David Perry on Game Design: A Brainstorming ToolBox

Rusel DeMaria has been a writer in the game industry since 1981, and has written more than 60 game-related books. The founding editor and creative director of Prima Publishing's acclaimed strategy guide division for 6 years and former senior editor of three national video game magazines, DeMaria is one of the most experienced writers/journalists in the video game industry. He has been a columnist in magazines and newspapers nationally and internationally, has consulted and written privately for several top game companies and continues to write high-profile books, working with some of the biggest companies in the business. DeMaria is now the assistant director and a design consultant/producer for Acclaim Games. He is the author of Reset: Changing the Way We Look at Video Games" from Berrett-Kohler Publishers and a co-author of the upcoming David Perry on Game Design: A Brainstorming Toolbox (1584506687)." David Perry is a 25-year video game industry veteran. Perry launched his professional career at just 15 years of age by writing video game programming books in his native Northern Ireland. Since then, Perry or his studio Shiny Entertainment has developed numerous games (including The Terminator, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Mc Donald's Global Gladiators, 7-Up's Cool Spot, Disney's Aladdin, Earthworm Jim, MDK, Sacrifice etc.) His last console titles were based on the Matrix franchise from Warner Brothers. His games have sold an estimated one BILLION dollars at retail. After selling Shiny to Atari, Perry is now the Chief Creative Officer of Acclaim Games and is also the founder of a new company called GameInvestors.com (to help developers find funding for their games.) Perry sits on the Advisory Boards of the Game Developers Conference, the Hollywood and Games Conference, the Gamers Expo & Westwood College. He's a regular speaker at key industry events and has even spoken at prestigious events like at the TED.COM conference, and at universities like MIT, USC, UCLA etc. In July 2008 he’s being awarded a Doctorate by Queen’s University at the same time as the Prime Minister of England (Tony Blair.) Here’s a Google link for him that brings up 230,000 web pages: http://tinyurl.com/ywb4bg Perry’s name is practically a household name among game players and professionals in the game industry, and this is his first book. Perry has always promoted talent and encouraged aspiring designers, and this book is his way of offering something “real,” practical and useful to designers everywhere. His biggest frustration with game development books that tell you to make innovative games, but don’t tell you how. We plan to change that.

Part I: How to Use This Book
Chapter 1: Using This Book as a Reference
Chapter 2: Brainstorming and Research
Part II: Which Game Will You Make?
Chapter 3: Hooks
Chapter 4: What Publishers Want
Chapter 5: Game POV and Game Genres
Chapter 6: Business Models
Chapter 7: Branding
Chapter 8: Protecting Your Intellectual Property
Part III: Storytelling
Chapter 9: Storytelling Techniques
Chapter 10: Movie Genres
Chapter 11: Scenarios
Part IV: Characters
Chapter 12: Character Design
Chapter 13: Character Roles and Jobs
Chapter 14: Enemies
Chapter 15: Character Abilities
Chapter 16: Speech
Part V: Worlds
Chapter 17: Game Worlds
Chapter 18: Travel
Chapter 19: Objects and Location
Chapter 20: Music and Sound
Part VI Experience Design
Section A: The Elements of Experience
Chapter 21: Experiential Design
Chapter 22: Game Conventions and Cliches
Section B: Goals and Rewards
Chapter 23: Goals
Chapter 24: Rewards, Bonuses, and Penalties
Section C: Obstacles
Chapter 25: Barriers, Obstacles, and Detectors
Chapter 26: Traps and Counter Traps
Chapter 27: Puzzles
Section D: Time
Chapter 28: Controlling Pacing
Section E: Communication
Chapter 30: Ways to Communicate with the Player
Section F: Common Problems
Chapter 31: Common Game Design Problems
Chapter 32: Ways to Die
Part VII: Weapons and Armor
Chapter 33: Historical and Cultural Weapons
Chapter 34: Standard Modern Weaponry and Armor
Chapter 35: Epilogue