The Gamer's Brain: How Neuroscience and UX Can Impact Video Game Design

Description

Making a successful video game is hard. Even games that are successful at launch may fail to engage and retain players in the long term due to issues with the user experience (UX) that they are delivering. The game user experience accounts for the whole experience players have with a video game, from first hearing about it to navigating menus and progressing in the game. UX as a discipline offers guidelines to assist developers in creating the experience they want to deliver, shipping higher quality games (whether it is an indie game, AAA game, or "serious game"), and meeting their business goals while staying true to their design and artistic intent. In a nutshell, UX is about understanding the gamer’s brain: understanding human capabilities and limitations to anticipate how a game will be perceived, the emotions it will elicit, how players will interact with it, and how engaging the experience will be. This book is designed to equip readers of all levels, from student to professional, with neuroscience knowledge and user experience guidelines and methodologies. These insights will help readers identify the ingredients for successful and engaging video games, empowering them to develop their own unique game recipe more efficiently, while providing a better experience for their audience. Key Features Provides an overview of how the brain learns and processes information by distilling research findings from cognitive science and psychology research in a very accessible way. Topics covered include: "neuromyths", perception, memory, attention, motivation, emotion, and learning. Includes numerous examples from released games of how scientific knowledge translates into game design, and how to use a UX framework in game development. Describes how UX can guide developers to improve the usability and the level of engagement a game provides to its target audience by using cognitive psychology knowledge, implementing human-computer interaction principles, and applying the scientific method (user research). Provides a practical definition of UX specifically applied to games, with a unique framework. Defines the most relevant pillars for good usability (ease of use) and good "engage-ability" (the ability of the game to be fun and engaging), translated into a practical checklist. Covers design thinking, game user research, game analytics, and UX strategy at both a project and studio level. Offers unique insights from a UX expert and PhD in psychology who has been working in the entertainment industry for over 10 years. This book is a practical tool that any professional game developer or student can use right away and includes the most complete overview of UX in games existing today.

Get the book

Amazon.com

Search the book

eBay.com

Search the book

Similar books

• 

  Family History Digital Libraries

  By William Sims Bainbridge

  One named Sara and Timberlake had 11 male workers, 1 female worker, and 4 children workers, so it might have employed the Minor family.

• 

  Foundation Dreamweaver MX

  By Craig Grannell, Jerome Turner, Matt Stephens

  So here's what we need to do to arrive at our layout: s Create the main table to hold all the page elements. s Deal with the navigation area which is ...

• 

  Cisco CCNA Certification, 2 Volume Set: Exam 200-301

  By Todd Lammle

  This inclusive, two-book set provides what you need to know to succeed on the new CCNA exam. The set includes Understanding Cisco Networking Technologies: Volume 1 and the CCNA Certification Study Guide: Volume 2.

• 

  CompTIA Network+ Study Guide: Exam N10-006

  By Todd Lammle

  ... you can use: –a –A –c –n –r –R –S –s All nbtstat switches are case sensitive. Generally speaking, lowercase switches deal with NetBIOS names of hosts, ...

• 

  CompTIA Network+ Study Guide with Online Labs: N10-007 Exam

  By Todd Lammle, Jon Buhagiar

  ... you can use: –a –A –c –n –r –R –S –s All nbtstat switches are case sensitive. Generally speaking, lowercase switches deal with NetBIOS names of hosts, ...

• 

  CCNA: Cisco Certified Network Associate FastPass

  By Todd Lammle

  S The S reference point defines the point between the customer router and an ... with the letter E deal with using ISDN on the existing telephone network.

• 

  Stranger in the Chat Room

  By Todd Hafer, Jedd Hafer

  A sequel to In the Chat Room With God finds a group of teens contacted by a mysterious and increasingly malevolent character who claims to know about their encounters with the Almighty and challenges their beliefs. Original.

• 

  Error Correction Coding: Mathematical Methods and Algorithms

  By Todd K. Moon

  M M−1∑ k=0 −∞ ∞ k=0 The average energy per signal E s ∫ can be related to the ... we will deal primarily with additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN), ...

• 

  Security+ Training Guide

  By Todd King

  ... to deal with most , but unfortunately not all , of these potential threats . ... The S / MIME standard implements encryption for message content using ...

• 

  CCDA: Cisco Certified Design Associate Study Guide: Exam 640-861

  By Todd Lammle, Andy Barkl

  S reference point The S reference point defines the reference point between ... with the letter E deal with using ISDN on the existing telephone network.