The play-focused, step-by-step guide to
creating great game designs

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: