Interactive stories and
video game art: a storytelling framework for game design
794.81536 SOL
The success of storytelling in games depends on the entire development team―game designers, artists, writers, programmers and musicians, etc.―working harmoniously together towards a singular artistic vision. Interactive Stories and Video Game Art is first to define a common design language for understanding and orchestrating interactive masterpieces using techniques inherited from the rich history of art and craftsmanship that games build upon. Case studies of hit games like The Last of Us, Journey, and Minecraft illustrate the vital components needed to create emotionally-complex stories that are mindful of gaming’s principal relationship between player actions and video game aesthetics. This book is for developers of video games and virtual reality, filmmakers, gamification and transmedia experts, and everybody else interested in experiencing resonant and meaningful interactive stories.
How games move us: emotion by design
794.814019 ISB
This is a
renaissance moment for video games -- in the variety of genres they represent,
and the range of emotional territory they cover. But how do games create
emotion? In How Games Move Us, Katherine Isbister takes the reader on a timely
and novel exploration of the design techniques that evoke strong emotions for
players. She counters arguments that games are creating a generation of
isolated, emotionally numb, antisocial loners. Games, Isbister shows us, can
actually play a powerful role in creating empathy and other strong, positive
emotional experiences; they reveal these qualities over time, through the act
of playing. She offers a nuanced, systematic examination of exactly how games
can influence emotion and social connection, with examples -- drawn from
popular, indie, and art games -- that unpack the gamer's experience. Isbister
describes choice and flow, two qualities that distinguish games from other
media, and explains how game developers build upon these qualities using
avatars, non-player characters, and character customization, in both solo and
social play. She shows how designers use physical movement to enhance players'
emotional experience, and examines long-distance networked play. She
illustrates the use of these design methods with examples that range from
Sony's Little Big Planet to the much-praised indie game Journey to art games
like Brenda Romero's Train. Isbister's analysis shows us a new way to think
about games, helping us appreciate them as an innovative and powerful medium
for doing what film, literature, and other creative media do: helping us to
understand ourselves and what it means to be human.
Works of game: on the
aesthetics of games and art
794.81 SHA
Games and art
have intersected at least since the early twentieth century, as can be seen in
the Surrealists' use of Exquisite Corpse and other games, Duchamp's obsession
with Chess, and Fluxus event scores and boxes -- to name just a few examples.
Over the past fifteen years, the synthesis of art and games has clouded for
both artists and gamemakers. Contemporary art has drawn on the tool set of
videogames, but has not considered them a cultural form with its own
conceptual, formal, and experiential affordances. For their part, game
developers and players focus on the innate properties of games and the
experiences they provide, giving little attention to what it means to create
and evaluate fine art. In Works of Game, John Sharp bridges this gap, offering
a formal aesthetics of games that encompasses the commonalities and the
differences between games and art. Sharp describes three communities of
practice and offers case studies for each. "Game Art," which includes
such artists as Julian Oliver, Cory Arcangel, and JODI (Joan Heemskerk and Dirk
Paesmans) treats videogames as a form of popular culture from which can be
borrowed subject matter, tools, and processes. "Artgames," created by
gamemakers including Jason Rohrer, Brenda Romero, and Jonathan Blow, explore
territory usually occupied by poetry, painting, literature, or film. Finally,
"Artists' Games" -- with artists including Blast Theory, Mary
Flanagan, and the collaboration of Nathalie Pozzi and Eric Zimmerman --
represents a more synthetic conception of games as an artistic medium. The work
of these gamemakers, Sharp suggests, shows that it is possible to create
game-based artworks that satisfy the aesthetic and critical values of both the
contemporary art and game communities.
Getting gamers: the
psychology of video games and their impact on the people who play them
794.8019 MAD
Video games are
big business. They can be addicting. They are available almost anywhere you go
and are appealing to people of all ages. They can eat up our time, cost us
money, even kill our relationships. But it's not all bad! This book will show
that rather than being a waste of time, video games can help us develop skills,
make friends, succeed at work, form good habits, and be happy. Taking the time
to learn what's happening in our heads as we play and shop allows us to
approach games and gaming communities on our own terms and get more out of
them. With sales in the tens of billions of dollars each year, just about
everybody is playing some kind of video game whether it's on a console, a
computer, a web browser, or a phone. Much of the medium's success is built on
careful (though sometimes unwitting) adherence to basic principles of
psychology. This is something that's becoming even more important as games
become more social, interactive, and sophisticated. This book offers something
unique to the millions of people who play or design games: how to use an
understanding of psychology to be a better part of their gaming communities, to
avoid being manipulated when they shop and play, and to get the most enjoyment
out of playing games. With examples from the games themselves, Jamie Madigan
offers a fuller understanding of the impact of games on our psychology and the
influence of psychology on our games.
