خرید و دانلود نسخه کامل کتاب enth Anniversary The Art of Game Design A Book of Lenses 3rd Edition – Original PDF

1CHAPTER ONE In the Beginning, There Is the Designer Magic Words Would-be designers often ask me, “How do you become a game designer?” and the answer is easy: “Design games. start now! Don’t wait! Don’t even finish this conversation! Just start designing! Go! now!” and some of them do just that. but many have a crisis of confidence and feel stuck in a catch-22: If only game designers can design games and you can only become a game designer by designing games, how can anyone ever get started? If this is how you feel, the answer is easy. Just say these magic words: I am a game designer. I’m serious. say them out loud, right now. Don’t be shy—there’s no one here but us. F I G U R E 1.1 2 CHaPteR one • In tHe beGInnInG, tHeRe Is tHe DESIGNER Did you do it? If so, congratulations. You are now a game designer. You might feel, at this moment, that you aren’t really a game designer yet, but that you’re just pretending to be one. and that’s fine, because as we’ll explore later, people become what they pretend to be. Just go on pretending, doing the things you think a game designer would do, and before long, to your surprise, you will find you are one. If your confidence wavers, just repeat the magic words again: I am a game designer. sometimes, I repeat them like this: Who are you? I am a game designer. no, you’re not. I am a game designer. What kind of a designer? I am a game designer. You mean you play games. I am a game designer. this game of confidence building may seem silly at first. but it is far from the silliest thing you will do as a designer. and it is terribly important that you get good at building your confidence, for doubts about your abilities will forever plague you. as a novice designer, you will think, “I’ve never done this—I don’t know what I’m doing.” once you have a little experience, you will think, “My skills are so narrow—this new title is different. Maybe I just got lucky last time.” and when you are a seasoned designer, you will think, “the world is different now. Maybe I’ve lost my touch.” blow away these useless thoughts. they can’t help you. When a thing must be attempted, one must never think about possibility or impossibility. If you look at the great creative minds, all so different, you will find they have one thing in common: they lack a fear of ridicule. some of the greatest innovations have come from people who only succeeded because they were too dumb to know that what they were doing was impossible. Game design is decision making, and decisions must be made with confidence. Will you fail sometimes? Yes, you will. You will fail again, and again, and again. You will fail many, many more times than you will succeed. but these failures are your only path to success. You will come to love your failures, because each failure brings you a step closer to a truly phenomenal game. there is a saying among jugglers: “If you aren’t dropping, you aren’t learning. and if you aren’t learning, you aren’t a juggler.” the same is true for game design: If you aren’t failing, you aren’t trying hard enough, and you aren’t really a game designer. 3 WHat skIlls Does a GaMe DesIGneR neeD? What Skills Does a Game Designer Need? I have taken all knowledge to be my province. —francis bacon In short, all of them. almost anything that you can be good at can become a useful skill for a game designer. Here are some of the big ones, listed alphabetically: ● Animation: Modern games are full of characters that need to seem alive. the very word “animation” means “to give life.” Understanding the powers and lim- its of character animation will let you open the door for clever game design ideas the world has yet to see. ● Anthropology: You will be studying your audience in their natural habitat, trying to figure out their heart’s desire, so that your games might satisfy that desire. ● Architecture: You will be designing more than buildings; you’ll be design- ing whole cities and worlds. familiarity with the world of architecture, that is, understanding the relationship between people and spaces, will give you a tre- mendous leg up in creating game worlds. ● Brainstorming: You will need to create new ideas by the dozens, nay, by the hundreds. ● Business: the game industry is just that, an industry. Most games are made to make money. the better you understand the business end of things, the better chance you have of making the game of your dreams. ● Cinematography: Many games will have movies in them. almost all modern videogames have a virtual camera. You need to understand the art of cinematog- raphy if you want to deliver an emotionally compelling experience. ● Communication: You will need to talk with people in every discipline listed here, and even more. You will need to resolve disputes, solve problems of mis- communication, and learn the truth about how your teammates, your client, and your audience really feel about your game. ● Creative writing: You will be creating entire fictional worlds and populations to live in them and deciding the events that will happen there. ● Economics: Many modern games feature complex economies of game resources. an understanding of the rules of economics can be surprisingly helpful. ● Engineering: Modern videogames involve some of the most complex engi- neering in the world today, with some titles counting their lines of code in the 4 CHaPteR one • In tHe beGInnInG, tHeRe Is tHe DESIGNER millions. new technical innovations make new kinds of gameplay possible. Innovative game designers must understand both the limits and the powers that each technology brings. ● Games: naturally, familiarity with games will be of great use to you, but not just familiarity with the kind of games you intend to create. Your knowledge of the workings of every kind of game from pin the tail on the donkey to Portal 2 will give you the raw materials you need when you create new games. ● History: Many games are placed in historical settings. even the ones placed in fantasy settings can draw incredible inspiration from history. ● Management: anytime a team works together toward a goal, there must be some management. Good designers can succeed even when management is bad, secretly “managing from below” to get the job done. ● Mathematics: Games are full of mathematics, probability, risk analyses, and complex scoring systems, not to mention the mathematics that stands behind computer graphics and computer science in general. a skilled designer must not be afraid to delve into math from time to time. ● Music: Music is the language of the soul. If your games are going to truly touch people, to immerse, and embrace them, they cannot do it without music. ● Psychology: Your goal is to make a human being happy. You must understand the workings of the human mind or you are designing in the dark. ● Public speaking: You will frequently need to present your ideas to a group. sometimes you will speak to solicit their feedback; sometimes you will speak to persuade them of the genius of your new idea. Whatever the reason, you must be confident, clear, natural, and interesting, or people will be suspicious that you don’t know what you are doing. ● Sound design: sound is what truly convinces the mind that it is in a place; in other words, “hearing is believing.” ● Technical writing: You need to create documents that clearly describe your complex designs without leaving any holes or gaps. ● Visual arts: Your games will be full of graphic elements. You must be fluent in the language of graphic de