Game Design: The
Art & Business of Creating Games
Author: Bob Bates
Publisher:
Prima Publishing
Retail
Price: $29.99
Before
we discuss Bob Bates’s Game Design: The Art & Business of Creating Games,
let’s bring to the forefront two conspicuous omissions. First, nowhere is
there a photograph of the man who penned this book. Now I’ve met Bob Bates in
person, so I know what he looks like, but millions of others have never had the
pleasure. Being the suspicious type that I am, I strongly suspect that if Bob
were not a renowned adventure writer and were instead John Romero or American
McGee, his picture would probably be splattered on every other page. The second
omission? Just Adventure is never mentioned, not once, even though Bob had the
opportunity to do so for 300 pages. Sigh, we adventure people sure do toil in
anonymity. So to correct the first slight, to your right is a photograph of Bob
Bates. As for the second slight, well, Bob, the ball’s in your court. 🙂
So
who is this Bob Bates and what gives him the right to tell anyone how to design
a game? Well, Bob’s credentials include numerous, award-winning adventure games
that he either wrote, codesigned, or produced, including Infocom’s Sherlock
Holmes: Riddle of the Crown Jewels and Arthur: The Quest for Excalibur.
More recent are John Saul’s Blackstone Chronicles, Eric the Unready, Frederick
Pohl’s Gateway, and Timequest. He is also a cofounder of Legend
Entertainment and presently serves as Studio Head for Legend, now a division
of Infogrames. In other words, Bob knows his stuff (you may substitute another
word here if you so wish).
Game
Design covers the production cycle of a game from beginning to end, from the
initial concept to its life cycle on the store shelf. Chapters cover “Principles
of Game Design,” “Genre-Specific Game Design Issues,” “Storytelling,”
and “The Development Team,” among others. The author has done an admirable
job of always keeping his language and industry descriptions readily understandable
to a nonprofessional. Yet never does the reader feel as though he is being spoken
down to, but rather like a private invitation has been offered to the inner world
of game development. Instead of wasting valuable time deciphering industry jargon,
you often feel as though you are in the middle of the creative process, and if
you are like me, you will find yourself inserting your own design and story ideas
into Bob’s suggestions.
But it is when Bob speaks about adventure games
and puzzle design that his prose really shines. Now he is in familiar and cherished
territory, and it shows. The chapters on “Storytelling” and “How
to Design a Puzzle” should be required reading for anyone considering creating
an adventure game. All of the different types of puzzles are dissected: information
puzzles, word puzzles, people puzzles, timing puzzles, logic puzzles, sequence
puzzles, machinery puzzles, trial and error puzzles, gestalt puzzles … and there
are even more! After describing the many different types of gaming puzzles and
their pluses and minuses, we are then taught how to design a puzzle and increase
the levels of difficulty. Of most interest, though, is the section on how to avoid
the common puzzle pitfalls that can destroy a player’s enthusiasm for a game.
There is a fine line between what constitutes a memorable puzzle and one that
will have the player scurrying back to the store to return a game.
One
mark of a good writer is the ability to bring the reader over to his way of seeing
things. I’ve always been a proponent of red herrings in adventure games, but Bob
makes such a good case against them–“Players spend so much time generating
their own false theories that it becomes completely superfluous for you to do
so as well”–that I now have an entirely different outlook regarding their
inclusion.
What else did I learn from Game Design that I did not
already know? Well, you know those Sunday inserts from chain stores like Best
Buy and Comp USA advertising sales on computer and video games? “It’s not
because the store has singled out those products as the ones it recommends–each
of those squares is actually an advertisement bought and paid for by a publisher.”
Did you also know that companies buy premium store space to get their products
maximum exposure? Neither did I, but rather than divulge any more information
from the book, I would rather you put down that joystick for a brief time and
lose yourself in the world of game development. If you have ever wondered about
a tchotchke, looked for a maguffin, or speculated over “foo” or “frob,”
then look no further.
Game Design is highly recommended for anyone
who has ever considered developing a game, or anyone who is just interested in
the development process. The chapters on marketing and advertising are an added,
and welcome, bonus and provide a wealth of information. Potential adventure game
developers could not ask for a better instructor or one more willing to share
his experiences in the gaming industry.
