Swipe This! The Guide to Great Touchscreen

Learn to design games for tablets from a renowned game designer! Eager to start designing games for tablets but not sure where to start? Look no further! Gaming guru Scott Rogers has his finger on the pulse of tablet game design and is willing to impart his wisdom and secrets for designing exciting and successful games. As the creator of such venerable games as God of War, the SpongeBob Squarepants series, and Pac-Man World, to name a few, Rogers writes from personal experience and in this unique book, he hands you the tools to create your own tablet games for the iPad, Android tablets, Nintendo DS, and other touchscreen systems. Covers the entire tablet game creation process, placing a special focus on the intricacies and pitfalls of touch-screen game design Explores the details and features of tablet game systems and shows you how to develop marketable ideas as well as market your own games Offers an honest take on what perils and pitfalls await you during a games pre-production, production, and post-production stages Features interviews with established tablet game developers that serve to inspire you as you start to make your own tablet game design Swipe This! presents you with an in-depth analysis of popular tablet games and delivers a road map for getting started with tablet game design.

Once upon a time, Scott Rogers played video games, Dungeons and Dragons and drew comic books without realizing he could do these things for a living. After being "discovered" in a coffee shop and realizing game designers have more fun, Scott helped design video games including Pac-Man World, the Maximo series, God of War, Darksiders and the Drawn To Life series. A lecture about his two favorite things – level design and Disneyland – led to writing "Level Up! The Guide to Great Video Game Design," lecturing at the prestigious Interactive Media Division at the USC School of Cinematic Arts and employment with the Walt Disney Imagineering R&D team. Scott is currently living happily ever after in Thousand Oaks, CA with his family, action figure collection and an iPad full of games.

Swipe This Book! 1

Some Possible Reasons You Picked Up Swipe This! 2

CHAPTER 1 Hardware Wars 13

DEVELOPER INTERVIEW 1 Paul O'Connor 29

CHAPTER 2 Clown-On-A-Unicycle 33

GAME DESIGN SPOTLIGHT 1 Fruit Ninja HD 53

CHAPTER 3 Finger Fu! 57

DEVELOPER INTERVIEW 2 Andy Ashcraft 81

CHAPTER 4 GenreBusters 85

GAME DESIGN SPOTLIGHT 2 Helsing's Fire 107

CHAPTER 5 Puzzlings 111

DEVELOPER INTERVIEW 3 Erin Reynolds 137

CHAPTER 6 Arcade Crazy 141

GAME DESIGN SPOTLIGHT 3 Where's My Water? 171

CHAPTER 7 Action Guy 175

DEVELOPER INTERVIEW 4 Blade Olsen 205

CHAPTER 8 DoodleCat 209

GAME DESIGN SPOTLIGHT 4 Jetpack Joyride 223

CHAPTER 9 Casual Fryday 227

DEVELOPER INTERVIEW 5 Sam Rosenthal 257

CHAPTER 10 The New Genres 261

GAME DESIGN SPOTLIGHT 5 No, Human 281

DEVELOPER INTERVIEW 6 Andy Reeves 285

CHAPTER 11 Make Your Own Star Wars 289

GAME DESIGN SPOTLIGHT 6 Angry Birds 323

APPPENDIX 1 The Class of 2008 329

APPPENDIX 2 Touchscreen Template 337

APPPENDIX 3 Gameplay Storyboarding Template 339

APPPENDIX 4 The Game Designer's Checklist 341

Afterword 343

Index 345

What is included with this book?

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Swipe This! The Guide to Great Touchscreen Game Design

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials