Download or read book The History and Allure of Interactive Visual Novels written by Mark Kretzschmar and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2023-06-15 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Visual novels (VNs), a ludic video game genre that pairs textual fiction stories with anime-like images and varying degrees of interactivity, have increased in popularity among Western audiences in recent years. Despite originating in Japan, these stories have made their way into global culture as a genre accessible for both play and creation with wide-ranging themes from horror and loneliness to sexuality. The History and Allure of Interactive Visual Novels begins with a comprehensive overview of the visual novel genre and the cultural evolution that led to its rise, then explains the tropes and appeal of subgenres like bishojo (cute girl games), detective games, horror, and eroge (erotic games). Finally, the book explores the future of the genre in both user-generated games and games from other genres that liberally borrow both narrative and ludological themes from visual novels. Whether you're a long-standing fan of the genre or a newcomer looking for a fresh experience, The History and Allure of Interactive Visual Novels will provide an accessible and critically engaging overview of a genre that is rich in storytelling yet often overlooked.
Download or read book Anime and the Visual Novel written by Dani Cavallaro and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-10-16 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book describes the thematic and structural traits of a recent and popular development within the realm of anime: series adapted from visual novels. Visual novels are interactive fiction games in which players creatively control decisions and plot turning points. Endings alter according to the player's choices, providing a motivation to replay the game and opt for alternative decisions each time. Pictorial sumptuousness, plot depth and subtle characterization are vital aspects of the medium. Anime based on visual novels capitalizes on the parent games' attributes, yielding thought-provoking yarns and complex personalities.
Download or read book Game Development with Ren Py written by Robert Ciesla and published by Apress. This book was released on 2019-06-29 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Get your feet wet in developing visual novels and take a guided tour through easy to follow tutorials using three of the most popular tools (Ren'Py, TyranoBuilder, and Twine). This book uses a two-pronged approach into the fine art of text-based games, showing you what makes for compelling writing as well as the programming logic and techniques needed to bring your visual novels to life. In this book, you will uncover the rich history of interactive fiction from the bare-bones 1970s games to the audiovisually rich modern output. You will take a detailed look at how to work with some of the most popular and exotic sub-genres and tropes of interactive fiction, such as nakige ("crying game"), dating sims, and horror. Once the stage is set, you will learn to use all-purpose programming logic and techniques in three mini tutorial games and also learn how to deploy your titles to both desktop and mobile platforms. Not solely relegated to the ancient historical period of the 1980s and 1990s, interactive fiction has again become appealing to developers as new tools became available. The visual novel is an increasingly popular and potentially lucrative genre of video game, being deployed for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and more. Game Development with Ren'Py reveals how multi-platform tools such as Ren'Py, TyranoBuilder, and Twine are becoming ever more plentiful for creating games in this genre. What You'll Learn Gain a working knowledge of Ren'Py, TyranoBuilder, and Twine Examine the basics of general programming logic Deploy to all available operating systems and platforms Review different approaches to fiction writing in the context of text-based games Who This Book Is For People with no programming experience who are interested in working in the genre of visual novels or interactive fiction.
Download or read book Playing with the Past written by Matthew Wilhelm Kapell and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2013-10-24 with total page 493 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Game Studies is a rapidly growing area of contemporary scholarship, yet volumes in the area have tended to focus on more general issues. With Playing with the Past, game studies is taken to the next level by offering a specific and detailed analysis of one area of digital game play -- the representation of history. The collection focuses on the ways in which gamers engage with, play with, recreate, subvert, reverse and direct the historical past, and what effect this has on the ways in which we go about constructing the present or imagining a future. What can World War Two strategy games teach us about the reality of this complex and multifaceted period? Do the possibilities of playing with the past change the way we understand history? If we embody a colonialist's perspective to conquer 'primitive' tribes in Colonization, does this privilege a distinct way of viewing history as benevolent intervention over imperialist expansion? The fusion of these two fields allows the editors to pose new questions about the ways in which gamers interact with their game worlds. Drawing these threads together, the collection concludes by asking whether digital games - which represent history or historical change - alter the way we, today, understand history itself.
Download or read book Dungeons Dragons and Digital Denizens written by Gerald A. Voorhees and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2012-02-16 with total page 387 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dungeons, Dragons, and Digital Denizens is a collection of scholarly essays that seeks to represent the far-reaching scope and implications of digital role-playing games as both cultural and academic artifacts. As a genre, digital role playing games have undergone constant and radical revision, pushing not only multiple boundaries of game development, but also the playing strategies and experiences of players. Divided into three distinct sections, this premiere volume captures the distinctiveness of different game types, the forms of play they engender and their social and cultural implications. Contributors examine a range of games, from classics like Final Fantasy to blockbusters like World of Warcraft to obscure genre bending titles like Lux Pain. Working from a broad range of disciplines such as ecocritism, rhetoric, performance, gender, and communication, these essays yield insights that enrich the field of game studies and further illuminate the cultural, psychological and philosophical implications of a society that increasingly produces, plays and discourses about role playing games.
