Video Game Design: Principles and Practices from the Ground Up

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Video Game Design: Principles and Practices from the Ground Up is a visual introduction to integrating core design essentials, such as critical analysis, mechanics and aesthetics, prototyping, and level design, into game design.

Using a raft of examples from a diverse range of leading international creatives and award-winning studios, this is a must-have guide for budding game designers. Industry perspectives from game industry professionals provide fascinating insights into this creative field, and each chapter concludes with a workshop project to help you put what you've learnt into practice to plan and develop your own games.

With over 200 images from some of the best-selling, most creative games of the last thirty years, this is an essential introduction to industry practice, helping readers develop practical skills for video game creation. This book is for those seeking a career making video games as part of a studio or small team, or as an independent creator. It will guide you from understanding how games engage, entertain and communicate with their audience and take you on a journey as a designer towards creating your own video game experiences.

Interviewees include:

• James Portnow – CEO, Rainmaker Games
• Brandon Sheffield – gamasutra.com and Game Developer magazine
• Steve Gaynor – co-founder, The Fullbright Company (Gone Home)
• Kate Craig – Environment Artist, The Fullbright Company
• Adam Saltsman – creator of Canabalt and Gravity Hook
• Jake Elliott and Tamas Kemenczy – Cardboard Computer (Kentucky Route Zero)
• Tyson Steele – User Interface Designer, Epic Games
• Tom Francis – Game Designer (Gunpoint and Floating Point)
• Kareem Ettouney – Art Director, Media Molecule
• Kenneth Young – Head of Audio, Media Molecule
• Rex Crowle – Creative Lead, Media Molecule