Image via Complex Original
INTRO
Game design is a new and growing field that's always evolving. If you're reading this, chances are you're a video game enthusiast who plays everything. But do you know why game developers made certain decisions or how a 3D artist makes characters?
Read on to learn how games are made, where video games are going, and how they're creeping into other aspects of our lives.
Video Game Careers
10. Video Game Careers
I placed two new (and empty) video game cases on the counter. I don't remember which ones. My favorites of 2008 were Fallout 3 and Left 4 Dead, so let's just roll with those. An employee eagerly snatched them up and initiated a sales pitch. I promptly declined, and he turned to retrieve the games.
Waiting, I scanned GameStop's equivalent to a grocery store's chewing gum and candy bar rack. I saw stuffed toys, toxic treats, and…the gaudiest book ever.
“How much for this?”
“It's twenty bucks,” he says. “But if you buy another new game you get the book for free.” So I bought Gears of War 2.
I paid. He slid the book into a bag along with the other items. I looked at the cover through the thin plastic – a garish mixture of blocky text and the three primary colors.
“Have a good one,” he said. I nodded and left, ready to read.
Video Game Careers is a book about video game careers. Tons of them, in fact. Popular choices like design, art, and programming are included, but so are several you might not expect: retail, journalism, publishing, hosting (television and internet shows), and even professional gaming. Each section is comprehensive, containing advice on schooling and networking, as well as salary expectations. The pages are rife with relevant interviews of industry professionals like Dave Perry, John Romero, and Dan Hsu. They have a lot to say.
Only a precious few guidance counselors or career placement professionals know anything about this industry. If you know you want to work with video games but aren't sure where to begin, Video Game Careers is worth a read. Plus it's illustrated by the Penny Arcade guys, so that's neat.
The Ultimate History of Video Games
9. The Ultimate History of Video Games
The first day of PAX was over. I took the shuttle back to the Hilton with four friends. One of them had to turn in homework for a video game history class he was taking online.
Jake, the scholar, sat at a tiny desk, gazing at the computer screen. I noticed beside him a large history book with Pac-Man on the cover. It contained “the story behind the craze that touched our lives and changed the world.” I picked it up and started flipping.
I wasn't alive during “The Golden Age of Video Games.” I didn't see the video game industry implode, nor did I see Nintendo single-handedly resurrect it. I didn't see Sega's rise to prominence, and I didn't know Space Invaders caused a coin shortage. But this book, like an elderly relative reminiscing over times long gone, dropped knowledge on me.
The best way to know where video games came from is to play old video games. The Ultimate History of Video Games is a road map to the ones that are most worth your time.
3ds Max Modeling for Games: Insider's Guide to Game Character, Vehicle, and Environment Modeling
8. 3ds Max Modeling for Games: Insider's Guide to Game Character, Vehicle, and Environment Modeling
I know, I know. Which one of these things doesn't belong? Yes, this is a technical book. It demands that you own a copy of 3ds Max, the most popular video game modeling software. It also expects you to have a moderate proficiency with the program.
But you don't need those things to learn something from this book.
All the other books on this list, save for the one immediately after this one (spoilers, sorry), are what I'd call “soft” books. They deal with concepts and ideas more than toolbars and quad menus. 3ds Max Modeling for Games is, then, a “hard” book. For example, the author builds a game-ready truck from nothing as you follow along step by step.
Do you know how an artist would do that? Would you start with the chassis? Would you trace a drawing or just start building without a guide? Do you know how to apply textures to a truck without stretching it? Did you know a lot of detail you see on in-game objects isn't modeled at all? It's done with texture work to save polygons.
You may only care about the end product, and that's understandable, but if you want to see how game objects and characters are built (hint: you usually just model half of the character and then mirror it across an axis), this book will satisfy your curiosity.
3D Game Textures: Create Professional Game Art Using Photoshop
7. 3D Game Textures: Create Professional Game Art Using Photoshop
Again, we have a “hard” book but you don't need to be a Photoshop guru to get something out of this one.
I've studied art at two different schools, and both programs required their students study color theory and purchase a color wheel. It's massively important, and whether we realize it or not, color impacts how we think about things.
Red is an evil color. Sith lightsabers are usually red. In games with morality systems, the evil choice is typically red, while the good choice is often blue. Communists were red. Our faces get red with anger. These examples have been beaten into our heada so deeply that during Harry's final battle with Voldemort I disengaged from the film momentarily to think about why Harry's spell was red and Voldemort's was green.
Games also use light to make you feel a certain way. Dead Space would not have been creepy had it been lit up like a jewelry store. Would you have seen that object on the floor if it hadn't gleamed faintly?
After reading 3D Game Textures, you will actively notice these things. You've been warned.
The Ultimate Guide to Video Game Writing and Design
6. The Ultimate Guide to Video Game Writing and Design
A few years ago I worked as a bartender at a local microbrewery. By bartender, I mean I was the guy who poured beer.
It was snowing. The town was dead. I sat behind the bar with my PSP Go (lol) and The Ultimate Guide to Video Game Writing and Design. There are plenty of how-to books for different mediums but this one understands that games are not like books, film, or television. There are sections on marrying words with gameplay. There's a chunk dealing with branching narrative paths and how to make them work. There's even a script of a cut scene from the video game Constantine.
