Jagged Alliance 2

Jagged Alliance 2
Author: Darius Kazemi
Publisher: Boss Fight Books
Total Pages: 89
Release: 2014
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 1940535042

The turn-based tactical role playing series Jagged Alliance has been sequeled, expanded, modded, optioned, multiplayered, and kickstarted, but the series' many fans usually point to Jagged Alliance 2 as the high water mark, and one of the finest turn-based video games of all time. Jagged Alliance 2 brings to the table a wicked sense of humor, simulation-driven character design, a combination of strategic overworld and tactical battles reminiscent of the X-COM series, and a surprisingly deep open-world RPG experience reminiscent of the Ultima or Elder Scrolls games. Focusing on JA2′s development history and basing his book largely on new personal interviews with the game's developers, game designer and web technology developer Darius Kazemi delves deep into the legacy of a game that still has much to teach gamers and game-makers 14 years after its release.

Women in Game Development

Women in Game Development
Author: Jennifer Brandes Hepler
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 238
Release: 2019-04-24
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 1000000931

Videogame development is usually seen as a male dominated field; even playing videogames is often wrongly viewed as a pastime for men only. But behind the curtain, women have always played myriad important roles in gaming. From programmers to artists, designers to producers, female videogame developers endure not only the pressures of their jobs but also epic levels of harassment and hostility. Jennifer Brandes Hepler’s Women in Game Development: Breaking the Glass Level-Cap gives voice to talented and experienced female game developers from a variety of backgrounds, letting them share the passion that drives them to keep making games. Key Features Experience the unique stories of nearly two dozen female game developers, from old-school veterans to rising stars. Understand the role of women in videogames, from the earliest days of development to the present day. Hear first-hand perspectives from working professionals in fields including coding, design, art, writing, community management, production and journalism. Get tips for how to be a better ally and make your company and teams more inclusive. Learn about the obstacles you face if you’re an aspiring female developer, and how to overcome them. Meet the human face of some of the women who have endured the industry’s worst harassment... and kept on going.

Game Design Workshop

Game Design Workshop
Author: Tracy Fullerton
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 498
Release: 2008-02-08
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0240809742

Master the craft of game design so you can create that elusive combination of challenge, competition, and interaction that players seek. This design workshop begins with an examination of the fundamental elements of game design; then puts you to work in prototyping, playtesting and redesigning your own games with exercises that teach essential design skills. Workshop exercises require no background in programming or artwork, releasing you from the intricacies of electronic game production, so you can develop a working understanding of the essentials of game design.

Game Balance

Game Balance
Author: Ian Schreiber
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 806
Release: 2021-08-16
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 1498799582

Within the field of game design, game balance can best be described as a black art. It is the process by which game designers make a game simultaneously fair for players while providing them just the right amount of difficulty to be both exciting and challenging without making the game entirely predictable. This involves a combination of mathematics, psychology, and occasionally other fields such as economics and game theory. Game Balance offers readers a dynamic look into game design and player theory. Throughout the book, relevant topics on the use of spreadsheet programs will be included in each chapter. This book therefore doubles as a useful reference on Microsoft Excel, Google Spreadsheets, and other spreadsheet programs and their uses for game designers. FEATURES The first and only book to explore game balance as a topic in depth Topics range from intermediate to advanced, while written in an accessible style that demystifies even the most challenging mathematical concepts to the point where a novice student of game design can understand and apply them Contains powerful spreadsheet techniques which have been tested with all major spreadsheet programs and battle-tested with real-world game design tasks Provides short-form exercises at the end of each chapter to allow for practice of the techniques discussed therein along with three long-term projects divided into parts throughout the book that involve their creation Written by award-winning designers with decades of experience in the field Ian Schreiber has been in the industry since 2000, first as a programmer and then as a game designer. He has worked on eight published game titles, training/simulation games for three Fortune 500 companies, and has advised countless student projects. He is the co-founder of Global Game Jam, the largest in-person game jam event in the world. Ian has taught game design and development courses at a variety of colleges and universities since 2006. Brenda Romero is a BAFTA award-winning game director, entrepreneur, artist, and Fulbright award recipient and is presently game director and creator of the Empire of Sin franchise. As a game director, she has worked on 50 games and contributed to many seminal titles, including the Wizardry and Jagged Alliance series and titles in the Ghost Recon, Dungeons & Dragons, and Def Jam franchises.

