Download or read book 100 Greatest Video Game Characters written by Jaime Banks and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2017-06-23 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Though in existence for only a few decades, video games are now firmly established in mainstream culture all around the planet. Every year new games are produced, and every year new favorites emerge. But certain characters have become so iconic that they withstand both time and the shifting interests of players. Such creations permeate other elements of popular culture—from graphic novels to film—and are known not only to dedicated gamers but to the general public as well. In 100 Greatest Video Game Characters, readers can learn about some of the most popular and influential figures that have leapt from computer monitors and television screens and into the public consciousness. The entries in this volume provide general facts about the characters as well as explore their cultural significance. The entries include the following information: Game developer Year character was established Video game franchise In addition, the book examines the commonalities of various video game characters to help readers better understand their popularity and how they operate within the video games and the industry itself. Whether casually looking up information on video game characters or researching what these icons says about society, readers will enjoy this entertaining and informative volume. Comprehensive and engaging, 100 Greatest Video Game Characters will appeal to fans and scholars alike.

Download or read book Better Game Characters by Design written by Katherine Isbister and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2022-04-29 with total page 443 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Games are poised for a major evolution, driven by growth in technical sophistication and audience reach. Characters that create powerful social and emotional connections with players throughout the game-play itself (not just in cut scenes) will be essential to next-generation games. However, the principles of sophisticated character design and interaction are not widely understood within the game development community. Further complicating the situation are powerful gender and cultural issues that can influence perception of characters. Katherine Isbister has spent the last 10 years examining what makes interactions with computer characters useful and engaging to different audiences. This work has revealed that the key to good design is leveraging player psychology: understanding what's memorable, exciting, and useful to a person about real-life social interactions, and applying those insights to character design. Game designers who create great characters often make use of these psychological principles without realizing it. Better Game Characters by Design gives game design professionals and other interactive media designers a framework for understanding how social roles and perceptions affect players' reactions to characters, helping produce stronger designs and better results.

Download or read book Guinness World Records 2011 written by Guinness World Records Limited and published by BradyGames. This book was released on 2011 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the ultimate "Guinness World Records" book for gamers - now in its fourth edition. Pick up the completely updated "Guinness World Records, Gamer's Edition 2011" and learn all about amazing computer and video-game record breakers from around the world. You'll find out the highest scores, biggest tournaments, largest cash prizes and most successful games ever. It is packed with thousands of high scores and records, a round-up of key events of the video-gaming year - including reviews of new releases, new consoles and the major tournaments - along with detailed game strategies, interviews with professionals, tips and cheats to improve your play, league tables, bizarre facts and incredible video game trivia.

Download or read book How to Draw Video Games written by Steve Harpster and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2017-11-02 with total page 129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gamers, get ready to level up with How to Draw Video Games! From helpful sidekicks to 8-bit aliens and block-style beasts, the video game galaxy is an epic and endless world of battle-ready bosses, spewing lava levels and handyman heroes with the courage to save the day--all you need to do is draw them. This book teaches you how to get ideas from your brain onto paper by following basic demonstrations and using real life cheat codes. Instead of pressing "up, up, down, down, left," grab a sketchbook, marker and pack of colored pencils to start designing cool characters and the worlds they live in without the finger blisters and rage quits! • 25+ demonstrations cover everything from inventing heroes and evil villains to storyboarding your game win. • Learn how to draw legendary worlds and create difficult boss levels, including scrolling, three-dimensional and Minecraft-style block landscapes. • Build cool vehicles, spaceships and sweet rides for heroes to hop on! • Includes info on tech techniques, programs and digital upgrades. Stop playing video games and start drawing them!

