Contents -- Introduction -- Chapter 1 So You Want to Be a Game Designer? -- What a Game Designer Is and Is Not -- What About Indie Game Design? -- Game Dev Step by Step -- Pre-Production -- Production -- Post-Production -- Where to Get Those Killer Game Ideas -- What Makes a Killer Game? -- Gameplay Mechanics -- Interactivity -- The Four Fs of Great Game Design -- What's Next? -- Chapter 2 Torque 3D: Under the Hood -- Why a Game Engine? -- Torque 3D Features -- Games Made with Torque 3D -- Licensing -- Other Torque Products to Consider -- Torque 2D -- iTorque 2D -- Console Game Development -- Components of Torque 3D -- World Editor Toolset -- TorqueScript -- Next-Gen Rendering Capabilities -- Web Publishing Capabilities -- What's Next? -- Chapter 3 Creating a Basic Game Outline -- Game Design Document -- Questions to Ask Yourself -- Game Overview -- Write the Feature Set -- Work Breakdown -- Asset Production -- Interface Design -- Sound Design -- Technical Specs -- Game Outline Example -- Ravenscroft Outline -- Myst Outline -- What's Next? -- Chapter 4 Opening Your Garage -- Jump-Starting Your Engine -- Install Torque 3D -- Install Additional Software -- Take Torque for a Test Drive -- Create a New Project -- Get Started in the World Editor -- What's Next? -- Chapter 5 This Is Your Land: The World Editor -- Level Up! What It Takes in Level Design -- Level Designer Dos and Don'ts -- Exterior and Interior Spaces -- Creating a World with World Editor -- Adding Terrain -- Terrain Editor Interface -- Making Ravenscroft Valley -- What's Next? -- Chapter 6 I No Ditz, I Know DTS -- Games and 3D Art -- 3D Does Not Require Blue-and-Red Glasses! -- Creating DTS Files -- Most Widely Used Modeling Packages for Creating DTS Files -- Using 3ds Max to Make DTS Files -- Familiarize Yourself with Max -- Viewports -- Menu Bar -- Toolbars -- Command Panel.

Select Objects in Max -- Transform Tools -- Box and Segmented Modeling -- Build Structurally Sound Models -- Editable Poly vs. Editable Mesh -- Use Metric Units of Measurement -- Build a Crate -- Make the Geometry -- Change the Crate's Texture -- Create a Bounding Box -- Export the Crate to DTS -- Install the DTS Exporter Utility -- What the DTS Exporter Does -- Renumber and Embed Your Crate Shape -- Prepare Your Crate's Collisions -- Export Your Crate Shape -- Import the Crate into Your Game -- Build a Medieval-Type Village -- Make a Medieval House -- What's Next? -- Chapter 7 This Isn't the Runway: Modeling 101 -- How to Create Game Characters -- Define Your Character's Personality -- Game Character Types -- Game Character Descriptions -- Make Up Your Own Characters -- Making Characters for Torque -- Animated Shapes in Torque -- Create a Character Model -- Add a Material to Gentry Jack -- Rig Gentry Jack -- Export Gentry Jack to DTS -- How to Animate Objects Instead of Characters -- Free Resources for Max Files -- Affordable Resources for Torque -- What's Next? -- Chapter 8 Getting Gooey: Designing GUIs -- Game Interface -- History of Game Interfaces -- Give the Player Control -- Input/Output -- Think Usability -- Predict Emergent Gameplay -- GUIs for Games -- The GUI Editor -- Under the Hood of the GUI Editor -- Edit the Ravenscroft GUI -- What's Next? -- Chapter 9 The Sound and the Fury -- Sound Used in TV and Film -- A Short History Lesson of Sound -- Hyper-Real Sound -- Sound Fundamentals -- Influencing Factors -- Start Your Own Sound Studio -- Soundproof Your Studio -- Get Some Software -- Get a Mic -- Sound Recording -- Using Sound Libraries -- Audacity -- Record Audio in Audacity -- Edit Audio in Audacity -- Export Audio from Audacity -- Sounds in Torque 3D -- Sound Support in Torque -- Engineering Sounds in Torque -- What's Next?.

Chapter 10 Should I Stay or Should I Goal? -- Code for Torque -- TorqueScript -- Al-Go-Rhythm -- Script Editors -- Under the Hood of TorqueScript -- Other Things to Do -- What's Next? -- Chapter 11 Multiplayer Setup -- Designing the Next Big MMO -- Torque Network -- Ghost Manager -- Take Your Game to the Next Level -- What's Next? -- Chapter 12 Put Your Game to the Test -- Game Testing -- Bug Reports -- Iterative Game Development -- Top Issues to Watch Out For -- What's Next? -- Chapter 13 Designing Other Games -- Games Made with Torque 3D -- Games Made with Torque 2D -- Games Made for Consoles -- Game Creation for Xbox 360 -- Game Creation for Wii -- Games Made for Mobile Devices -- Final Thoughts -- Get a Gaming Education: College for Designers -- What's Next? -- Chapter 14 Get the Word Out: Play This Game! -- Developing a Proposal -- Tooting Your Own Horn -- Develop a Clear Identity or Gimmick -- Publish on the Web -- The World Wide Web -- Web Speak -- Web Browsers -- Hosting Servers -- Build Your Own Website -- Use a Community Profile to Advertise Your Games -- What's Next? -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- X -- Y -- Z.