Game Design Essentials

by Briar Lee Mitchell

An easy-to-follow primer on the fundamentals of digital game design The quickly evolving mobile market is spurring digital game creation into the stratosphere, with revenue from games exceeding that of the film industry. With this guide to the basics, you'll get in on the game of digital game design while you learn the skills required for storyboarding, character creation, environment creation, level design, programming, and testing. With Game Design Essentials , you'll benefit from a general-but-thorough overview of the core art and technology fundamentals of digital game design for the 21st century.

Genres: Game Design, Nonfiction

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

“Write what you know” is the classic advice given to authors. Briar Lee Mitchell definitely seems to adhere to that maxim.

The polar setting for Briar’s WALKING ON MARS serial echoes her experiences in the world’s coldest climate as a guest at McMurdo Base in Antarctica. Warming up on Andros Island in the Bahamas helped her set the scene for DARK LIGHTS. She and her dive partners were offered $100 rewards from the Navy base there should any of them find a live torpedo out on the reefs.

The BIG ASS SHARK author recently donned a wet suit to climb into a shark cage in the northern Pacific. Then Briar and her stalwart search and rescue dog, Thor, patrolled the Georgia woods and succeeded in helping the police locate and recover a missing person. The experience will no doubt fuel her future fiction.

When not engaging in her edgier pastimes, Briar creates digital paintings for a diverse list of clients ranging from Warner Bros. to the U. S. Air Force. Her work has been featured in films, video games, and exhibited at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

She also spends a lot of time floating in her Florida pool watching clouds drift by and imagining mayhem. www.briarmitchell.com

Reviews

[Craig Maloney · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you're looking for a broad overview of game design from the perspective of someone writing in 2012 then this might be a decent book for you. However, many of the chapters only touch on what you might need and how to organize it. In the chapter "Sound" it talks about what you might need if you're hiring a composer or an orchestra. While that might be great if you're looking to work for a company that has a budget to hire an orchestra that is advice that might be interesting but not terribly useful. That's one example of the content of this book: interesting, but not useful for someone starting out as a game designer. Also two chapters are about working in the games industry and distribution and marketing, two topics that have likely changed dramatically since the writing of this book.

Also the focus of the book is very narrow, focusing on game design and development in the context of working for a large video game company. If you're looking for DIY advice on how to get a foothold doing your own thing then you'll be better served by other books.

[John Orman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good discussion of the basics of game design, starts with review of all games throughout history, going back to ancient Egypt. Board games, analog and digital electronic games, then through all the modern game type, such as First Person Shooter.
Covers Sound, distribution and marketing, with review questions. Education and Travel games, plus how to get work in the game industry.
I ended up liking this book more for its historical review of games than its game design discussion!

[Mike G · Rating 1 out of 5]

Anything written by Briar Lee Mitchell should not be on something called Goodreads because guess what, it's all bad reads. Don't spend $30 on this garbage.

[Briar Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is perfect for anyone wanting to understand more about the history of games, and, a solid overview of how they are made. For new students, or, for folks considering a career change into game production.