Download or read book ZBrush Studio Projects written by Ryan Kingslien and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2011-02-08 with total page 520 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tips and techniques for bringing reality and creativity to your game characters and art As video games evolve, the bar moves ever higher for realism, one of the most challenging artistic frontiers is creating realistic human characters. In ZBrush Studio Projects: Realistic Game Characters, ZBrush expert Ryan Kingslien zeroes in on specific areas of concern for game creation: human body style, faces, skin texturing, clothing, shoes, weaponry, and putting your character into a game environment. Throughout the book Ryan offers tips and insights that provide readers with the depth and breadth they need to bring reality and creativity to their game characters and art. Projects start from the beginning, just as they do in the studio, with the author to guide you step by step through attributes and tools. Projects encompass multiple disciplines to obtain finished, professional results.Although some step by step explanations are given, projects serve more as a guide for readers to complete their own version of the project. Each project comes with support files to validate results Covers one of the most unique challenges for game artists -- sculpting realistic and moveable human characters for a game environment Brings you up to speed on ZBrush, the top digital sculpting tool used to create characters and props in such games as Rock Band and World of Warcraft Covers body style, faces, skin texturing, clothing, shoes, weaponry, and how to put your character into a game environment Provides in-depth techniques and tips for everyone from aspiring digital sculptors to high-level professional ZBrush artists Includes a DVD with supporting files from the projects in the book, as well as videos that illustrate concepts Build the next game-winning action character with ZBrush and this professional guide! Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

Download or read book Trapped in a Video Game written by Dustin Brady and published by Andrews McMeel Publishing. This book was released on 2018-04-10 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jesse Rigsby hates video games—and for good reason. You see, a video game character is trying to kill him. After getting sucked in the new game Full Blast with his friend Eric, Jesse starts to see the appeal of vaporizing man-size praying mantis while cruising around by jet pack. But pretty soon, a mysterious figure begins following Eric and Jesse, and they discover they can't leave the game. If they don't figure out what's going on fast, they'll be trapped for good! With black-and-white illustrations throughout and a cliff hanger at the end of every chapter, this is a great series for kids who think they don’t like to read!

Download or read book Game Character Development written by Antony Ward and published by Muska/Lipman. This book was released on 2008 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Game Character Development" takes you through all the steps needed to create compelling, highly-detailed characters for games. This book is suitable for both beginner game artists and experienced designers who want to brush up their skills, and covers the latest character creation tools and technologies. Throughout this book you will work step-by-step to create a finished character that incorporates all of the methods presented. First you'll examine the available modeling techniques and then create a base mesh. You'll then incorporate UV mapping and virtual sculpting. With the basic model created, you'll explore advanced techniques to add texture and detail, and finish up by optimizing and refining your character. The techniques presented can be applied with virtually any 3D software program, so you're free to work within the application with which you're most familiar. If a specific tool is introduced, a brief introduction will cover the basic information you need to utilize it. There's even a chapter with suggestions on what you'll need to add to your finished character before it gets introduced into the game production pipeline, including adding facial expression, rigging, and even animation. And a helpful reference section provides additional resources to help you with those next steps.

Download or read book Interactive Storytelling for Video Games written by Josiah Lebowitz and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2012-09-10 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What really makes a video game story interactive? What's the best way to create an interactive story? How much control should players be given? Do they really want that control in the first place? Do they even know what they want-or are their stated desires at odds with the unconscious preferences? All of these questions and more are examined in this definitive book on interactive storytelling for video games. You'll get detailed descriptions of all major types of interactive stories, case studies of popular games (including Bioshock, Fallout 3, Final Fantasy XIII, Heavy Rain, and Metal Gear Solid), and how players interact with them, and an in-depth analysis of the results of a national survey on player storytelling preferences in games. You'll get the expert advice you need to generate compelling and original game concepts and narratives.With Interactive Storytelling for Video Games, you'll:

Download or read book Game Character Creation with Blender and Unity written by Chris Totten and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2012-06-01 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A complete guide to creating usable, realistic game characters with two powerful tools Creating viable game characters requires a combination of skills. This book teaches game creators how to create usable, realistic game assets using the power of an open-source 3D application and a free game engine. It presents a step-by-step approach to modeling, texturing, and animating a character using the popular Blender software, with emphasis on low polygon modeling and an eye for using sculpting and textures, and demonstrates how to bring the character into the Unity game engine. Game creation is a popular and productive pursuit for both hobbyists and serious developers; this guide brings together two effective tools to simplify and enhance the process Artists who are familiar with Blender or other 3D software but who lack experience with game development workflow will find this book fills important gaps in their knowledge Provides a complete tutorial on developing a game character, including modeling, UV unwrapping, sculpting, baking displacements, texturing, rigging, animation, and export Emphasizes low polygon modeling for game engines and shows how to bring the finished character into the Unity game engine Whether you're interested in a new hobby or eager to enter the field of professional game development, this book offers valuable guidance to increase your skills.

