"On the way to Fun": my first book is out!
I recently wrote a small book titled “On the way to Fun: an Emotion based approach to successful Game Design” where I summarize my latest research in game design. It has just been published by AKPeters (book description on my website) and it can be found on Amazon and other online retailers. This is my first book so I am obviously quite excited and proud of it!
It is a book on game design/analysis where I take into account a subset of basic emotions and instincts to show how games can be "fun" even without the need for fancy graphics and effects. Basically, I'm proposing a new framework for understanding "game aesthetics" (as intended in the MDA model, i.e. the emotional response evoked in the player) and I apply it to a set of case studies consisting of retro games dating back from 1971 till 1988 and modern successful Indie productions to show how all of them were able to provide fun experiences even without the complexities of modern AAA titles.
In particular, the case studies analyzed are:
Computer Space (1971) vs. Space Invaders (1978)
Asteroids (1979)
Battlezone (1980)
Pac-Man (1980)
Rescue at Rigel (1980)
Haunted House (1981)
Pooyan (1982)
Robotron 2084 (1982)
Pitfall (1982)
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Cloudy Mountain (1982)
3D Monster Maze (1982)
E.T. (1982)
Dracula (1983)
Planetfall (1983)
Safecracker (1983)
Seven Cities of Gold (1984)
Spy vs Spy (1984)
Little Computer People (1985)
Captain Blood (1988)
While the indie games are:
Toribash (2006)
Braid (2006)
I wish I were the moon (2008)
Castle Crashers (2008)
TAG (2008)
Flower (2009)
Plants vs. Zombies (2009)
“World of Goo” (2008)
“Crayon Physics Deluxe” (2009)
Needless to say, I'd love to hear some feedback
Cheers!
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