Inside the video game
industry : game developers talk about the business of play
794.8 ETH
Inside the
Video Game Industry offers a provocative look into one of today's most dynamic
and creative businesses. Through in-depth structured interviews, industry
professionals discuss their roles, providing invaluable insight into game
programming, art, animation, design, production, quality assurance, audio and
business careers. From hiring and firing conventions, attitudes about gender
disparity, goals for work-life balance, and a span of legal, psychological, and
communal intellectual property protection mechanisms, the book's combination of
accessible industry talk and incisive thematic overviews is ideal for anyone
interested in games as a global industry, a site of cultural study or a
prospective career path. Designed for researchers, educators, and students
alike, this book provides a critical perspective on an often opaque business
and its highly mobile workforce.
Exploring videogames
with Deleuze and Guattari : towards an affective theory of form
794.8 CRE
Videogames are
a unique artistic form, and to analyse and understand them an equally unique
language is required. Cremin turns to Deleuze and Guattari’s
non-representational philosophy to develop a conceptual toolkit for thinking
anew about videogames and our relationship to them. Rather than approach
videogames through a language suited to other media forms, Cremin invites us to
think in terms of a videogame plane and the compositions of developers and
players who bring them to life. According to Cremin, we are not simply playing
videogames, we are creating them. We exceed our own bodily limitations by
assembling forces with the elements they are made up of. The book develops a
critical methodology that can explain what every videogame, irrespective of
genre or technology, has in common and proceeds on this basis to analyse their
differences. Drawing from a wide range of examples spanning the history of the
medium, Cremin discerns the qualities inherent to those regarded as classics
and what those qualities enable the player to do.
Exploring Videogames with Deleuze and Guattari analyses different aspects of the medium, including the social and cultural context in which videogames are played, to develop a nuanced perspective on gendered narratives, caricatures and glorifications of war. It considers the processes and relationships that have given rise to industrial giants, the spiralling costs of making videogames and the pressure this places developers under to produce standard variations of winning formulas. The book invites the reader to embark on a molecular journey through worlds neither ‘virtual’ nor ‘real’ exceeding image, analogy and metaphor. With clear explanations and detailed analysis, Cremin demonstrates the value of a Deleuzian approach to the study of videogames, making it an accessible and valuable resource for students, scholars, developers and enthusiasts.
Exploring Videogames with Deleuze and Guattari analyses different aspects of the medium, including the social and cultural context in which videogames are played, to develop a nuanced perspective on gendered narratives, caricatures and glorifications of war. It considers the processes and relationships that have given rise to industrial giants, the spiralling costs of making videogames and the pressure this places developers under to produce standard variations of winning formulas. The book invites the reader to embark on a molecular journey through worlds neither ‘virtual’ nor ‘real’ exceeding image, analogy and metaphor. With clear explanations and detailed analysis, Cremin demonstrates the value of a Deleuzian approach to the study of videogames, making it an accessible and valuable resource for students, scholars, developers and enthusiasts.
Games, design and play:
a detailed approach to iterative game design
794 MAC
This book
offers a play-focused, process-oriented approach for designing games people
will love to play. Drawing on a combined 35 years of design and teaching
experience, Colleen Macklin and John Sharp link the concepts and elements of
play to the practical tasks of game design. Using full-color examples, they
reveal how real game designers think and work, and illuminate the amazing
expressive potential of great game design.
Focusing on practical details, this book guides you from idea to prototype to playtest and fully realized design. You’ll walk through conceiving and creating a game’s inner workings, including its core actions, themes, and especially its play experience. Step by step, you’ll assemble every component of your “videogame,” creating practically every kind of play: from cooperative to competitive, from chance-based to role-playing, and everything in between.
Macklin and Sharp believe that games are for everyone, and game design is an exciting art form with a nearly unlimited array of styles, forms, and messages. Cutting across traditional platform and genre boundaries, they help you find inspiration wherever it exists.
Games, Design and Play is for all game design students, and for beginning-to-intermediate-level game professionals, especially independent game designers. Bridging the gaps between imagination and production, it will help you craft outstanding designs for incredible play experiences!
Coverage includes:
Understanding core elements of play design: actions, goals, rules, objects, playspace, and players
Mastering “tools” such as constraint, interaction, goals, challenges, strategy, chance, decision, storytelling, and context
Comparing types of play and player experiences
Considering the demands videogames make on players
Establishing a game’s design values
Creating design documents, schematics, and tracking spreadsheets
Collaborating in teams on a shared design vision
Brainstorming and conceptualizing designs
Using prototypes to realize and playtest designs
Improving designs by making the most of playtesting feedback
Knowing when a design is ready for production
Learning the rules so you can break them!
Focusing on practical details, this book guides you from idea to prototype to playtest and fully realized design. You’ll walk through conceiving and creating a game’s inner workings, including its core actions, themes, and especially its play experience. Step by step, you’ll assemble every component of your “videogame,” creating practically every kind of play: from cooperative to competitive, from chance-based to role-playing, and everything in between.
