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The Game Inventor's Guidebook (Book reference)
This book is a hands-on guide dedicated to the job of "traditional" games creator: board games, card games, role-playing games... It's divided in 5 sections. The first one gives a tour of this profession through famous games case studies: Trivial Pursuit, Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons & Dragons and The Pokemon Trading Card Game. They are accompanied by interviews with a game author (Reiner Knizia) and a publisher (Mike Gray from Hasbro). The second part presents with more details [...]Keywords : game creator, job, traditional games, board games, card games, industry
Evaluating the coherence of a Serious Game (Broacasting our studies)
This paper proposes a methodology for assessing the coherence of a serious game.Given the extreme diversity of serious games, this methodology is based on the postulate of defining such objects as computer applications combining serious content with a videogame structure. The approach presented in this article is based on the formal deconstruction of “gameplay”, by reducing game rules to elementary functions. The ludic structure, thus formalized, can then be confronted with the utili [...]Keywords : serious game, coherence, analysis, gameplay bricks, Evaluation
Construction of a classification of video games (Broacasting our studies)
This conference is part of a workshop entitled “Deconstructing video games? Ways to build a coherent offer in toy libraries”, taking place at the 11th International Congress of Toy Libraries. This presentation explores the way in which video games are classified, using a formal system and Gameplay Bricks. In concrete terms, the idea is to use Objective and Means Bricks to identify gameplay families. By classifying such families, we can establish a taxonomy of video games. With such a [...]Keywords : Gameplay bricks, Classification, Deconstruction, Formalism, Taxonomy, Video game, Formal system, Database
Methodology for formal analysis of video games (Broacasting our studies)
This presentation was part of the workshop entitled “Deconstructing video games? Ways to build a coherent toy library offer”. Its aim was to show how video games can be deconstructed through formal deconstruction, in the same way as Vladimir Propp did with Russian fairy tales in 1928. The result is a set of gameplay bricks: bricks of results, means and conditions. Based on such elements, the idea is to share with the public whether it would be possible to establish a classification o [...]Keywords : Gameplay bricks, Classification, Deconstruction, Formalism, Taxonomy, Video game, Formal system
Deconstruct video games? Ways to build a coherent game library offering (Broacasting our studies)
Presentation of the workshop: The idea of video game ratings is far from new. There are many and varied “free classification” systems used by the video game industry, the trade press or simply by gamers. However, while these systems are an important part of common video game culture, they are unfortunately not suitable for cataloguing or classifying all existing video games.Indeed, these so-called “free” systems follow the course of video game evolution: categories a [...]Keywords : Classification, Videogame, Game library, Deconstruction, Structuralism, Gameplay bricks, Taxonomy, Formal system
Challenges for Game Designers (Book reference)
This book offers many practical exercises aiming to improve your Game Design skills. Each of the 21 book chapters is dedicated to one particular topic: game design basis, atom structure of games, puzzles, balancing between skill and luck, serious games, storytelling, multiplayer... After an explanation of the topic, the book chapter presents 5 exercises, focused on "non-digital" game creation, thus allowing to quickly put into practice these concepts. It's a very interesting and unique [...]Keywords : game design, examples, exercices
The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses (Book reference)
An excellent book about the design of games written by Jesse Schell, a game designer who worked on Disneyland attractions and on the kids MMO Toontown Online, among others. With over 500 book pages, the author details the different aspects of the professional game design process, and explain how a game designer can influence them: game design documents, mechanics, interface, characters, the "client" funding the game, player's emotions, the game designer's artistic motivation... Besides [...]Keywords : game design, examples, in-depth, jesse schell, disney
Place your bets! Thoughts on the scope of video game creation tools (Broacasting our studies)
This article offers an overview of the various approaches used by the video game industry throughout its history to encourage and facilitate the creation of video games by players.Referring to a structural model of the video game as an artifact, we will study four approaches aimed at facilitating and encouraging enthusiasts to create or modify their own games: configuration menus, level editors, mods and game factories.The aim of this article is to highlight the complementarity of these differen [...]Keywords : Video game, Creation, Tools, Level design, Game design
L'Histoire de Nintendo - volume 1 : 1889-1980 (Book reference)
Over a series of 7 books, Florent Gorges wrote the most complete history of Nintendo. The texts are easy to read and full of unique information, and are illustrated with many pictures of all the games and toys created by the company. This first book in the series is focused on the numerous creations made by Nintendo before entering the video and electronic games market: playing cards, toys, arcades, and some weird stuffs like office supplies. An absolute must-read book.This book was translated i [...]Keywords : history, nintendo, toys, cards
The Art of Game Design: A Deck of Lenses (Book reference)
The "deck of lenses" isn't a book, but a set of 100 cards that complete the book "The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses", by the same author. Each card represents one of the "lens" invented by Jesse Schell. A "lens" is a kind of "viewing angle" allowing the game designer to focus on a particular aspect of his game. These "lenses" are composed by a series of questions. For example, the "lens of judgement" makes the game d [...]Keywords : jesse schell, game design tool, cards, lens