Plus, any book that has the word “ultimate” in the title is fine by me.
Andrew Rollings and Ernest Adams on Game Design
5. Andrew Rollings and Ernest Adams on Game Design
The computer lab was packed. There was a guy with long hair and tattoos, a woman wearing short shorts and a Che Guevara hoodie, and a bald Latino guy claiming he was the second coming of Cliff Bleszinski. We were all eager, young students ready to learn the art of game design.
The instructor walked in timidly an introduced himself. He was four years older than me, and he just got turned down for an art position at Midway. He showed us some of his work. It was quite good. Then he told us to head down the hall to the bookstore and pick up Andrew Rollings and Ernest Adams on Game Design.
One year later, after learning the school wasn't properly accredited, I dropped out to study journalism.
Though dated, this book contains a remarkably thorough collection of design tips for all genres. Interested in making a huge, complex RPG? Check out the section about building and maintaining in-game economies... or the section about balancing skills... or the section about quest lines.
This book won't teach you how to program or how to model, but it will get you thinking about how your game will play, feel, and operate, which is typically the most important part to get right.
Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World
4. Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World
“I just watched this great talk about video games and how they can change the world,” my stepbrother Ryan said. “You need to see it. It's not what you'd expect at all.”
I only see Ryan twice a year: Thanksgiving and Christmas. Since the last holiday season he'd grown a magnificent neck beard.
“It was this woman speaking,” he continued. “I forgot her name, but she's all about applying video game quests and achievements to real world issues.”
I saw her last year at PAX East in Boston. Her name is Jane McGonigal. She believes in “gamification,” which is also the topic of Reality is Broken.
What if you earned points for turning in an exceptional assignment? Not just typical grade points, but fun points, which you could later cash in for extra recess time or an extra day's time on a big assignment. What if failure became less like a punishment and more like a learning tool a la Super Meat Boy? These are the types of questions this book addresses, and they're fascinating. Check it out.
A Theory of Fun for Game Design
3. A Theory of Fun for Game Design
Good video games turn people into drug addicts. Well, neurotransmitter addicts, to be accurate.
Our bodies want us to remain alive. In the purest biological sense, we are supposed to live, grow, and reproduce. The only way to thrive is for your brains to let you know when you're doing something that's good for you. We're rewarded for overcoming threats – both real and digital.
You're playing Braid. It's difficult, and you don't know how to progress. You try something and fail. You try something else. You fail in a brand new way. Minutes pass. You grip the controller, struggling with the puzzle before you. But then you get it, and it feels great! That's your brain saying “Nice job. You solved this problem. You're now a more capable person. Here's some delicious dopamine for you. Nom nom nom.”
Games that go on without teaching us something bore us. You know why? Our bodies stop giving us a hormonal pat on the back because the game has become a mechanical exercise.
I guess Dark Souls is the greatest drug dealer on the planet.
The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses
2. The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses
I first heard of Jesse Schell after his prophetic presentation about the future of gaming at DICE 2010. I make a conscious effort to watch it three or four times every year.
Schell's book, The Art of Game Design, approaches the same topics as competing books: level design, player agency, goal setting, and user interface, among others. They're addressed with Schell's signature quirkiness (the good kind) and his incredible talent to make you think differently.
What pops into your head when you hear the word “architecture” as it pertains to games? Do you think of Mass Effect's Citadel hub? How about the bulbous, whale-like Covenant battle cruisers from Halo? Whatever comes to mind, you wouldn't be out of place thinking of some sort of city or wonderfully misshapen tower or something. Schell approaches architecture as a device:
“The primary purpose of architecture is to control a person's experience.”
He continues:
“If all the experiences we wanted to have were to be found easily in nature, there would be no point to architecture. But those experiences aren't always there, so architects design things to help us have the experiences we desire. We want to experience shade and dryness, so we put up shelters. We want to experience safety and security, so we build walls. We build homes, schools, malls, churches, offices, bowling alleys, hotels, and museums not because we want to look at those buildings, but because there are experiences we want to have that these buildings make possible.”
If nothing else, Schell's book can show you a different way of thinking about game design. You may agree with him or you may not, but he has a lot to say, and if you love games, you need to read it.
Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter
1. Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter
I don't have a fancy story for this one. I like Tom Bissell's work so I bought his book.
Few people write about video games the way Bissell does. He's not here to tell you whether a game is worth sixty bucks, nor is he here to discuss the latest trailers and screenshots. His thoughts on games are analytical, extended, and refreshingly thoughtful.
Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter approaches pertinent topics in society and gaming, and dissects them with examples from related video games. In chapter three, The Unbearable Lightness of Games, Bissell examines emergent narrative through the lens of Left 4 Dead. Valve's zombie shooter isn't often praised for its story, but the hectic co-op tale told by our author—in which he overcomes doubt and saves the day—shows us how gameplay can craft a story on its own.
Some people are okay with wading in the shallow end of the pool. That's perfectly fine. Really, it is. If you played Bioshock and came away saying “Wow, it's cool to shoot lighting from my hands,” that's great. If you played Dark Souls for an hour and said, “This game is hard just for the sake of being hard,” that's okay too. Maybe you don't know what a Humble Indie Bundle is. You're not a bad person. You're not even a bad gamer.
But there is so much more to experience, to learn, and to uncover, and this book is a great start. It will change the way you think about games.
