Appendix A: Sample Budget Spreadsheet

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If you have been following along with the exercises in this book as you read the text, you have not only broadened your understanding of games and game structures, but you have learned to conceive, prototype, playtest and articulate your own game ideas.

You have thought through what it will take to produce at least one of your original game ideas, by creating a production plan with goals, deliverables, a schedule, and a budget. You have a draft of your game's design document and presentation materials such as art boards, a PowerPoint show, and perhaps a working demo of your game. You may even have a list of contacts in the industry to whom you can pitch your idea. In other words, you are well on your way to working as a game designer.

It has been our goal throughout this book to empower you with the knowledge and skills to go out and work as a game designer, either by getting a job at an established company, by selling your game ideas to a publisher, or by producing your ideas independently. If you feel confident in your ability to do this, then we've accomplished our goal.

Alongside this confidence, however, should exist the knowledge that 'becoming' a game designer is a lifelong process that is never finished. Hopefully, you will continue growing and learning as a designer for the rest of your career, and the ideas we have presented in this book will just be the first step in a very interesting journey-the first level of your life as a game designer, so to speak.

Now, you are ready to move on to tackle more challenging concepts in design, more professional responsibility, or perhaps to refine your focus to a particular field-such as visual design, programming, producing, or marketing. Wherever your future path in game design directs you, we hope you take with you a sense of the infinite possibility that exists for game design today, the potential for developing an entertainment form with the ability to move people to involvement and action far beyond traditional media.

The future of game design rests not only in the ever more immersive qualities of technological devices we read so much about today, but more importantly in the ability of those technological wonders to serve some deeper sense of play and interaction. The potential is wide open to bring richer emotional qualities to the experience of games we know, and to create new and unique mechanics for games we've yet to play. The game designers of the next few decades will show whether this medium will live up to that promise or not. We believe that you are up to the challenge.

Thanks for playing!



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Game Design Workshop. Designing, Prototyping, and Playtesting Games
Game Design Workshop: Designing, Prototyping, & Playtesting Games (Gama Network Series)
ISBN: 1578202221
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 162

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