Description
Book SynopsisMaking a successful video game is hard. Even games that are well-received at launch may fail to engage players in the long term due to issues with the user experience (UX) that they are delivering. That's why makers of successful video games like Fortnite and Assassin's Creed invest both time and money perfecting their UX strategy. These top video game creators know that a bad user experience can ruin the prospects for any game, regardless of its budget, scope, or ambition.
The game UX accounts for the whole experience players have with a video game, from first hearing about it to navigating menus and progressing in the game. UX as a discipline offers guidelines to assist developers in creating the optimal experience they want to deliver, including shipping higher quality games (whether indie, triple-A or serious games) and meeting business goals -- all while staying true to design vision and artistic intent.
At its core, UX is about understanding the gamer
Trade Review
"The beauty of this book is that it is two things at the same time:
- 1. An amazingly complete introduction to psychology, using examples from video games to make the concepts clear and memorable.
- 2. An amazingly complete introduction to video game design, using psychology to help design more compelling games.
So whether you are a game designer, a player, or someone wishing to understand psychology, this is the book for you."
-Don Norman, Director, the Design Lab at the University of California, San Diego Author of The Design of Everyday Things
"By blending up-to-date brain science with game-relevant UX design principles, this book doesn't just give great tips about how to make better games, it gives designers the mental tools to get better at thinking about games. Read this, and suddenly you'll know what you're talking about."
-Jesse Schell, Game Designer, author of The Art of Game Design
"This book is an invaluable asset for game developers, whether you work in game design, user experience, or programming. With a lucid overview of the current best knowledge from cognitive psychology, Hodent provides guidelines and approaches to improve the game experience for players that are based on actual science."
-Raph Koster, Game Designer, author of A Theory of Fun for Game Design
Table of ContentsIntroduction. Part I: Video Games and the Brain. How the Brain Learns in a Nutshell. Perception. Attention. Memory. Emotion. Motivation. Applying Learning Techniques in Games. Part II: A UX Framework for Video Games. History of UX. Usability. GameFlow. User Research. Analytics. UX Reporting. Conclusion. References. Glossary. Appendix: UX Checklist. Index.
