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The Game Designer's Workbook
Hands-on Tools, Exercises, Walkthroughs, and Resources for New Game Designers
Bobby Lockhart (Author), Eric Lang (Author)
9781394273935, Wiley
Paperback / softback, published 9 October 2025
208 pages
26.7 x 21.1 x 1.3 cm, 0.499 kg
Hands-on tools, exercises, walkthroughs, and resources for new game designers. All you need is a pencil! In The Game Designer's Workbook, two experienced game designers, Bobby Lockhart and Eric Lang, walk you through design tips and exercises you can apply immediately to take your next game to the next level. The authors draw on decades of combined experience in game design, helping you ideate, storyboard, create fun and challenging levels, and more. The book is structured as a set of practical exercises and examples to give budding game designers hands-on experience with the nuts and bolts of designing games. Equipped only with a pencil, you can level-up your skills in critical areas of game design. While you're free to use a computer, a pair of dice, or to team up with a group of friends, The Game Designer's Workbook lets you develop your skills whenever you've got something to write with and 10 minutes of spare time. The book includes reflection sections that allow you to think deeply about your future game design practice, challenges that prompt you to modify and improve an existing game, break down games into their component parts to better understand their inner workings, and discussions of concepts common to all sorts of games. You'll also find: The Game Designer's Workbook is an essential toolkit for aspiring and beginning game designers, as well as anyone interested in games and game design.
How to Use This Book xi Types of Exercises xiii Additional Resources xiv Setting the Stage 1 Reflection: Who Is the Game Designer You? 2 What Is .a GDD? 4 Remix: Tic-Tac-Toe (Naughts & Crosses) 8 Level Design: Mazes 11 What a Concept: Accessibility 18 Think Like a Game Designer 22 Cross-Training: Schematic Drawing 24 Breaking It Down: Capturing the Feeling 27 Randomized Game Idea: Pencil-and-Paper Games 29 Abstract Strategy 35 Reflection: A Gameplay Memory 36 Remix: Connect Four 38 What a Concept: Forks 41 Level Design: Dots and Boxes 44 Think Like a Game Designer 46 What Is .MDA? 47 Narrative Design: Abstract Strategy 49 Breaking It Down: Discretizing Time and Space 52 Narrative Design: Theming 55 Randomized Game Idea: Abstract Strategy 58 Story 63 Cross-Training: Storyboarding 64 What a Concept: Story Flow 72 Narrative Design: Roll and Move 74 Randomized Game Idea: Hidden Role 79 Breaking It Down: Anatomy of a Story 82 Sport 85 Reflection: Rules Heavy and Light 86 Level Design: Soccer/Football 88 Remix: Basketball 91 Randomized Game Idea: Sport 93 Breaking It Down: Playground Games 95 Cross-Training: Toy Design 97 Word Games 101 Reflection: Serious Games 102 Remix: Word Scramble 104 Level Design: Crossword Puzzle 108 Randomized Game Idea: Word Game 111 Remix: Hangman 113 Level Design: Word Find 115 What a Concept: Chain Reactions 118 Quantitative 121 Reflection: Player Feedback 122 Cross-Training: Probability 124 What a Concept: Emergence 128 Breaking It Down: Balance 134 What a Concept: Randomness 138 Narrative Design: Variables 140 Level Design: Race Track 142 Remix: Battling Ships 145 What a Concept: Randomness 2 150 Outside the Box 153 Reflection: Player Creativity 154 Cross-Training: Theme Park Design 156 Breaking It Down: Bodies 160 Narrative Design: Micro-RPG 163 Characters 165 Randomized Game Idea: Roll and Move 167 Cross-Training: Pub Trivia 170 Bonus Round 173 Reflection: Sources of Value in Games 174 Cross-Training: Wireframes 175 Breaking It Down: Drawing Games 177 Level Design: Sokoban 180 Reflection: Continuing to Grow 184 Further Reading 185 Appendix A: Random Dice, Cards, Letters 189 Appendix B: Additional Workspaces and Grids 191
Subject Areas: Business applications [UF]
