Non-Computer Games, Too

Non-Computer Games , Too!

This book is primarily about designing interactive entertainment: computer and video games of various kinds. You will notice, however, that we frequently refer to non-computerized games as well ”card games like poker, board games like Monopoly, and so on. We do this for three reasons:

• First, those games are likely to be familiar to the largest number of people. Not all of our readers will have played computer games such as Planescape: Torment , and some will be too young to remember Colossal Cave , but everyone has heard of chess.

• Second, simpler, non-computerized games tend to be designed around a single principle, so they serve to illustrate that principle well.

• Finally, we believe that the essence of game design has little to do with the game's delivery medium. The principles that are common to all good games are independent of the means by which they are presented. A good game designer should be able to design board games, card games, pencil-and-paper games, and computer games with equal facility.