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Free Book: Designing Arcade Computer Game Graphics

  Published by Bart on January 12th, 2007 in Books

arcadegamedesign.pngIf you're into game design with Blender, then here's a valuable addition to your library. 'Designing Arcade Game Graphics' by Ari Feldman has been released for free by Wordware Publishing.

From the foreword:

In this book Ari Feldman gently but firmly exposes the artist to the technical requirements and jargon used by professionals in the game development field. Rather than assuming the programmer is the only one who needs to know this stuff, Ari insists the artist take responsibility too. [...] I have seen talented young artists drop out of the field of game development simply because they were overwhelmed by the expectations of the industry. And really, the technology behind computer artwork is not that difficult. All you really need is a resource that explains the capabilities and limitations to you. I believe Ari has provided such a resource with this book.

The table of contents:

  1. Arcade Games and Computer Arcade Game Platforms
  2. Designing for Different Display Modes
  3. Image Compression and Graphic File Formats
  4. Files and File Management
  5. Evaluating Graphics Creation Tools
  6. Essential Graphics Tools
  7. Color and Arcade Game Graphics
  8. All About Color Palettes
  9. Arcade Game Animation
  10. Fonts and Arcade Games
  11. Planning Arcade Game Graphics
  12. Hands-on Arcade Game Project—Fish Dish
  13. Miscellaneous Topics and Final Thoughts

Some of the topics (such as color palettes and DOS painting programs) are obviously a bit dated and not relevant to Blender projects, but many of the covered aspects, such as color theory, game design project management and character design considerations are still valid when you're designing 3D games.

This is an incredibly rich resource and if you're planning to create a game in Blender, I recommend you at least browser through this book before you begin. If you're short on time, I recommend you at least ready chapter 12.



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15 Responses to “Free Book: Designing Arcade Computer Game Graphics”  

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  1. 1 Alex_G Edit Link Jan 12th, 2007 at 10:30 am

    I remember downloading this years ago, but I didn't read much of it because I wasn't really into computer graphics back then. I should really check this out to see what I missed, thanks for the find Bart! :D

  2. 2 broken_sword Edit Link Jan 12th, 2007 at 1:20 pm

    Wow! Great! Thank you for posting this!!!

    -BS-

  3. 3 finty Edit Link Jan 12th, 2007 at 1:32 pm

    thanks for the link. It should come in handy for my game design class.

  4. 4 Simon Edit Link Jan 12th, 2007 at 1:48 pm

    I didn't read anything in the book yet, just want to say that sometimes the topics that look a bit dated for 'normal' computers suddenly start to make sense again if you have to develop for phones, set-top boxes and the like.

  5. 5 Kernon Edit Link Jan 12th, 2007 at 1:52 pm

    @Simon
    That's a great point!

  6. 6 Bmud Edit Link Jan 12th, 2007 at 3:46 pm

    @Simon: Bingo, and not to mention sprite games can sometimes just look cooler than 3D stuff.

  7. 7 Piet Edit Link Jan 12th, 2007 at 6:47 pm

    @Simon,

    You probably haven't seen the iPhone just yet, have you? ;)

  8. 8 Marcos Vinicius Edit Link Jan 12th, 2007 at 7:11 pm

    I downloaded it today, I hope it helps me to understand about blender game engine.
    A braziliam trying to learn blender games.

  9. 9 !Rocky Edit Link Jan 12th, 2007 at 7:53 pm

    First, this book is EXCELLENT! Thank you!

    Second, the so-called 8-bit graphics will NEVER die! Mario in 3D doesn't have that "Marioness" that pixel-pizza Mario does :D Plus it looks totally cool

    Also, there are plenty of apps that make good use of this type of graphics. Off the top of my head, I'd recommend playing Automation, a mini-game made in Adventure Game Studio — this is exactly the sort of thing that makes 8-bit look as good as 3D (and no, I'm not getting paid to say that :P ). Get it at http://new.bigbluecup.com/games.php?action=detail&id=694

  10. 10 Tynach Edit Link Jan 12th, 2007 at 11:24 pm

    Cool! My sister likes old arcade games, and she personally thinks they're better than 3D games. Unfortunately for me, she now wants me to make a new version of Pac-Man for her.

  11. 11 CKA Edit Link Jan 13th, 2007 at 7:27 am

    Bart: many thx for the link — I just d/l'ed the PDF file and will read it later.

    !Rocky: AWESOME link to AGS!!!

    cka

  12. 12 sciboy Edit Link Jan 13th, 2007 at 10:56 pm

    Should be an interesting read, Cheers. =)

  13. 13 puneeth Edit Link Feb 14th, 2007 at 10:53 am

    this is a nice one

  14. 14 azul Edit Link Mar 13th, 2007 at 8:07 am

    thanks, for post the ebook here.
    I'm a newbe, i hope this book will help me…

  15. 15 حسن Edit Link Jan 15th, 2008 at 5:01 am

    سلام ممنون از شما دوست خوب hello

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