Players Making Decisions: Game Design Essentials and the Art of Understanding Your Players

Game designers today are expected to have an arsenal of multi-disciplinary skills at their disposal in the fields of art and design, computer programming, psychology, economics, composition, education, mythology—and the list goes on. How do you distill a vast universe down to a few salient points?

Players Making Decisions brings together the wide range of topics that are most often taught in modern game design courses and focuses on the core concepts that will be useful for students for years to come. A common theme to many of these concepts is the art and craft of creating games in which players are engaged by making meaningful decisions. It is the decision to move right or left, to pass versus shoot, or to develop one’s own strategy that makes the game enjoyable to the player. As a game designer, you are never entirely certain of who your audience will be, but you can enter their world and offer a state of focus and concentration on a task that is intrinsically rewarding.

This detailed and easy-to-follow guide to game design is for both digital and analog game designers alike and some of its features include:

• A clear introduction to the discipline of game design, how game development teams work, and the game development process
• Full details on prototyping and playtesting, from paper prototypes to intellectual property protection issues
• A detailed discussion of cognitive biases and human decision making as it pertains to games
• Thorough coverage of key game elements, with practical discussions of game mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics
• Practical coverage of using simulation tools to decode the magic of game balance
• A full section on the game design business, and how to create a sustainable lifestyle within it

Table of Contents

Part 1: Getting Started
Chapter 1. What Is a Game Designer?
Chapter 2. Problem Statements
Chapter 3. Development Structures
Chapter 4. Starting Practices

Part 2: Prototypes and Playtesting
Chapter 5. Paper Prototyping Development Techniques
Chapter 6. Playtesting
Chapter 7. Playtesting Methods
Chapter 8. Prototypes and Intellectual Property

Part 3: Meaningful Decisions
Chapter 9. Flow and the Fundamental Game Design Directive
Chapter 10. Decision-Making
Chapter 11. Randomness
Chapter 12. Goals

Part 4: Describing Game Elements
Chapter 13. Mechanics, Dynamics, and Aesthetics (MDA)
Chapter 14. Milieu
Chapter 15. Rules and Verbs
Chapter 16. Balance
Chapter 17. Feedback Loops
Chapter 18. Puzzle Design

Part 5: Game Theory and Rational Decision-Making
Chapter 19. Equilibria in Normal Form Games
Chapter 20. Sequential and Iterated Games
Chapter 21. Problems with Game Theory
Chapter 22. Marginal Decision Analysis

Part 6: Human Behavior in Games
Chapter 23. Behaviorism and Schedules of Reinforcement
Chapter 24. Learning and Constructivism
Chapter 25. Motivation
Chapter 26. Human Decision-Making
Chapter 27. Attention and Memory

Part 7: Game Design Tools
Chapter 28. Documentation and Written Communication
Chapter 29. Probability
Chapter 30. Spreadsheets for Simulation
Chapter 31. Monte Carlo Simulation
Chapter 32. Presenting Ideas

Part 8: The Game Design Business
Chapter 33. Profit, Loss, and Metrics
Chapter 34. Sustainable Lifestyles

Appendix A. Ludography