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Beschreibung

Learn to design games for tablets from a renowned game designer! Eager to start designing games for tablets but not sure where to start? Look no further! Gaming guru Scott Rogers has his finger on the pulse of tablet game design and is willing to impart his wisdom and secrets for designing exciting and successful games. As the creator of such venerable games as God of War, the SpongeBob Squarepants series, and Pac-Man World, to name a few, Rogers writes from personal experience and in this unique book, he hands you the tools to create your own tablet games for the iPad, Android tablets, Nintendo DS, and other touchscreen systems. * Covers the entire tablet game creation process, placing a special focus on the intricacies and pitfalls of touch-screen game design * Explores the details and features of tablet game systems and shows you how to develop marketable ideas as well as market your own games * Offers an honest take on what perils and pitfalls await you during a game's pre-production, production, and post-production stages * Features interviews with established tablet game developers that serve to inspire you as you start to make your own tablet game design Swipe This! presents you with an in-depth analysis of popular tablet games and delivers a road map for getting started with tablet game design.

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Seitenzahl: 507

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

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Swipe This! The Guide to Great Touchscreen Game Design

Table of Contents

Introduction
Some Possible Reasons You Picked Up Swipe This!
Who Is This Book For?
Working Video Game Professionals
Future Video Game Designers
Students of Game Design
People Who Love Video Games
Why Another Book on Game Design?
What You Won’t Find in This Book
Very Deep Theory
The Complete History of Video Games
How to Program Video Games
How to Create Video Game Art
Lameness
What You Will Find in This Book
Practical Information
Good News!
Chapter 1: Hardware Wars
Touch and Go!
More Things to Be Touchy About
Game On!
Destroy All Humans!
Developer Interview 1: Paul O’Connor
Chapter 2: Clown-On-A-Unicycle
Let’s Get High (Concept)
Yes, But Is It a Game?
Really Quick Guide to the One-Sheet
Form Follows Function
Function Follows Form
Length Matters
The Average Play Session Will Last 2 to 5 Minutes
The Overall Game Length Should Only Be a Few Hours
Develop Gameplay in Terms of Depth, Not Length
Emphasize Repeatability Over Content
Create Natural Play Breaks Over the Course of the Game
Emergent Eschmergent
I Want to Be Rich and Powerful
Game Design Spotlight 1: Fruit Ninja HD
Chapter 3: Finger Fu!
The Fabulous Folio of Facile Fingering
You Only Have Two (to Four) Fingers
Hands Solo
Virtual Joysticks Suck . . . or Do They?
Hands Get Their Revenge
Developer Interview 2: Andy Ashcraft
Chapter 4: GenreBusters
Making a Name
Games Need Story . . . or Do They?
Unreliable Narrators
Game Design Spotlight 2: Helsing’s Fire
Chapter 5: Puzzlings
Superior Logic
The Problem with Math
Don’t Be Difficult
Physics: It’s for the Birds
Let’s Get Wet
Do You See What I See?
Hiding in Plain Sight
Word Up
And the Solution Is . . .
Developer Interview 3: Erin Reynolds
Chapter 6: Arcade Crazy
The “Good Ol’ Days”
Games? I’ll Give You Games!
A-mazing Games
Cuteness Counts
The First Rule of Fighting Games . . .
Get on the Ball
Baby, You Can Drive My iPhone
Beat It, Kid
Everything New Is Old Again
Game Design Spotlight 3: Where’s My Water?
Chapter 7: Action Guy
Think Like an Artist
The Metrics System
Didn’t We Already Talk about Character?
World Building for Fun and Profit
What’s with All the Zombies?
How to Design an Enemy in Six Easy Steps
Fighting for Cash and Glory!
Pain, Pain, Go Away, Come Again Some Other Day
Putting the “Ack” in “Feedback”
The Only Good Player Is a Dead One
Developer Interview 4: Blade Olsen
Chapter 8: DoodleCat
Get to the Point
Finger Pointers
The Artist’s Way
A Line on Fun
Meow Meow Meow
Game Design Spotlight 4: Jetpack Joyride
Chapter 9: Casual Fryday
Board Games
Card Games
Real Time Strategy Games
How to Create a Tech Tree
Tower Defense Games
God Games
Sports Games
RPGs and MORPGs
The Crown Jewel of Casual
To Clone or Not to Clone?
Developer Interview 5: Sam Rosenthal
Chapter 10: The New Genres
Micro-games
Gesture Games
The Art of Art
Tilt Games
Endless Runners
Augmented Reality
Now Is the Future!
Game Design Spotlight 5: No, Human
Developer Interview 6: Andy Reeves
Chapter 11: Make Your Own Star Wars
How to Start
Diversion #1: How to Storyboard Gameplay
Diversion #2: A Word About Title Screens
Team Building 101
Sound Advice
The Three -ions
Diversion #3: Where to Find Teammates
Production Pointers
The Topic No One Likes Talking About
Ship It!
Marketing Your Game
You Can Make a Game, But Can You Do the Paperwork? (Submitting Your Game)
Diversion #4: How to Design an Icon
Now Where Were We?
Post-Release Strategies
What to Do for an Encore?
Game Design Spotlight 6: Angry Birds
App-pendix 1: The Class of 2008
App-pendix 2: Touchscreen Template
App-pendix 3: Gameplay Storyboarding Template
App-pendix 4: The Game Designer’s Checklist
Afterword

