Chris Crawford on Game Design
Chris Crawford

ISBN-10: 0131460994
ISBN-13: 9780131460997

Publisher: New Riders
Copyright: 2003
Format: Paper; 504 pp
Published: 06/18/2003

Suggested retail price: $44.99
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Chris Crawford on Game Design is all about the foundational skills behind the design and architecture of a game. Without these skills, designers and developers lack the understanding to work with the tools and techniques used in the industry today. Chris Crawford, the most highly sought after expert in this area, brings an intense opinion piece full of personality and flare like no other person in this industry can. He explains the foundational and fundamental concepts needed to get the most out of game development today. An exceptional precursor to the two books soon to be published by New Riders with author Andrew Rollings, this book teaches key lessons; including, what you can learn from the history of game play and historical games, necessity of challenge in game play, applying dimensions of conflict, understanding low and high interactivity designs, watching for the inclusion of creativity, and understanding the importance of storytelling. In addition, Chris brings you the wish list of games he'd like to build and tells you how to do it. Game developers and designers will kill for this information!

Games industry cult leader, Chris Crawford, shares insider design secrets he's learned over the last 25+ years.

  • A mastery of insider wisdom from THE games industry pioneer Chris Crawford, readers will walk away with tips and techniques they can immediately apply.
  • Not a programming book but instead the book a developer or designer needs before they start writing.
  • A revision to Chris Crawford's cult classic, "The Art of Computer Game Design." (McGraw Hill, 1981, 0078811171)



Introduction.


1. Definitions, Definitions.


2. Some Milestone Games.

Old-Style Games. Board Wargames. Other Non-Computer Games. Videogames. Computer Games.



3. Play.

History of Play. Play Is Metaphorical. Play Must Be Safe. Play Need Not Be Exotic. The Fun Factor.



4. Challenge.

Challenge Necessitates Rules. The Point Is the Challenge, Not the Goal. Dimensions of Challenge. Challenge and Identity.



5. Conflict.

Mars, Venus, and Conflict. Dimensions of Conflict. Directness of Conflict. Intensity of Conflict. Intensity and the Evolution of Taste.



6. Interactivity.

History. Other Attributes of the Computer. So What Is Interactivity? Is More Interactivity Better? How Do We Measure Interactivity? Low-Interactivity Entertainment Designs. Process Intensity Versus Data Intensity.



7. Creativity: The Missing Ingredient.

How Serious Is the Problem? Where Does Creativity Come From? How to “Get Creative”. A Tyrannosaurus Rex for Ideas. The Politics of Innovation.



8. Common Mistakes.

Obsession with Cosmetics. Incremental Accretive Design.



9. The Education of a Game Designer.

Get a Degree. Education Versus Schooling.



10. Games I'd Like to Build.

Galilean Relativity. Napoleonic Cavalry. Napoleon in Space. Attack of the Cellular Automata. Volkerwanderung. Third-World Dictator. Lies. Spies. The Wheels of Commerce. Corporate Politics. Evolution. The Self-Modifying Game. Mooser-Gooser. So What Does All This Mean?



11. Storytelling.

Adventure Games. Backstory. Cut Scenes. Integrated Cut Scenes. Here Come the Academics! Role-Playing Games. The Real Problem. Tackling the Problem.



12. Random Sour Observations.

Massively Multiplayer Monsters. Licensed Games. New Input Devices. The Sims. Short-Term Thinkers. Everybody's a Game Designer. Hollywood Envy. Young Males. Sleaze.



13. Tanktics.

Map. Calculating Line of Sight. Planning Moves. Initial Programming. Enter the KIM-1. Input and Output. Linguistic Input. Sound Effects. Showing It Off. Porting. Production, Marketing, and Sales. Avalon-Hill. Fade Away. Results.



14. Legionnaire.

A Record-Setting Blunder. Disruption. Terrain. Sales. First Draft Design. Conclusions.



