List of Sidebars

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Chapter 1: The Role of the Game Designer

Exercise 1.1: Become a Tester

Exercise 1.2: D.O.A.

Exercise 1.3: Your Life as a Game

Exercise 1.4: Your Childhood

Chapter 2: The Structure of Games

Exercise 2.1: Think of a Game

Exercise 2.2: Players

Exercise 2.3: Objectives

Exercise 2.4: Rules

Exercise 2.5: Conflict

Exercise 2.6: Challenge

Exercise 2.7: Premise

Exercise 2.8: Story

Exercise 2.9: Applying What You've Learned

Chapter 3: Working with Formal Elements

Exercise 3.1: Gin Rummy

Exercise 3.2: Three-Player Tic-tac-toe

Exercise 3.4: Objectives

Exercise 3.5: Procedures for Blackjack

Exercise 3.6: Rules Restricting Actions

Exercise 3.7: Rules for Blackjack

Exercise 3.8: Utility and Scarcity

Exercise 3.9: Resource Types

Exercise 3.10: Conflict

Exercise 3.11: Boundaries

Exercise 3.12: Outcome

Exercise 3.13: Revise Rules and Procedures

Chapter 4: Working with Dramatic Elements

Exercise 4.1: Making Checkers Dramatic

Exercise 4.2: Dramatic Games

Exercise 4.3: Skills

Exercise 4.4: Goals and Feedback

Exercise 4.5: Player Types

Exercise 4.6: Premise

Exercise 4.7: Game Characters

Exercise 4.8: Story

Exercise 4.9: Plotting a Story, Part 1

Exercise 4.10: Plotting a Story, Part 2

Exercise 4.11: Plotting a Story, Part 3

Chapter 5: Working with System Dynamics

Exercise 5.1: Objects and Properties

Exercise 5.2: Behaviors

Exercise 5.3: Relationships

Exercise 5.4: System Dynamics

Exercise 5.6: Bartering Systems

Exercise 5.7: Hidden Information

Exercise 5.8: Information Structures

Exercise 5.9: Control

Chapter 6: Conceptualization

Exercise 6.1: Your Inspiration List

Exercise 6.2: Idea Fountain

Exercise 6.3: Organizing Your Brain

Exercise 6.4: Your Ideabase

Exercise 6.5: Growing an Idea Tree

Exercise 6.6: Research

Exercise 6.7: Do It

Exercise 6.8: Describe Your Game

Exercise 6.9: Write a Treatment

Chapter 7: Prototyping

Exercise 7.1: Modifying Your Prototype

Exercise 7.2: Movement and Shooting

Exercise 7.3: Build it Yourself

Exercise 7.4: Features

Exercise 7.5: Working Backwards

Exercise 7.6: Mapping a Level

Exercise 7.7: Designing Your Own Level

Exercise 7.8: Understanding Core Gameplay

Exercise 7.9: Prototype Your Own Game

Chapter 8: Playtesting

Exercise 8.1: Test it Yourself

Exercise 8.2: Test with Confidants

Exercise 8.3: Recruiting Playtesters

Exercise 8.4: Writing a Playtest Script

Exercise 8.5: Playtesting Your Game

Exercise 8.6: The Play Matrix

Exercise 8.7: Plotting Your Favorite Games

Exercise 8.8: Gathering Data

Exercise 8.9: Test Control Situations

Chapter 9: Functionality, Completeness, and Balance

Exercise 9.1: Testing for Functionality

Exercise 9.2: Testing for Completeness

Exercise 9.3: Spawn Camping

Exercise 9.4: Loopholes

Exercise 9.5: Game Variables

Exercise 9.6: Reinforcing Relationships

Exercise 9.7: Dominant Strategy

Exercise 9.8: Symmetrical versus Asymmetrical Games

Exercise 9.9: Asymmetrical Objectives

Exercise 9.10: Skill Levels

Exercise 9.11: Purity of Purpose

Exercise 9.12: Spreadsheets

Chapter 10: Fun and Accessibility

Exercise 10.1: Challenge and Play

Exercise 11.2: Decision Types

Exercise 10.3: Dilemmas

Exercise 10.4: Rewards

Exercise 10.5: Surprise

Exercise 10.6: Progress

Exercise 10.7: Endings

Exercise 10.8: Micromanagement

Exercise 10.9: Stagnation

Exercise 10.10: Usability Testing

Chapter 11: Controls and Interfaces

Exercise 11.1: Original Game Controls

Exercise 11.2: Control Design

Exercise 11.3: Viewpoint

Exercise 11.4: Metaphors

Exercise 11.5: Natural Mapping

Exercise 11.6: Grouping

Exercise 11.7: Feedback in Your Game

Exercise 11.8: Wireframes

Chapter 12: Team Structures

Exercise 12.1: Recruit a Team

Exercise 12.2: Marketing

Exercise 12.3: Usability Experience

Chapter 13: Stages of Development

Exercise 13.1: Goals

Exercise 13.2: Deliverables

Exercise 13.3: Schedule

Exercise 13.4: Budget

Exercise 13.5: Revise

Chapter 14: The Design Document

Exercise 14.1: Researching Design Documents

Exercise 14.2: Flowchart and Wireframes

Exercise 14.3: Table of Contents

Exercise 14.4: Fleshing Out Your Design Document

Chapter 15: Understanding the Game Industry

Exercise 15.1: Your Game's Genre

Exercise 15.2: The Right Publisher

Chapter 16: Selling Yourself and Your Ideas to the Game Industry

Exercise 16.1: Networking

Exercise 16.2: Follow-Up Letter

Exercise 16.3: Resume

Exercise 16.4: Internship

Exercise 16.5: Preparing Your Submission Materials

Exercise 16.6: Pitching

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