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| Foreword | |
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| About the Author | |
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| Press Start! | |
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| Acknowledgments: Everything I Learned about Writing a Book | |
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| Welcome, N00bs! | |
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| A Brief History of Video Games | |
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| Game Genres | |
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| Who Makes this Stuff? | |
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| Programmer | |
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| Artist | |
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| Designer | |
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| Producer | |
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| Tester | |
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| Composer | |
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| Sound Designer | |
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| Writer | |
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| Have You Thought about Publishing? | |
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| Product Manager | |
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| Creative Manager | |
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| Art Director | |
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| Technical Director | |
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| And the Rest . . . | |
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| Level 1's Universal Truths and Clever Ideas | |
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| Ideas 23 | |
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| Ideas: Where to Get Them and Where to Stick Them | |
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| What do Gamers Want? | |
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| Why I Hate "Fun" | |
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| Brainstorming | |
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| Breaking Writer's Block | |
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| Level 2's Universal Truths and Clever Ideas | |
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| Writing the Story | |
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| The Triangle of Weirdness | |
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| Time to Wrap It Up | |
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| Creating Characters | |
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| A Few Pointers on Writing for Kids of All Ages | |
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| Writing for Licenses | |
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| Level 3's Universal Truths and Clever Ideas | |
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| You Can Design a Game, But Can You Do the Paperwork? | |
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| Writing the GDD, Step 1: The One-Sheet | |
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| ESRB Ratings | |
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| Writing the GDD, Step 2: The Ten-Pager | |
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| The Rule of Threes | |
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| Ten-Pager Outline | |
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| The Game Design Document (and the Awful Truth about Writing Them) | |
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| Gameplay Progression | |
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| The Beat Chart | |
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| Above All, Don't Be a Schmuck | |
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| Level 4's Universal Truths and Clever Ideas | |
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| The Three Cs, Part 1-Character | |
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| Personality: Do We Really Need Another Badass? | |
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| Let's Get Personal | |
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| Finally, We Talk about Gameplay | |
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| Why Walk When You Can Run? | |
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| The Art of Doing Nothing | |
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| Might as Well Jump | |
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| Hoists and Teeters | |
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| What Goes Up, Must Fall Down | |
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| Me and My Shadow | |
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| The Water's Fine… or Is It? | |
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| Be Kind to Our Four-Legged Friends | |
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| Using All of the Parts | |
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| We Are Not Alone | |
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| Who Are the People in Your Neighborhood? | |
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| Level 5's Universal Truths and Clever Ideas | |
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| The Three Cs, Part 2-Camera | |
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| Get It Right: Camera Views | |
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| First Person Camera | |
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| Third Person Camera | |
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| Giving Up Control | |
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| So You've Decided to Let the Player Control the Camera | |
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| So You've Decided to Not Let the Player Have Control Over the Camera | |
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| So You've Decided to Let the Player Sometimes Have Control Over the Camera | |
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| Two and a Half D | |
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| Isometric Camera | |
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| Top-Down Camera | |
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| Special Case Cameras | |
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| Tunnel Vision | |
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| Camera Shot Guide | |
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| Camera Angle Guide | |
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| Camera Movement Guide | |
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| Other Camera Notes | |
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| Always Point the Camera to the Objective | |
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| Never Let the Character Get Out of the Camera's Sight | |
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| Multiple Player Cameras | |
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| Level 6's Universal Truths and Clever Ideas | |
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| The Three Cs, Part 3-Controls | |
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| Dance, Monkey, Dance | |
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| Character or Camera Relative? | |
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| Shake, Rattle and Roll | |
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| Level 7's Universal Truths and Clever Ideas | |
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| Sign Language-HUD and Icon Design | |
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| Health Bar | |
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| Targeting | |
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| Ammo Gauge | |
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| Inventory | |
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| Score | |
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| Radar/Map | |
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| Context-Sensitive Prompt | |
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| The Clean Screen | |
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| Icon Has Cheezburger? | |
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| Don't Get QTE | |
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| HUDs, and Where to Stick 'Em | |
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| There Are Other Screens Than the HUD | |
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| The Pause that Refreshes | |
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| A Final Word on Fonts | |
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| Level 8's Universal Truths and Clever Ideas | |
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| Everything I Learned about Level Design, I Learned from Level 9 | |
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| The Top 10 Clich� Video Game Themes | |
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| The Name Game | |
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| Everything I Learned about Level Design, I Learned from Disneyland | |
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| The Beat Chart | |
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| Re-using Re-use | |
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| The Gary Gygax Memorial Mapping Section | |
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| The Dave Arnenson Memorial Mapping Section | |
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| Wrapping Up Mapping | |
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| Illusional Narrative | |
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| Gray Matters | |
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| Leave the Training Level for Last | |
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| Level 9's Universal Truths and Clever Ideas | |
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| The Elements of Combat | |
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| Quatloos on the Newcomer! | |
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| Now You have to Kiss Me | |
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| On Moving | |
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| On Guarding | |
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| State of the Art Bang Bang | |
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| The Best Gun for You | |
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| Run and Gun | |
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| Not Just Shooting | |
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| Dammit Jones, Where Doesn't It Hurt? | |
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| Death: What is It Good For? | |
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| Level 10's Universal Truths and Clever Ideas | |
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| They All Want You Dead | |
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| Bring on the Bad Guys | |
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| I Love Designing Enemies | |
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| I Hate You to Pieces | |
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| Non-Enemy Enemies | |
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| How to Create the World's Greatest Boss Battle | |
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| Who's the Boss? | |
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| Size Matters | |
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| Location, Location, Location | |
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| Why Not to Create the World's Greatest Boss Battle | |
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| Level 11's Universal Truths and Clever Ideas | |
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| The Nuts and Bolts of Mechanics | |
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| Holy Death Trap! | |
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| Time to Die | |
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| The Music of Mechanics | |
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| A Nice Little Calm Spot | |
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| Riddle Me This | |
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| A Short Word on Minigames and Microgames | |
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| Level 12's Universal Truths and Clever Ideas | |
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| Now You're Playing with Power. | |
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| "Love Thy Player" | |
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| More Wealth Than You Can Imagine! | |
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| Level 13's Universal Truths and Clever Ideas | |
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| Multiplayer-the More the Merrier | |
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| How Many is the Right Number? | |
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| MMORPGS, or Hell is Other People | |
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| Level 14's Universal Truths and Clever Ideas | |
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| Some Notes on Music | |
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| Sounds Like a Game to Me | |
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| Level 15's Universal Truths and Clever Ideas | |
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| Cutscenes, or No One's Gonna Watch 'Em Anyway | |
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| How to Write a Screenplay in Eight Easy Steps | |
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| Level 16's Universal Truths and Clever Ideas | |
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| And Now the Hard Part | |
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| No One Cares about Your Stupid Little World | |
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| Video Games is a Haaaard Business | |
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| What to Do for an Encore? | |
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| Level 17's Universal Truths and Clever Ideas | |
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| Continue? | |
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| The One-Sheet Sample | |
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| The Ten-Page Design Document Sample | |
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| Game Design Document Template | |
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| The Medium-Sized List of Story Themes | |
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| The Big List of Environments | |
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| Mechanics and Hazards | |
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| Enemy Design Template | |
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| Boss Design Template | |
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| High Concept Pitch Presentation | |
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| Achievement Unlocked: Exactly Like Making Chili | |
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| Index | |