointed. Read more
Published 18 months ago by L. Hardt
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