CfP: Level Design Processes and Experiences – new edited volume on level design

papers_2Level Design: Processes and Experiences will be an edited volume by game development professionals on their tools and processes for level design edited by Christopher W. Totten, author of An Architectural Approach to Level Design and published by CRC Press. Each chapter will provide a specific point of view representing the method that designers employ in their own play, work and/or research. The book will cover several points of view on games, including industry, academic, and “hardcore” player perspectives on level design.

Interested authors can fill out the form here: http://goo.gl/forms/eu6LK7IJHW If you have questions, you can respond to this thread or e-mail totten@american.edu

Who will this book be for?

This book will be for professionals in the game development field, game design instructors, and students who want to explore different methods for level design to learn the process or enhance their own craft.

What can/should potential authors write about?

Unlike a “nuts and bolts” book that shows how to create content in specific software, the goal of this book is to provide information from designers that can be more “evergreen” and not fade away when popular technology changes. Potential authors may submit chapters on analytic play of game levels, methods for designing and planning, level construction best-practices, and testing levels. These chapters may address a number of wide-ranging topics about creating game worlds such as paper prototyping methods, methods for effective iteration, whiteboxing, design inspirations, procedural generation, playtesting, speed running, persuasive design, and other topics.

The book will be split into 4 sections:
- Section I: Experiencing levels – approaches to playing, experiencing, and deeply analyzing game worlds
- Section II: Designing levels – conceptualizing, planning, and setting goals for game levels
- Section III: Constructing levels – level design workflows, mindsets adopted during work, and construction methods
- Section IV: Testing levels – evaluating levels for usability, user experience, and proper communication with players

How do I propose a chapter?

Interested authors may fill out this form and submit a 500-1000 word double-spaced chapter proposal at http://goo.gl/forms/eu6LK7IJHW. Each proposal should provide:

- An overview of the proposed topic
- Which section of the book the chapter is proposed for
- Why the topic is important
- What the author or authors’ unique contribution is
- How the chapter is relevant to the intended section it is being proposed for
- How the chapter will benefit readers in the book’s intended audiences

All chapters should be submitted before July 1st. Submitting authors will be informed about their acceptance status by early Fall.

Invitation to: Ludic Economies: A Symposium on Value and Exchange in Contemporary Game Cultures (University of Southampton)

Play and games are at the heart of the new business models of mediatized global capitalism, attracting and sustaining attention, pioneering new techniques of payment and brand loyalty, lubricating the monetary and affective microtransactions of social media networks. The tensions are palpable: the social pleasures and spontaneous creativity of play harnessed to the late capitalist trajectories of ever greater mobilisation of everyday life for the aims of accumulation; the liminoid spaces of digital play gamified and punctuated by micro-payments.

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CfP: Chapters for “Level Design: Processes and Experiences”

Chris Totten writes:
I have just posted a CFP for a follow-up to my book An Architectural Approach to Level Design. The new book, Level Design: Processes and Experiences, will be an edited volume by game development professionals on their tools and processes for level design. It will be published by CRC Press. Each chapter will provide a specific point of view representing the method that designers employ in their own play, work and/or research. The book will cover several points of view on games, including industry, academic, and “hardcore” player perspectives on level design.