Level Design for Games: Creating Compelling Game Experiences (New Riders Games)

Book Description

At the heart of any great computer game are expertly designed levels: the locales and stages that define gameplay. And at the core of any strong game development team are the level designers: the people who create the spaces and environments that you move through while playing the game. And because level design doesn’t require a fine arts or programming degree, it’s one of the best avenues into a career in game development. Level Design for Games: Creating Compelling Game Experiences is the definitive guide to level design, both for aspiring game developers, and for industry pros looking for practical, best-practice tips and advice.

With over ten years of experience with some of the industry’s top developers, Phil Co starts the reader at the very beginning of the
game development process, explaining the level designer’s role in the all-important preproduction phase. Co then moves into the
production phase, using a fictional level to demonstrate how to create and refine your level.

Packed with screenshots, diagrams, and real-world examples, this book gives you all the tools you need to build your own professional-grade
level, including level narratives, descriptions, diagrams, and templates. Chapter assignments help you practice what you’ve learned, and the demo of Epic’s UnrealEngine2 Editor (UnrealEd), included on the companion CD-ROM, gives you hands-on experience
with an industry-standard tool.

Phil Co has a degree in architecture from the University of Virginia but opted instead for a career in video games. Starting out as a tester at SEGA, he’s been a level designer since 1996 for some of the best-regarded game developers in the industry, including Cyclone Studios, Blizzard, and Valve Software, makers of the hugely popular “Half-Life” series. Phil lives in Seattle with his wife and son.

“Anyone interested in a level design career should read this book. Phil does an excellent job covering all
the aspects of level design across several game genres.”
—Rob Pardo, Vice President of Game Design,
Blizzard Entertainment

“An indispensable guide to the theory, process, and practice of level design.”
—Robin Walker, Designer, Valve Software

“This book contains a wealth of valuable information for anyone
interested in Level Design. It is one of the few books I would
recommend to my gaming students.”
—Todd Robinson, Game Design Instructor,
Academy of Art University, San Francisco

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Book!.......2006-05-21

This is an excellent book. It is straightforward and delivers very useful information. This book is devoid of the fluff, generalizations and pseudo-intellectual chatter so many books in the game development/design genre contain. This author speaks from experience, which is evident from his bio, but more so from the flow and genuine voice of his writing. I am particularly cynically and harsh on books in this genre so I didn't write this review lightly.

Level Design for Games Creating Compelling Game Experiences

Average customer rating:

Level Design for Games Creating Compelling Game Experiences
Phil Co
Manufacturer: New Riders Games
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OUF9YI

Customer Reviews:

Wide-ranging Study of a Fascinating, Influential Economist.......2007-09-18

Few American economists have the reputation Irving Fisher has--he is probably second only to Henry George as an economist of whom the American public was aware in the early twentieth century--and no other economist has undergone such dramatic reversals of fortune over time to achieve his reputation. Fisher's ideas and life seem, in some ways, stranger than fiction....

Fisher was always more than a theorist. Like other public intellectuals, such as the late Milton Friedman, he often engaged in supporting public-policy positions. Unlike Friedman's policy advocacy, however, Fisher's concerns--which ranged from good eating habits and life extension to public health, eugenics, and Franklin Roosevelt's monetary and gold policies--often interfered with his ability to perform his teaching duties. He was away from Yale more than he was there. Toward the end, he did little teaching. Fisher's driving passion to engage in public political debate, to run businesses on the side--he invented a card index system and sold it the company that became Remington-Rand, and he published a weekly index-number newsletter that at its peak reached 7 million readers (p. 51)--and to raise Yale's profile even as he raised his own rankled many of his Yale colleagues. No doubt some were simply envious of his pre-1929 crash wealth (he was a millionaire), and others were jealous of his celebrity. Many also doubted the wisdom of his positions on issues such as backing 100 percent reserves for banks and setting up a mechanism that he claimed would produce absolute price stability.

