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Playful Design

playful design spot image

Creating Game Experiences in Everyday Interfaces

By John Ferrara

Published: June 2012
Paperback: 245 pages
Paperback ISBN: 978-1933820-14-9
Ebook ISBN: 978-1933820-99-6

Game design is a sibling discipline to software and Web design, but they’re siblings that grew up in different houses.  They have much more in common than their perceived distinction typically suggests, and user experience practitioners can realize enormous benefit by exploiting the solutions that games have found to the real problems of design.  This book will show you how.

Game design is a sibling discipline to software and Web design, but they’re siblings that grew up in different houses.  They have much more in common than their perceived distinction typically suggests, and user experience practitioners can realize enormous benefit by exploiting the solutions that games have found to the real problems of design.  This book will show you how.

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Table of Contents

Foreword by Sunni Brown
Chapter 1: Why We Should Care about Games
Chapter 2: Understanding Games
Chapter 3: The Elements of Player Experience
Chapter 4: Player Motivations
Chapter 5: Ten Tips for Building a Better Game
Chapter 6: Developing a Game Concept
Chapter 7: Creating Game Prototypes
Chapter 8: Playtesting
Chapter 9: Behavioral Tools
Chapter 10: Rewards in Games
Chapter 11: Games for Action
Chapter 12: Games for Learning
Chapter 13: Games for Persuasion
Chapter 14: How Games Are Changing

FAQ

These common questions about video games and design and their short answers are taken from John Ferrara’s book Playful Design: Creating Game Experiences in Everyday Interfaces. You can find longer answers to each in your copy of the book, either printed or digital version.

  1. What do you mean when you refer to “video games”?
    Throughout this book, I use the phrase “video games” to refer to computer-mediated games of all types, from World of Warcraft to Words with Friends. This may be a more general usage than a purist would select, but I use it because it’s a conventional and recognizable way to distinguish this subtype of games from other forms. I use the term “games” to refer to the broader class of experiences that includes video games as well as board games, sports, card games, gambling, and so on.
    A more robust discussion of what it means for something to be a game or a video game is found in Chapter 2.

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