With the recent release of Guitar Hero III, the success of the Guitar Hero franchise continues. For anyone who has played this game it illustrates how a game can be designed to be easily accessible to gamers and non-gamers alike, while also being challenging to both (even when a novice and expert play head to head online). Consequently, it offers a good case study for examining game design, and that’s exactly what Iain Simons provided when he posted an excerpt of his recently released book Inside Game Design on Gamasutra.

By exploring the history and events through an interview with Rob Kay (Harmonix) Simons provides the all important context for the design of Guitar Hero. As the interview unfolds, events such as how the guitar peripheral led the development of the game, the design of the difficulty levels, visual style and the development of “star power” emerge.

This article is definitely worth a read for anyone interested in game design, as well as for anyone wanting some insight into the design and development of Guitar Hero. I’m looking forward to reading Iain’s book in the near future.

Links
Inside Game Design: Harmonix Music Systems (Gamasutra):
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/2801/
book_excerpt_inside_game_design_.php?page=1
Inside Game Design (Book @ Amazon): http://www.amazon.com/Inside-Game-Design-Iain-Simons/dp/1856695328

One of my more recent purchases was Universal Principles of Design : 100 Ways to Enhance Usability, Influence Perception, Increase Appeal, Make Better Design Decisions, and Teach through Design. While the length of the book title rivals some of the song titles from the Beatles White Album, the book itself is a fantastic reference book. The information architecture of the book allows for contents to be listed alphabetically - the primary form of organization of the book - plus categorized in terms of questions such as “How can I enhance the usability of a design?”, and “How can I make better design decisions?”.

The examples provided are clear and informative, making the book fantastic for pragmatists. While chances are that you’ve probably come across some of the principles listed, there may be a few which are new to you, or which you have heard of but mightn’t have explored. And since the text also includes references for those wanting to find out more about particular topics, its always easy to find various information sources. All in all this makes it an excellent reference book to have on the shelf for any design practitioner.

The book also has an associated website well worth a visit.
You can find more about Universal Principles of Design at http://www.stuffcreators.com/upod/index.html.

Link

http://www.amazon.com/Universal-Principles-Design-Usability
-Perception/dp/1592530079/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/105-4629522
-6478039?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1188473496&sr=8-1

Recently, I read a little gem of a book entitled “The Art of Innovation” by Tom Kelly general manager of IDEO.  For those of you unfamiliar, IDEO is the world’s leading design consultancy and specializes in product development and innovation. 

What originally attracted me to this book was a focus on innovation and creativity, the activity of design, and its underpinings of user experience, and as a text it definately delivers.  The 15 chapters of the text explore these areas in detail and provide key insights and tips in creating innovative and creative workspaces.

With examples from the redesign of shopping carts to the Palm PDA, this text is a deceivingly simple and compelling read and one I would highly recommend to anyone with an interest in how to create innovative environments.  From a game design viewpoint, to me it demonstrated, among other things, how game companies can become innovative (a good example of which is Cranium based in Seattle as demonstrated through this news report http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJ6g8Mj7F9Q), and how a focus on the user (or player) experience is at the core of developing quality product.

Definately one book that won’t gather dust on your bookshelf.  Highly recommended.

Links

IDEO: http://ideo.com

Cranium: http://cranium.com

Recently I completed reading a book by David Kolb entitled Experiential Learning, and thought it was worth sharing it with you. My interest in this text came from a general interest in how experience can be legitimated and understood as a means for learning, and from the relationship between experience and game design.

Now, due to the comprehensive nature the book, and wanting to do it justice, I felt that a separate document would be more appropriate rather that risk attempting to “clog the blog” by writing a long post. Consequently, I have included a book review of this text for you to enjoy. Download (PDF 128Kb)

Links

Experiential Learning (David Kolb): http://www.amazon.com/Experiential-Learning-Experience-Source-Development/dp/0132952610/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/104-4011877-9647923?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1176377596&sr=8-2