Master the Principles and Vocabulary of Game Design Why aren’t videogames getting better? Why does it feel like we’re playing the same games, over and over again? Why aren’t games helping us transform our lives, like great music, books, and movies do? The problem is language. We still don’t know how to talk about game design. We can’t share our visions. We forget what works (and doesn’t). We don’t learn from history. It’s too hard to improve. The breakthrough starts here. A Game Design Vocabulary gives us the complete game design framework we desperately need—whether we create games, study them, review them, or build businesses on them. Craft amazing experiences. Anna Anthropy and Naomi Clark share foundational principles, examples, and exercises that help you create great player experiences...complement intuition with design discipline...and craft games that succeed brilliantly on every level. Liberate yourself from stale clichés and genres Tell great stories: go way beyond cutscenes and text dumps Control the crucial relationships between game “verbs” and “objects” Wield the full power of development, conflict, climax, and resolution Shape scenes, pacing, and player choices Deepen context via art, animation, music, and sound Help players discover, understand, engage, and “talk back” to you Effectively use resistance and difficulty: the “push and pull” of games Design holistically: integrate visuals, audio, and controls Communicate a design vision everyone can understand

It’s time to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Guinness World Records: Gamer’s Edition! With over four million copies sold, this is the ultimate annual for every gaming fan. It’s bursting with the latest facts and stats on your favorite games from the futuristic soccer action of Rocket League to the psychedelic paint battles of Splatoon. And as Star Wars mania explodes once again, we explore everything Jedi in a special feature section. Plus, you’ll get a sneak peek at all-new games from the ever-evolving gaming universe! Get an inside look at the indie game scene, the big-money world of eSports, and a celebration of 25 years of Mario Kart. There’s everything from space shooters such as Destiny, to RPGs such as Fallout 4, to the hit sport series FIFAand Madden. We’ve got sims, strategy games, and horror titles, and we also take a look at the toys-to-life phenomenon. From League of Legends to The Legend of Zelda, it’s all here in the 2017 edition of Guinness World Records: Gamer’s Edition!

- Uniquely accessible guide to game audio, requiring no pre-existing knowledge from the reader, making it suitable for readers from a range of background, including game design, music technology and production, composition and audio engineering - Accompanied by online DAW exercises using Reaper, a free-to-use DAW software - Our first beginners guide to game audio, contributing to our growing collection of titles in this growing field

Readers' Favorite and Eric Hoffer Award-Winning-Author Chris Chandler is on the run from the press and the furious citizens of Beamishstock, Maine. He agrees to house-sit an isolated estate near Lewis, Vermont with a history and a curse that stretches back to the Albigensian Crusade. There, Chris soon learns that one of the town’s prodigal sons, Gilbert Burgoyne, has recently returned with plans for a Goth festival and Grand Guignol Theater, which he’ll fund through the sale…of the dead and dying. In order to save a collection of priceless artifacts and protect the dead of an ancient family, Chris must battle to the death with Burgoyne and his gang of grave robbers. If Chris is to have any chance of survival at all, he'll have to employ a truly ghastly strategy involving an army of vengeful dead. When it comes to ghastly, however, no one can outdo Gilbert Burgoyne. On that, you can bet your life. Praise for Ivan Blake Dead Silent Dead Silent is quite the gift, complete with a black bow, to horror fans. A ghoulish gem, Dead Silent juggles the Gothic New England ambiance, the parade of sleazy characters, and the occasional supernatural mauling with panache. —Kirkus Reviews Ivan Blake excels in crafting enjoyable, seat-of-your-pants, high-octane tension…readers who like fast-paced horror with a big dose of history and mystery will find Dead Silent heady, engrossing, and nearly impossible to put down. —Midwest Book Review

Reviews over 400 seminal games from 1975 to 2015. Each entry shares articles on the genre, mod suggestions and hints on how to run the games on modern hardware.

Four Ways of Hearing Video Game Music offers a phenomenological approach to music in video games. Drawing on past phenomenological approaches to music as well as studies of music listening in a variety of disciplines such as aesthetics and ecological psychology, author Michiel Kamp explains four main ways of hearing the same piece of music--through background, aesthetic, ludic, and semiotic hearing.

