#5 in Computer & video game design books
Reddit mentions of Level Up! The Guide to Great Video Game Design
Sentiment score: 18
Reddit mentions: 29
We found 29 Reddit mentions of Level Up! The Guide to Great Video Game Design. Here are the top ones.
Buying options
View on Amazon.comor
- John Wiley Sons
Features:
Specs:
Height | 9.098407 Inches |
Length | 7.098411 Inches |
Number of items | 1 |
Weight | 1.9180216794 Pounds |
Width | 1.401572 Inches |
I found Level Up! by Scott Rogers to be a good book to recommend for people thinking about becoming a dev. Nice, funny writing style that doesn't get too technical.
I don't have any games under my belt just yet (working on one for class with a group), but Level Up!: The Guide to Great Video Game Design by Scott Rogers was a solid read.
The guy worked on God of War and the Maximo series among other 3D games, so that'd probably be helpful for you.
On YouTube Brackeys channel looks really useful: short, no-nonsense videos.
Additionally, you can find true gems of wisdom on GDC.
I'd also like to recommend a book about game design (in general): Level Up! -- The Guide to Great Video Game Design by Scott Rogers.
One of my favourite game design books actually makes reference to this. In the book Scott Rogers calls it the Triangle of Weirdness and uses it specifically to refer to writing a game's story
Characters - Activities - World
Pick one
He then uses The Wizard of Oz (Characters), Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Activities), and Star Wars (World) to back up his statement.
An Essential Reading List For Designers
Source: www.tomfaulkner.co.uk
All books have been linked to Amazon for review and possible purchase. Remember to support the authors by purchasing their books. If there are any issues with this listing let me know via comments or pm.
Architecture
Communication Design
Fashion Design
Angela ButtolphEditors of Phaidon ?Furniture Design
Game Design
Graphic Design
Information Design
Industrial Design
(cont'd)
I found these helpful
https://www.amazon.com/Art-Game-Design-Lenses-Second/dp/1466598646/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1481045565&sr=1-1&keywords=game+design
https://www.amazon.com/Level-Guide-Great-Video-Design/dp/1118877160/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1481045521&sr=1-5&keywords=level+design
https://www.amazon.com/Level-Design-Games-Compelling-Experiences/dp/0321375971/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1481045538&sr=1-3&keywords=level+design
I would love to add Level up by Scott Rogers (https://www.amazon.com/Level-Guide-Great-Video-Design/dp/1118877160) to the mix. I'm also writing for video games on indie scale tho.
Scott Rogers book is also about level design and that's important part of story telling in video game medium. For most, a lot of text is going to be dismissed by a lot of players so lot of the storytelling is good to come from somewhere else. Visuals, level design, character design etc. You need to learn from the start a good script format that is easy to understand for you and someone else reading. You can find a lot of formation online and even BBC scripts to read if you want from http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/
Fundamentals like many here has stated are good place to start. Story crafting, plot devices and analysing your favourite games, movies I and TV series. Maybe check http://tvtropes.org/ and find your favourite game protagonist and read up what tropes writers used on them and how it shows.
Games as a story telling device are mix of visuals, plain text and user interaction and that mix is what makes a story in a video game. That's why a lot of video games have not so immersive story as script writers are tend to bring to the mix later in the development when level design has maybe been set in stone and coded.
I assume you want to make a story script for a game. I would recommend learning a formation for a basic film script or use celtx.com straight away because it's easier for you to get into scene thinking and also for your future co-workers. Celtx.com is free script writing tool, you should look up. (https://www.celtx.com/index.html)
And also read all comments above about learning fundamentals and skills to analyze the story arcs and storytelling. To write you must first read.
This book is pretty good:
https://www.amazon.com/Level-Guide-Great-Video-Design/dp/1118877160/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1480090759&sr=8-2&keywords=level+up
Here's some stuff to check out..
Challenges for Game Designers- https://www.amazon.com/Challenges-Game-Designers-Brenda-Brathwaite/dp/158450580X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1469790243&sr=8-1&keywords=challenges+for+game+designers - A good overview and tool for learning various gameplay mechanics..
Level Up: the Guide to Great Video Game Design - https://www.amazon.com/Level-Guide-Great-Video-Design/dp/1118877160/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1469790273&sr=8-1&keywords=level+up+video+game+design - A nice overview of game design in general, which is good to know even if you're only pursuing level design at the moment
Game Maker's Toolkit - https://www.youtube.com/user/McBacon1337/videos - A really good series on game and level design
Reverse Design Series - http://thegamedesignforum.com/books/books.html - Books that deconstruct games in order to learn from them.. I'm going through the Super Mario World one right now and learning some nice things from it..
Some Reddit posts..
https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedesign/comments/35rvec/puzzle_design_how_i_do_it/ - I found this helpful back when I first read it.. o.o;
https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/4remqy/a_fast_and_simple_method_for_writing_compelling/ - Nice stuff to keep in mind when designing story flow in levels..
Deviating a bit here.. but..
https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/23oxp6/build_a_bad_guy_workshop_designing_enemies_for/ - A nice breakdown of enemy types in mostly 2D platform style games.. but a good reference
https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/3p3z05/game_feel_why_your_death_animation_sucks/ - Some game feel videos
I've decided that for my summer project before starting university I'm going to make a game with hopes that it will be somewhat similar to the kingdom hearts series.
