LudoScience

Game Design (profession)

Author(s) : Brian Tinsman
Editor : Morgan James Publishing
Publication date : 11-01-2008
Language : english

This book is a hands-on guide dedicated to the job of "traditional" games creator: board games, card games, role-playing games... It's divided in 5 sections. The first one gives a tour of this profession through famous games case studies: Trivial Pursuit, Magic: The Gathering, Dungeons & Dragons and The Pokemon Trading Card Game. They are accompanied by interviews with a game author (Reiner Knizia) and a publisher (Mike Gray from Hasbro). The second part presents with more details how the "non-digital" games industry works: the different jobs, the various kinds of markets (mass market, specialized, role-playing)... The third part then details the companies and games that you should know, from mass market to hardcore gamers. The fourth section explains everything you need to know to self-publish your games, while the last part discusses the numerous steps required to publish them with an editor. Enriched with many interviews with industry professionals, this book is very pleasant to read and full of useful and wise advices. While it doesn't address the design of games themselves, it admirably covers all the "industry" and "marketing" sides of this profession.