Game Design: Principles, Practice, and Techniques – The Ultimate Guide for the Aspiring Game Designer by Jim Thompson, Barnaby Berbank-Green & Nic Cusworth
There’s a common misconception about Game Designers: they don’t just make the game and go on about their business. They are usually taking the lead behind the director and producer of the project. Because of this, they are doing the brute of the writing and planning for the game before everybody else have to do their part…can you say programmers? ha ha! Also, people don’t seem to understand what being a game designer actually entails. THAT’S the purpose of this book.
The book is actually what it is. It’s an introduction to the what a game designer has to contribute a game project. From terminology to duties, this book tells aspiring designer EXACTLY what to expect when going on this career path. Not only that, the reader also learn what goes into creating a GDD (Game Design Document aka Got Damn Document) and all of its department (spoiler alert, there’s a lot of them).
They also inform the readers what the other departments of the game team has to do and what the designer has to do, in conjunction. For example, audio has to work with the game designer to make sure the music and sound effects are to the specification of the document. It’s safe to say that the role and responsibilities of a game designer overlaps with other members of the team, making it one of the high energy, mind-pressuring job in the industry.
Anybody wants to be a game designer…or, at least, have thoughts of it, needs to read this book for two reasons. (1) To make sure that it’s the career path you want to pursue and (2) to know exactly what you’re getting yourself into. Read this book BEFORE going to college. For me, I know how to design a game without flinching because that’s what I went to school for. However, my true gift is writing a story for a game and I wish I knew that before going to college.
Grade: A
If you want to purchase the book, you can do so at this link: https://amzn.to/2EpHQo0
And, if you want to view the author’s page(s), they are listed as followed:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2515251.Jim_Thompson
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/144231.Barnaby_Berbank_Green
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/144232.Nic_Cusworth
