{"product_id":"a-playful-production-process-isbn-9780262045513","title":"A Playful Production Process","description":"\u003cb\u003eHow to achieve a happier and healthier game design process by connecting the creative aspects of game design with techniques for effective project management.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis book teaches game designers, aspiring game developers, and game design students how to take a digital game project from start to finish—from conceptualizing and designing to building, playtesting, and iterating—while avoiding the uncontrolled overwork known among developers as “crunch.” Written by a legendary game designer, A Playful Production Process outlines a process that connects the creative aspects of game design with proven techniques for effective project management. The book outlines four project phases—ideation, preproduction, full production, and post-production—that give designers and developers the milestones they need to advance from the first glimmerings of an idea to a finished game. Contents\u003cbr\u003e Foreword by Amy Hennig xv\u003cbr\u003e  Introduction 1\u003cbr\u003e 1 How to Begin 9\u003cbr\u003e 2 Blue Sky Thinking 11\u003cbr\u003e 3 Research 17\u003cbr\u003e 4 Game Prototyping: An Overview 21\u003cbr\u003e 5 Making a Digital Game Prototype 31\u003cbr\u003e 6 Communication as a Game Design Skill 43\u003cbr\u003e 7 Project Goals 53\u003cbr\u003e 8 The End of Ideation 67\u003cbr\u003e 9 Gaining Control of the Process 71\u003cbr\u003e 10 What Is a Vertical Slice? 77\u003cbr\u003e 11 Building a Vertical Slice 91\u003cbr\u003e 12 Playtesting 103\u003cbr\u003e 13 Concentric Development 119\u003cbr\u003e 14 Preproduction Deliverable—The Vertical Slice 133\u003cbr\u003e 15 Against Crunch 135\u003cbr\u003e 16 Story Structure for Game Designers 141\u003cbr\u003e 17 Preproduction Deliverable—The Game Design Macro 151\u003cbr\u003e 18 Writing a Game Design Macro Chart 167\u003cbr\u003e 19 Scheduling 181\u003cbr\u003e 20 Milestone Reviews 199\u003cbr\u003e 21 The Challenge of Preproduction 211\u003cbr\u003e 22 The Character of Full Production 217\u003cbr\u003e 23 Types of Testing 229\u003cbr\u003e 24 Preparing for a Formal Playtest 237\u003cbr\u003e 25 Running a Formal Playtest 253\u003cbr\u003e 26 Game Metrics 267\u003cbr\u003e 27 The Alpha Phase and Bug Tracking 277\u003cbr\u003e 28 The Alpha Milestone 285\u003cbr\u003e 29 Stubbing Things In 297\u003cbr\u003e 30 Reaching the Audience for Our Game 303\u003cbr\u003e 31 The Beta Milestone 309\u003cbr\u003e 32 The Postproduction Phase 319\u003cbr\u003e 33 The Release Candidate Milestone 329\u003cbr\u003e 34 The Certification Process 333\u003cbr\u003e 35 Unexpected Game Design 339\u003cbr\u003e 36 After We’ve Finished 343\u003cbr\u003e Epilogue 349\u003cbr\u003e Appendix A: The Four Phases, Milestones, and Deliverables of the Playful Production Process 353\u003cbr\u003e Appendix B: Transcription of Figure 7.1 355\u003cbr\u003e Appendix C: Game Design Macro for Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (detail) from Figure 18.2 357\u003cbr\u003e Acknowledgments 361\u003cbr\u003e References 365\u003cbr\u003e Index 371“Lemarchand brilliantly lays out an alternative to the crunch and chaos so common in game development today. A must-read!”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eMark Cerny, Lead Architect of PlayStation 4 and 5\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“By focusing on the creative experience and the joy of making things collaboratively as a team, Lemarchand shows his readers how to survive in the game industry and come out with your creativity and inspiration intact!”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eTim Schafer, Studio Head, Double Fine Productions\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“Lemarchand fuses the best of AAA game development practices with innovative, inclusive, and human-centered approaches from academia, art, and indie games. The result is as close as I’ve seen to the elusive ‘best practices’ for game development.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eTracy Fullerton, Director, USC Game Innovation Lab\u003c\/b\u003eRichard Lemarchand, a game designer who worked in the videogame industry for more than twenty years, is Associate Professor in the USC Games program at the University of Southern California. Among many other projects, he led or co-led the design of all three games in the PlayStation 3 \u003ci\u003eUncharted\u003c\/i\u003e series, including the award-winning \u003ci\u003eUncharted 2: Among Thieves\u003c\/i\u003e.","brand":"The MIT Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46301023764709,"sku":"NP9780262045513","price":55.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780262045513.jpg?v=1767720723","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/a-playful-production-process-isbn-9780262045513","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}