Product Description

In the second edition to the acclaimed Game Design: Theory & Practice, designer Richard Rouse III balances a discussion of the essential concepts behind game design with an explanation of how you can implement them in your current project. Detailed analysis of successful games is interwoven with concrete examples from Rouse’s own experience. This second edition thoroughly updates the popular original with new chapters and fully revised text.

* Follow the entire game development process, from brainstorming a game idea and establishing the focus to getting the gameplay working and playtesting.
* Learn the techniques of top game designers through in-depth interviews:
Doug Church, Thief, System Shock, Ultima Underworld
Chris Crawford, Balance of Power, Eastern Front (1941)
Ed Logg, Asteroids, Centipede, Gauntlet
Jordan Mechner, Prince of Persia, Karateka, The Last Express
Sid Meier, Civilization, Pirates!, Railroad Tycoon, Gettysburg!
Steve Meretzky, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Planetfall, Zork Zero
Will Wright, SimCity, The Sims
* Learn how to most effectively document your game ideas. Includes the full design document for the action-horror game The Suffering.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #73742 in Books
• Published on: 2001-02-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 584 pages

About the Author
Richard Rouse III is design director at Surreal Software, a Midway Home Entertainment studio. Most recently, he was project lead, lead designer, and writer on the action-horror game The Suffering. His credits also include Drakan: The Ancients’ Gates, Centipede 3D, Damage Incorporated, and Odyssey: The Legend of Nemesis. Rouse has written about game design for publications including Game Developer, SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics, Develop, Gamasutra, MyVideoGames.com, and Inside Mac Games, and has spoken on game development numerous times at the Electronic Entertainment Expo.

Customer Reviews

Great book for every game designer...
That's really great book for every game designer or someone who wants to be one, but also a good one for all other people working on game, so that they can understand design work. Just don't expect programming or animation or other topics from it, it's about "game design" not "game software design" or "game graphics design" or others. It's also very important that author actually IS game designer of commercial games, and included example of design document of one of his released games (The Suffering) - some really good material there, that one is really worth it!

Great interview and practical examples book.
The editorial review is kinda deceiving, so I'll just write what's missing on it: The book tries to balance between theory, practical examples and interviews.

Which may be great to some, but not that great to others.

The book is basicaly structured in this way:
30-50 pages of Theory
5-15 pages of a practical example (something about the theory on an actual game)
15-40 pages of Interview (with some famous game designer... which might be good if the reader knows their games, and might be bad if the reader doesn't, since not much of it is exactly "game designer" content).

That structure is repeated through over and over the book's 677 pages.
But don't get me wrong, the content is still very good. Cover lots of stuff from developing the game concept, to more technical stuff like AI, Multi-playing, Level design and playtesting.

So, a good book that covers lots of stuff on game design without going too deep in specific stuff.

Excellent resource for students
I am currently using this as my Game Design textbook. As a student, it provides not only mere theory, but valuable interviews with upstanding designers. It is clear, and a joy to read.