Fisher's personal ideological proclivities were all over the political map and sometimes changed as circumstances did, especially after the Great Depression suggested empirical difficulties with his quantity-theory approach--an approach that Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz resurrected in 1963 and argued had been true all along. Even though Fisher had studied with William Graham Sumner, he was never an advocate, as his professor had been, of total laissez-faire. As Joseph Dorfman mentions, "he opposed any all-out laissez-faire. He supported such liberal measures as high inheritance taxes and wider dispersal of corporate ownership through profitsharing, employee ownership, and co-operation. As examples of existing types of activities which were neither pure private ownership nor pure government ownership, he cited `government regulation; leases to private capitalists with reversionary rights to the city, state, or nation; subsidies; price-fixing; guaranteeing prices, underwriting against loss; taxes on profits or on excess profits'" (The Economic Mind in American Civilization [New York: Augustus M. Kelley, 1969], 5: 298). To this list, one may add Fisher's sometimes-successful Progressive Era crusades for pure food, abolition of alcohol consumption, human eugenics, government manipulation of the international gold price, and even national health insurance.

At the height of his fame, Fisher did something of which economists should always be wary: he made an economic prediction. Two weeks before Black Friday, in October 1929, he proclaimed that stocks "have reached a permanent high plateau." Ouch! One has to admire, however, the fact that Fisher, unlike so many of his contemporary colleagues in the quirky discipline of economics, at least put his money where his theory was: he then went completely broke in the market crash. Only Yale's forgiveness of the rent on Fisher's New Haven residence, which had been sold to the university, prevented him from declaring personal bankruptcy. His prestige took a huge blow, and he found himself ridiculed, his reputation diminished. Even the economics profession in later years seemed to agree that he had become a fascinating curiosity. At the first Fisher commemorative conference at Yale in 1967, however, another famous economist, Paul Samuelson, made his own prediction: professional economists would ultimately come to recognize Fisher as "this country's greatest scientific economist" (p. 54). Unlike Fisher's unfortunate prediction, Samuelson's has been borne out. Today, most of the citations to Fisher's work pertain not to the history of economic thought, but to his theoretical work. He is, among other things, the father of the Federal Reserve's problematic quest for "price stability" and hence of the entire field of contemporary monetary policy....

Had Nobel awards in economics existed during Fisher's lifetime (he died in 1947, and the first Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded in 1969), there is little doubt he would have been a recipient. His wide-ranging theoretical ideas have influenced modern neoclassical theory probably more than any other individual's ideas, and many remain relevant for policy decisions today. Most conference proceedings are mixed bags, at best, but Celebrating Irving Fisher is a happy exception: the level of analysis is high and the discussions always on point. Any reader interested in the life and ideas of one of the nation's foremost economists will find much of value in the book. Whether your interest is the history of ideas or Fisher's analytical contributions, Celebrating Irving Fisher is a wonderful place to begin to understand why Fisher continues to be widely regarded as a pioneering economic theorist.

A fitting legacy.......2006-08-23

This volume of collected essays on Fisher,edited by Robert Dimand,establishes that he was in fact one of the greatest economists of the 20th century.What has hindered Fisher's historical reputation was the problematic,incorrect,notorious forecast he made in late 1929 that the stock market was on an upward path.The Great Crash of October,1929 cost him 11-12 million dollars in losses personally.His response to this catastrophe was to publish his debt-deflation theory of depressions which correctly points to the debt load in the economy as a whole as the best indicator of a possible depression resulting from some exogenous shock that starts the snowball rolling downhill.The excessive debt loads get worse as the price level falls.This leads to a first round of personal and business bankruptcies and home foreclosures .These bankruptcies force furthur rounds of bankruptcies as the debts of one individual were the assets of another.There is no substantial difference between Fisher's analysis and Keynes's General Theory conclusions.Unfortunately, Fisher's work was ignored in the rush to accept Keynes's work.This volume reestablishes Fisher's overall standing .It has great relevance today given the excessive debt loads that have again been created since 1981 in America.

Celebrating Irving Fisher: The Legacy of a Great Economist.(Book review): An article from: Independent Review

Average customer rating:

Celebrating Irving Fisher: The Legacy of a Great Economist.(Book review): An article from: Independent Review
Robert L. Formaini
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000WQ0RD2
Release Date: 2007-10-02

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Independent Review, published by Thomson Gale on September 22, 2007. The length of the article is 1649 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Celebrating Irving Fisher: The Legacy of a Great Economist.(Book review)
Author: Robert L. Formaini
Publication: Independent Review (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 22, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 12 Issue: 2 Page: 295(4)

Article Type: Book review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Product Description

The FAO Statistical Yearbook is published annually in two separate issues: the first providing data by topic for all countries and the second providing data for each country covering all topics. It is based on data submitted by member countries in response to standard questionnaires, supplemented by reviews of national sources and, where absolutely necessary, staff estimates or imputations to cover critical gaps. It includes the mini CD-ROM Abridged FAOSTAT CD 2004, which includes more extensive and detailed, as well as historical, information than that summarized in the yearbook. Multilingual publication, in English, French and Spanish.

