Level Up The Guide To Great Video Game Design Review

1,492 reviews 566 followers

February 24, 2019

I am not a game designer; I am certainly not a "video" game designer; I haven't put together a computer program for a long, long time. So why am I reviewing this book?

I play games; I play some video games and I play RPG. I have some ideas about what makes a great game and I was curious about Rogers' thoughts on the subject.

I liked his short history of video games.

He moves logically from ideas and story through characters, point of view, elements of combat, bad guys, multiplayer, and covers additions such as music. In each case he deconstructs the topic and then adds his own thoughts. Finally, he has some thoughts on "the business" side.

Here is a sample: "There are many ways to start building level maps. The designers of the original Metal Gear built their levels out of Lego blocks. Many developers do rapid level prototyping in 3-D tools like Maya or 3-D Studio Max. One designer I know liked to model his levels in clay. Myself, I like a ream of blank paper, a very sharp #2 pencil and an eraser. I like making maps on paper because it reminds me of the good old days of creating Dungeons and Dragon levels."

And speaking of D&D, there is a lot in this book that a dungeon master could use to improve their RPG.

I agree with the publisher's blurb that says that when you read this book you will learn how to:
Create what gamers want
Bring compelling (and playable) characters to life
Build game levels that tell stories and challenge players
Design everything from controls to cutscenes to combat
Structure your game documents for success
Pitch your game like the professions

I hope you are successful and I am sure that this book will be of help.

PS: There is a newer edition of this book, but that wasn't important for what I was seeking.

1 review 5 followers

Edited June 4, 2017

This is a great book if you don't know much about games and want to have a generic overview of game design. However, if you are like me -an experienced gamer and a novice game developer who makes 2D low budget indie games- you won't get much out of this book. It's very shallow and feels like a glossary most of the time.

Author 45 books 532 followers

April 6, 2012

This book is GREAT! It's a whole bunch of really practical thinking about game design. How should the camera work? What should the power-ups be? Level design, achievements, villains, music? Sound effects? It's all illustrate with charming drawings and has a good sense of humour about itself. This is the Understanding Comics of video games, and my only problem with it is that it is priced like a computer book - halfway between a reasonable price and a textbook price. But, I guess that's the way of computer books, and it wouldn't be fair to take a star off for that.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who is interested in video games and how they do what they do. If you are interested in creating a game, or even if you like to understand more about what kind of choices and compromises go into the games you love.

264 reviews 23 followers

Edited July 27, 2021

Get the ebook version here:
https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/leve...

Pretty good so far. Multiple 'Starship Troopers' references.

Does the annoying thing of mixing in 'she' and 'her' with 'he' and 'his' when giving examples, eg: 'Can the player steady her shot?'. Firstly, it feels forced and jarring, since this just isn't how the English language is written, and it's forcing politics and feminism into a book that is supposed to be about videogame design, not a book about feminism and politics. And it doesn't make feminists happy anyway; if you ask them, they insist on the use of genderless pronouns, like 'xe, xir,' etc. There is no point in bending the knee. No matter how low you grovel, the just say 'Grovel more. Grovel lower.' So just write like a normal human being instead of like an ideological puppet. Let your words be in your mouth and their words be in their mouths.

Edited September 13, 2020

This is the first book I've read on Game Design. I am a player. I have played board games, video games and sports all my life. I did not find anything groundbreaking in this book. I guess that it has merit collating all those ideas together and it makes for a nice read but I never felt like I was learning.

Also, there are some concepts I plain disagree with, like the way the author insists on dynamic difficulty. It feels like a manual to create successful games, as in games that people like to play, keep playing till the end and then recommend to other people . What I wanted instead is a manual to create great games (as the title of the book suggests), as in games that leave a mark on the player even if they are not able to finish it, games that push the gaming industry and set new milestones. Sadly, I found none of that.

32 reviews 1 follower

April 16, 2021

Se game design te interessa, abra uma amostra deste livro, leia as páginas iniciais e tenho certeza que vai querer conferir o restante.

A forma de escrever do autor é engraçada e direta ao ponto, acompanhada de uma visão profissional e com diversas dicas baseadas na experiência dele. Recomendo!

games

Author 4 books 2 followers

Edited September 27, 2017

RU:
Хоть я и работаю много лет в индустри видео-игр, я никогда не считал себя гейм-дизайнером. Но нельзя за все годы не научиться абсолютно ничему, особенно работая в команде с отличными специалистами. А потому всегда хочется узнать больше о том, что является частью твоей работы и жизни.

Один из коллег посоветовал книгу "Level Up!" как отличное руководство по теме.

Книга является не столько пособием по гейм-дизайну, сколько хорошим справочником по этой професии. Автор не только рассказывает о всевозможных формах каждого аспекта создания игр с точки дизайна, но и даёт примеры, как это лучше документировать и описывать.

И книга могла бы показаться скучной, если бы не отменный юмор автора, а также десятки иллюстраций, выполненных автором в ироничном и даже карикатурном стиле. Из-за них книга читается почти как юмористический комикс.

Очень рекомендую всем, кому интересна тема гейм-дизайна, а уж если это часть вашей работы, то книга — своего рода Библия (опять же, по уверению коллег, гейм-дизайнеров).

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EN:
Although I work in a video game industry for years, I never thought I am any kind of a game designer. But it is impossible to avoid all this knowledge after all these years, especially if you have a lot of great professionals around you. This is why you want to know more about a big part of your job and entire life.

One of my colleagues recommended me to read 'Level Up!' as one of the best 'manuals' of game design.

The book isn't just a game design tutorial, it is a great handbook. The author explains every type of all aspects of game creation, and give a lot of examples how to document it and keep ideas.

One can say that it most likely too boring to read step-by-step manual, but there are so many humour and dozens of great artwork, created by the author himself in a very ironical and even cartoonish style. This makes the book very easy to read, almost like a comic graphic novel.

I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in a game design. And if it is a part of your job then you have to have it, the book is like a Bible of every game designer (by words of my colleagues, game designers).

рекомендую

354 reviews 13 followers

Edited October 23, 2013

This is a great book. Many things said here aren't anything revolutionary, but are very important as a base for game design and shows how to avoid common pitfalls - some of which are still prevalent in major AAA titles, so a lot of this is rightly mentioned. Sometimes it feels as if there's not enough information, that a topic is barely scratched, but in this kind of book the focus is on game design in general, not on specifics. The book has a definite action bias, but its full of advice useful for all kinds of games.

I can definitely see myself picking this book up many more times to revise the basics, or use the great documentation examples as a basis for my docs.

Highly recommended to any starting-out game designer.

Re-read the book recently, was as useful as the first time!

August 24, 2018

Overall, I thought this was a really good book when taken in context. This is NOT a book to explain game design way down at the programming level. This book is an excellent 20,000 foot level overview of game design in general. It explains the major modules involved with the design of games such as marketing, financing, artwork, level design, camera control and gives advice on what to do and what not to do from someone whos been on the inside.

This book will not hold your hand and explain how to do video game design, but it will give you the background knowledge to have your own "ah-ha" moments when you start your own designs.

15 reviews 1 follower

Edited September 29, 2013

By far the best book on Game Design put there. It has a great blend of friendly advice, and healthy installment of how to do things, complete with comparisons of good vs. bad design documentation etc.

If you are looking to learn more about our industry, or how to get started, this book is a great place to start. Heck, even if you are just an avid gamer with a curiosity for how we do it, check this book out.

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