Players Making Decisions Game Design Essentials and the Art of Understanding Your Players 1st Edition by Zack Hiwiller ISBN 9780134394640 013439464X

Players Making Decisions Game Design Essentials and the Art of Understanding Your Players 1st Edition by Zack Hiwiller  – Ebook PDF Instant Download/Delivery. 9780134394640 ,013439464X
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Product details:
ISBN 10: 013439464X
ISBN 13: 9780134394640
Author:  Zack Hiwiller

Players Making Decisions Game Design Essentials and the Art of Understanding Your Players 1st Edition Table of contents:

Part 1: Getting Started

1. What Is a Game Designer?

Responsibilities of a Game Designer

Attributes of a Game Designer

Varied Interests

Persistence

Mindset and Purpose

Make Things

Cultivate Your Gardens

On Ontology and Dogma

Formalism

Summary

2. Problem Statements

Defining the Problem

Low-Hanging Fruit

Functional Fixedness

Brainstorming

Summary

3. Development Structures

Production Methodologies

Waterfall

Iterative Processes

Climbing the Pyramid

Scope

Summary

4. Starting Practices

Analog Games

Theme and Mechanics

Next Steps

Designing for Others

Opening Questions

Summary

Part 2: Prototypes and Playtesting

5. Paper Prototyping Development Techniques

Software and Materials

Art

Cards

InDesign Data Merge

Summary

6. Playtesting

Playtesting Goals

Playtesting Benefits

Listening to Feedback

Fear of Critique

Confirmation Bias

Finding Playtesters

Iterating

Summary

7. Playtesting Methods

The Testing Environment

Keep Playtesters Talking

A/B Testing

Self-Playtesting

Summary

8. Prototypes and Intellectual Property

Do I Need an NDA?

Ideas and Value

Summary

Part 3: Meaningful Decisions

9. Flow and the Fundamental Game Design Directive

Game Flow

Interest Curves

Learning Curves

Individual Differences

Summary

10. Decision-Making

Player Agency

Anatomy of a Choice

Less-Interesting Decision-Making

Blind Decisions

Obvious Decisions

Meaningless/Misleading Decisions

Handcuffing Decisions

More-Interesting Decision-Making

Trade-offs

Risk/Reward

Expected Value

Summary

11. Randomness

Completely Random Games

Completely Skill-Based Games

Fairness and Mitigating Randomness

Summary

12. Goals

How Players Determine Game Goals

Example: SimCity

Example: Minesweeper

Criteria for Goals

Solving Goal Problems

Summary

Part 4: Describing Game Elements

13. Mechanics, Dynamics, and Aesthetics (MDA)

What Are Games About?

MDA

Example: Realm of the Mad God

Example: Monopoly

Example: Habitat

More Dynamics

Turtling

Kingmaking

Button Mashing

Grinding

Press-Your-Luck

Summary

14. Milieu

What Is Milieu?

Polish

Player Types

Motivation

Milieu as Design Focus

Summary

15. Rules and Verbs

Rules

Qualities of Rules

Types of Rules

Verbs

Summary

16. Balance

Symmetry

Self-Balancing Mechanisms

Progression and Numeric Relationships

A Triangular Relationship Example

Balance Heuristics

Summary

17. Feedback Loops

Positive Feedback Loops

Negative Feedback Loops

Feedback Loops in Action

Positive Feedback Loop Methods

Negative Feedback Loop Methods

Mixing Feedback Methods

Fixing Problems

Summary

18. Puzzle Design

What Is a Puzzle?