Download or read book Gamer Army written by Trent Reedy and published by Scholastic Inc.. This book was released on 2018-11-27 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this timely and thrilling novel, Ender's Game meets Ready Player One and several terabytes of fast-paced video game action as five gamers are recruited into a tech giant's secret program. After Rogan Webber levels up yet again on his favorite video game, Laser Viper, the world-famous creator of the game invites him to join the five best players in the country for an exclusive tournament. The gamers are flown to the tech mogul's headquarters, where they stay in luxury dorms and test out cutting edge virtual-reality gaming equipment, doing digital battle as powerful fighting robots. It's the ultimate gaming experience.But as the contest continues, the missions become harder, losing gamers are eliminated, and the remaining contestants face the growing suspicion that the game may not be what it seems. Why do the soldiers and robots they fight in Laser Viper act so weird? What's behind the strange game glitches? And why does the game feel so... real?Rogan and his gamer rivals must come together, summoning the collective power of their Gamer Army to discover the truth and make things right... in a dangerous world where video games have invaded reality.

Download or read book The Art of Game Characters written by Leo Hartas and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2005-06-14 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Computer and video games are the entertainment media of the 21st century, and game characters like Lara Croft and Mario are now as famous as Mickey Mouse and Homer Simpson. This definitive guide examines the appeal of these iconic characters from the early days of gaming to the present. A follow-up to the successful Art of Game Worlds, this book examines the remarkable work that goes into the creation of captivating, realistic game characters. Each subsection takes an in-depth look at a specific type of character and uses examples to discuss how that type is used effectively in games. All games enthusiasts, from amateur to expert, will benefit from this comprehensive and beautifully illustrated volume.

Download or read book Game Character Animation All in One written by Les Pardew and published by Course Technology. This book was released on 2007 with total page 542 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Within the world of video games, characters become almost living entities. Through the use of logic and artificial intelligence, the video-game character is able to act and react to each situation. As the designer, you hold the character's creative expression in your control. Game Character Animation All in One is a comprehensive guide to the techniques of developing and animating amazing characters for your games. It covers not only introductory-level character-design techniques, but also advanced character-creation and animation topics. With an 8-page color insert showcasing game-character design, this book is a detailed guide to creating exciting, believable, engaging characters for your games.

Download or read book Gaming Sexism written by Amanda C. Cote and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2020-09-01 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Interviews with female gamers about structural sexism across the gaming landscape When the Nintendo Wii was released in 2006, it ushered forward a new era of casual gaming in which video games appealed to not just the stereotypical hardcore male gamer, but also to a much broader, more diverse audience. However, the GamerGate controversy six years later, and other similar public incidents since, laid bare the internalized misogyny and gender stereotypes in the gaming community. Today, even as women make up nearly half of all gamers, sexist assumptions about the what and how of women’s gaming are more actively enforced. In Gaming Sexism, Amanda C. Cote explores the video game industry and its players to explain this contradiction, how it affects female gamers, and what it means in terms of power and gender equality. Across in-depth interviews with women-identified gamers, Cote delves into the conflict between diversification and resistance to understand their impact on gaming, both casual and “core” alike. From video game magazines to male reactions to female opponents, she explores the shifting expectations about who gamers are, perceived changes in gaming spaces, and the experiences of female gamers amidst this gendered turmoil. While Cote reveals extensive, persistent problems in gaming spaces, she also emphasizes the power of this motivated, marginalized audience, and draws on their experiences to explore how structural inequalities in gaming spaces can be overcome. Gaming Sexism is a well-timed investigation of equality, power, and control over the future of technology.

