"This work looks at how digital games fit into the long history of games and offers solutions to some of video games toughest design challenges. It covers the art and craft of developing a set of rules to create a contest between players or other agents,targeted specifically at digital game designers. The author outlines a somewhat radical philosophy based on thousands of years of game design, illustrating how we must adhere to these ancient principles if we are to improve digital games in the future"--
This book intended for video-game designers is not a how-to book about game design or game development, but instead examines game design at an abstract and fundamental level. It identifies destructive trends in game design, then walks through the definitions, concepts, and methods of the author's philosophy of game design and investigates the difference between games and other types of interactive systems. With separate chapters devoted to video and board games, the book will also be of interest to designers of board games, athletic games, or other kinds of games. Annotation ©2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Despite the proliferation of video games in the twenty-first century, the theory of game design is largely underdeveloped, leaving designers on their own to understand what games really are. Helping you produce better games, Game Design Theory: A New Philosophy for Understanding Games presents a bold new path for analyzing and designing games.
The author offers a radical yet reasoned way of thinking about games and provides a holistic solution to understanding the difference between games and other types of interactive systems. He clearly details the definitions, concepts, and methods that form the fundamentals of this philosophy. He also uses the philosophy to analyze the history of games and modern trends as well as to design games.
Providing a robust, useful philosophy for game design, this book gives you real answers about what games are and how they work. Through this paradigm, you will be better equipped to create fun games.
