Polished Game Development

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxi

   PDF

2. Introduction to Game Polish

   • Steven Goodwin

   Pages 1-17

3. The Essentials

   • Steven Goodwin

   Pages 19-33

4. Gameplay

   • Steven Goodwin

   Pages 35-63

5. Game Balancing

   • Steven Goodwin

   Pages 65-83

6. User Experience

   • Steven Goodwin

   Pages 85-104

7. In-Game Visuals

   • Steven Goodwin

   Pages 105-123

8. Audio

   • Steven Goodwin

   Pages 125-151

9. Writing

   • Steven Goodwin

   Pages 153-169

10. Coding Practices

    • Steven Goodwin

    Pages 171-198

11. Testing

    • Steven Goodwin

    Pages 199-217

12. Final Thoughts

    • Steven Goodwin

    Pages 219-248

13. Back Matter

    Pages 249-259

    PDF

Learn the things you need for a complete game, such as translations and tutorials, and improve the things you've already written to raise their standard to a professional level. This is a practical guide covering every discipline: art, music, writing, and code. In the case of the latter, code examples are included to demonstrate how to implement functionality to make the game shine.

Polished Game Development acts as a comprehensive checklist of everything your game should, and should not, do, in order to be as good as it possibly can. It is more than just a book on theoretical game design principles.

• Explains the difference between a pet project, and a professional one.
• Covers how to test for the problems and bugs you don't know you'll have.
• Details simple, but effective, visual improvements that can be done with very little effort.

Regardless of platform (web, mobile, or console), or language (C++, C#, JavaScript) there is a wealth of common (and specific) tips within these pages that will enable you to make the most professional games you can.

What You Will Learn

• Learn what essential elements are often missed
• Stay on-brand, visually and verbally
• Use audio to enhance your game
• Improve game balance
• Test effectively

Who This Book Is For


Game developers looking for a guide and checklist on how to get their game finished to the highest possible standards. They will know how to write a game, and get it released, but not necessarily how to make it shine. They will be professional developers, indies, university students and graduates.

• Game Development
• Game Programming
• Game Polish
• Game Testing
• Game Balance
• Game Publishing
• Game Graphics
• Game Design

“Presented concepts are applied in a 2D video game made with Javascript and the author’s own game engine. … Summing Up: Recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates; faculty and professionals.” (A. Chen, Choice, Vol. 54 (7), March, 2017)

• London, United Kingdom

  Steven Goodwin

Steven Goodwin has been involved in science and technology from an early age, and built his first synthesizer while still in his teens. Since then, his projects have been varied. He has sold over a million computer games, written two books, built robots, and automated a house that can be controlled from the Internet. He has spoken at many conferences, including NotCon '04 and the BBC Backstage OpenTech event.

Policies and ethics