Swipe This!

The Guide to Great Touchscreen Game Design

Scott Rogers

Swipe This! The Guide to Great Touchscreen Game Design

This edition first published 2012

© 2012 John Wiley and Sons, Ltd.

Registered office

John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, United Kingdom

For details of our global editorial offices, for customer services and for information about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at www.wiley.com.

The right of the author to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books.

Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book are trade names, service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publisher is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold on the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought.

Trademarks: Wiley and the Wiley logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley and Sons, Inc. and/ or its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries, and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in the book.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978-1-119-96696-8 (paperback); ISBN 978-1-119-94054-8 (ebook); 978-1-119-94052-4 (ebook); 978-1-119-94053-1 (ebook)

Set in 10 pt. Chaparral Pro by Indianapolis Composition Services

Printed in the United States by Bind-Rite

Game Copyrights

Angry Birds (Rovio Entertainment, 2009)

ARDefender (int13, 2011)

Barry Steakfries, Jetpack Joyride, Fruit Ninja (Halfbrick, 2012)

Beat Sneak Bandit (simogo, 2012)

Bejeweled (Pop Cap Games, 2001)

Bumpy Road (simogo, 2011)

Canabalt (Semi Secret Software, 2009)

Columns (SEGA, 1990)

Crash Bandicoot (Sony Computer Entertainment, 1996)

Crush the Castle (Armor games, 2009)

Cut the Rope, Om-Nom (Chillingo, 2012)

Dance Pad (EA, 2012)

Die Zombie Die (Andy Reeves, 2011)

Doodle Jump (Lima Sky, 2009)

Draw Something (OMGPOP, 2012)

Dude with Sword, Bedbug, Grave Robber, Steampunch, Farm Wars (Scott Rogers, 2012)

Enviro-Bear 2010 (Blinkbat Games, 2011)

EPOCH. (Uppercut Games Pty Ltd, 2012 )

Family Guy (20th Centruy Television, 1999)

Flight Control, Flight Control Rocket, Real Racing 2 (Firemint, 2012)

Formula Nova (Gil Beyruth, 2012)

Fruit Ninja (Halfbrick, 2010)

G.I. Joe and all related characters (Hasbro, 2012)

Game Dev Story (Kairosoft Co. Ltd, 2011)

God Finger (ngmoco, 2010)

Helsing’s Fire (Click Gamer, 2011)

Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure (EA games, 2009)

Homerun Battle 2 (Com2uS, 2012)

Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye (Disney/Lucasfilm, 1995)

Jason Call (Gameloft, 2010)

Keyboard Cat (Brad O’Farrell, 2007)

Killer Moth, Batman (DC Comics, 2012)

Knight’s Rush (Chillingo, 2011)

Link (Nintendo, 1986)

Mickey Mouse, Where’s My Water?, Swampy, Cars 2 AppMATEs (Disney, 2011)