Possibility Space

Breadcrumbs

Extrinsic Breadcrumbs

Intrinsic Breadcrumbs

No Breadcrumbs at All

Features of Ineffective Puzzles

Incomplete Critical Information/Missed Assumptions

Lack of Ability to Experiment

Brute Force

Triviality Surrounded by Complexity

Lack of Possibility Space

Arbitrariness

Types of Puzzles

Deduction Puzzles

Truth Puzzles

Deception Puzzles

Paradoxes

Other Puzzle Types

Critical Path Puzzles

Strategy Puzzles

Algebraic Puzzles

Physical Manipulation Puzzles

Summary

Part 5: Game Theory and Rational Decision-Making

19. Equilibria in Normal Form Games

The Prisoner’s Dilemma

Solving Games Using Strict Dominance

Using (and Abusing) Dominance

Zero-Sum Games

Stag Hunt and Coordination

Determining Nash Equilibria in a Larger Matrix

Mixed Strategies

Stag Hunt Redux

Summary

20. Sequential and Iterated Games

Game Trees

Promises and Commitment Problems

Iterated Games

Experimenting with Strategies

Successful Strategies

Summary

21. Problems with Game Theory

Rational Actors

The Dollar Auction

The “Guess Two-Thirds” Game

Second-Price Auctions

Summary

22. Marginal Decision Analysis

Marginal Nuggets

Balance on Margins

Summary

Part 6: Human Behavior in Games

23. Behaviorism and Schedules of Reinforcement

Operant Conditioning

Schedules of Reinforcement

Anticipation and Uncertainty

In Games: Coin Pusher

In Games: Destiny Drops

Ethical and Practical Concerns

Summary

24. Learning and Constructivism

Historic Approaches

Novices and Experts

Cognitive Load

Expertise Reversal Effect

Split-Attention Effect

Tutorials and Learning Design

Summary

25. Motivation

Two Types of Motivation

What’s the Problem with Rewards?

Self-Determination Theory and Challenges

Competition and Motivation

Personality

Other Motivation Effects

Summary

26. Human Decision-Making

Mental Shortcuts

Attribution Errors

Misunderstanding Randomness

Anchoring and Adjustment

Understanding Value in Uncertain Situations

Loss

Framing Decisions

Summary

27. Attention and Memory

Attention

Attention Misdirection

Attention Direction

Memory

Helping with Memory Limitations

Perception

Colorblindness

Text Might as Well Be Invisible

Gestalt Grouping

First Impressions

Summary

Part 7: Game Design Tools

28. Documentation and Written Communication

The Game Design Document

Common Misconceptions

The GDD Creation Process

Step One: Determine Purpose/Desired Scope/Connected Systems

Step Two: Research

Step Three: Idea Generation

Step Four: Murder Your Darlings

Step Five: Fully Detail the Best Answer

Step Six: Edit and Find Edge Cases

References

Appendices

Documentation for Tabletop Games

States and Flowcharts

Summary

29. Probability

Probability Is Fancy Counting

Joint Probability

Conditional Probability

Adding Die Rolls

Example: The H/T Game

Being Careful

Problem #1: The Boy-Girl Problem

Problem #2: The Weirder Boy-Girl Problem

Problem #3: Isner-Mahut at Wimbledon

Summary

30. Spreadsheets for Simulation

Why Use Spreadsheets?

Basics

Formulas

Formula Operator

Basic Math

SUM, PRODUCT

MAX, MIN

AVERAGE, MEDIAN, MODE

RANK, PERCENTRANK, PERCENTILE

ROUND, TRUNC

RAND, RANDBETWEEN

CONCATENATE

VLOOKUP, HLOOKUP

IF

COUNTIF, SUMIF

OR, AND

Common Formula Errors

Anchors

Goal Seek and Solver in Excel

Goal Seek

Solver

One-Way Data Tables

Summary

31. Monte Carlo Simulation

Answering Design Questions

Hot Hand

Monty Hall

Example: Dungeons & Dragons Advantage/Disadvantage

Once Around the Board

Martingale Betting

Summary

32. Presenting Ideas

The Thesis

Text on Slides

Data-Ink

Do Not Waste Time

Documentation

Acquiring Images

Example: State of Mobile Games 2014

Risk

Risk Analysis

Pitch Questions

Summary

Part 8: The Game Design Business

33. Profit, Loss, and Metrics

Profit and Loss

Metrics

Free-to-Play Metrics

Virality

Retention

Other Metrics

Cash Flow

Summary

34. Sustainable Lifestyles

Life in AAA Digital Game Development

Life as an Independent Developer of Digital Games

Life in Tabletop Game Development

Market Luck

Summary

Conclusion

Appendix A. Ludography

Digital Games

Board, Card, Tabletop, and Physical Games

Index

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