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- he evolves into every aspect of game design even getting deeper like the lens of chance, where you make sure your game has enough randomness to create elements of SURPRISE but not so much that the player feels a lack of control.There's a great section where he covers generalized age & gender expectations so you can either target or expand your audience.And by the end he gets into teambuilding aspects, marketing, ensuring profitability, etc.It's a truly wonderful book. The section on brainstorming alone was worth its value.
This book took me from being an indie artist with no understanding of gameplay to being a real game designer with an understanding of how to make sure a game is FUN, AND appealing to my target audience.Don't hesitate to own this book. Priceless.
The Art of Game Design - A Book Of Lenses is a must own for any game designer. The book quite literally blew my mind.
You'll learn from it, and then lenses will last you a lifetime. Don't judge the book just by the intro: while he starts at a very basic level (such as the lens of experience: "What experience do we want the player to have in our game, and how can the game capture the essence of that experience).
The best part is it doesn't just tell you how - it asks YOU intelligent questions about YOUR GAME designed to elicit intelligent responses that will help you better your game.5 stars, easily.
This is the best book I've seen to help understand what it is a designer does and how a designer should think. I'm a professional game designer, so I'm very interested to see what is written about my profession.
The central metaphor of game design not being a linear procedure, but rather a confluence of perspectives, rings true and works well as an expository technique. Like Schell, I teach in a university game development program. Thanks, Jesse. I plan to use it with my students. But unlike him, I do not have personal experience in the commercial game industry, so I am always on the lookout for ways to vicariously expand my knowledge. This book is the best I have seen on the topic of game design (and there are a _lot_ of them these days :-).
It's well-organized, immediately relevant, deeply insightful, and fun to read. In my mind this book is a milestone that demonstrates how the craft of game design has moved in only the last few years from a jumble of principles to a well-understood discipline. I've been a professional game designer for over 10 years. This is the best game design book I've ever read - by a wide margin.
Thank you Jesse Schell. I am so happy I own this book. This book blows my mind. It's exactly what I've felt about games for so long but put into beautiful, well thought out prose.
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