Download or read book Assassin s Creed written by Matthew Miller and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This comprehensive book explores the history and legacy of Assassin's Creed, its rich mythology, and the vivid artwork of the entire franchise, including works created for the graphic novels and downloadable content. With never-before-seen concept and character art, Assassin's Creed: The Complete Visual History reveals the creative process behind the immersive historical settings as well as the development of such iconic characters as Altair, Ezio, Connor, and Arno, to name a few, chronicling how the franchise has evolved over the years while retaining its bold, signature look. Written by gaming journalist Matthew Miller, this comprehensive visual history offers unparalleled insight into one of the industry's most acclaimed franchises. A compelling read for fans of the franchise and those interested in discovering the astounding artistry behind the creation of a major contemporary video game series." --
Download or read book On Video Games written by Soraya Murray and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-10-30 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Today over half of all American households own a dedicated game console and gaming industry profits trump those of the film industry worldwide. In this book, Soraya Murray moves past the technical discussions of games and offers a fresh and incisive look at their cultural dimensions. She critically explores blockbusters likeThe Last of Us, Metal Gear Solid, Spec Ops: The Line, Tomb Raider and Assassin's Creed to show how they are deeply entangled with American ideological positions and contemporary political, cultural and economic conflicts.As quintessential forms of visual material in the twenty-first century, mainstream games both mirror and spur larger societal fears, hopes and dreams, and even address complex struggles for recognition. This book examines both their elaborately constructed characters and densely layered worlds, whose social and environmental landscapes reflect ideas about gender, race, globalisation and urban life. In this emerging field of study, Murray provides novel theoretical approaches to discussing games and playable media as culture. Demonstrating that games are at the frontline of power relations, she reimagines how we see them - and more importantly how we understand them.
Download or read book Todd Howard written by Wendi Sierra and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2020-12-24 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The newest addition to our Influential Video Game Designers series explores the work of Todd Howard, executive producer at Bethesda Studios, known for how he consistently pushes the boundaries of open-world gaming and player agency. Howard's games create worlds in which players can design their own characters and tell their own stories. While many games tell the story of the game's main character, Todd Howard's worldbuilding approach to game design focuses more on telling the story of the game's world, whether it be the high fantasy environments of the Elder Scrolls series or the post-apocalyptic wasteland of the Fallout series. This focus on sculpting the world allows for remarkable amounts of player freedom and choice in an expansive game environment by creating a landscape rich with open opportunity. Drawing on both academic discussions of narrative, world design, and game design, as well as on officially released interviews, speeches, and presentations given by Howard and other designers at Bethesda Games, Wendi Sierra highlights three core areas set Howard's design perspective apart from other designers: micronarratives, iterative design, and the sharing of design tools. Taken as a whole, these three elements demonstrate how Howard has used a worldbuilding perspective to shape his games. In doing so, he has impacted not only Bethesda Studios, but also the landscape of game design itself.
Download or read book Adventure Games written by Aaron A. Reed and published by Bloomsbury Academic. This book was released on 2020-02-20 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The genre of adventure games is frequently overlooked. Lacking the constantly-evolving graphics and graphic violence of their counterparts in first-person and third-person shooters or role-playing games, they are often marketed to and beloved by players outside of mainstream game communities. While often forgotten by both the industry and academia, adventure games have had (and continue to have) a surprisingly wide influence on contemporary games, in categories including walking simulators, hidden object games, visual novels, and bestselling titles from companies like Telltale and Campo Santo. In this examination of heirs to the genre's legacy, the authors examine the genre from multiple perspectives, connecting technical analysis with critical commentary and social context. This will be the first book to consider this important genre from a comprehensive and transdisciplinary perspective. Drawing upon methods from platform studies, software studies, media studies, and literary studies, they reveal the genre's ludic and narrative origins and patterns, where character (and the player's embodiment of a character) is essential to the experience of play and the choices within a game. A deep structural analysis of adventure games also uncovers an unsteady balance between sometimes contradictory elements of story, exploration, and puzzles: with different games and creators employing a multitude of different solutions to resolving this tension.
Download or read book What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy Second Edition written by James Paul Gee and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2014-12-02 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cognitive Development in a Digital Age James Paul Gee begins his classic book with "I want to talk about video games–yes, even violent video games–and say some positive things about them." With this simple but explosive statement, one of America's most well-respected educators looks seriously at the good that can come from playing video games. This revised edition expands beyond mere gaming, introducing readers to fresh perspectives based on games like World of Warcraft and Half-Life 2. It delves deeper into cognitive development, discussing how video games can shape our understanding of the world. An undisputed must-read for those interested in the intersection of education, technology, and pop culture, What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy challenges traditional norms, examines the educational potential of video games, and opens up a discussion on the far-reaching impacts of this ubiquitous aspect of modern life.
