Level Up! /
The Guide to Great Video Game Design
Scott Rogers.
- 2nd Edition
- 535 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Includes index.
Level Up! ntroduction Press Start!; If You Are Anything Like Me; No, You Can't Have My Job; Who Is This Book For?; Why a Second Edition?; Level 1: Welcome, N00bs!; A Brief History of Video Games.; The Brave New World of Gaming: Mobiles, Online Distribution, and Touchscreens.; Game Genres.; Who Makes This Stuff?; Have You Thought about Publishing?.; Level 2: Ideas; Ideas: Where to Get Them and Where to Stick Them.; Getting Ahead of the Game.; What Do Gamers Want?.; Brainstorming.; Breaking Writer's Block.; Why I Hate "Fun".; Level 3: Writing the Story; Once Upon a Time. The Triangle of Weirdness. A Likely Story.; Time to Wrap It Up.; A Game by Any Other Name.; Creating Characters Your Players Care About.; A Few Pointers on Writing for Kids of All Ages.; Writing for Licenses.; Level 4: You Can Design a Game, but Can You Do the Paperwork?; Writing the GDD, Step 1: The One-Sheet.; Writing the GDD, Step 2: The Ten-Pager; Writing the GDD, Step 3: Gameplay Progression; Writing the GDD, Step 4: The Beat Chart; Writing the GDD, Step 5: The Game Design Document (and the Awful Truth about Writing It); Writing the GDD, Step 6: Above All, Don't Be a Jerk. Level 5: The Three Cs, Part 1: CharacterWho Do You Want To Be Today?; Finally, We Talk About Gameplay; Level 6: The Three Cs, Part 2: Camera; Get It Right: Camera Views; First Person Camera; Third Person Camera; Giving Up Control; Two and a Half D; Isometric Camera; Top-Down Camera.; AR Cameras.; Special Case Cameras.; Tunnel Vision.; Camera Shot Guide.; Camera Angle Guide.; Camera Movement Guide.; Other Camera Notes.; Multiple-Player Cameras.; Level 7: The Three Cs, Part 3: Controls; Control Is in Your Hand.; You've Got the Touch.; Dance, Monkey, Dance; Character or Camera Relative? Shake, Rattle, and Roll. Level 8: Sign Language: HUD and Icon Design; Heads Up!.; There Are Other Screens Than the HUD.; A Final Word on Fonts.; Level 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. .; Following Procedure; You've Got the Beat; Re-using Re-use; The Gary Gygax Memorial Mapping Section; Sandbox Play; Illusional Narrative; The Dave Arneson Memorial Mapping Section; Wrapping Up Mapping; Gray Matters; Leave the Training Level for Last. Levels without CharactersLevel 10: The Elements of Combat; 400 Quatloos on the Newcomer!; Put 'Em Up!; And a One and a Two; The Big Finish; Live by the Sword; Now You Have to Kiss Me; Let's Get Defensive; Dodging the Bullet; On Guarding; State of the Art Bang Bang; The Best Gun for You; Run and Gun; Not Just Shooting; Dang it, Jones! Where Doesn't It Hurt?; Death: What Is It Good For?; Conflict Without Combat; Level 11: They All Want You Dead; Sizing Up the Enemy.; Bad Behavior.; How Rapid is Rapid?.; Movement Style .; Bring on the Bad Guys.; I Love Designing Enemies.; I Hate You to Pieces