How Pac-Man Eats

Ebook
On sale Dec 15, 2020 | 384 Pages | 9780262360975

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How the tools and concepts for making games are connected to what games can and do mean; with examples ranging from Papers, Please to Dys4ia.

In How Pac-Man Eats, Noah Wardrip-Fruin considers two questions: What are the fundamental ways that games work? And how can games be about something? Wardrip-Fruin argues that the two issues are related. Bridging formalist and culturally engaged approaches, he shows how the tools and concepts for making games are connected to what games can and do mean.
Chapter One: Operational Logics and Playable Models
Chapter Two: Alternative Approaches
Chapter Three: Expansive Approaches
Chapter Four: Six Questions About Logics and Models
Chapter Five: Inventive Approaches
Chapter Six: Understanding Games Through Logics and Models
Chapter Seven: Inventing Graphical Logics
Chapter Eight: Refinement
Chapter Nine: Doubling
Chapter Ten: Logic Structures
Conclusion: What Games Are About
Noah Wardrip-Fruin is Professor of Computational Media at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he co-directs the Expressive Intelligent Studio. He is the author of Expressive Processing: Digital Fictions, Computer Games, and Software Studies (MIT Press).

About

How the tools and concepts for making games are connected to what games can and do mean; with examples ranging from Papers, Please to Dys4ia.

In How Pac-Man Eats, Noah Wardrip-Fruin considers two questions: What are the fundamental ways that games work? And how can games be about something? Wardrip-Fruin argues that the two issues are related. Bridging formalist and culturally engaged approaches, he shows how the tools and concepts for making games are connected to what games can and do mean.

Table of Contents

Chapter One: Operational Logics and Playable Models
Chapter Two: Alternative Approaches
Chapter Three: Expansive Approaches
Chapter Four: Six Questions About Logics and Models
Chapter Five: Inventive Approaches
Chapter Six: Understanding Games Through Logics and Models
Chapter Seven: Inventing Graphical Logics
Chapter Eight: Refinement
Chapter Nine: Doubling
Chapter Ten: Logic Structures
Conclusion: What Games Are About

Author

Noah Wardrip-Fruin is Professor of Computational Media at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he co-directs the Expressive Intelligent Studio. He is the author of Expressive Processing: Digital Fictions, Computer Games, and Software Studies (MIT Press).

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