Game Development Essentials: An Introduction, 2nd Edition offers a thorough and insightful introduction to the game development industry, with industry updates that will keep readers current and well-prepared for a career in the field. The book begins with a highly informative chapter on the evolution of game development, providing a historical context for later chapters, and moves on to examine content creation and the concepts behind the development of story, character, environment, level design, user interface, and sound. With the same engaging writing style and examples that made the first edition so popular, this new edition features expanded coverage of today’s hottest topics - such as next-generation platforms (Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii), level design, interface design, project management, serious games, game accessibility, and online social networks. New game-related technology, development techniques, and the latest research in the field make this an invaluable resource for anyone entering the exciting, competitive, ever-changing world of game development.

Good Gaming Book

If your into gaming this is a book for you. It delivers what it promises in providing the key essential to gaming. I recommend it.

Very good text book for school

No complaints here, the author gives very good examples to go with each topic she’s explaining. Great excerpts from industry professionals add additional insight into the reading.

Game Essentials

Excellent book as an introduction to developing games - My students (and i) found it very hard to put down after reading through the first chapter!

One question i have is about the instructor resource on DVD mentioned in the book. As this is the first time using the book for our game development course it would be helpful to have some material - especially the powerpoint slides. Does anyone know how to get a copy of this DVD? - Thomson learning doesn’t seem to have a link for this resource.

Cheap & With CD!

Ordered this book for my husband’s class. Not only did Amazon have it in stock, it was $20 cheaper than Barnes & Noble (with member discount) and that’s even after upgrading the shipping. Was a little worried at first that the book wouldn’t come quickly cause the tracking was awful, but it arrived fast.
A note worth mentioning: this book comes with a CD as well even though it does not say so.

My husband has not used this book much for his class yet, so as for the material I am not sure. But we are very pleased with the product & Amazon (as usual) so far.

Stylish book that really meets its goals

I picked up this book as a possible replacement for the book that is currently used in my ’Game Design’ course. This book is very attractive and professionally put together. It covers the material that would be essential (hence the title) when discussing the elements of game design:
1. The history of the medium
I found some annoying factual errors in this part of the book. Which initially turned me off but I continued to read since errors seemed to be in the sidebars which may not get the same editorial review.
2. Who plays and why?
This contained very interesting material for students to discuss with respect to player motivation, personality and gender. The eye-opening part for me was the view of game playing from the perspective of generations. Baby boomers, Generation X and the Millennial Generation look for different things from the games they play. (This part made me examine my own choices for games and the characters I am most attracted to in them!)
3. The elements in a game - genres, platforms, player mode

Part II is where the real gems are for people who really want to design games:
4. The elements of storytelling
5. Creating the characters/roles
6. Creating the game experience, e.g. challenges
7. Creating the World and Atmosphere (anyone else listen to the audio CD to remember the delight in playing the game?)

The last part covers:
8. The key roles/titles in the game development process
9. The process of producing games
10. The future of gaming

The book ends with the following bonuses:
11. A list of resources for those who are serious about actually getting into the game business
12. List of books to read and learn more
13. A CD with tools

The key thing I value when spending time on a book is one - am I learning something new? This book offers many ideas central to designing video games. It is an excellent book for a course on the topic or for any budding game designer to pick up start the journey.

Excellent book

It’s an excellent book. The fact that she included my incredibly detailed game design document in no way influenced my rating.

Classroom Warning

Just wanted to let people know there is a later version if you missed it, and you should check with instructors before buying this book and be sure it is the dated version needed!

Gwenn McElwee’s Review

I find this book to be well rounded in the history and in the aspect to the gaming and simulation world. It was not what I originally expected to read, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and now can look at the gaming world a lot differently with more respect.

I purchased this book because it was required for the class I am taking at DeVry University Online, but now that I have read it, I am interested in purchasing a few of the other books in this series by Jeannie Novak.

Interesting side notes, but not worth the effort

One interesting thing this book contains is little sidebar interviews with people from the game industry. It might serve people who are looking for jobs and want to get names of people in industry.

This book might also be a good read for parents of kids who want to learn more about the gaming industry. It is a very simple introduction (hence the title).

For anyone who has played computer games however, it will be overly simple and offer little value add.

It really is an intro and nothing more.

I enjoyed it

I would probably have given it 5 stars if it weren’t for the few mistakes made. For example on page 218 there is a screenshot of C&C Generals and the caption says "Praetorians uses terrain as a boundary" with the image credit given to Eidos Interactive! Wow... It’s probably just a mistake someone else made and not Novak, but still. I haven’t been able to locate an errata list on either the publisher’s website nor Novak’s, but aside from a few minor typos I haven’t found any other mistakes.

For a book published in late 2004, an updated edition seems a long time coming for a book that needed it. I see the second edition is due out August 2007 so that’s good. Too bad my class didn’t wait until then. I was required to purchase this first edition.

I don’t know if I’d recommend this to anyone just browsing the shelves for a book on game design, unless you have more money than the typical student. At $64, I would hold this book to higher standards. Thomson Delmar Learning doesn’t really target the mass market, so you’d expect to pay a little extra and receive a little extra in return. But price aside, I agree with all the other positive comments. If you are interested in the subject matter then I really would recommend this book. Maybe just wait a few months for the 2nd edition.

The demo CD is lackluster in my opinion. All it had were URLs to demo games and game engine trial versions. They could have saved some money and just had a page at the end of the book list the URLs.

The interviews with and comments by the industry pros are very nice for the beginning student to read. The book is very colorful and has lots of pictures. That makes it sound childish but it really does help with the reading. I’m used to reading technical books on programming and even I found this format to be useful and it fit well with the subject.

In places, the author talks about generic game ideas and then references a specific game, as if this game is a shining example of the topic and it beat out all others. The topics are so generic that any game in the genre discussed could be used as a reference. To me this reeks of product placement.

One other thing that bothers me is the inclusion of "credible" studies and surveys by renowned research organizations like Nielsen. It isn’t so much the fault of the author as it is the proliferation of surveys. One study sampled 33 medical professionals, came up with surprising results, and made the following statement: "The next step? Surgery simulations!". I’m sorry, but sampling 33 doctors means absolutely nothing. Get back to me when you sample 33,000. A different survey of 1,000 males in 2003 found 10% watched less television, 33% said in-game ads helped them decide which products to buy, and 50% actually liked the inclusion of real products in games. The next statement makes a conclusion: "Major corporations are now considering product placement in games as a significant form of advertising." How many millions of males in the United States alone play video games regularly? Wow, 1,000 sure is representative. Now the rest of us have to be subjected to in-game ads, which are repulsively annoying, thanks to the wrong set of 1,000 people surveyed. Sigh. Yes, I know it’s impossible to survey a representative sample. So don’t bother with surveys. I’m going off on a tangent, but the point is this book is pretty good. Just ignore the surveys.