Video Game Development

Developing video games—hero's journey or fool's errand? The creative and technical logistics that go into building today's hottest games can be more harrowing and complex than the games themselves, often seeming like an endless maze or a bottomless abyss. In Blood, Sweat, and Pixels, Jason Schreier takes listeners on a fascinating odyssey behind the scenes of video game development, where the creator may be a team of 600 overworked underdogs or a solitary geek genius.

With increasingly sophisticated video games being consumed by an enthusiastic and expanding audience, the pressure is on game developers like never before to deliver exciting stories and engaging characters. With Video Game Storytelling, game writer and producer Evan Skolnick provides a comprehensive yet easy-to-follow guide to storytelling basics and how they can be applied at every stage of the development process - by all members of the team.

Jason Schreier's groundbreaking reporting has earned him a place among the preeminent investigative journalists covering the world of video games. In his eagerly anticipated, deeply researched new book, Schreier trains his investigative eye on the volatility of the video game industry and the resilience of the people who work in it.

Create your very first video game without any prior coding experience!! Would you like to get ahold of simple, effective, and compatible steps that will enable you to be an excellent problem solver while game programming? Do you want to start game coding without worrying if you’re smart enough to get it right? If your answer is yes to any of these questions, you’ve got to listen to this book!

The book guides you through a step-by-step process of making a commercial game. It teaches you how to learn all the necessary skills and covers various aspects of game development: mindset, preproduction, funding, business, law, development, marketing, PR, publishing, distribution, as well as pre-launch, launch, and post-launch strategies.

Do you love gaming? Do you have ideas for games of your own and want to learn how to produce them professionally? Longtime game designer Justin Gary has the answers you seek. After 20 years in the gaming industry, creating such games as Solforge, Ascension, and the World of Warcraft Miniatures Game, Justin is now sharing all his secrets in Think Like a Game Designer. Best of all, Justin’s secrets are really simple, practical, and common sense steps you can take yourself.

How to Make a Video Game All By Yourself is a guide for anyone who wants to make their own video game. Listen to this book to learn how to locate the itch you're eager to scratch, how to pick a game engine to power your vision, and how to find the fun in your game. Most importantly, this book helps you guide your project to the finish line. Written from personal experience by a video game industry veteran and podcaster, it's packed with handmade drawings and charts

Russ Harris offers a surprising solution to low self-confidence, shyness, and insecurity: Rather than trying to "get over" our fears, he says, the secret is to form a new and wiser relationship with them. Paradoxically, it's only when we stop struggling against our fearfulness that we begin to find lasting freedom from it.

Veteran video-game designer Dustin Hansen takes YA listeners on a fun and fascinating trip through the brief but intensely innovative history of video games. Find out about the fast and furious growth and evolution of video games (including how they are quickly taking over the world!) by looking at some of the most popular, innovative, and influential games ever, from Pong, the very first arcade game ever, to modern hits like Uncharted.

With all the whiz, bang, pop, and shimmer of a glowing arcade, volume 1 of The Ultimate History of Video Games reveals everything you ever wanted to know and more about the unforgettable games that changed the world, the visionaries who made them, and the fanatics who played them. Starting in arcades then moving to televisions and handheld devices, the video game invasion has entranced kids and the young at heart for nearly fifty years. And gaming historian Steven L. Kent has been there to record the craze from the very beginning.

You are not doomed by your genes and hardwired to be a certain way for the rest of your life. A new science is emerging that empowers all human beings to create the reality they choose. In Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself, renowned author, speaker, researcher, and chiropractor Dr. Joe Dispenza combines the fields of quantum physics, neuroscience, brain chemistry, biology, and genetics to show you what is truly possible.

Building a games company is usually thought to be by trial and error. But in the real world, this isn’t an effective way. It causes lots of misery and needless pain for entrepreneurs, who all go through the same mistakes. They are all suffering from failures that are so common for gaming startups. This book was created so that gaming entrepreneurs would have a resource - a guiding manual for finding clarity in their quest to build a games company.

This comprehensive guide walks listeners through the entire process of getting and keeping a writing job in the games industry. It outlines exactly what a beginner needs to know about education requirements, finding opportunities, applying for roles, and acing studio interviews. Professional writers will learn how to navigate studio hierarchies, transfer roles and companies, work overseas, and keep developing their careers. This book will be of great interest to all beginner and aspiring games writers and narrative designers, as well as more experienced writers looking to hone their skills.

This book is created for you, hard-working father who works at a corporate American job to pay the bills. You long to support your family composing music for film, TV, and video games. You get no joy or fulfillment from your work...this is a safe, “real” job. You complain to your wife every night about how you long for the day when you can support your family composing music for film, TV, and video games.

Video games are a common outlet for many kids, providing them with entertainment, social interaction, and even a sense of accomplishment. As parents, it’s important to know when your child’s favorite activity turns into an addiction. Luckily, you are not alone, and there are real solutions for your child’s video game habit. If you want to learn how to help your child create balance in their life with diversified interests and a renewed focus on responsibility, then you need A Parent’s Guide to Video Game Addiction.

"Pa-dum-pum-pa-dum-pum - PUM!" Super Mario Bros. for the NES contains some of the most recognizable tunes in popular culture, and yet it’s safe to say that only a handful of people have thought beyond the music’s entertaining surface. After all, what could possibly be art-worthy about an early Mario score? Or any early game sound for that matter? In search of answers to these questions, Andrew Schartmann takes us on a journey from the primitive "pongs" of arcade machines to the complex musical fabrics woven by composers of the NES era.

Video games and managing screen time are a modern parenting problem with no blueprint and a rapidly changing landscape. Harvard-trained psychiatrist and former gaming addict, Dr Alok Kanojia – Dr K to his millions of followers – offers a proven, tested plan to help parents define, set and reinforce healthy boundaries around screens and video games. From communication strategies and advice on dealing with behavioural issues to the neurological reasons behind why tech is so addictive, How to Raise a Healthy Gamer is essential for parents of children of all ages.

Video games have become an important part of many lives. But what happens when it becomes a little too important? Sure, video games have some positive qualities: giving children a chance to meet new friends, providing an escape into fantastical new worlds, and giving them a competitive edge with updated quests and challenges. But what happens when it becomes too much? This book is here to help you through the intricate situation of guiding your child away from the controller and help them start taking control of their own life.

This is an excerpt from the book Creative Writing Career: Becoming a Writer of Movies, Video Games, and Books. This section comprises the entire section on video game writing, to include video game writer interviews, and is Part Five of the book.

When we think about the future, it can be difficult to feel that we have any control. We aren't confident that we can take actions and make decisions that help determine what happens next. We want to feel prepared, hopeful and equipped and to face the future with optimism. Or, better yet, change the future. But how do we map out our lives when it feels impossible to predict what the world will be like next week, let alone next year? Jane McGonigal, a renowned future forecaster, reveals that 'unimaginable' events aren't unimaginable before they happen.