MiniGore (Chillingo, 2009)

Nathan Drake (Sony Computer Entertainment, 2007)

NeverMIND (Erin Reynolds, 2012)

No, Human (vol-2, 2011)

Puzzle Juice (Colaboratory, 2012)

Rolando (ngmoco, 2008)

Scribblenauts (WB Games, 2009)

Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing (SEGA, 2011)

SpellCraft School of Magic (Appy Entertainment, 2011)

Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor (Tiger Style, 2009)

SpongeBob Squarepants, Patrick Star, Squidward Tentacles (MTV Networks International, 1999)

SPYMouse (EA 2012)

Star Wars Arcade Falcon Gunner (THQ, 2011)

Star Wars, Darth Vader, Obi-Wan Kenobi and related characters and vehicles (Lucasfilm Ltd., 2012)

Super KO Boxing 2 (Glu Games Inc., 2012)

Super Monkey Ball (SEGA, 2001)

They Live (Universal, 1988)

Triple Town (Spryfox, 2012)

WarioWare: Touched! (Nintendo, 2004)

Wizard of Oz (MGM, 1939)

Publisher’s Acknowledgements

Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

Editorial and Production

VP Consumer and Technology Publishing Director: Michelle Leete

Associate Director–Book Content Management: Martin Tribe

Associate Publisher: Chris Webb

Assistant Editor: Ellie Scott

Development Editor: Gareth Haman

Copy Editor: Debbye Butler

Technical Editors: Graham Jans, Paul O’Connor, Noah Stein

Editorial Manager: Jodi Jensen

Senior Project Editor: Sara Shlaer

Editorial Assistant: Leslie Saxman

Marketing

Associate Marketing Director: Louise Breinholt

Senior Marketing Executive: Kate Parrett

Composition Services

Compositor: Erin Zeltner

Proofreaders: Jessica Kramer, Tricia Liebig

Indexer: Potomac Indexing, LLC

About the Author

Once upon a time, Scott Rogers played video games, Dungeons and Dragons and drew comic books without realizing he could do these things for a living. After being “discovered” in a coffee shop and realizing game designers have more fun, Scott helped design video games including Pac-Man World, the Maximo series, God of War, Darksiders and the Drawn To Life series. A lecture about his two favorite things – level design and Disneyland – led to writing “Level Up! The Guide to Great Video Game Design,” lecturing at the prestigious Interactive Media Division at the USC School of Cinematic Arts and employment with the Walt Disney Imagineering R&D team. Scott is currently living happily ever after in Thousand Oaks, CA with his family, action figure collection and an iPad full of games.

Evelyn and Jack – Thank you for being so patient while Dad worked on this book. I love you both. Now let’s play!!

Swipe This Book!

Well, don’t literally swipe this book.

Swipe This! The Guide to Great Touchscreen Game Design is all about making touchscreen games, like the kind you play on tablets such as your iPad, on smartphones such as your iPhone, and on handheld gaming systems like the Nintendo DS or Sony PS Vita. You’ll learn how to design gameplay that’s as simple as moving your finger (or stylus)—or swiping it—across a screen. It’s a pun. Ugh. Now I’ve just explained the title of the book to you: that’s as bad as explaining the punch line of a joke.

Look, would it help if I told you that it took a long time to write this book? I (and my publisher) would prefer that you buy Swipe This! rather than actually swiping it . . . or pirating it electronically, or memorizing it in the bookstore, or borrowing it from a friend and never giving it back. What can I do to convince you to not swipe Swipe This!?

I know! In a previous video game design book I wrote,1 I explained that every good book has to start off with an excerpt so gripping, so exciting, so thrilling that the reader has to keep reading it to its conclusion. An excerpt that has zombies in it! Preferably something like this:

Jack leapt aboard the helicopter as two dozen zombies reached out, entangling the struts. “There’s too much weight!” yelled Evelyn from the cockpit. “We’ll never be able to take off!” Jack hew at the clawing creatures and yelled back, “Working on it!” He wasn’t sure whether zombies could feel pain, but they sure couldn’t hold onto the helicopter strut without hands. As the zombies dropped off one by one, Jack waved them goodbye, calling out: “Good-bye! Toodle-loo! See you later!” Splat. Splat. Splat. The ‘copter rose into the sky and Jack collapsed to the floor. “I must be losing it,” he muttered. “Face it, Jackie boy. The zombie apocalypse isn’t as much fun as you thought it would be.” That’s when the skeletal dragon swooped in front of the ‘copter, spreading its enormous bat wings with a sound not unlike knuckles cracking. Jack thought “Nuts. I shouldn’t have opened that book.”