Average customer rating:

Fao Statistical Yearbook, 2004

Manufacturer: Food & Agriculture Organization of the UN (FA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Agricultural Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

Book Description

Well-recognized and innovative experimentalists detail their cutting-edge methods for studying the antigen processing and presentation. Drawing on expertise from biochemistry, cell biology, and immunology, they describe step-by-step methods designed to question how MHC-binding peptides are generated, to test how peptides are delivered to MHC molecules, to analyze MHC peptide-binding patterns, and to assay the T-cell response to the MHC/peptide complex. Emphasis is given those technical steps critical for experimental success that are often omitted from methods published in the primary literature. Eminently accessible and state-of-the-art, Antigen Processing and Presentation Protocols provides both new and experienced investigators with highly practical tools that will extend the questions that can be asked, and effectively be answered, concerning antigen processing/presentation.

MHC Volume 1: A Practical Approach (Practical Approach Series)

Average customer rating:

MHC Volume 1: A Practical Approach (Practical Approach Series)

Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Immunology | Basic Science | Medicine | Subjects | Books

Microbiology | Basic Science | Medicine | Subjects | Books

General | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0199635544

Book Description

The major histocompatibility complex is the subject of much research in the immunology field. There is a great deal of interest in the structure of MHC proteins and in their function as antigen presenting molecules. An increasing number of immunology laboratories are preparing to investigate biochemical and genetic techniques in order to study these molecules. The identification of the peptide transporter genes and the elution of peptides from MHC molecules demonstrate how rapidly our understanding of the structure and function of the MHC locus has advanced. MCH1: A Practical Approach brings together the technologies which facilitate the advances that are being made. It has detailed explanations of processes such as peptide translocation into the ER, the application of mass spectrometry to the analysis of peptides bound to MHC, and signal detection via MHC class II molecules which can lead to either activation or programmed cell death. This book is a comprehensive and thorough guide to the fast growing and fascinating field of MHC research. Graduates, post doctorial researchers, academic staff and clinicians in the immunology field will find this book an invaluable aid.

Biology Laboratory Manual for the Non-Science Major Two

Average customer rating:

Biology Laboratory Manual for the Non-Science Major Two
Thomas M. Graham , and Tom M. Graham
Manufacturer: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Spiral-bound

Introduction to Biology for the Non-Major,Laboratory Manual, 9th

Average customer rating:

Introduction to Biology for the Non-Major,Laboratory Manual, 9th

Manufacturer: McGraw Hill Custom
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Spiral-bound
ASIN: 0073539856

Life in the Lab: A Manual for Non-Majors

Average customer rating:

Life in the Lab: A Manual for Non-Majors
Helen R. Koepfer , and Donald Abramson
Manufacturer: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Product Description

Preface: Life in the Lab was written specifically for students majoring in areas other than biology, and is based on two assumptions: First, while Shakespeare paid tribute to the structure and functioning of humans, we also recognize that a knowledge of basic biology and of other organisms is a necessary pre-condition for an appreciation of just how "admirable" we really are. Second, the students who will be using this book often have had little or no prior scientific, laboratory experience. We are deeply convinced that a hands-on knowledge of biology can help one to understand wonders never guessed at, and even bring smiles instead of yawns during lectures and labs. This laboratory manual has been expressly designed to be "user friendly." While intended fot a one semester course, its scope is broad enough to encompass many aspects of biology. Finally, your authors would like students to envision that htey are both observers and integral parts of the living world, and to enjoy both those perspectives.

MHC Protocols (Methods in Molecular Biology)

Average customer rating:

MHC Protocols (Methods in Molecular Biology)

Manufacturer: Humana Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Experiments & Projects | Experiments, Instruments & Measurement | Science | Subjects | Books

Genetics | Basic Science | Medicine | Subjects | Books

Immunology | Basic Science | Medicine | Subjects | Books

Microbiology | Basic Science | Medicine | Subjects | Books

General | Medicine | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Medicine | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Professional | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Science | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0896035484

Book Description

A collection by leading experts detail of readily reproducible methods for identifying polymorphisms in the human MHC. Described in step-by-step detail to ensure robust and successful experimental results, these techniques provide DNA-based protocols for the study of polymorphism in HLA class I and II genes and in non-HLA HMC genes associated with human disease (TAP1, TAP 2, C2, C4, and TNF- a). The authors also describe methods for accessing HLA sequence data from electronic databases designed to catalog HLA-region genes and their alleles.

