Table of Contents

Introduction
PART ONE
THE ELEMENTS OF GAME DESIGN
1 Games and Video Games
2 Design Components and Processes
3 Game Concepts
4 Game Worlds
5 Creative and Expressive Play
6 Character Development
7 Storytelling and Narrative
8 User Interfaces
9 Gameplay
10 Core Mechanics
11 Game Balancing
12 General Principles of Level Design

PART TWO
THE GENRES OF GAMES
13 Action Games
14 Strategy Games
15 Role-Playing
16 Sports Games
17 Vehicle Simulations
18 Construction and Management Simulations
19 Adventure Games
20 Artifi cial Life and Puzzle Games
21 Online Gaming
A Designing to Appeal to Particular
Glossary
References
Index

About the Author

Ernest Adams (Normandy, U.K.) is an independent game designer, writer, and teacher. He has worked in the game industry for 20 years. Ernest was most recently employed as a lead designer at Bullfrog Productions on the Dungeon Keeper series, and for several years before that he was the audio/video producer on the Madden NFL Football product line for Electronic Arts. For the last ten years he has written a regular column on game design for the Gamasutra developers' webzine. He was the founder of the International Game Developers' Association, and is a frequent lecturer at conferences and arts festivals around the world. His professional web site is at http://www.designersnotebook.com.