Okay, so maybe you didn’t pick up Swipe This! to read about zombies, dragons, or helicopters,2 but the good news is there are zombies, dragons, and helicopters in this book—just not right this second.

What I am sure of is that you picked up this book (or are previewing the first few pages on your e-browser) for one of the following reasons:

Some Possible Reasons You Picked Up Swipe This!

1. You don’t know anything about tablet games but want to learn all about them.

2. You’ve played tablet games and want to make one of your own, but don’t know where to start.

3. You already create tablet games and want to make your games even better.

4. Swipe This! has an awesome cover.

5. Swipe This! has zombies, dragons, and helicopters in it.

6. __________________________________________________.3

If you have picked up this book for any of these reasons, then we’re off to a great start. Swipe This! is definitely the book for you.

Who Is This Book For?

You!4

And since there are four types of people who enjoy reading books about video games, you are probably one of the following: nerd, geek, otaku, or fanboy. I’m kidding! What I meant to say is that you are probably a gamer.

What (or who) is a gamer? According to that source of all knowledge, Wikipedia,5 the term gamer is “commonly used to identify those who spend much of their leisure time playing or learning about games.” That said, you don’t have to be a gamer to read Swipe This! You just need to fit into one of my four easy-to-stereotype classifications:

Working Video Game Professionals

These hard-working men and women can be found fighting the good fight in development studios around the world. As experienced game creators, you’d think they would already know everything there is to learn from a book such as this. But, as I’ve learned over the years, no one can know everything. And even if they think they do, no one can remember everything. The human brain is a very slippery thing6—which is why books exist in the first place!

Books (like this one) can be very helpful because game creators often develop what I call designer blinders. Designer blinders happen when a game developer becomes so engrossed in his work that he overlooks important details. For example, developers spend so much time playing their games that they end up tolerating their sloppy controls. Sometimes they don’t realize their controls could be better. Other times they’re just satisfied that the darn things are working at all. They might neglect ways to improve their gameplay because they are so focused on getting features into a game under a tight deadline. They’re like Luke Skywalker flying down the trench of the Death Star, so hyper-focused on shooting that photon torpedo into the exhaust port7 that they fail to notice Darth Vader and his wingmen have just flown into the trench behind them and have them in their sights! But never fear! Swipe This! is your Han Solo, flying in for the assist, knocking Vader and his wingmen out of your way so you can make the shot, blow up the Death Star, and be the hero!

Despite my blatant pandering-to-nerds analogy, I hope that Swipe This! will help inspire an idea, a gameplay feature, or merely provide some reassurance to the working professionals that they are on the right track and that the exhaust port is still in their sights.

Future Video Game Designers

The future of tablet games is wide open, and in this group are those brave pioneers who are ready to take flight! These pioneers come from all walks of life. Maybe they’re game developers who have decided to “take a break” from the grind of producing “triple A” games and strike out on their own. Perhaps they are programmers, artists, or designers who feel their creative ideas and self-expression are being crushed under their day jobs and they want to create something of their own. Maybe they’re wannabe game developers who just need a push in the right direction.

