A great videogame analysis book written by one of the founders of the scientific study of games: the ludology. In this book, Jesper Juul explores the connections between videogames and fictional worlds, and he highlights the special features of videogames when it comes to "tell stories." The first part of the book features an essay about the definitions of "games" and "video games" which were heavily quoted (both endorsed or criticized) by most of the following scie
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Keywords : ludology, game studies, fiction, definition
This book gives a portrayal of several famous video game creators: Cliff Bleszinski (Unreal Tournament, Gears of War), Shigeru Miyamoto (Mario, Zelda...), Will Wright (Sim City, The Sims...), John Romero and John Carmack, alongside with three bonus chapters dedicated to the first video games, to military Serious Games (America's Army) and to MMORPG players (Anarchy Online, Star Wars Galaxies). Overall, the book is very pleasant to read and filled with interesting information. The portraits of c
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Keywords : history, cliff bleszinski, will wright, america's army, star wars galaxies, anarchy online
Bill Kunkel, usually known as "The Game Doctor", is one of the videogaming press pioneers in the USA. With his lifetime friend Arnie Katz, he started to write down articles about videogames in 1978, for the Video magazine. In 1981, the two pioneers launched Electronic Games, the first magazine dedicated to videogames published in the USA - if not in the world. This autobiographic book gathers numerous trivia and short stories coming from the career of Bill Kunkel: the birth of Electron
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Keywords : biography, bill kunkel, video games, press, usa, electronic games, the game doctor
This book gathers about 200 "design patterns" aimed to ease the creation of games. It's a formalized and analytical list of the various elements that composes games, ordered in different categories. For example, in the "Game Elements" category you'll find the patterns "lives", "power-ups" and "avatar", while the "Social Interaction" category gathers patterns like "trading", "competition" and "player killin
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Keywords : game design, design patterns, theoretical, reference
Cet article relate la démarche novatrice de l'Éducation Nationale qui tente via des jeux vidéo de transmettre un message à la génération des 15–18 ans pour valoriser ses filières Industrielles. Sous l'axe scientifique de la communication et de la sociologie, dans un premier temps, nous explorerons la stratégie mise en place pour élaborer les jeux dont la vocation sera de véhiculer le message souhait&e
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Keywords : Pedagogy, Video Game, Serious Game, Education
The autobiography of Ralph Baer, the inventor of home video game consoles. Released in 1972, the Magnavox Odyssey is one of the starting points of the history of video games. First of all, it's the first video console solely dedicated to games. Moreover, one of its titles, Ping-Pong, was a direct source of inspiration for Atari to create Pong. Through a book featuring many pictures, Ralph Baer details us the process he followed to invent this first console ever. As a natural-born engineer, he ke
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Keywords : ralph baer, magnavox odyssey, first video game, simon, lawsuit, biography
An essay written by Gilles Brougère, a researcher specialized about games, dealing with the relations between playing and learning. This book addresses play as a general activity, ranging from kids play in preschools to video games. The author stars with the definition of "game" and "play", before diving into the relationships between play and leisure, education and leisure, and, last but not least, play and education. Through the idea of "informal learning",
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Keywords : essay, learning science, learning, game, play, education, leisure, school
This book provides insightful thoughts and design advices for interactive storytelling applications, e.g. video games. Written by the legendary American game designer Chris Crawford, it's the result of 10 years of experimentation from the author in this area. He first draws a theoretical analysis of interactivity and storytelling structures, to then introduce an efficient yet easy to understand approach: thinking in "action verbs" to analyze and improve games interactivity. The book is
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Keywords : interactive storytelling, video game, story, design, theory, example, reference
A small book (150 pages) laying down a general introduction to the universe of videogames. The author details the history of videogames (with the contribution of the Le Diberder brothers and their "cycles theory" on this topic), the various jobs of the videogames industry and the process of game design, and in a last chapter try to analyze the future of videogames as a communicational tool. An English translation of this book was published in 2006 under the title "Video Games And
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Keywords : introduction, jobs, history, schools
This book presents a historical, economic and artistic analysis of Japanese video games, hoping to explain why they are so successful all around the world. The author, who is an expert of this topic, offers us a combination of detailed history (the birth of Japanese video game industry), personal analysis of games series (Mario, Final Fantasy, etc.), and interviews with legendary game designers such as Shigeru Miyamoto and Fumito Ueda. The author then explores some "japanese-specific"
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Keywords : japan, analyse, shigeru miyamoto, fumito ueda, jrpg, akihabara, pokémon, music games