Download or read book Virtual Character Design for Games and Interactive Media written by Robin James Stuart Sloan and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2015-05-07 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While the earliest character representations in video games were rudimentary in terms of their presentation and performance, the virtual characters that appear in games today can be extremely complex and lifelike. These are characters that have the potential to make a powerful and emotional connection with gamers. As virtual characters become more

Download or read book Game Anim written by Jonathan Cooper and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2021-04-19 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The second edition of Game Anim expands upon the first edition with an all-new chapter on 2D and Pixel Art Animation, an enhanced mocap chapter covering the latest developments in Motion Matching, and even more interviews with top professionals in the field. Combined with everything in the first edition, this updated edition provides the reader with an even more comprehensive understanding of all areas of video game animation – from small indie projects to the latest AAA blockbusters. Key Features • New 2nd Edition Content: An all-new chapter on 2D and Pixel Art Animation, Motion Matching, and more • 20 Years of Insight: Accumulated knowledge from 2 decades of experience in all areas of game animation. • The 5 Fundamentals: Reinterprets the classic 12 animation principles and sets out 5 new fundamentals for great game animation. • Full Production Cycle: Walks through every stage of a game production from the animator’s perspective. • Animator Interviews: Notable game animators offer behind-the-scenes stories, tips, and advice. • Free Animation Rig: Free "AZRI" maya rig, tutorials and other resources on the accompanying website: www.gameanim.com/book About The Author Jonathan Cooper is an award-winning video game animator who has brought virtual characters to life professionally since 2000, leading teams on large projects such as the Assassin’s Creed and Mass Effect series, with a focus on memorable stories and characters and cutting-edge video game animation. He has since focused on interactive cinematics in the latest chapters of the DICE and Annie award-winning series Uncharted and The Last of Us. Jonathan has presented at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco and at other conferences across Canada and the United Kingdom. He holds a Bachelor of Design honors degree in animation.

Download or read book Drawing Basics and Video Game Art written by Chris Solarski and published by Watson-Guptill. This book was released on 2012-09-18 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book supports my own 30-year crusade to demonstrate that games are an art form that undeniably rivals traditional arts. It gives detailed explanations of game art techniques and their importance, while also highlighting their dependence on artistic aspects of game design and programming.” — John Romero, co-founder of id Software and CEO of Loot Drop, Inc. "Solarski’s methodology here is to show us the artistic techniques that every artist should know, and then he transposes them to the realm of video games to show how they should be used to create a far more artful gaming experience ... if I were an artist planning to do video game work, I’d have a copy of this on my shelf." — Marc Mason, Comics Waiting Room Video games are not a revolution in art history, but an evolution. Whether the medium is paper or canvas—or a computer screen—the artist’s challenge is to make something without depth seem like a window into a living, breathing world. Video game art is no different. Drawing Basics and Video Game Art is first to examine the connections between classical art and video games, enabling developers to create more expressive and varied emotional experiences in games. Artist game designer Chris Solarski gives readers a comprehensive introduction to basic and advanced drawing and design skills—light, value, color, anatomy, concept development—as well as detailed instruction for using these methods to design complex characters, worlds, and gameplay experiences. Artwork by the likes of Michelangelo, Titian, and Rubens are studied alongside AAA games like BioShock, Journey, the Mario series, and Portal 2, to demonstrate perpetual theories of depth, composition, movement, artistic anatomy, and expression. Although Drawing Basics and Video Game Art is primarily a practical reference for artists and designers working in the video games industry, it’s equally accessible for those interested to learn about gaming’s future, and potential as an artistic medium. Also available as an eBook

Download or read book Entertainment Computing ICEC 2007 written by Lizhuang Ma and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2007-08-28 with total page 506 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Entertainment Computing, ICEC 2007. The papers are organized in topical sections on augmented, virtual and mixed reality, computer games, image processing, mesh and modeling, digital storytelling and interactive systems, sound, music and creative environments, video processing, rendering, computer animation and networks, game based interfaces, as well as robots and cyber pets.