Learn Game Design, Prototyping, and Programming with Today’s Leading Tools: Unity™ and C#   Award-winning game designer and professor Jeremy Gibson has spent the last decade teaching game design and working as an independent game developer. Over the years, his most successful students have always been those who effectively combined game design theory, concrete rapid-prototyping practices, and programming skills.   Introduction to Game Design, Prototyping, and Development is the first time that all three of these disciplines have been brought together into a single book. It is a distillation of everything that Gibson has learned teaching hundreds of game designers and developers in his years at the #1 university games program in North America. It fully integrates the disciplines of game design and computer programming and helps you master the crucial practice of iterative prototyping using Unity. As the top game engine for cross-platform game development, Unity allows you to write a game once and deliver it to everything from Windows, OS X, and Linux applications to webpages and all of the most popular mobile platforms.   If you want to develop games, you need strong experience with modern best practices and professional tools. There’s no substitute. There’s no shortcut. But you can get what you need in this book.   COVERAGE INCLUDES In-depth tutorials for eight different game prototypes Developing new game design concepts Moving quickly from design concepts to working digital prototypes Improving your designs through rapid iteration Playtesting your games and interpreting the feedback that you receive Tuning games to get the right “game balance” and “game feel” Developing with Unity, today’s best engine for independent game development Learning C# the right way Using Agile and Scrum to efficiently organize your game design and development process Debugging your game code Getting into the highly competitive, fast-changing game industry

Table of Contents:
Preface     xxiv Part I Game Design and Paper Prototyping     1 1 Thinking Like a Designer     3 You Are a Game Designer     4 Bartok: A Game Exercise     4 The Definition of Game     10 Summary     17 2 Game Analysis Frameworks     19 Common Frameworks for Ludology     20 MDA: Mechanics, Dynamics, and Aesthetics     20 Formal, Dramatic, and Dynamic Elements     24 The Elemental Tetrad     27 Summary     29 3 The Layered Tetrad     31 The Inscribed Layer     32 The Dynamic Layer     33 The Cultural Layer     34 The Responsibility of the Designer     36 Summary     37 4 The Inscribed Layer     39 Inscribed Mechanics     40 Inscribed Aesthetics     46 Inscribed Narrative     49 Inscribed Technology     58 Summary     59 5 The Dynamic Layer     61 The Role of the Player     62 Emergence     63 Dynamic Mechanics     64 Dynamic Aesthetics     70 Dynamic Narrative     75 Dynamic Technology     77 Summary     77 6 The Cultural Layer     79 Beyond Play     80 Cultural Mechanics     81 Cultural Aesthetics     82 Cultural Narrative     83 Cultural Technology     84 Authorized Transmedia Are Not in the Cultural Layer     85 The Cultural Impact of a Game     86 Summary     87 7 Acting Like a Designer     89 Iterative Design     90 Innovation     97 Brainstorming and Ideation     98 Changing Your Mind     101 Scoping!     103 Summary     104 8 Design Goals     105 Design Goals: An Incomplete List     106 Designer-Centric Goals     106 Player-Centric Goals     109 Summary     124 9 Paper Prototyping     125 The Benefits of Paper Prototypes     126 Paper Prototyping Tools     127 An Example of a Paper Prototype     129 Best Uses for Paper Prototyping     138 Poor Uses for Paper Prototyping     139 Summary     140 10 Game Testing     141 Why Playtest?     142 Being a Great Playtester Yourself     142 The Circles of Playtesters     143 Methods of Playtesting     146 Other Important Types of Testing     152 Summary     153 11 Math and Game Balance     155 The Meaning of Game Balance     156 Installing Apache OpenOffice Calc     156 Examining Dice Probability with Calc     157 The Math of Probability     165 Randomizer Technologies in Paper Games     170 Weighted Distributions     173 Permutations     175 Positive and Negative Feedback     176 Using Calc to Balance Weapons     177 Summary     183 12 Puzzle Design     185 Puzzles Are Almost Everywhere     186 Scott Kim on Puzzle Design     186 Puzzle Examples in Action Games     193 Summary     195 13 Guiding the Player     197 Direct Guidance     198 Indirect Guidance     200 Teaching New Skills and Concepts     207 Summary     210 14 The Digital Game Industry     211 About the Game Industry     212 Game Education     215 Getting into the Industry     217 Don’t Wait to Start Making Games!     