15. Wizard.

VCS Technology. Designing the Game. Asymmetric Combat. Lines of Sight (LOS). Disposition and Conclusion.



16. Energy Czar.


17. Scram.

Input Structures. Oh Yes, It Was Supposed to Be a Game, Wasn't It? Coda.



18. Eastern Front (1941).

The Scrolling Map. The Combat System. AI. Tuning. Conclusion.



19. Gossip.

AI. Implementation Woes. Conclusions.



20. Excalibur.

Camelot. The Interpersonal Subgame. Diplomacy. The Strategic Map. The Battle Subgame. Overall Course of Play. The Manual. Conclusions.



21. Balance of Power.

The UnWar Game. Early Efforts. The Rubber Map. Thank You, National Enquirer. Research. Building the Map. Memory Headaches. Making It a Game. Publisher Woes. I Get by with a Little Help from the Press. The Wheel of Fortune.



22. Patton Versus Rommel.

To Hell with Grids. Geometric AI.



23. Siboot.

A Lesson for Designers. First Draft Proposal. The First Proposal. Design Essays. Economies. Intransitive Combat Relationships. The Inverse Parser. The Display. Interstitial Stories. The Novella. Conclusions.



24. Guns & Butter.

Designing the World. Building Provinces. Adding Mountains, Deserts, and Forests. Naming Names. First-Person Firing Squad. The Economic System. Combat. Faces. The Ideas behind the Game. Results.



25. Balance of the Planet.

Values. Implementing a Value System. The Politics of the Game. Higher Levels of Play. Balancing the Equations. Artwork. Schedule Hassles. Results.



26. Patton Strikes Back.

Simple Rules. Clean User Interface and Strong Visual Presentation. Explain the History. Color Hassles. Anti-Piracy. Results.



27. Themes and Lessons.

People, Not Things! Faces. Gameplay Help. Language. Art Over Money. The Harsh Realities of Business.



28. Old Fart Stories.

Early Sound and Music. An Early Multiplayer Game. Getting a Job. E.T. Alan Kay. Lost in the Shuffle. International Sales. The Locked File Cabinet. Bill Carris. Marketing Wisdom. The Dragon Speech. The Great Pratfall. A More Serious Pratfall. Problems of Decentralization. The Unrevenged Review. Failed Humor. The Sins of Youth. Corporate Politics. Blinded by Your Own Equipment. Thinking Big. The CGDC.



Glossary.


Index.

Chris Crawford is the "grand old man" of computing game design. He sold his first computer game in 1978, joined Atari in 1979, and led Games Research there. During his time at Atari, he wrote the first edition of The Art of Computer Game Design (Osborne, 1984), which has now become a classic in the field. After Atari collapsed in 1984, Chris became a freelance computer game designer. All in all, Chris has 14 published computer games to his credit—all of which he designed and programmed himself. He founded, edited, and wrote most of The Journal of Computer Game Design, the first periodical devoted to game design. He founded and led the Computer Game Developers' Conference (now the Game Developers' Conference) in its early years. Chris has lectured on game design at conferences and universities all over the world. For the last ten years, he has been developing technology for interactive storytelling.

Chris Crawford on Game Design is all about the foundational skills behind the design and architecture of a game. Without these skills, designers and developers lack the understanding to work with the tools and techniques used in the industry today. Chris Crawford, the most highly sought after expert in this area, brings an intense opinion piece full of personality and flare like no other person in this industry can. He explains the foundational and fundamental concepts needed to get the most out of game development today. An exceptional precursor to the two books soon to be published by New Riders with author Andrew Rollings, this book teaches key lessons; including, what you can learn from the history of game play and historical games, necessity of challenge in game play, applying dimensions of conflict, understanding low and high interactivity designs, watching for the inclusion of creativity, and understanding the importance of storytelling. In addition, Chris brings you the wish list of games he'd like to build and tells you how to do it. Game developers and designers will kill for this information!

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