When I started out in games (the ancient 16-bit days), it wasn’t easy to learn how to make games. It was black magic, a secret art practiced by programmers and the Japanese. Heck, I didn’t even realize video games were a career path until I was actually working in the industry! There sure as heck weren’t places like game schools or products like DVDs on how to design games, and only a precious few magazines and books.8

But I was lucky enough to have a mentor—someone who had a few successful games under their belt, enough experience to know what worked and what didn’t, and (thankfully) didn’t have a huge ego to be offended when a very eager (and slightly frustrated) video game artist walked into their office and told them he wanted to be a game designer. Since then, I’ve been inspired by my mentor and learned that it’s important to pass knowledge on and help those who ask for help. The information in this book is based on many years of experience making games on touchscreen devices. With each game, I made mistakes, learned something new, discarded what didn’t work, and applied what did. And that’s what you’ll find in this book. Everything I’ve learned. So, let me be your mentor. All you need to do is follow my advice, work hard, and take advantage of opportunities when they eventually arrive.

Students of Game Design

Are you a student going to one of the many universities and trade schools that offer a program in video game design? LUCKY!! Man, I wish they had that when I was a student! Go to school to make video games? That is so freakin’ cool! Jealous! Ahem. But I digress. As a video games student, you are going to dive deep into the study of all aspects of video game development. You’ll sit through courses on the history of gaming; critically discuss why a game was a successful or failure; take labs to learn coding or character animation; get into adult beverage-fuelled debates with your dorm mates why Angry Birds was a lucky fluke or the most calculated game design ever created. And while you will be learning, learning takes time. You know what accelerates learning? Books.

Now there are lots of textbooks on video game design. Some pretty good books filled with academic theory on why games are fun. You should read those books9. But first, you should read Swipe This! The information, tips, and tricks you will find in these pages will enhance all of those classes, labs, and discussions. I think you’ll find Swipe This!’s practical approach to game design to be the antidote to that heavy diet of theory your teachers are going to be feeding you. Theory is great for the classroom, but the reality is, what matters most in the trenches of the video game industry is practical advice. Swipe This! brings you that advice from some of the industry’s best and brightest. This is why Swipe This! will be indispensable over the course of your academic career.

Besides, I’ve read those dry game design textbooks, and I can guarantee you that none of them contains a picture as awesome as this:

People Who Love Video Games

Just because you aren’t a working professional, student, or future game developer, that doesn’t mean you can’t love video games, much less not read a book about them. As with movies and art, the more I learn about how something is made, the more I appreciate it. The saying goes “Knowing is half the battle.”10

Besides, what’s not to love about video games? The best games make your wishes come true. They make you feel smart, strong, rich, and athletic. They’ll take you to places you’ve never been, and will allow you to experience lives you’ll never have in the real world. This is why video games are the most popular form of entertainment in the world11: They make you awesome.

I hear some of you more skeptical readers thinking12 “I need more proof!” And while I’m generally not a statistics person, try these on for size:

• Goldman Sachs’s research indicates that 79.2 million touchscreen devices will be sold in 2012.13

• A Google survey reports that 84% of touchscreen owners use their devices primarily for gaming.14

• Nintendo reports that 144 million DSs (including DSi, DS Lite, and DSi XL) have sold worldwide as of early 2011.15

That’s a lot of people who love tablet games! And they aren’t alone. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I love video games too! I love to play them and I love to make them. I love to read about making them. Wouldn’t you rather read a book written by someone who loves video games than one that wasn’t?

So would I.

Why Another Book on Game Design?

No one has written a book quite like Swipe This! before:a book specifically about the design of tablet and handheld games.

Over the years, I have learned that designing games for touchscreens and handheld gaming systems is very different than designing the types of games played on consoles and computers. Everything from the genres of games people like to play, to the do’s and don’ts of designing gameplay for handheld devices, to thinking about how the player interacts with the controls is different.

As more and more game developers embrace tablet gaming, they will need to know how to make great games for these devices. Swipe This! is the place to learn it. I’ve been creating games for a very long time, so let me be your guide into the brave new frontier!

What You Won’t Find in This Book

Books can be many things. Paper weights, door jams, anti-squid projectiles. But did you know the insides of a book are often useful too? You will find lots of useful information on how to design tablet games in Swipe This! On the flip side, here are five things you won’t find:

1. Very deep theory.

2. The complete history of video games.

3. How to program tablet games.

4. How to create art for tablet games.

5. Lameness.

Very Deep Theory

To quote cultural theorist Johan Huizinga from his seminal Homo Ludens: “Poiesis, in fact, is a play-function. It proceeds within the playground of the mind, in a world of its own which the mind creates for it. There, things have a different physiognomy . . . zzzzzzzz.” I’m sorry. I must have dozed off. I’m sure ludic theory has its place . . . in academia or during dinner conversation with the royals,16 but when it’s time to roll up your sleeves, and get to work, theory can stay home and clean the house. Lord knows it needs it.