Spelunky

Spelunky
Author: Derek Yu
Publisher: Boss Fight Books
Total Pages: 147
Release: 2016
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 1940535115

A game's creation as told by its creator, perhaps the best rpimer on game design.

Developer's Dilemma

Developer's Dilemma
Author: Casey O'Donnell
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 351
Release: 2014-11-21
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0262028190

An examination of work—including the organization of work and the market forces that surround it—through the lens of the collaborative practice of game development. Rank-and-file game developers bring videogames from concept to product, and yet their work is almost invisible, hidden behind the famous names of publishers, executives, or console manufacturers. In this book, Casey O’Donnell examines the creative collaborative practice of typical game developers. His investigation of why game developers work the way they do sheds light on our understanding of work, the organization of work, and the market forces that shape (and are shaped by) media industries. O’Donnell shows that the ability to play with the underlying systems—technical, conceptual, and social—is at the core of creative and collaborative practice, which is central to the New Economy. When access to underlying systems is undermined, so too is creative collaborative process. Drawing on extensive fieldwork in game studios in the United States and India, O’Donnell stakes out new territory empirically, conceptually, and methodologically. Mimicking the structure of videogames, the book is divided into worlds, within which are levels; and each world ends with a boss fight, a “rant” about lessons learned and tools mastered. O’Donnell describes the process of videogame development from pre-production through production, considering such aspects as experimental systems, “socially mandatory” overtime, and the perpetual startup machine that exhausts young, initially enthusiastic workers. He links work practice to broader systems of publishing, manufacturing, and distribution; introduces the concept of a privileged “actor-intra-internetwork”; and describes patent and copyright enforcement by industry and the state.

The CRPG Book: A Guide to Computer Role-Playing Games

The CRPG Book: A Guide to Computer Role-Playing Games
Author: Felipe Pepe
Publisher:
Total Pages: 528
Release: 2019-09
Genre: Computer games
ISBN: 9781999353308

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.

ODROID Magazine

ODROID Magazine
Author:
Publisher: Hardkernel, Ltd
Total Pages: 55
Release: 2016-06-01
Genre: Computers
ISBN:

Table of Contents 6 Security Camera: A Great Weekend Project 10 Java Installation Script for Developers: The Perfect Fix For All of Your Cup of Java Needs 19 Camera Calibration Using OCAM and ODROID-XU4: A Technical Tutorial 29 Baby NAP (Night Activity Program): Part 2 - Software Components 36 BASH Script Command Center Minecraft Edition: Useful Scripts for Creating and Managing a Minecraft Server 37 Cartridge Ports: Download Top-Notch Software for Your ODROID 38 Linux Gaming: Strategy Games on the ODROID - Part 2 42 The Impulse T2: An ODROID-XU4 Tilt Touch Table 44 Compiling Synergy for ODROID: Chronicles of a Mad Scientist 47 Samba Server: Setting Up a RAID Array 49 Breaking WEP Security: A Guide to Cracking the Simplest Wireless Encryption 54 Meet an ODROIDian: Andrew Ruggeri, Assistant Editor of ODROID Magazine

Extra Lives

Extra Lives
Author: Tom Bissell
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2011-06-14
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0307474313

In Extra Lives, acclaimed writer and life-long video game enthusiast Tom Bissell takes the reader on an insightful and entertaining tour of the art and meaning of video games. In just a few decades, video games have grown increasingly complex and sophisticated, and the companies that produce them are now among the most profitable in the entertainment industry. Yet few outside this world have thought deeply about how these games work, why they are so appealing, and what they are capable of artistically. Blending memoir, criticism, and first-rate reportage, Extra Lives is a milestone work about what might be the dominant popular art form of our time.