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The Stuff Games Are Made Of

Part of Playful Thinking

Author Pippin Barr
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Paperback
$30.00 US
The MIT Press
On sale Aug 01, 2023 | 184 Pages | 9780262546119
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A deep dive into practical game design through playful philosophy and philosophical play.

What are video games made of? And what can that tell us about what they mean? In The Stuff Games Are Made Of, experimental game maker Pippin Barr explores the materials of video game design. Taking the reader on a deep dive into eight case studies of his own games, Barr illuminates the complex nature of video games and video game design, and the possibilities both offer for exploring ideas big and small.

Through a variety of engaging and approachable examples, Barr shows how every single aspect of a game—whether it is code, graphics, interface, or even time itself—can be designed with and related to the player experience. Barr’s experimental approach, with its emphasis on highly specific elements of games, will leave readers armed with intriguing design philosophy, conceptual rigor, and diverse insights into the inner life of video games. Upon finishing this book, readers will be ready to think deeply about the nature of games, to dive into expressive and experimental game design themselves, or simply to play with a new and expanded mindset.
On Thinking Playfully ix
Acknowledgments xi
1 Introduction: What is all This Stuff? 1
2 Rules: Change Comes from Within 13
3 Computation: Is You Computer Having Fun? 29
4 Graphics: Water, Water Everywhere 43
5 User Interface: Playing at Work 59
Interlude 75
6 Time: Get in Line 77
7 Cinema: The Citizen Kane of Video Games 93
8 Violence: Less is More 113
9 Money: One Easy Payment of $4.99 129
10 Conclusion: Have You Seen the Moon Today? 147
Pippin Barr is Associate Professor of Computation Arts at Concordia University. Barr has collaborated with artists including Marina Abramović and @seinfeld2000 and produced games about everything from airplane safety instructions to chess to parenting. He is the author of How to Play a Video Game and cohost of the podcast GAMETHING.
Pippin Barr View titles by Pippin Barr

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A deep dive into practical game design through playful philosophy and philosophical play.

What are video games made of? And what can that tell us about what they mean? In The Stuff Games Are Made Of, experimental game maker Pippin Barr explores the materials of video game design. Taking the reader on a deep dive into eight case studies of his own games, Barr illuminates the complex nature of video games and video game design, and the possibilities both offer for exploring ideas big and small.

Through a variety of engaging and approachable examples, Barr shows how every single aspect of a game—whether it is code, graphics, interface, or even time itself—can be designed with and related to the player experience. Barr’s experimental approach, with its emphasis on highly specific elements of games, will leave readers armed with intriguing design philosophy, conceptual rigor, and diverse insights into the inner life of video games. Upon finishing this book, readers will be ready to think deeply about the nature of games, to dive into expressive and experimental game design themselves, or simply to play with a new and expanded mindset.

Table of Contents

On Thinking Playfully ix
Acknowledgments xi
1 Introduction: What is all This Stuff? 1
2 Rules: Change Comes from Within 13
3 Computation: Is You Computer Having Fun? 29
4 Graphics: Water, Water Everywhere 43
5 User Interface: Playing at Work 59
Interlude 75
6 Time: Get in Line 77
7 Cinema: The Citizen Kane of Video Games 93
8 Violence: Less is More 113
9 Money: One Easy Payment of $4.99 129
10 Conclusion: Have You Seen the Moon Today? 147

Author

Pippin Barr is Associate Professor of Computation Arts at Concordia University. Barr has collaborated with artists including Marina Abramović and @seinfeld2000 and produced games about everything from airplane safety instructions to chess to parenting. He is the author of How to Play a Video Game and cohost of the podcast GAMETHING.
Pippin Barr View titles by Pippin Barr

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