Video Games

Good Video Games and Good Learning: Collected Essays on Video Games, Learning and Literacy (New Literacies and Digital Epistemologies) / James Paul Gee

A really cool book for anyone with a creative bone in their body. I'm a blossoming programmer spending equal amounts of time learning code from book instruction and personal experimentation (instead of doing homework!). I find some of the regular text books too boring, others too slow, and others too fast. For me, Programming Video Games is perfect balance. Because it's divided into smaller steps I'm able to master one project at a time. When I get stuck I turn to my go-to resources like Head First Java or Beginning Java 2 for more explanation. There are the pure mechanics of programming and then there is the creative side of programming. This book gives both. I've already "hacked" two the games and created 3 variations that my friends are hooked on. I really, really love this book!

Benjamin Heckendorn put his heart into this book. The love I have for my NES and SNES playing days (which still occur about every weekend) is felt from Ben's words, and it makes the in depth details even clearer. Written with a passion and understanding for all things video games, this book is just about all one would need to build a game creation of their own. Fallowing the book step by step is made easy and shameless, but even making your own creation can be easily supported by this book. With photos showing you each step, tips tricks to get you by, and even corny jokes now and again that lighten the mood (Sorry Ben, but I did laugh at some of them!), this book is inspiration and information at their best.

If you think of yourself as on the "cutting edge" of marketing ideas then you need to read this book. br / br /If you think of yourself as an entrepreneur who is out front of the them all when it comes to new ideas for business you need to read this book. br / br /If you think of yourself as a budding game entrepreneur who wants to get in on the next wave of the gaming business, then you REALLY need to read this book. br / br /Companies are waking up to the facts that people really don't watch commercials. Their marketing departments may be convinced that they do but maybe they are just trying to keep their jobs.

I'm taking a course for writing in multimedia in college, and my project I'm working on is designing a video game. While the required reading was very helpful, I got this book to supplement the material. I am very satisfied with my choice. The book is chalk full of information, easy to follow, tons of useful projects for you to work through to make your game the best it can be. The only things I wish this book had that could have been more complete, were actual examples of flow charts, and more in depth examples of the different types of story branching such as a parallel path. Also there are some typos in the text in several places, which normally would not bother me, but the actual book is pretty short, and you would expect them to have caught them. Overall, this book gets 5 stars from me because the authors have given you some amazing tips, and the book is fun to read!

Gee's background in linguistics and current interests in education inform this discussion of video games, as he clearly outlines over thirty good learning principles that teachers can glean from the practice of gaming and apply to their classrooms. Gee's book should be commended for its detailed analysis of particular games--too often, theorists discussing games tend to shy away from minute description of their own interactions with games and go straight for lessons learned or abstract ideas garnered from gameplay. Gee also has a talent for talking openly and humorously about his development from non-gaming baby boomer to avid but still sometimes inept gamer.

While I was never an arcade rat (born in 1981), I can remember playing on an Atari 2800, and the love for console gaming has never ceased. It had been a goal of mine to finally pick up video games history book, and this is the one I chose. br / br /Before writing this review, I read through a few others to see if anyone shared my views, and they have. Like other readers suggested, the majority of this book is fantastic and detailed. It's all you want to know about the rise and fall of Atari, and their interwoven relationships with other gaming companies (i.e. Namco, etc) and prominent figures of today (i.e. Steve Jobs, etc). Also detailed is Japan's introduction into the American arcade market, most specifically Nintendo

Whether you are a professional game developer working in an established studio or a creative thinker interested in trying your hand at game design, "Video Game Design Revealed" will show you the steps and processes involved in bringing a video game from concept to completion. Beginning with an overview of the history of video games and an examination of the elements of successful games, the book breaks down the video game design process into its simplest elements and builds from there. You'll learn how to take an idea and tweak it into a viable game based on the genre, market, game style, and subject matter, moving on to creating and organizing a timeline for the production of the game. Once you've mapped out your game production plan and gathered all the information you need, you'll learn how to choose the development platform and other technologies that best suit the game you've designed, add sound and graphics, and apply game mechanics such as whether the game will be single-player or multiplayer and what levels and objects to add to your game to make it challenging and interesting. "Video Game Design Revealed" concludes with guidelines on how to compose a proposal to be used to present your idea to the game industry as well as tips and information on how to find and contact game studios, publishers, and investors to help you make your game design a reality.

The move to 3D graphics represents a dramatic artistic and technical development in the history of video games that suggests an overall transformation of games as media. The experience of space has become a key element of how we understand games and how we play them. In Video Game Spaces, Michael Nitsche investigates what this shift means for video game design and analysis.

Navigable 3D spaces allow us to crawl, jump, fly, or even teleport through fictional worlds that come to life in our imagination. We encounter these spaces through a combination of perception and interaction. Drawing on concepts from literary studies, architecture, and cinema, Nitsche argues that game spaces can evoke narratives because the player is interpreting them in order to engage with them. Consequently, Nitsche approaches game spaces not as pure visual spectacles but as meaningful virtual locations. His argument investigates what structures are at work in these locations, proceeds to an in-depth analysis of the audiovisual presentation of game worlds, and ultimately explores how we use and comprehend their functionality.

Nitsche introduces five analytical layers—rule-based space, mediated space, fictional space, play space, and social space—and uses them in the analyses of games that range from early classics to recent titles. He revisits current topics in game research, including narrative, rules, and play, from this new perspective.

Video Game Spaces provides a range of necessary arguments and tools for media scholars, designers, and game researchers with an interest in 3D game worlds and the new challenges they pose.

A distinguishing feature of video games is their interactivity, and
sound plays an important role in this: a player's actions can
trigger dialogue, sound effects, ambient sound, and music. And yet
game sound has been neglected in the growing literature on game
studies. This book fills that gap, introducing readers to the many
complex aspects of game audio, from its development in early games
to theoretical discussions of immersion and realism. In Game Sound,
Karen Collins draws on a range of sources--including composers,
sound designers, voice-over actors and other industry
professionals, Internet articles, fan sites, industry conferences,
magazines, patent documents, and, of course, the games themselves--
to offer a broad overview of the history, theory, and production
practice of video game audio. Game Sound has two underlying
themes: how and why games are different from or similar to film or
other linear audiovisual media; and technology and the constraints
it has placed on the production of game audio. Collins focuses
first on the historical development of game audio, from penny
arcades through the rise of home games and the recent rapid
developments in the industry. She then examines the production
process for a contemporary game at a large game company, discussing
the roles of composers, sound designers, voice talent, and audio
programmers; considers the growing presence of licensed
intellectual property (particularly popular music and films) in
games; and explores the function of audio in games in theoretical
terms. Finally, she discusses the difficulties posed by
nonlinearity and interactivity for the composer of game music.