LudoScience

Phoenix: The Fall & Rise of Videogames (Book reference)

This is the second edition of one of the first, if not the first, book to seriously tackle the history of video game on a global level. The book structure is chronological: each chapter covers the main events of a single year. Moreover, the author chose to mostly focuses his book on the history of consoles in the US. After a first chapter dedicated to early digital games, the book details the main events of the video game industry between 1970 and 1996. Among others things, it presents the [...]

Keywords : history, video game, usa, console

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Serious Games: Art / Interaction / Technology (Book reference)

The catalogue from a British art exposition that took place in 1996. The art pieces and the artist' manifesto presented in the book openly aim to explore the expressive power of video games. 

Keywords : art, exposition, museum, interaction, expression

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Minds in Play (Book reference)

This book describes a pioneering scientific experiment conducted by Yasmin Kafai in the Serious Games field. In 1994, for 6 months during 1 hour per day, she asked 4th grade students to design video games explaining the mathematical concept of "fraction" to 3rd graders. To create these games, the kids used the LOGO language they learned during the workshop. Through this experiment, the researcher observed that designing video games about "fractions" helped kids to master this [...]

Keywords : serious game, constructionnisme, logo, scientific research

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Phoenix: The Fall & Rise of Home Videogames (Book reference)

This is one of the first, if not the first, book to seriously tackle the history of video game on a global level. The book structure is chronological: each chapter covers the main events of a single year. Moreover, the author chose to mostly focuses his book on the history of consoles in the US. After a first chapter dedicated to early digital games, the book details the main events of the video game industry between 1970 and 1993. Among others things, it presents the various consoles rel [...]

Keywords : history, video game, console, usa

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The Art of Computer Game Design (Book reference)

One of the first (if not the first) book dedicated to the design process of video games, written by the famous American game designer Chris Crawford. Despite its age, the content of this book is still very interesting and applicable today, which show how thoughtful its author was about the creative process of games. The book gives some very practical game design tips (elements of a game, balance, list of steps of the game design process, etc.) and some other general tips (how to educate yourself [...]

Keywords : game design, tips, creation, first book

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