Offers the most comprehensive analysis and discussion of medievalist computer games to date. Games with a medieval setting are commercially lucrative and reach a truly massive audience. Moreover, they can engage their players in a manner that is not only different, but in certain aspects, more profound than traditional literary or cinematic forms of medievalism. However, although it is important to understand the versions of the Middle Ages presented by these games, how players engage with these medievalist worlds, and why particular representational trends emerge in this most modern medium, there has hitherto been little scholarship devoted to them. This book explores the distinct nature of medievalism in digital games across a range of themes, from the portrayal of grotesque yet romantic conflict to conflicting depictions of the Church and religion. It likewise considers the distinctions between medievalist games and those of other periods, underlining their emphasis on fantasy, roleplay and hardcore elements, and their consequences for depictions of morality, race, gender and sexuality. Ultimately the book argues that while medievalist games are thoroughly influenced by medievalist and ludic tropes, they are nonetheless representative of a distinct new form of medievalism. It engages with the vast literature surrounding historical game studies, game design, and medievalism, and considers hundreds of games from across genres, from Assassin's Creed and Baldur's Gate to Crusader Kings and The Witcher series. In doing so, it provides a vital illustration of the state of the field and a cornerstone for future research and teaching.

A look at the revolution in game live streaming and esports broadcasting Every day thousands of people broadcast their gaming live to audiences over the internet using popular sites such as Twitch, which reaches more than one hundred million viewers a month. In these new platforms for interactive entertainment, big esports events featuring digital game competitors live stream globally, and audiences can interact with broadcasters—and each other—through chat in real time. What are the ramifications of this exploding online industry? Taking readers inside home studios and backstage at large esports events, Watch Me Play investigates the rise of game live streaming and how it is poised to alter how we understand media and audiences. Through extensive interviews and immersion in this gaming scene, T. L. Taylor delves into the inner workings of the live streaming platform Twitch. From branding to business practices, she shows the pleasures and work involved in this broadcasting activity, as well as the management and governance of game live streaming and its hosting communities. At a time when gaming is being reinvented through social media, the potential of an ever-growing audience is transforming user-generated content and alternative distribution methods. These changes will challenge the meaning of ownership and intellectual property and open the way to new forms of creativity. The first book to explore the online phenomenon Twitch and live streaming games, Watch Me Play offers a vibrant look at the melding of private play and public entertainment.

This eighth edition of Joseph Turow’s pathbreaking media textbook uses convergence as a lens that puts students at the center of the profound changes in the 21st century media world. It teaches students to think critically about the role of media, and what these changes mean for their lives. The book’s media systems approach helps students to look carefully at how media content is created, distributed, and exhibited in the new world that the digital revolution has created. From news media to video games and social networking to mobile platforms, it provides students with the tools they need to understand and critique the media they encounter and consume. The first part examines the media world as a whole, while the second delves deep into key media industries, such as the movie, television, and video game industries. This new edition includes critical expanded coverage of social media, new forms of both audio and audiovisual media and international case studies, as well as updated figures, tables, and pedagogy, including key terms and further activities. Media Today is an excellent introduction to the world of media in the digital age, perfect for students seeking a solid grounding in media studies. Extensive pedagogical materials also make this a highly teachable book, well suited to the classroom. The accompanying website has also been updated with new student and instructor resources, including chapter recaps, recommended readings, and instructor’s manual.

Video games are a complex, compelling medium in which established art forms intersect with technology to create an interactive text. Visual arts, architectural design, music, narrative and rules of play all find a place within, and are constrained by, computer systems whose purpose is to create an immersive player experience. In the relatively short life of video game studies, many authors have approached the question of how games function, some focusing on technical aspects of game design, others on rules of play. Taking a holistic view, this study explores how ludology, narratology, visual rhetoric, musical theory and player psychology work (or don't work) together to create a cohesive experience and to provide a unified framework for understanding video games.