Includes bibliographical references (pages 477-479) and index.

Introduction; The History of Games; The Most Important Skill; Holographic Design; The Cycle of Design; Excerpt: Lehman and Witty: The Psychology of Play (1927); The Psychology of Play; The Spectrum of Humanity; Excerpt: Julian Jaynes: The Orgin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, Chapter One: The Consciousness of Consciousness; The Subconscious Mind Part I: The Player; Excerpt: Salvador Dali: Fifty Secrets of Magic Craftsmanship: Secret Number Three: Slumber With a Key; The Subconscious Mind Part II: The Designer; Essay: Greg Costikyan: I Have No Words and I Must Design; What is a Game?; The Elements of Game Mechanics; Toy Design; State and State Change; Skill and Chance; Decisions; Feedback- The Heart of Interactivity; Interfaces; Patterns of Rewards; Game Balancing; Case Study: Deconstructing Pac-Man; Essay: Scott Kim: What is a Puzzle?; Puzzle Principles; The Psychology of Story; Interactive Stories: The Promise and the Problem; Story and Gameplay- The Conflict and Solution; Story and Game Worlds; Lessons from Tabletop RPGs; Essay: Henry Jenkins: Transmedia Worlds; Transmedia Worlds; Excerpt: Scott McCloud: The Vocabulary of Comics (from Understanding Comics); Characters in Games; Excerpts: (various) Christopher Alexander: A Pattern Language; Architecture in Games (Level Design); Elegance; Character in Games; Essay: Brian Moriarty: The Point; Social Principles in Multiplayer Games; Online Communities; Technology; Iteration; Playtesting; Brainstorming; Team Communication; Design Documents; Business; The Art of the Pitch; Excerpt: Mills Penny Arcade (1920); Location Based Entertainment; Serious Games; The Ethics of Games; The Deepest Theme; The Future; Your Secret Responsibility.

In the beginning, there is the designer -- The designer creates an experience -- The experience rises out of a game -- The game consists of elements -- The elements support a theme -- The game begins with an idea -- The game improves through iteration -- The game is made for a player -- The experience is in the player's mind -- Some elements are game mechanics -- Game mechanics must be in balance -- Game mechanics support puzzles -- Players play games through an interface -- Experiences can be judged by their interest curves -- One kind of experience is the story -- Story and game structures can be artfully merged with indirect control -- Stories and games take place in worlds -- Worlds contain characters -- Worlds contain spaces -- The look and feel of a world is defined by its aesthetics -- Some games are played with other players -- Other players sometimes form communities -- The designer usually works with a team -- The team sometimes communicates through documents -- Good games are created through playtesting -- The team builds a game with technology -- Your game will probably have a client -- The designer gives the client a pitch -- The designer and client want the game to make a profit -- Games transform their players -- Designers have certain responsibilities -- Each designer has a motivation -- Goodbye.

Print version record.