This isn’t to say that this book doesn’t have some theory in it. I’ve been known to come up with a theory or two of my own: The Theory of Unfun. The Triangle of Weirdness. The Rule of Three. You can find all these (and probably more than I care to admit) in my previous video game design book.17 But the point of this book is not to overwhelm you with theories. It’s to overwhelm you with helpful, practical, factual designing goodness that will help make designing a tablet game a breeze.

The Complete History of Video Games

There are already dozens of books on this subject, and at least three of them are good.18 Besides, you can find a truncated history of arcade and console games in Level Up! If you are looking for another invocation of the holy quartet of video gaming19, you can look elsewhere. However, since Swipe This! is a book about touchscreen gaming, I will be covering the origins and evolution of touchscreen games. As philosopher and Bejeweled-enthusiast George Santayana once said “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to replay it.” Or something like that.

How to Program Video Games

By trade, I am a game designer, not a programmer. I don’t know how to code games, so I’m not going to pretend to include “how to program a game” in this book. I wouldn’t want to steer you in the wrong direction. But as a functioning member of a creative team, you still need to know what a programmer is talking about. You should know the difference between iOS (Apple’s mobile operating system) and an SDK (Software Development Kit). You should know that games can be programmed in Cocoa, Open GL ES 2.0, and Objective-C. The more you can understand programmer-ese, the easier it will be to communicate your design needs to a programmer. If you want to learn more or go deeper, many good books on the topic20 will help you gain some working knowledge. Feel free to learn a programming tool to really learn how things work, or to program the game yourself.

How to Create Video Game Art

Like I said, I’m a game designer, and although I used to create game art for a living (waaaay back in the 16-bit days), this book does not get into the technical aspects of creating art for your tablet game: topics like “How to create 3D models,” “How to texture and shade objects and environments,” or “How to draw bitmaps or create alpha layers.” But that doesn’t mean I am not going to discuss game art. I talk about choosing an artistic style for your game, deciding what kind of art works best on those little tiny mobile touchscreens, applying lighting tricks, and understanding color theory, UI design . . . all types of artsy topics. Once again, there’s nothing stopping you from learning about this yourself and, just like with programming, the more you know, the easier it is to communicate your ideas.

Lameness

I’m hoping this one is self-explanatory.

What You Will Find in This Book

1. Practical information (check out the following section)

2. Tips and tricks

3. Interviews

4. Analysis

5. Helpful documentation

6. Lots and lots of drawings

7. Lists21

Practical Information

Swipe This! will guide you through the entire process of designing a tablet and touchscreen game, from coming up with your initial (dare I say brilliant?) idea to learning strategies on how to best release your game into a fiercely competitive market. And how are we going to do this? By using the following three methods:

1. Designing games. First and foremost, Swipe This! will teach you how to create a design exclusively for a tablet and touchscreen video game. Unlike console and PC games, tablet and touchscreen games have very different design requirements and their players have very different needs. We will take these exceptions into consideration; this, in turn, will help make your game much more successful. I have created documentation to give you a headstart on creating your game designs. We’re gonna design some games! Exciting, right?

2. Talking to people who design games. You may not know many game developers in real life, but I do. I have interviewed many of the game industry’s top and up-and-coming tablet game developers about their games to learn what worked and what didn’t, where they draw their inspiration from, and what they would do differently now that they know better. And they’ve got a lot of good stuff to share. It’s like having a Game Developers Conference in a book!

3. Playing and evaluating games. I always say, “You can learn a lot from playing a game, even a bad one.” I’ve played a lot of tablet games—both good and bad. We’ll look at many of these games, and I will provide in-depth analysis to figure out why they work, why they don’t, what could have been done better, and what was done right. And, for absolutely free, I’ll give you the analytical tools, documentation, and some creative exercises to learn from other games in order to make yours the best it can possibly be.