Practical invertebrate zoology: A laboratory manual for the study of the major groups of invertebrates, excluding protochordates, (Biology series)

Average customer rating:

Practical invertebrate zoology: A laboratory manual for the study of the major groups of invertebrates, excluding protochordates, (Biology series)
Rodney Phillips Dales
Manufacturer: Sidgwick & Jackson
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Average customer rating:

Biology for majors, second edition
J. R Kennedy
Manufacturer: Gorsuch Scarisbrick
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Average customer rating:

Biology for Science Majors
Hufford , and Lipscomb
Manufacturer: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Reference | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0840351070

Average customer rating:

Biology Laboratory Manual for Majors
Judith A. Parks
Manufacturer: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Spiral-bound

Book Description

The petroleum industry is enduring difficult financial times because of the continuing depressed price of crude oil on the world market. This has caused major corporate restructuring and reductions in staff throughout the industry. Because oil exploration must now be done with fewer people under more difficult economic constraints, it is essential that the most effective and efficient procedures be used. Computing Risk for Oil Prospects describes how prospect risk assessment — predicting the distribution of financial gains or losses that may result from the drilling of an exploration well — can be done using objective procedures implemented on personal computers. The procedures include analyses of historical data, interpretation of geological and geophysical data, and financial calculations to yield a spectrum of the possible consequences of decisions. All aspects of petroleum risk assessment are covered, from evaluating regional resources, through delineating an individual prospect, to calculation of the financial consequences of alternative decisions and their possible results. The bottom lines are given both in terms of the probable volumes of oil that may be discovered and the expected monetary returns. Statistical procedures are linked with computer mapping and interpretation algorithms, which feed their results directly into routines for financial analysis. The programs in the included library of computer programs are tailored to fit seamlessly together, and are designed for ease and simplicity of operation. The two diskettes supplied are IBM compatible. Full information on loading is given in Appendix A - Software Installation. Risk I diskette contains data files and executables and Risk 2 diskette contains only executables.

The authors contend that the explorationist who develops a prospect should be involved in every facet of its analysis, including risk and financial assessments. This book provides the tools necessary for these tasks.

Average customer rating:

"Thing My Girlfriend And I Have Fought About"

Mil

FUNNIEST BOOK EVER

Highly Recommended

Entertaining

Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About: A Novel
Mil Millington
Manufacturer: Villard
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Comic | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Contemporary | British | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Love and Other Near-Death Experiences: A Novel

A Certain Chemistry: A Novel

Joe College: A Novel

Girlfriend 44

The Wishbones

ASIN: 081296666X
Release Date: 2003-01-14

Book Description

Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About concerns a guy named Pel who lives with his German girlfriend, Ursula. Pel leads an uneventful life—quietly bluffing his way through his job and discovering new things to argue about with Ursula. But when his boss mysteriously disappears, Pel steps innocently into his shoes and his life spirals out of control in a chaotic whirl of stolen money, missing colleagues, and Chinese mafiosi.

Its fractured thriller plot punctuated by blazingly hilarious set-piece arguments between the hapless Pel and the unflappable Ursula, Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About is a brilliant comic novel examining the unique warfare in long-term relationships.

Download Description

Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About concerns a guy named Pel who lives with his German girlfriend, Ursula. Pel leads an uneventful life -- quietly bluffing his way through his job and discovering new things to argue about with Ursula. But when his boss mysteriously disappears, Pel steps innocently into his shoes and his life spirals out of control in a chaotic whirl of stolen money, missing colleagues, and Chinese mafiosi.

Its fractured thriller plot punctuated by blazingly hilarious set-piece arguments between the hapless Pel and the unflappable Ursula, Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About is a brilliant comic novel examining the unique warfare in long-term relationships.

