TY  - BOOK
AU  - Hiwiller,Zack
TI  - Players making decisions: game design essentials and the art of understanding your players 
SN  - 0134396758
AV  - GV1469.3 .H59 2016
U1  - 794.81536 23
PY  - 2016///]
CY  - [New York?]
PB  - New Riders/NRG
KW  - Video games
KW  - Design
KW  - Computer games
N1  - Includes bibliographical references and index; Part 1; Getting started --; 1; What Is a Game Designer? --; Responsibilities of a Game Designer --; Attributes of a Game Designer --; 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 --; 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 --; 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 --; More-Interesting Decision-Making Summar --; Summary --; 11; Randomness --; Completely Random Games --; Completely Skill-Based Games --; Fairness and Mitigating Randomness --; Summary --; 12; Goals --; How Players Determine Game Goals --; Criteria for Goals --; Solving Goal Problems --; Summary --; Part 4; Describling game elements --; 13; Mechanics, Dynamics, and Aesthetics (MDA) --; What Are Games About? --; MDA --; More Dynamics --; 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 --; Balance Heuristics --; Summary --; 17; Feedback Loops --; Positive Feedback Loops --; Negative Feedback Loops --; Feedback Loops in Action --; Fixing Problems --; Summary --; 18; Puzzle Design --; What Is a Puzzle? --; Possibility Space --; Breadcrumbs --; Features of Ineffective Puzzles --; Types of Puzzles --; Other Puzzle Types --; Summary --; Part 5; Game theory and reational 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 --; 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 -- A; ttribution Errors --; Misunderstanding Randomness --; Anchoring and Adjustment --; Understanding Value in Uncertain Situations --; Loss --; Framing Decisions --; Summary --; 27; Attention and Memory --; Attention --; Memory --; Helping with Memory Limitations --; Perception --; Summary --; Part 7; Game design tools --; 28; Documentation and Written Communication --; The Game Design Document --; The GDD Creation Process --; References --; Documentation for Tabletop Games --; States and Flowcharts --; Summary --; 29; Probability --; Probability Is Fancy Counting --; Adding Die Rolls --; Example: The H/T Game --; Being Careful --; Summary --; 30; Spreadsheets for Simulation --; Why Use Spreadsheets? --; Basics --; Formulas --; Goal Seek and Solver in Excel --; One-Way Data Tables --; Summary --; 31; Monte Carlo Simulation --; Answering Design Questions --; Hot Hand --; Monty Hall --; 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 --; Virality --; 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
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