Basics of Game Design

by Michael E. Moore

Basics of Game Design is for anyone wanting to become a professional game designer. Focusing on creating the game mechanics for data-driven games, it covers role-playing, real-time strategy, first-person shooter, simulation, and other games. Written by a 25-year veteran of the game industry, the guide offers detailed explanations of how to design the data sets used to resolve game play for moving, combat, solving puzzles, interacting with NPCs, managing inventory, and much more. Advice on developing stories for games, building maps and levels, and designing the graphical user interface is also included.

Genres: Game Design

375 pages, Paperback

First published March 18, 2011

Reviews

[John Pennycook]

I ended up skim-reading many of the chapters in this book. It does a good job of highlighting that a lot of game design comes down to writing documents and fiddling with spreadsheets, but the target audience seems to be readers who have never played a video game before.