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| Foreword | |
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| Introduction to the Second Edition | |
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| Introduction | |
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| What Players Want | |
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| Why Do Players Play? | |
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| Players Want a Challenge | |
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| Players Want to Socialize | |
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| Players Want a Dynamic Solitary Experience | |
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| Players Want Bragging Rights | |
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| Players Want an Emotional Experience | |
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| Players Want to Explore | |
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| Players Want to Fantasize | |
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| Players Want to Interact | |
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| What Do Players Expect? | |
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| Players Expect a Consistent World | |
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| Players Expect to Understand the Game-World's Bounds | |
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| Players Expect Reasonable Solutions to Work | |
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| Players Expect Direction | |
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| Players Expect to Accomplish a Task Incrementally | |
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| Players Expect to Be Immersed | |
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| Players Expect Some Setbacks | |
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| Players Expect a Fair Chance | |
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| Players Expect to Not Need to Repeat Themselves | |
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| Players Expect to Not Get Hopelessly Stuck | |
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| Players Expect to Do, Not to Watch | |
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| Players Do Not Know What They Want, but They Know When It Is Missing | |
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| A Never-Ending List | |
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| Interview: Sid Meier | |
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| Brainstorming a Game Idea: Gameplay, Technology, and Story | |
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| Starting Points | |
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| Starting with Gameplay | |
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| Starting with Technology | |
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| Starting with Story | |
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| Working with Limitations | |
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| Odyssey: The Legend of Nemesis | |
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| Damage Incorporated | |
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| Centipede 3D | |
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| The Suffering | |
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| Embrace Your Limitations | |
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| Established Technology | |
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| The Case of the Many Mushrooms | |
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| The Time Allotted | |
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| If You Choose Not to Decide, You Still Have Made a Choice | |
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| Game Analysis: Centipede | |
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| Classic Arcade Game Traits | |
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| Input | |
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| Interconnectedness | |
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| Escalating Tension | |
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| One Person, One Game | |
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| Focus | |
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| Establishing Focus | |
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| An Example: Winter Carnival Whirlwind | |
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| The Function of the Focus | |
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| Maintaing Focus | |
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| Fleshing Out the Focus | |
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| Changing Focus | |
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| Sub-Focuses | |
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| Using Focus | |
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| Interview: Ed Logg | |
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| The Elements of Gameplay | |
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| Unique Solutions | |
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| Anticipatory versus Complex Systems | |
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| Emergence | |
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| Non-Linearity | |
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| Types of Non-Linearity | |
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| Implementation | |
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| The Purpose of Non-Linearity | |
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| Modeling Reality | |
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| Teaching the Player | |
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| Tutorials | |
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| Input/Output | |
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| Controls and Input | |
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| Output and Game-World Feedback | |
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| Basic Elements | |
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| Game Analysis: Tetris | |
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| Puzzle Game or Action Game? | |
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| Tetris as a Classic Arcade Game | |
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| The Technology | |
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| Artificial Intelligence | |
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| Escalating Tension | |
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| Simplicity and Symmetry | |
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| Fifteen Years On, Who Would Publish Tetris? | |
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| Artificial Intelligence | |
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| Goals of Game AI | |
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| Challenge the Player | |
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| Not Do Dumb Things | |
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| Be Unpredictable | |
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| Assist Storytelling | |
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| Create a Living World | |
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| The Sloped Playing Field | |
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| How Real Is Too Real? | |
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| AI Agents and Their Environment | |
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| How Good Is Good Enough? | |
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| Scripting | |
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| Artificial Stupidity | |
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| Interview: Steve Meretzky | |
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| Storytelling | |
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| Designer's Story Versus Player's Story | |
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| Places for Storytelling | |
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| Out-of-Game | |
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| In-Game | |
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| External Materials | |
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| Linear Writing Pitfalls | |
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| Player Character Personality | |
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| Game Stories | |
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| Non-Linearity | |
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| Working with the Gameplay | |
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| The Dream | |
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| Game Analysis: Loom | |
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| Focused Game Mechanics | |
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| User Interface | |
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| The Drafts System | |
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| Difficulty | |
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| Story | |
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| Loom as an Adventure Game | |
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| Multi-Player | |
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| Motivations | |
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| The Forms | |
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| Single System Multi-Player | |
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| Online Multi-Player | |
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| Design Considerations | |
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| Playing to Strengths | |
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| Protect Newbies | |
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| Socialization | |
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| Development Issues | |
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| Playtesting and User Feedback | |
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| A World of Their Own | |
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| Interview: Chris Crawford | |
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| Getting the Gameplay Working | |
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| The Organic Process | |
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| Too Much Too Soon | |
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| Keep It Simple | |
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| Building the Game | |
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| Core Technology | |
