Free Book: Designing Arcade Computer Game Graphics

Bart · January 12, 2007

If 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:

Arcade Games and Computer Arcade Game Platforms
Designing for Different Display Modes
Image Compression and Graphic File Formats
Files and File Management
Evaluating Graphics Creation Tools
Essential Graphics Tools
Color and Arcade Game Graphics
All About Color Palettes
Arcade Game Animation
Fonts and Arcade Games
Planning Arcade Game Graphics
Hands-on Arcade Game Projectâ€”Fish Dish
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.

Download the PDF (4.8 MB / 500 pages)

Author Bart

I have a LONG history with Blender - I wrote some of the earliest Blender tutorials, worked for Not a Number and helped run the crowdfunding campaign that open sourced Blender (the first one on the internet!). I founded BlenderNation in 2006 and have been editing it every single day since then ;-) I also run the Blender Artists forum and I'm Community Lead at n8n.

15 responses

Alex_G

12 January 2007 at 10:30

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

broken_sword

12 January 2007 at 13:20

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

-BS-

finty

12 January 2007 at 13:32

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

Simon

12 January 2007 at 13:48

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.

Kernon

12 January 2007 at 13:52

@Simon
That’s a great point!

Bmud

12 January 2007 at 15:46

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

Piet

12 January 2007 at 18:47

@Simon,

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

Marcos Vinicius

12 January 2007 at 19:11

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

!Rocky

12 January 2007 at 19:53

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

Tynach

12 January 2007 at 23:24

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.