As you read Swipe This!, you will find many examples where I write “When I designed so-and-so . . . .” Please be aware that this is an oversimplification. Video games are created by many, many, many talented people, and to give the impression that I did all the work myself is not only incorrect, but it’s also egotistical. Although there are tablet games made by a single creator, that was not the case on the titles I was involved with. Whew. I’m glad I got that off my chest!

Something else you might have noticed already about Swipe This! is that there are lots of drawings. Look! There goes one of them now!

Over the years working as a video game designer, I’ve learned that the best way to get people to read something like a game design document22 or a book on video game design is to draw cartoons and diagrams of VERY IMPORTANT game play concepts. This is why you will find lots and lots of drawings in this book, so you will continue reading and understand the ideas I present. When you understand, then you can apply them when making your own game designs and become a great tablet game designer! Oh, I almost forgot. There’s one other thing in this book that you won’t find in most other video game design books:

Good News!

Here’s the good news. Thinking about designing tablet game video games brings the following quote to mind:

There has never been a better time for someone to design, develop, and publish a video game in the history of the medium.

—Me (I just said it right now)

I have been preaching this wisdom to countless students, professionals, and wannabe video game developers since 2008. And I wouldn’t tell it to them (or you) if I didn’t believe it.

When I first started working in video games, it used to be near impossible to make one without money, a team, experience, equipment, a developer’s license, a publisher, more money, a team, and another team.

Many of my peers used to yearn for the “good old days” when a couple of friends could sit in a garage, armed with some computers and the passion to make something fun for all to enjoy. I’m happy to say that things have come full circle. Teams as small as one person are creating tablet games these days. There’s room for everyone in the video game industry, provided you . . .

1. Have the passion to create something great.

2. Love video games.

3. Are not an idiot23.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, are you ready to start learning how to design some tablet video games?

Let’s go!

Notes

1Level Up! The Guide to Great Video Game Design (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2010) available everywhere books are sold! <End advertising mode>

2Though I don’t blame you if you did, because they are awesome!

3Please write in your own reason here. I can’t think of everything.

4Didn’t I just say that?

5Before you judge me for using Wikipedia as a source, I’ll have you know that I first referenced a copy of Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary that weighs 5 lbs. and can kill a man if you drop it on his head. The definition for gamer wasn’t even listed in there.

6Have you ever tried to hold one?

7Right below the main port.

8Most of them were about chess or how to get a high score in Donkey Kong.

9Later.

10The other half of the battle is shooting lots of red and blue lasers.

11http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/video-games/8421458/Video-games-sell-more-than-DVDs-and-albums.html

12I know it’s unnerving, me reading your mind, but get used to it.

13http://www.intomobile.com/2010/12/14/goldman-sachs-tablets/

14http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/appsblog/2011/apr/08/tablets-mainly-for-games-survey

15http://www.vg247.com/2011/01/27/nintendo-lifetime-ds-sales-hit-144-million-wii-almost-85-million/

16http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/jul/10/william-kate-stars-los-angeles

17See footnote #1.

18Replay by Tristan Donovan (Yellow Ant, 2010), The Ultimate History of Video Games: From Pong to Pokémon by Steven Kent (Three Rivers Press, 2001), and All Our Bases Belong To Us by Harold Goldberg (Three Rivers Press, 2011).

19Chant along with me: Higinbotham, Russell, Bushnell, Baer. Higinbotham, Russell, Bushnell, Baer.

20Like iPhone & iPad Game Development For Dummies by Goldstein, Manning & Buttfield-Addison (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2011).

21Like this one.

22And what, pray tell, is a game design document? Hold your horses, cowboy. We’ll get to that!

23You’ve already proven to me that you aren’t an idiot, because you’re reading this book.

Chapter 1: Hardware Wars

Sigh.

I hate to do this to you because you seem like such a nice person, but every book has to start with the writer assuming that the reader knowsabout the topic the book is about. My fondest wish is that you already know enough about tablet gaming that I can dive right into professional-grade tips and techniques delivered in the most obscure jargon and arcane argot.

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!