Macklin Colleen - Games, Design and Play: A Detailed Approach to Iterative Game Design

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A Detailed Approach to Iterative Game Design

Colleen Macklin
John Sharp

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2016938039

Copyright 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.

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ISBN-13: 978-0-134-39207-3
ISBN-10: 0-134-39207-8

Text printed in the United States on recycled paper.

First printing, June 2016

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Sharp and Macklin break down the design process in detail from concept to code to completion. What I particularly like about this book is its inclusion of prototyping methods and design patterns that are often overlooked by others. I suspect it will be helpful to designers looking to break new ground outside the AAA space.

Brenda Romero, Game Designer, Romero Games

There are many books you can read about games. But Games, Design, and Play is something new. Colleen Macklin and John Sharp dont just explain what games arethey detail the game design process itself.

Eric Zimmerman, Game Designer & Arts Professor, NYU Game Center

Game, Design and Play is a detailed, thoughtful, and well-researched primer on the multifaceted discipline that is game design.

Mare Sheppard, President, Metanet Software

Ive been studying and teaching game design for over a decade and this is the first time Ive read a book that catalogs so many diverse aspects of the game design process. Colleen and John dissect and examine games of all types (not just videogames) and then expertly show you how to put all the pieces together to form your own unique design.

Stone Librande, Lead Designer, Riot Games

The authors share a wealth of experience, making for a text full of great concepts, thorough process and applied practice. Throughout they provide pertinent examples and use engaging exercises which makes it useful, informative and insightful.

Drew Davidson, Director and Teaching Professor, Entertainment Technology Center, Carnegie Mellon University

This is a book that fills the much needed space between systems thinking and play theory. Macklin and Sharp balance the process with practicalities, in a way that is as timeless, enjoyable and engaging as the games they discuss.

Lindsay Grace, Associate Professor and Founding Director, American University Game Lab and Studio

Anyone who seeks to learn or teach about games can use Games, Design and Play as an insightful guide to ideas on how games work, methodologies that help us create new experiences, and pleasures found through play. Macklin and Sharp dont seek to restrictively define games or prescribe narrow rules of design. Instead, their text offers a comprehensible yet flexible framework for understanding games and play alongside practical processes for imagining, prototyping, collaborating, and iterating during game development. The approaches described in Games, Design and Play are applicable to digital, analog, and hybrid games, and thoroughly illustrated with examples from projects by small teams or individuals. In a time when even large studios find value in fostering small, agile teams, this kind of practical, beginning-to-end handbook to creative development is invaluable.

Naomi Clark, Assistant Arts Professor, NYU Game Center and Author of A Game Design Vocabulary

This is one of the most comprehensive game design books to date. It coalesces academic insights for helpful ways to think about games and play, and guides the reader from scratch to production with thorough advice and best practices drawn from examples of recent, cutting edge . I wish I had a text like this available to me when I was first starting out in my careerit would have made it much easier to come up with a framework for some of the more outlandish ideas I had for games and to communicate them to my teammates.