As a 3D artist I have a lot of work cut out for me, especially considering I have about 3 and a half months to do this. I hope to do it all using just UE4, 3DS Max and Photoshop, being solo the whole time. Now I just need to go back through my old work to refresh some key aspects to game design and read this book again.
Wish me luck!
Level Up! 2nd Edition by Scott Rogers - funny, accessible and packed with knowledge. Much lighter than The Art of Game Design if you're looking for an entry point.
I found "Level Up! The guide to great video game design" to be an interesting book that describes on what you should aim for in your game mechanics, enemies and such. Plus pretty easy to read, both in length and content.
I haven't read this other one, but I've heard Rules of play is a pretty good one too.
Another great source are youtube channels. My personal favorite is Extra Credits. I'm just about to get into the industry so it might be worth keeping that in mind ^^"
There was also another good quote about the "Mexican Pizza" strategy (which referred to some fast food chain having a pizza taco basically), which basically described taking two seemingly unrelated things, tossing them together and making something strangely appealing. Simple concept, but quite effective.
From this book, if you're interested. It discusses the game design process in a streamlined way, definitely helped me when I started learning about it all.
> I would like your help pointing (pun intended) me in the right direction
No, no, you want some pointers for what to do next.
You can't learn just by looking. You need to pick a goal, then try to implement it. When you have very specific questions, you can ask here or stackoverflow. Don't do something complicated at first: Start with a trivial game like tic-tac-toe. Get it all working end-to-end, then start adding features to transform it into something interesting.
But don't forget this is an entire Linux-based computer, so you don't have to only use the tools that came with it. There are 1000s of games for Linux, and hundreds of game-building environments. Plus, there are lots of languages (Python, Lua, Ruby, Go, NodeJS, etc), and plenty of ways to paint a GUI (i.e. SDL, OpenGL, etc).
In many games, they only use C++ for the low-level bits, then wire up the high-level logic with a scripting language like Lua.
P.S. I've heard this is a good book.
This book breaks down gameplay mechanics, level design and such. It's a really fun read.
Your question is far too broad. "Combat mechanics" is a huge topic.
For general beginner questions such as this one, I would strongly suggest that you first read some books and articles on video game combat design. Then you will be prepared to ask a more specific question. Here are some suggestions for getting started:
7 combat systems that every game designer should study
The Fundamental Pillars of a Combat System
Level Up! The Guide to Great Video Game Design - Chapter 10: The Elements of Combat
Basics of Game Design - Chapter 5: On Combat
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Level-Up-Guide-Great-Design/dp/1118877160/ref=sr_1_11?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1416048383&sr=1-11&keywords=game+design+book
This book is great for it. There's PDF versions around the place.
https://www.amazon.com/Level-Guide-Great-Video-Design/dp/1118877160/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1522621423&sr=8-1&keywords=level+up+the+guide+to+great+video+game+design
Level Up! by Scott Rogers is a great book. It's an easy read and includes documentation examples.
Not precisely, no. I own Level Up! The Guide to Great Video Game Design which is pretty good, and does cover some building block mechanic type stuff. But it also has a lot on character design, story, and craft (like game design documents and stuff) as well.
Level Up
> It's not about a tutorial, it's about making the early game fun.
Ah, I think I see where I misunderstood. Yeah, first time I played, winter a year ago, I tried to do that. Had the bad luck of getting a starting asteroid that only had iron, nickel and uranium. Dug through it like swiss cheese before I realized I had to trek over to a neighboring asteroid. Still, it was pretty fast.
I think you're right -- it might be nice if it spawned a couple "scripted" asteroids near you that had some tiny deposits of everything (minus U). Then, beyond that, you'd have to search, but at least you could have agency on how you did that search.
In a sense, you're pointing out that walking is not gameplay. You're totally right.
> Sorry, didn't mean to be a dick. Well, I did, but I'm still sorry.
LOL, it's the internet. It's kind of expected. Thanks though!
Game Design has nothing to do with programming. Familiarize yourself with the different roles in development and you will find books for the right topics. r/gamedesign is nice on its own. Depending on your use of technology, you might want to look into the corresponding subs aswell.
Good reads on game design are Level Up! and The Art of Game Design.
Not GML-specific but these are my two favorite game development books.
Try out this one for software architecture, wish I read it earlier
Read this to get thinking about game design
Level Up by Scott Rogers is great! I've had my tattered copy for years and it's by far one of the best game dev books I've read. He also goes over a lot more things than level design, so I'd highly recommend it.
I use the templates from this book.
I actually got this one for one of my classes and was surprised by how much I enjoyed reading it. I even finished it before my classes started.
Hey so I don't know gamedev's opinion on the book Level up!, But that's the first book about game design that I got when I started and it helped me understand a lot about the process of game design.
It is a very frustrating but very rewarding process. In the end when people try your game and you see them have a blast, that is the best feeling ever.
Try to find similar games and study how they evolve as you pass the levels etc.
After doing that think what elements can you change in order to make your game feel more unique.
Also try to think about how those elements will appear as the player progresses. Try to combine them in different ways so that he will get challenged even more.
Last, you said that the game is a platformer, you can check out this book,! http://www.amazon.com/Level-Guide-Great-Video-Design/dp/1118877160?ie=UTF8&keywords=game%20design&qid=1465499193&ref_=sr_1_4&sr=8-4
It has general thoughts on design but specializes in platformer too!
Level Up is a pretty good book
https://www.amazon.com/Level-Guide-Great-Video-Design/dp/1118877160