221 Summary     222 Part II Digital Prototyping     223 15 Thinking in Digital Systems     225 Systems Thinking in Board Games     226 An Exercise in Simple Instructions     226 Game Analysis: Apple Picker     229 Summary     234 16 Introducing Our Development Environment: Unity     235 Downloading Unity     236 Introducing Our Development Environment     237 Running Unity for the First Time     241 Setting Up the Unity Window Layout     246 Learning Your Way Around Unity     251 Summary     251 17 Introducing Our Language: C#     253 Understanding the Features of C#     254 Reading and Understanding C# Syntax     259 Summary     262 18 Hello World: Your First Program     263 Creating a New Project     264 Making a New C# Script     266 Making Things More Interesting     271 Summary     279 19 Variables and Components     281 Introducing Variables     282 Strongly Typed Variables in C#     282 Important C# Variable Types     283 The Scope of Variables     286 Naming Conventions     286 Important Unity Variable Types     288 Unity GameObjects and Components     294 Summary     297 20 Boolean Operations and Conditionals     299 Booleans     300 Comparison Operators     303 Conditional Statements     307 Summary     313 21 Loops     315 Types of Loops     316 Set Up a Project     316 while Loops     316 do...while Loops     319 for Loops     320 foreach Loops     322 Jump Statements within Loops     322 Summary     325 22 Lists and Arrays     327 C# Collections     328 List     328 Array     333 Multidimensional Arrays     337 Jagged Arrays     340 Whether to Use Array or List     344 Summary     344 Summary Exercise     344 Moving Forward     347 23 Functions and Parameters     349 Set Up the Function Examples Project     350 Definition of a Function     350 Function Parameters and Arguments     353 Returning Values     354 Proper Function Names     356 When Should You Use Functions?     356 Function Overloading     358 Optional Parameters     359 The params Keyword     359 Recursive Functions     361 Summary     362 24 Debugging     363 Getting Started with Debugging     364 Stepping Through Code with the Debugger     369 Summary     377 25 Classes     379 Understanding Classes     380 Class Inheritance     387 Summary     390 26 Object-Oriented Thinking     391 The Object-Oriented Metaphor     392 An Object-Oriented Boids Implementation     394 Summary     403 27 The Agile Mentality     405 The Manifesto for Agile Software Development     406 Scrum Methodology     407 Creating Your Own Burndown Charts     416 Summary     416 Part III Game Prototype Examples and Tutorials     417 28 Prototype 1: Apple Picker     419 The Purpose of a Digital Prototype     420 Preparing     421 Coding the Apple Picker Prototype     428 GUI and Game Management     440 Summary     448 Next Steps     448 29 Prototype 2: Mission Demolition     449 Getting Started: Prototype 2     450 Game Prototype Concept     450 Art Assets     451 Coding the Prototype     456 Summary     485 Next Steps     485 30 Prototype 3: Space SHMUP     487 Getting Started: Prototype 3     488 Setting the Scene     490 Making the Hero Ship     491 Adding Some Enemies     504 Spawning Enemies at Random     509 Setting Tags, Layers, and Physics     510 Making the Enemies Damage the Player     513 Restarting the Game     518 Shooting (Finally)     519 Adding Power-Ups     531 Resolving Race Conditions in Code     538 Making Enemies Drop Power-Ups     541 Programming Other Enemies     543 Adding Particle Effects and Background     556 Summary     558 Next Steps     558 31 Prototype 4: Prospector Solitaire     561 Getting Started: Prototype 4     562 Build Settings     562 Importing Images as Sprites     564 Constructing Cards from Sprites     566 The Prospector Game     583 Implementing Prospector in Code     585 Adding Scoring to Prospector     604 Summary     619 Next Steps     620 32 Prototype 5: Bartok     621 Getting Started: Prototype 5     622 Build Settings     623 Coding Bartok     624 Summary     655 Next Steps     655 33 Prototype 6: Word Game     657 Getting Started: Word Game Prototype     658 About the Word Game     658 Parsing the Word List     660 Setting Up the Game     665 Laying Out the Screen     671 Adding Interactivity     680 Adding Scoring     684 Adding Animation     687 Adding Color     690 Summary     692 Next Steps     692 34 Prototype 7: QuickSnap     695 Getting Started: QuickSnap Prototype     696 Building the Scene     697 Coding the Game     706 Summary     725 Next Steps     726 35 Prototype 8: Omega Mage     727 Getting Started: Omega Mage Prototype     728 Building the Scene     730 The Mage Character     735 Mouse Interaction     737 Movement     741 The Inventory and Selecting Elements     747 Casting the Fire Ground Spell     754 Changing Rooms     764 Spawning Enemies     768 Abstracting the Enemy Interface     782 Making an EnemyFactory     785 Summary     789 Next Steps     789 Thanks!     789 Part IV Appendices     791 A Standard Project Setup Procedure     793 B Useful Concepts     799 C# and Unity Coding Concepts     801 Math Concepts     822 Interpolation     831 Roleplaying Games     846 User Interface Concepts     848 C Online Reference     851 Tutorials     852 Unity Resources     852 Programming     853 Searching Tips     854 Finding Assets     854 Educational Software Discounts     855 Index     857