Macklin and Sharp believe that games are for everyone, and game design is an exciting art form with a nearly unlimited array of styles, forms, and messages. Cutting across traditional platform and genre boundaries, they help you find inspiration wherever it exists.
Games, Design and Play is for all game design students, and for beginning-to-intermediate-level game professionals, especially independent game designers. Bridging the gaps between imagination and production, it will help you craft outstanding designs for incredible play experiences!
Coverage includes:
Understanding core elements of play design: actions, goals, rules, objects, playspace, and players
Mastering “tools” such as constraint, interaction, goals, challenges, strategy, chance, decision, storytelling, and context
Comparing types of play and player experiences
Considering the demands videogames make on players
Establishing a game’s design values
Creating design documents, schematics, and tracking spreadsheets
Collaborating in teams on a shared design vision
Brainstorming and conceptualizing designs
Using prototypes to realize and playtest designs
Improving designs by making the most of playtesting feedback
Knowing when a design is ready for production
Learning the rules so you can break them!
Digital prohibition:
piracy and authorship in new media art
346.730482 GUE
The act of
creation requires us to remix existing cultural content and yet recent sweeping
changes to copyright laws have criminalized the creative act as a violation of
corporate rights in a commodified world. Copyright was originally designed to
protect publishers, not authors, and has now gained a stranglehold on our
ability to transport, read, write, teach and publish digital materials. Contrasting
Western models with issues of piracy as practiced in Asia, Digital Prohibition
explores the concept of authorship as a capitalist institution and posits the
Marxist idea of the multitude (à la Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt, and Paulo
Virno) as a new collaborative model for creation in the digital age. Looking at
how digital culture has transformed unitary authorship from its book-bound
parameters into a collective and dispersed endeavor, Dr. Guertin examines
process-based forms as diverse as blogs, Facebook, Twitter, performance art,
immersive environments, smart mobs, hacktivism, tactical media, machinima,
generative computer games (like Spore and The Sims) and augmented reality.
An introduction to game
studies : games in culture
306.487 MAY
An Introduction
to Game Studies is the first introductory textbook for students of game
studies. It provides a conceptual overview of the cultural, social and economic
significance of computer and video games and traces the history of game culture
and the emergence of game studies as a field of research.
Key concepts and theories are illustrated with discussion of games taken from different historical phases of game culture. Progressing from the simple, yet engaging gameplay of Pong and text-based adventure games to the complex virtual worlds of contemporary online games, the book guides students towards analytical appreciation and critical engagement with gaming and game studies.
Students will learn to:
- Understand and analyse different aspects of phenomena we recognise as 'game' and play'
- Identify the key developments in digital game design through discussion of action in games of the 1970s, fiction and adventure in games of the 1980s, three-dimensionality in games of the 1990s, and social aspects of gameplay in contemporary online games
- Understand games as dynamic systems of meaning-making
- Interpret the context of games as 'culture' and subculture
- Analyse the relationship between technology and interactivity and between 'game' and 'reality'
- Situate games within the context of digital culture and the information society
With further reading suggestions, images, exercises, online resources and a whole chapter devoted to preparing students to do their own game studies project, An Introduction to Game Studies is the complete toolkit for all students pursuing the study of games.
The companion website at www.sagepub.co.uk/mayra contains slides and assignments that are suitable for self-study as well as for classroom use. Students will also benefit from online resources at www.gamestudiesbook.net, which will be regularly blogged and updated by the author.
Professor Frans Mäyrä is a Professor of Games Studies and Digital Culture at the Hypermedia Laboratory in the University of Tampere, Finland.
Key concepts and theories are illustrated with discussion of games taken from different historical phases of game culture. Progressing from the simple, yet engaging gameplay of Pong and text-based adventure games to the complex virtual worlds of contemporary online games, the book guides students towards analytical appreciation and critical engagement with gaming and game studies.
Students will learn to:
- Understand and analyse different aspects of phenomena we recognise as 'game' and play'
- Identify the key developments in digital game design through discussion of action in games of the 1970s, fiction and adventure in games of the 1980s, three-dimensionality in games of the 1990s, and social aspects of gameplay in contemporary online games
- Understand games as dynamic systems of meaning-making
- Interpret the context of games as 'culture' and subculture
- Analyse the relationship between technology and interactivity and between 'game' and 'reality'
- Situate games within the context of digital culture and the information society
With further reading suggestions, images, exercises, online resources and a whole chapter devoted to preparing students to do their own game studies project, An Introduction to Game Studies is the complete toolkit for all students pursuing the study of games.
The companion website at www.sagepub.co.uk/mayra contains slides and assignments that are suitable for self-study as well as for classroom use. Students will also benefit from online resources at www.gamestudiesbook.net, which will be regularly blogged and updated by the author.
