The Game Production Toolbox

The Game Production Toolbox focuses on the nuts and bolts of producing interactive content and how you can organize and support the creative, technical, and business efforts that are all part of interactive game development. This book isn’t going to tell you how to design a game or what technologies to use. Instead it provides techniques for and insights into managing, from concept to release, all the pieces that must come together in order to get a game into the hands of a player. Readers will learn about each phase of game production: prototyping, defining the requirements, assembling the team, making the game, and releasing to the players. Interviews from professional game developers give a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to make a game. Key Features A framework for how to get an interactive game from concept to release, including information on financing and pitching to publishers and investors. Techniques for working with the game development team to get effective prototypes and documentation to prove out game concept and mechanics. Concrete information on how to plan and execute the different aspects of game production, such as audio, localization, testing, and software ratings. Advice from industry experts on managing teams, project management, communicating effectively, and keeping everyone happy. Information about working effectively with marketing, PR, and other people that are involved with the publishing and release process.

What is a game? -- The game industry -- Roles on the team -- Teams -- Effective communication -- Game production overview -- Game concept -- Characters, setting, and story -- Game requirements -- Game plan -- Production cycle -- Voiceover and music -- Localization -- Testing and code releasing -- Marketing and public relations.

The Game Production Toolbox focuses on the nuts and bolts of producing interactive content and how you can organize and support the creative, technical, and business efforts that are all part of interactive game development. This book isn’t going to tell you how to design a game or what technologies to use. Instead it provides techniques for and insights into managing, from concept to release, all the pieces that must come together in order to get a game into the hands of a player. Readers will learn about each phase of game production: prototyping, defining the requirements, assembling the team, making the game, and releasing to the players. Interviews from professional game developers give a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to make a game. Key Features A framework for how to get an interactive game from concept to release, including information on financing and pitching to publishers and investors. Techniques for working with the game development team to get effective prototypes and documentation to prove out game concept and mechanics. Concrete information on how to plan and execute the different aspects of game production, such as audio, localization, testing, and software ratings. Advice from industry experts on managing teams, project management, communicating effectively, and keeping everyone happy. Information about working effectively with marketing, PR, and other people that are involved with the publishing and release process.

The Advanced Game Narrative Toolbox continues where the Game Narrative Toolbox ended. While the later covered the basics of writing for games, the Advanced Game Narrative Toolbox will cover techniques for the intermediate and professional writer. The book will cover topics such as how to adapt a novel to a game, how to revive IPs and how to construct transmedia worlds. Each chapter will be written by a professional with exceptional experience in the field of the chapter. Key Features Learn from industry experts how to tackle today’s challenges in storytelling for games. A learn by example and exercise approach, which was praised in the Game Narrative Toolbox. An in depth view on advanced storytelling techniques and topics as they are currently discussed and used in the gaming industry. Expand your knowledge in game writing as you learn and try yourself to design quests, write romances and build worlds as you would as a writer in a game studio. Improve your own stories by learning and trying the techniques used by the professionals of game writing.

Updated to reflect the rapidly evolving game development landscape, industry veteran Heather Chandler continues to educate game enthusiasts on the procedures and processes of game production. This Third Edition presents information that a producer, lead, or studio manager must know to successfully develop a game from concept to gold master.

A 2021 Oregon Book Award Winner An NPR Best Book of 2020 A Finalist for the 2021-22 Maine Student Book Award A 2021 Mythopoeic Awards Finalist Andre Norton Award finalist Jenn Reese explores the often thin line between magic and reality, light and darkness in her enchanting middle grade standalone. "Brings to life, viscerally, what it is like to live in fear of abuse—even after the abuse itself is over. But there is magic here too, and the promise of a better future that comes with learning to let people who care about you into your world." —Alan Gratz, New York Times-bestselling author of Refugee “A captivating and touching story... both whimsical and emotionally—sometimes frighteningly—compelling.” —Ingrid Law, Newbery Honor-winning author of Savvy "Magically creative and deeply honest, A Game of Fox & Squirrels merges games and grimness in a fantasy tale that tells the truth." —Elana K. Arnold, Printz Honor-winning author of Damsel and A Boy Called Bat After an incident shatters their family, eleven-year old Samantha and her older sister Caitlin are sent to live in rural Oregon with an aunt they've never met. Sam wants nothing more than to go back to the way things were... before she spoke up about their father's anger. When Aunt Vicky gives Sam a mysterious card game called "A Game of Fox & Squirrels," Sam falls in love with the animal characters, especially the charming trickster fox, Ashander. Then one day Ashander shows up in Sam’s room and offers her an adventure and a promise: find the Golden Acorn, and Sam can have anything she desires. But the fox is hiding rules that Sam isn't prepared for, and her new home feels more tempting than she'd ever expected. As Sam is swept up in the dangerous quest, the line between magic and reality grows thin. If she makes the wrong move, she'll lose far more than just a game. Perfect for fans of Barbara O'Connor, Lauren Wolk, and Ali Benjamin, A Game of Fox & Squirrels is a stunning, heartbreaking novel about a girl who finds the light in the darkness... and ultimately discovers the true meaning of home.

"games user research is the definitive guide to methods and practices for games user professionals, researchers and students seeking additional expertise or starting advice in the game development industry. It is the go-to volume for everyone working with games, with an emphasis on those new to the field."--Back cover.

Utilize proven solutions to solve common problems in game development About This Book Untangle your game development workflow, make cleaner code, and create structurally solid games Implement key programming patterns that will enable you to make efficient AI and remove duplication Optimize your game using memory management techniques Who This Book Is For If you are a game developer who wants to solve commonly-encountered issues or have some way to communicate to other developers in a standardized format, then this book is for you. Knowledge of basic game programming principles and C++ programming is assumed. What You Will Learn Learn what design patterns are and why you would want to use them Reduce the maintenance burden with well-tested, cleaner code Employ the singleton pattern effectively to reduce your compiler workload Use the factory pattern to help you create different objects with the same creation logic and reduce coding time Improve game performance with Object Pools Allow game play to interact with physics or graphics in an abstract way Refractor your code to remove common code smells In Detail You've learned how to program, and you've probably created some simple games at some point, but now you want to build larger projects and find out how to resolve your problems. So instead of a coder, you might now want to think like a game developer or software engineer. To organize your code well, you need certain tools to do so, and that's what this book is all about. You will learn techniques to code quickly and correctly, while ensuring your code is modular and easily understandable. To begin, we will start with the core game programming patterns, but not the usual way. We will take the use case strategy with this book. We will take an AAA standard game and show you the hurdles at multiple stages of development. Similarly, various use cases are used to showcase other patterns such as the adapter pattern, prototype pattern, flyweight pattern, and observer pattern. Lastly, we'll go over some tips and tricks on how to refactor your code to remove common code smells and make it easier for others to work with you. By the end of the book you will be proficient in using the most popular and frequently used patterns with the best practices. Style and approach This book takes a step-by-step real-life case studies approach. Every pattern is first explained using a bottleneck. We will show you a problem in your everyday workflow, and then introduce you to the pattern, and show you how the pattern will resolve the situation.