Reading through the first several chapters of Game Development Essentials: An Introduction
, I thought it had to be a mistake. I mean, anyone
who was getting into game design surely knew much of this and didn’t need to spend three chapters talking about the history of video games and what each genre was. It’s not like you wake up one day, having never, ever played video games in your life and then decide to go to college for it. So let’s just rip the first 84 pages of the book out or if you get a savvy professor, breeze through them in rapid succession and assign as reading but not spend much time in class on it.
Chapter four in the book talks about some great stuff actually. Player motivation, psychographics, demographics, etc. All very interesting stuff to be sure. Part II of the book gets into the meat of it. Now this is in no way meant for hands-on courses. This book is surely just for theoretical coursework. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, it does help to give you a sturdy base on which to build the rest of your education and career and might be exactly what many game developers are missing. So you aspiring game developers out there, perhaps those who got a far lower score than you had hoped you would here at GDN on a recent review, this might be something you want to go and read.
As say a 100 level course at university, barring the first couple chapters, this book would be a great addition to a game design cirriculum. It offers a wide range of insight from industry leaders and those who are already successful and runs the gamut of all facets of game design. In fact, I think this book would be aimed more at would-be game designers and producers than it would at those in the trenches hammering out code and art assets.
However, after reading through the book I think even those doing the heavy lifting in the art and programming departments could certainly learn a few things. They say that information is power and this book is full of information. Used properly, that could make for some seriously powerful game designs and some great game experiences for gamers meaning you, as a game industry employee, would be successful. So it’s a win-win all around. There�s also a great list of resources, companies, events and places for game reviews. Sadly, GDN is not in that list.
- Paperback: 483 pages
- Publisher: Delmar Cengage Learning; 3 edition (August 17, 2011)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1111307652
- ISBN-13: 978-1111307653
- Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 8 x 1.1 inches