Download or read book Global esports written by Dal Yong Jin and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2021-03-25 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Global esports explores the recent surge of esports in the global scene and comprehensively discusses people's understanding of this spectacle. By historicizing and institutionalizing esports, the contributors analyze the rapid growth of esports and its implications in culture and digital economy. Dal Yong Jin curates a discussion as to why esports has become a global phenomenon. From games such as Spacewar to Starcraft to Overwatch, a key theme, distinguishing this collection from others, is a potential shift of esports from online to mobile gaming. The book addresses why many global game players and fans play and enjoy online and mobile games in professional game competitions, and therefore, they investigate the manner in which the transfer to, from and between online and mobile gaming culture is occurring in a specific subset of global youth. The remaining focus identifies the major platforms used to enjoy esports, including broadcasting and smartphones. By analyzing these unexamined or less-discussed agendas, this book sheds light on the current debates on the growth of global esports culture.
Download or read book The Unpredictability of Gameplay written by Mark R. Johnson and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2018-12-27 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Unpredictability of Gameplay explores the many forms of unpredictability in games and proposes a comprehensive theoretical framework for understanding and categorizing non-deterministic game mechanics. Rather than viewing all game mechanics with unpredictable outcomes as a single concept, Mark R. Johnson develops a three-part typology for such mechanics, distinguishing between randomness, chance, and luck in gameplay, assessing games that range from grand strategy and MMORPGs to slot machines and card games. He also explores forms of unanticipated unpredictability, where elements of games fail to function as intended and create new forms of gameplay in the process. Covering a range of game concepts using these frameworks, The Unpredictability of Gameplay then explores three illustrative case studies: 1) procedural generation, 2) replay value and grinding, and 3) player-made practices designed to reduce the level of luck in non-deterministic games. Throughout, Johnson demonstrates the importance of looking more deeply at unpredictability in games and game design and the various ways in which unpredictability manifests while offering an invaluable tool for game scholars and game designers seeking to integrate unpredictability into their work.
Download or read book Otaku written by Hiroki Azuma and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2009 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Printbegrænsninger: Der kan printes 10 sider ad gangen og max. 40 sider pr. session
Download or read book Game Writing written by Chris Bateman and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2021-01-28 with total page 457 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the videogame industry has grown up, the need for better stories and characters has dramatically increased, yet traditional screenwriting techniques alone cannot equip writers for the unique challenges of writing stories where the actions and decisions of a diverse range of players are at the centre of every narrative experience. Game Writing: Narrative Skills for Videogames was the first book to demystify the emerging field of game writing by identifying and explaining the skills required for creating videogame narrative. Through the insights and experiences of professional game writers, this revised edition captures a snapshot of the narrative skills employed in today's game industry and presents them as practical articles accompanied by exercises for developing the skills discussed. The book carefully explains the foundations of the craft of game writing, detailing all aspects of the process from the basics of narrative to guiding the player and the challenges of nonlinear storytelling. Throughout the book there is a strong emphasis on the skills developers and publishers expect game writers to know. This second edition brings the material up to date and adds four new chapters covering MMOs, script formats, narrative design for urban games, and new ways to think about videogame narrative as an art form. Suitable for both beginners and experienced writers, Game Writing is the essential guide to all the techniques of game writing. There's no better starting point for someone wishing to get into this exciting field, whether they are new game writers wishing to hone their skills, or screenwriters hoping to transfer their skills to the games industry.
Download or read book Blind Obsession written by Ella Frank and published by EverAfter Romance. This book was released on 2017-04-18 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Obsession, defined as the domination of one's thoughts or feelings by a persistent idea, image or desire... Chantel Rosenberg's passion for music and life had never shone brighter than the time she spent in Bordeaux France. It's a time when feelings arose and desires ran deep, a time that fundamentally changed her life. A man living in seclusion, Phillipe Tibideau is haunted and plagued by memories he cannot disregard. Choosing to live a quiet life in his Chateau surrounded by the vineyards of France, he's left his passion for art behind. However, the time has arrived to tell his side of a tale. A tale that has depicted him as a "beautiful monster" and he's finally allowing someone close. Close enough to ask questions. Questions he's not sure he wants to answer. Questions about her. For up-and-coming journalist Gemma Harris, the pursuit of truth is what drives her, and when a job of a lifetime presents itself there is nothing in the world that will stop her from taking it. Even if it does mean leaving her home for several months to stay at Chateau Tibideau, with him. This is a story of what happens when three passionate lovers collide and the desire for truth, art, and music merge. Chateau Tibideau is a place full of unanswered questions, dark sinful desire, and a beauty so hauntingly sad it will have you wondering how you will ever leave the same...
Download or read book Intermedia Games Games Inter Media written by Michael Fuchs and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2019-02-21 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com While all media are part of intermedial networks, video games are often at the nexus of that network. They not only employ cinematics, embedded books, and in-world television screens for various purposes, but, in our convergence culture, video games also play a vital role in allowing players to explore transmedia storyworlds. At the same time, video games are frequently thematized and remediated in film, television, and literature. Indeed, the central role video games assume in intermedial networks provides testament to their significance in the contemporary media environment. In this volume, an international group of contributors discuss not only intermedial phenomena in video games, but also the intermedial networks surrounding them. Intermedia Games-Games Inter Media will deepen readers' understanding of the convergence culture of the early twenty-first century and video games' role in it.
Download or read book Prepare to Board written by Nancy Beiman and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2013 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Packed with illustrations, this book explains the methods and techniques of animation preproduction, with a focus on story development and character design.
