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For Peggy, with love and admiration Credits Command & Conquer™ Tiberian Sun™ ©1999 Electronic Arts Inc.Command & Conquer,Tiberian Sun,and Westwood Studios are trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc.in the U.S.and/or other countries.All rights reserved.Westwood Studios™ is an Electronic Arts™ brand. Final Fantasy® IX ©2001 Square Co.,Ltd.All rights reserved.PlayStation and the PlayStation logos are registered trademarks ofSony Computer Entertainment,Inc.Square Soft and the Squaresoft logos are registered trademarks of Square Co.,Ltd.Final Fantasy is a registered trademark ofSquare Co.,Ltd.U.S.Patent No. 5390937,5649862. Madden NFL™ 2000 ©1999 Electronic Arts Inc.John Madden Football,EA SPORTS,and the EA SPORTS logo are trademarks or registered trademarks ofElectronic Arts Inc.in the U.S.and/or other countries.All rights reserved.Officially Licensed Product ofthe National Football League Players.©1999 PLAYERS INC.The PLAYERS INC logo is a registered trademark ofPLAYERS INC.www.nflplayers.com.©1999NFLP.Team names and logos are trademarks ofthe teams indicated.All other (NFL-related marks) are trademarks ofthe National Football League.NFL Footage ©NFL Films,Inc.1999.ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.All other trademarks are the property oftheir respective owners. The Sims™ ©2000 Electronic Arts Inc.The Sims,Maxis,and the Maxis logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc.in the U.S.and/or other countries.All rights reserved.Maxis™ is an Electronic Arts™ brand. SimCity 3000™ Unlimited ©2000 Electronic Arts Inc.SimCity 3000,SimCity,Maxis,and the Maxis logo are trademarks or registered trademarks ofElectronic Arts Inc.in the U.S.and/or other countries.All rights reserved.Maxis™ is an Electronic Arts™ brand. All other trademarks are the propertyoftheir respective owners. TEAM LinG - Live, Informative, Non-cost and Genuine ! Acknowledgments I t’s hard to acknowledge all the people who have helped you without starting to sound like an actor at the Oscars,but the fact is,no one writes a book without a lot of help. In more or less chronological order,I would like to thank my parents and family for the support and encouragement they have given me,and for all the games we played along the way.Steve Lauder,Joe Joyce,and Sue Thimmesch also must share the credit (or blame) for shoving me down the writerly path. Next are all the people at Infocom and Legend Entertainment,especially Mark Poesch and Duane Beck, who taught me more about game development than I ever taught them about game design.A special thanks to MikeVerdu,who was the best business partner a guy could ever hope for, and who was also kind enough to make valuable suggestions about the first edition of this book while it was in progress. AtCourse Technology,Stacy Hiquet,Mitzi Koontz,Jenny Davidson,and Sean Medlock all have my appreciation for shepherding the material from manuscript to book. Most ofall,I would like to thank my wife,Peggy Oriani,and our children,Alex and Malia, from whose lives were extracted the countless hours it took me to write the book.I love you all. vi TEAM LinG - Live, Informative, Non-cost and Genuine ! About the Author BOB BATES began his game writing career at the legendary Infocom in 1986. His design and development credentials include more than 25 games that have won over 40 industry awards,including the 1993 Adventure Game of the Year,Eric The Unready. In 1989 Bob co-founded Legend Entertainment and served as its President until the company’s 1998 sale. He continued as Legend’s Studio Head and as an active designer/ producer until the studio closed in January of 2004. On the publishing side,he has at various times been responsible for marketing,PR,sales, and business development. His industry activities also include a term on the Board of Directors of the IGDA (2004-2006),and frequent speeches on design and production at conferences and events around the world. Bob is a co-founder and organizer ofthe Game Designer’s Workshop,an annual invitation- only conference attended by many of the top storytelling game designers in the business. Heis also the editor of the Game Developer’s Market Guidefrom Premier Press. Bob is still an active game designer, producer, and industry consultant. His website is www.bobbates.com. vii TEAM LinG - Live, Informative, Non-cost and Genuine ! Contents at a Glance Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxi Part I Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Chapter 1 Getting to “Yes” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Chapter 2 Principles of Game Design. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Chapter 3 Genre-Specific Game Design Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Chapter 4 Storytelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Chapter 5 Level Design. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 Chapter 6 Designing the Puzzle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 Chapter 7 Franchises, Brands, and Licenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 Part II Team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 Chapter 8 The Development Team. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 Chapter 9 External Resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 viii TEAM LinG - Live, Informative, Non-cost and Genuine ! Contents at a Glance ix Part III Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 Chapter 10 Project Lifecycle and Documents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203 Chapter 11 Managing Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 Part IV The Business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235 Chapter 12 The Business. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 Chapter 13 Breaking In. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255 Part V Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265 Chapter 14 The Hero’s Journey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267 Part VI Appendixes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269 Appendix A Project Documents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271 Appendix B Resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317 Glossary 325 Index 329 TEAM LinG - Live, Informative, Non-cost and Genuine !