ABSTRACT

You're part of a new venture, an independent gaming company, and you are about to undertake your first development project. The client wants a serious game, one with instructional goals and assessment metrics. Or you may be in a position to green light such a project yourself, believing that it can advance your organization's mission and goals. This book provides a proven process to take an independent game project from start to finish.

In order to build a successful game, you need to wear many hats. There are graphic artists, software engineers, designers, producers, marketers - all take part in the process at various (coordinated) stages, and the end result is hopefully a successful game. Veteran game producers and writers (Iuppa and Borst) cover all of these areas for you, with step by step instructions and checklists to get the work done.

The final section of the book offers a series of case studies from REAL indy games that have been developed and launched succesfully, and show exactly how the principles outlined in the book can be applied to real world products.

The book's associated author web site offers ancillary materials & references as well as serious game demos and presentations.

chapter Chapter One|7 pages

Introduction

chapter Chapter Three|3 pages

From Start to Finish: A Walkthrough

part Section One|97 pages

Setting Up Game Development

chapter Chapter Four|13 pages

Getting Started

Science, Prosthetic Memory, Film

chapter Chapter Five|10 pages

Client Acquisition

chapter Chapter Six|10 pages

Client Management

chapter Chapter Seven|12 pages

Legal Issues

chapter Chapter Eight|19 pages

Team Building EIGHT

chapter Chapter Nine|14 pages

Project Planning

chapter Chapter Ten|13 pages

Project Management

part Section Two|1 pages

Determining Project Goals

chapter Chapter Eleven|9 pages

Game Design and Instructional Design

chapter Chapter Twelve|17 pages

Determining Project Goals through Analysis

chapter Chapter Thirteen|18 pages

Instructional Design

part Section Three|1 pages

Game Design

chapter Chapter Fifteen|12 pages

Determining Simulation Activity

chapter Chapter Sixteen|16 pages

Gameplay Design

chapter Chapter Seventeen|12 pages

The Concept Document

chapter Chapter Eighteen|10 pages

Concept Testing and Refinement

part Section Four|1 pages

Game Design

chapter Chapter Nineteen|29 pages

Development and Delivery Platforms

chapter Chapter Twenty|7 pages

Selecting Development Tools

chapter Twenty-One|15 pages

The Design Document

part Section Five|1 pages

Production And Authoring

chapter Twenty-Two|9 pages

Graphics Development

chapter Chapter Twenty-Three|16 pages

Media Production

chapter Chapter Twenty-Four|8 pages

The Production Pipeline

chapter Chapter Twenty-Five|9 pages

Final Product Testing

part Section Six|26 pages

The Finish Line

chapter Twenty Six|11 pages

Packaging,Distribution, and Marketing

chapter Chapter Twenty-Seven|10 pages

Assessment