• Title: Game Plan: Great Designs That Changed the Face of Computer Gaming
• Author(s) Ste Curran
• Publisher: RotoVision (October 4, 2004)
• Paperback: 160 pages
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 2880466962
• ISBN-13: 978-2880466961
• Share This:  

Taking in ten works of gaming genius from video gaming's brief, rich history, Game Plan explores how these pivotal pieces of digital art evolved the industry. Conversations with creators and producers reveal the inspirations behind their masterworks, as well as giving insights into the development process itself. Games examined include Namco's pill-thrill Pac-Man, Shigeru Miyamoto's epoch-defining Mario 64, and Bell and Braben's mid-1980's space opera, Elite. Also featured is Tomb Raider, the UK's biggest selling game of all time, which turned Laura Croft from 500 triangles into a style icon, defined gaming's break into the mainstream at the end of the 1990s, and even won a BAFTA for its outstanding contribution to the interactive industry.

Illustrated with original concept sketches, work in progress CGI renders, and screenshots of the finished creations, Game Plan offers a chance to both savor its past and catch a glimpse of its stellar future.

• Ste Curran is editor-at-large for Edge magazine, the worlds most respected video game journal. He has been playing console games for 2 decades and , despite protestations from parents, teachers, peers, lecturers and girlfriend, does not intend to stop. He has a broad interest in cross-media pop culture, but is happy to emphasize geek over chic. His earliest memory is typing in a game routine listed in an Acorn Atom magazine. It didn't work! Ste lives in London, UK.

• Amazon

• Computer and Video Game Development and Programming
• Special Topics

• Game Plan: Great Designs That Changed the Face of Computer Gaming (Ste Curran)
• The Mirror Site (1) - PDF
• The Mirror Site (2) - PDF

• This Gaming Life: Travels in Three Cities (Jim Rossignol)

  A fascinating and eye-opening look into the real human impact of gaming culture. Traveling the globe and drawing anecdotes from many walks of life, it takes us beyond the media hype and into the lives of real people whose lives changed by gaming.

• Trigger Happy: Videogames and the Entertainment Revolution

  This revolutionary book is the first-ever academically worthy and deeply engaging critique of one of today's most popular forms of play: videogames are on track to supersede movies as the most innovative form of entertainment in the new century.

• Missions For Thoughtful Gamers (Andrew Cutting)

  Who am I? How do I live a good life? What is reality? Such perennial questions may seem remote from the pleasures of playing videogames for entertainment and fantasy. This book presents a sequence of 40 challenges for gamers.

• DOOM: SCARYDARKFAST (Dan Pinchbeck)

  This is a book about what is considered the most important first-person game ever made; about the blueprint that has defined one of the most successful genres of digital gaming. The author brings together the complete story of DOOM for the first time.

• Persuasive Gaming in Context (Teresa de la Hera, et al.)

  It offers a multifaceted reflection on persuasive gaming, that is, on the process of these particular games being played by players. The purpose is to better understand when and how digital games can be used for persuasion by further exploring persuasive games.

• Players Unleashed! Modding The Sims and the Culture of Gaming

  This book provides a fascinating examination of modding, tracing its evolution and detailing its impact on The Sims and the game industry as a whole. It shares insights into specific modifications and the cultural contexts from which they emerge.

• Co-creating Videogames (John Banks)

  Drawing on a decade of research within the industry, it offers a rich description and analysis of the emerging participatory, co-creative relationships within the videogames industry, and valuable insight into the growing world of video games.

• Gamer Theory (McKenzie Wark)

  This book uncovers the significance of games in the gap between the near-perfection of actual games and the highly imperfect gamespace of everyday life in the rat race of free-market society.

• Designing Virtual Worlds (Richard A. Bartle)

  This book is the most comprehensive treatment of Virtual World design to-date from one of the true pioneers and most sought-after design consultants. It brings a rich, well-developed approach to the design concepts behind virtual worlds.

• Game Programming Patterns (Robert Nystrom)

  This book brings the benefits of reusable design patterns to the world of game programming. It bridges from the ivory tower world of software architecture to the in-the-trenches reality of hardcore game programming.

• Game Programming (Penn Wu)

  This book is to help students to learn fundamental principles that apply to game programming regardless of the language they use to create the game, like gathering input from users, processing game data, and rendering game objects to the screen.