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Power-Up: How Japanese Video Games Gave the World an Extra Life (Book reference)
This book presents a historical, economic and artistic analysis of Japanese video games, hoping to explain why they are so successful all around the world. The author, who is an expert of this topic, offers us a combination of detailed history (the birth of Japanese video game industry), personal analysis of games series (Mario, Final Fantasy, etc.), and interviews with legendary game designers such as Shigeru Miyamoto and Fumito Ueda. The author then explores some "japanese-specific" [...]Keywords : japan, analyse, shigeru miyamoto, fumito ueda, jrpg, akihabara, pokémon, music games
La pratique des jeux vidéo : réalité ou virtualité ? (Book reference)
A scientific book gathering 12 chapters written by different authors who are studying videogames through the lens of sociology.Keywords : sociology
Introduction aux enjeux artistiques et culturels des jeux vidéo (Book reference)
This tiny 80 pages book tackles the question of the artistic and cultural potential of video games. The first part of the book quickly reviews the history and classification of video games, using elements from the classical book written by Le Diberder Brothers. In the second part, the author deals with how players regard games. He then draws elements from his personal experience in a "gamer's club" running monthly Lan Parties (networked computer game sessions). Thanks to the interview [...]Keywords : video game, art, culture, introduction
Game Architecture and Design: A New Edition (Book reference)
This 900-pages behemoth is the revised and extended edition of a book first published in 2000. It covers extensively the industrial creation of video games. The book is divided in three main parts: the design of games, project and team management, and video game software architecture design. In the first part, the authors address topics that will become the classic parts of "game design" books: game concept ideas, writing Game Design Documents, balancing, user interface, prototyping... [...]Keywords : industry, design, management, architecture, reference
Rules of Play : Game Design Fundamentals (Book reference)
One of the reference book about the scientific study and design of games. This huge 700 pages book will explore in great details the core concepts related to any kind of games: from outdoor sports to videogames games and TV games. The authors introduce a theoretical framework that defines three level of analysis, which were often cited by many others researchers: "Rules", to study games as artifacts, "Play", to analyze the human experience of playing games, "Culture" [...]Keywords : theory, research, games, play, defintitons
Dungeons and Dreamers (Book reference)
This book focuses on the history of role-playing and adventure games made in the USA. The central theme of the book is the truly captivating story of Richard Garriott, the creator of famous rpg saga Ultima (1981-1999). The book details his path starting with his teenage years, when he discovered Dungeons & Dragons, a game that will greatly influence his first amateurs creations on the Apple II. After two years of work, he attempts to sell his first "real" game, Akalabehth (1980), b [...]Keywords : history, ultima, richard garriot, origin systems, id software, john romero, doom, texas
Digital Play : The Interaction of Technology, Culture and Marketing (Book reference)
This essay attempt to analyze the history of videogames through a critical lens in order to highlight the marketing, industrial and cultural strategies that drives the "videogames revolution." An interesting book which succeed to go behind the usual "success stories" to make the reader think about the stakes at play in this cultural evolution.Keywords : history, critic, marketing, industry, culture
Chris Crawford On Game Design (Book reference)
A great book about Game Design written by the famous American designer Chris Crawford. In the first part of the book, the author presents some general topics: categories of games, game design tricks... The second part of the book is dedicated to deep analysis of the main games created by Chris Crawford, offering some very interesting real-world case studies.Keywords : game design, case studies, examples
Masters of Doom (Book reference)
This book tells the story of id Software, the company that created the game "Doom". It mainly focuses on the life of the two key people of the studio, John Romero and John Carmack, from their first experience with videogames during their youth to their split-up after the massive success of "Quake". It also goes through the numerous hits that they created throughout their careers: "Commander Keen", "Wolfenstein 3D" and of course "Doom". Full of un [...]Keywords : id software, john carmack, john romero, doom, wolfentstein 3d, commander keen, quake, shareware
Andrew Rollings and Ernest Adams on Game Design (Book reference)
An introductory book about Game Design. The first part focuses on general tips about Game Design (storytelling, balancing, etc.). The second part is dedicated to a presentation of the different videogames genres. The first part of the book is clearly the most interesting one, as the second part is both aging fast and not as detailed as we could have expected. Please note that this book received three updates greatly extending the part about Game Design tips, titled "Fundamentals of Game Des [...]Keywords : games design, tips, video games genres