"[A] brilliantly-written comedy... both funny and affectionate."
   THE GUARDIAN

"There is little to say about coupledom that is not wittily and often movingly explored here. Sharply-written, brilliantly-observed and absolutely hilarious."
   DAILY MAIL

"A funny and heart-warming comedy about love, fatherhood and being in the wrong places at all the wrong times."
   ESSENTIALS

Customer Reviews:

"Thing My Girlfriend And I Have Fought About".......2007-09-27

A voice drifts up from below. "What are you doing?" My girlfriend asks.
"Nothing." I reply.
"Then you can help me with the dishes," she says.
"I'm busy." I yell downstairs.
I'm sitting in front of a blank computer screen, thinking and writing about nothing. I stare into the abyss and the abyss stares back. It's ok. I'm a man and we do that sometimes. It's Zen in the art of being a guy. I am a whirlwind at rest, serenity in action. I am in the zone. I am zenned. Sure, I could be striving for that cherished Pulitzer. Writing about world hunger, of mans inhumanity to man, of kinder and gentler political regimes, even how to grill the perfect steak, but I'm in the moment, at one with the keyboard. The perfect lead into my next column will come, because you can't step into the same river twice, and my fuzzy bunny slippers are still dry.
"Take out the trash, if you aren't doing anything!" hollers my girlfriend.
Damn, my bubble of tranquility has burst, and I have nothing, nothing at all...

Nothing keeps a relationship on its toes so much as lively debate. Fortunately, my girlfriend and I agree on nothing, nothing at all. Nobody knows the dynamics of long-term relationships better than Mil Millington, author of Things My Girlfriend And I Have Argued About.

Mil started out writing his column for the British paper, The Guardian. The column, it turns out, is about things that Mil and his girlfriend Margaret argue about. They argue about the remote, the proper way to cut a kiwi, and even argue about arguments.

Things My Girlfriend And I Have Argued About, the novel, begins with our protagonist, Pel, his German girlfriend Ursula, and their two children. Pel works in the IT department of a university library (or "Learning Centre"-- he is a British writer after all). Pel receives an odd call from his boss, TSR, who quizzes him about extradition treaties; within a week he has vanished without a trace, and Pel is promoted to TSR's former position, CTASATM- "Computer Team Administration, Software Acquisition and Training Manager". Have to love those acronyms.
The story follows both Pel's home and work lives. At home, there are the arguments with Ursula over the search for a new home, after the latest burglary of their current home; defrosting the fridge during the moving preparations; Ursula terrifying the builders working on the repairs of the new house; a skiing accident, leaving Ursula with a torn tendon in her shoulder.
At work, Pel finds that taking on TSR's job involves more than it seemed at first; he has to pay off student recruiters from the Pacific Rim, who happen to be members of The Triads, the oriental version of organized crime. He has to take care of the details of the building of a new Learning Centre building, which involves hiding the fact that skeletons from an ancient burial ground have been illegally moved from the site, and a dangerous neurotoxin is to be buried under the new addition--a dual semester science project by an unsupervised student.
These details lead him to become closely involved with the permanently hung over Vice Chancellor of the university, which leads to his receiving another promotion, to Learning Centre Manager. The previous holder of that position having left to pursue his fetish website, and well things just get stranger from there.
This is Mil's first novel and he does tend to hang a more-or-less useless plot on the concept of "things". In many places in seems to be a collection of his columns inserted into a novel. But he has great comic timing and his turn of phrasing will keep you entertained. He's so deft and downright funny that it'll get you kicked out of bed and probably start another one of those "arguments". His humor is distinctly English.
If you don't mind your humor peppered with bollocks, tossers, and the odd wanker, than Mil Millington is your man. Check him out...

Author of"Hobo Finds A Home" and editor of "Of A Predatory Heart"

Mil .......2007-02-09

This is by far an original. I encourage anybody with a witty sense of humor to start thier Mil Millington collection of novels with this book. I wish he could write faster so I could get a novel every month from him.

FUNNIEST BOOK EVER.......2007-02-08

I stumbled across this book on amazon, and could not stop reading - and laughing out loud. I have never laughed so much while reading a book!

Highly Recommended.......2007-01-10

If you like a razor sharp British wit, then this is the book for you. I can't recommend it highly enough.

Entertaining.......2007-01-09

I don't read a lot, but I bought this book after stumbling onto Mil Millington's website. I thought it was very entertaining with various small episodes at the character's home and work. The plot did a good job of linking these together that kept me reading. The ending wasn't the type where everything gets solved, but that wouldn't necessaily make the book better. I would recommend the book to anyone who liked the little insights on the ThingsMy... website.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books