Book Summary - Game Design Workshop - 01 Abstract

2020, July 7, I played games as usual, and to reduce the guilt on wasting whole time in playing, I will write a game review after experiencing a new game. Suddenly, "keeping on writing these kind of reviews just won't work!" I just came out this idea. There are too much handsome, hilarious youtubers, thousands of videos with great editing and cutting. An article with plain text just won't catch any eyes, unless it is written in a very humorous way, while I am not good at this. Then...

I should think about the perspective of depth in the content. I do not want to simply subjectively say which game is good, which is bad, but also let people know how to appreciate and understand what a game contains, why it is great, why it is not fun. Then, I decided to pick a game design book at once. Learning game design, improving my article's content. Even, it may help me to develop a fun individual game in the future.

2 months passed, I finally finished reading this "Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games".

I think it is a famous game design textbook/reference book? Since it has four editions, released in 2004, 2008, 2014 and 2018 respectively. A rubbish book won't last for a decade. This book should be valued among the professionals. I chose the 2nd edition to read, but of course latest edition contain more information. But don't worry, I had a glance on 3rd edition. The core elements are totally the same, I predicted it would add more new games as example but mostly are the same. The obvious differences are the updated introduction of great game designers, added some new interviews of game designers, and also made fuller and clear explanation in some passages. I especially appreciate the passages about dramatic arc, they have explained more from the theory aspect, attached with images and curves in 3rd edition compared with 2nd edition. Since I like to write story and read some books specialized in story thinking and writing, the contents about story in this game design book are just really insufficient and vague compared to its other contents.

What is the book about?

It consists of 3 parts:

First part mainly relates to the fundamental elements of game. It is necessary to consider these elements while designing games.

Second part will guide you to design a complete game. Start from concept, making prototype, carrying on playtest, and finally refinement. As this book contains many checkpoint exercises, you really can make a game if you follow these steps strictly while reading the books.

Third part would concern the common sense that a game designer should have if they work in teams, connect to the public publishers, etc. It includes general knowledge about the game development team structures, design document, business of game industry and selling ideas to them. Generally knowing these factors will let you be more familiar with the operation of game industry. It would be much easier for you to get into the game develop environment. 

For the upcoming four articles, I will summarize the contents and what I learn from this book. As I really can't handle this extraordinary amount of words, I skipped some chapters and had a quick look on some topics that seems bored. I may look back to those passages if I get to the relevant stage. But now, I will focus on these chapters:

    
Part I:
Chapter 2 The Structure of Games
Chapter 3 Working with Formal Elements
Chapter 4 Working with Dramatic Elements
Chapter 5 Working with System Dynamics

Part II:
Chapter 9 Playtesting
Chapter 10 Functionality, Completeness, and Balance
Chapter 11 Fun and Accessibility

Part III:
Chapter 14 The Design Document
Chapter 16 Selling Yourself and Your Ideas to the Game Industry

That's all, meow🐢.