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| Incremental Steps | |
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| A Fully Functional Area | |
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| Going Through Changes | |
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| Programming | |
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| When Is It Fun? | |
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| Game Analysis: Myth: The Fallen Lords | |
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| Use of Technology | |
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| Game Focus | |
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| Storytelling | |
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| Hard-Core Gaming | |
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| Multi-Player | |
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| A Cohesive Whole | |
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| Game Development Documentation | |
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| Document Your Game | |
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| Concept Document, Pitch Document, or Proposal | |
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| Competitive Analysis | |
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| Design Document | |
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| Flowcharts | |
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| Story Bible | |
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| Script | |
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| Art Bible | |
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| The Game Minute | |
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| Storyboards | |
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| Technical Design Document | |
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| Schedules and Business/Marketing Documents | |
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| No Standard Documentation | |
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| The Benefits of Documentation | |
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| Interview: Jordan Mechner | |
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| The Design Document | |
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| The Writing Style | |
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| The Sections | |
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| Table of Contents | |
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| Introduction/Overview or Executive Summary | |
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| Game Mechanics | |
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| Artificial Intelligence | |
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| Game Elements: Characters, Items, and Objects/Mechanisms | |
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| Story Overview | |
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| Game Progression | |
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| System Menus | |
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| One Man's Opinion | |
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| Inauspicious Design Documents | |
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| The Wafer-Thin or Ellipsis Special Document | |
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| The Back-Story Tome | |
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| The Overkill Document | |
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| The Pie-in-the-Sky Document | |
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| The Fossilized Document | |
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| A Matter of Weight | |
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| Getting It Read | |
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| Documentation Is Only the Beginning | |
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| Game Analysis: The Sims | |
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| Abdicating Authorship | |
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| Familiar Subject Matter | |
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| Safe Experimentation | |
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| Depth and Focus | |
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| Interface | |
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| Controlled Versus Autonomous Behavior | |
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| A Lesson to Be Learned | |
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| Designing Design Tools | |
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| Desired Functionality | |
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| Visualizing the Level | |
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| The Big Picture | |
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| Jumping into the Game | |
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| Editing the World | |
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| Scripting Languages and Object Behaviors | |
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| Us Versus Them | |
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| The Best of Intentions | |
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| A Game Editor for All Seasons | |
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| Interview: Will Wright | |
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| Level Design | |
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| Levels in Different Games | |
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| Level Separation | |
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| Level Order | |
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| The Components of a Level | |
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| Action | |
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| Exploration | |
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| Puzzle Solving | |
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| Storytelling | |
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| Aesthetics | |
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| Balancing It All | |
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| Level Flow | |
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| Elements of Good Levels | |
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| Players Cannot Get Stuck | |
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| Sub-Goals | |
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| Landmarks | |
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| Critical Path | |
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| Limited Backtracking | |
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| Success the First Time | |
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| Navigable Areas Clearly Marked | |
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| Choices | |
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| A Personal List | |
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| The Process | |
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| Preliminary | |
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| Conceptual and Sketched Outline | |
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| Base Architecture/Block Out | |
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| Refine Architecture Until It Is Fun | |
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| Base Gameplay | |
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| Refine Gameplay Until It Is Fun | |
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| Refine Aesthetics | |
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| Playtesting | |
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| Process Variations | |
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| Who Does Level Design? | |
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| Collaboration | |
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| Game Analysis: Grand Theft Auto III | |
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| Believable Game-World | |
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| A Living City | |
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| Actions and Consequences | |
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| Storytelling | |
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| Playtesting | |
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| Finding the Right Testers | |
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| Who Should Test | |
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| Who Should Not Test | |
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| When to Test | |
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| How to Test | |
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| Guided and Unguided Testing | |
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| Balancing | |
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| Your Game Is Too Hard | |
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| The Artistic Vision | |
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| Interview: Doug Church | |
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| Conclusion | |
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| Art | |
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| The Medium | |
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| The Motive | |
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| Sample Design Document: Atomic Sam | |
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| Overview | |
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| Game Mechanics | |
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| Artificial Intelligence | |
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| Game Elements | |
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| Story Overview | |
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| Game Progression | |
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| Bibliography | |
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| Sample Design Document: The Suffering | |
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| Introduction | |
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| Game Mechanics | |
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| Resources | |
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| NPCs | |
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| Gameflow | |
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| Maps | |
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| Menus | |
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| Glossary | |
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| Selected Bibliography | |
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| Index | |