Professor Frans Mäyrä is a Professor of Games Studies and Digital Culture at the Hypermedia Laboratory in the University of Tampere, Finland.
Resident Evil 7
Biohazard
XBOX 794.8 RES
Opening the
doors to a new era of horror? The next major entry in the renowned Resident
Evil series makes a dramatic new shift as it comes to next generation consoles,
Windows PC and PlayStation VR Returning to the series? roots - Resident Evil 7
biohazard will deliver an experience reminiscent of the series? signature
gameplay including exploration, puzzles and a realistic tense atmosphere for
players to encounter.
The classic
inventory system returns but with limited space meaning players must choose
what they carry with them carefully, making sure they remember to pack their
green herbs! Immersive, visceral horror? A new shift for the series to first
person view brings the terrifying horror directly up close and personal. Welcome
to the family!? Introducing Jack and Marguerite Baker, residents in the
plantation house in Louisiana but no-one has seen or heard from them for a
while causing all kinds of rumours and speculation to develop. Mysterious
female? A frightened young woman who seems to go by the name Mia appears in the
plantation.
Who is she? Why
has she been taken by Marguerite Baker? Step inside the plantation? Explore the
dark sinister hallways and take shelter in the hidden passages.
Can you find
somewhere safe to hide from the evil lurking all around in the shadows? Built
from the ground up on the RE Engine? Capcom?s brand new VR compatible
development engine works in tandem with industry leading audio and visual
technologies to create a disturbingly photorealistic experience for an
unprecedented level of immersion
Manufacturer's
Description
GAMEPLAY
OVERVIEW Resident Evil 7 biohazard sets a new course for the Resident Evil series
as it leverages its roots and opens the door to a truly terrifying horror
experience. The new era of horror is scheduled for release on PlayStation 4
(the full gameplay experience will also be available via the included
PlayStation VR Mode), Xbox One and Windows PC.
Set within a sinister plantation mansion in modern day rural America and taking place after the dramatic events of Resident Evil 6, players experience the terror directly from the first person perspective for the first time in the Resident Evil series. Embodying the iconic gameplay elements of exploration and tense atmosphere that first coined “survival horror” some twenty years ago, Resident Evil 7 biohazard delivers a disturbingly realistic experience that will define the next era in horror entertainment.
FEATURES:
Set within a sinister plantation mansion in modern day rural America and taking place after the dramatic events of Resident Evil 6, players experience the terror directly from the first person perspective for the first time in the Resident Evil series. Embodying the iconic gameplay elements of exploration and tense atmosphere that first coined “survival horror” some twenty years ago, Resident Evil 7 biohazard delivers a disturbingly realistic experience that will define the next era in horror entertainment.
FEATURES:
Opening the
doors to a new era of horror – The next major entry in the renowned
Resident Evil series makes a dramatic new shift as it comes to next generation
consoles, Windows PC and PlayStation VR
Returning to
the series’ roots - Resident Evil 7 biohazard will deliver an experience
reminiscent of the series’ signature gameplay including exploration, puzzles
and a realistic tense atmosphere for players to encounter but will offer a
complete refresh of the gameplay systems to propel the survival horror
experience to the next level
Immersive,
visceral horror – A new shift for the series to first person view brings
the terrifying horror directly up close and personal.
Built from the
ground up on the RE Engine – Capcom’s brand new VR compatible development
engine works in tandem with industry leading audio and visual technologies to
create a disturbingly photorealistic experience for an unprecedented level of
immersion.
Rocket League (PS4)
PS4 794.8 ROC
Take control of
your own high-flying, hard-hitting, rocket-powered Battle-Car in the
critically-acclaimed, futuristic Sports-Action hit, Rocket League: Collector's
Edition! Rocket League: Collector's Edition combines all the fun and fervour of
the original base game, plus all the cars and content found in the
highly-popular "Supersonic Fury", "Revenge of the
Battle-Cars" and" Chaos Run" DLC packs. Rocket League equips
players with booster-rigged vehicles that can be crashed into balls for
incredible goals or epic saves across multiple, highly-detailed arenas. Using
an advanced physics system that maximizes one-to- one control, Rocket League
relies on mass and momentum to give players a complete sense of intuitive
gameplay in this unbelievable, high-octane re-imagining of association
football!Includes every item from the previously-released DLC alongside four exclusive vehicles
Fantastic
Multiplayer: 4-Player Splitscreen, 8-Player Online, Ranked and Unranked play
Game modes
include Exhibition, Unfair Mode and a full Offline Season Mode
Personalize
your vehicle with hundreds of different items for more THAN 100 BILLION
possible combinations!
Includes Replay
Viewer, customizable controls, Mutator game-variants (Ball Type, Speed, Boost
Strength etc), and more!
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