New World Notes

Game Designer Randy Smith Likes My Game Design Secrets

Acclaimed game designer Randy Smith of iOS studio Tiger Style has a very gratifying write-up of my new book, Game Design Secrets, which I love so much, I have to quote here:

"With lots of useful material like excerpted design docs, anecdotes, workflows, and copious interviews with numerous experienced developers, it’s a worthwhile read for anyone getting into the business." - Randy Smith, lead designer, Waking Mars, Spider, the Thief trilogy

As it happens, Tiger Style's award-winning design approach is featured in a chapter of the book, but after sending him the whole thing to read, it's an honor that Randy liked it all well enough to recommend it. I also interviewed him about Waking Mars here on this blog, and started writing about games with the groundbreaking Thief: The Dark Project, on which he was a lead designer.

Game Design Secrets is On Sale Now -- Watch the Book's Awesome Retro Promo Here!

My new book, Game Design Secrets, is now available on Amazon, and it comes with an animated promo I think is pretty fun and wacky and hilarious (as biased as I am), watch:

I love the retro, 8 bit-esque graphics and the surreal visuals, both of which were created by geek supreme Michael Szymanski of Tiger Uppercut Studios, which also produces the great Level 20-Something animated web series featuring SL/RL pop star Keiko Takamura. I love all the little details Mike put into the promo, like this frame grab below:

Tiger Style Secrets for Designing Great Indie iOS Games

"How to Design Your iOS Game to Grow: Learning from the Style of Tiger Style" is an excerpt from my new book now featured on Gamasutra, and it's a close look at the design strategies of the studio that brought us the innovative iOS games Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor and Waking Mars, which I wrote about a few months ago. In the excerpt, Tiger Style's Randy Smith (who was lead desginer on the classic Thief games) explains the design strategies that have helped turn their artistic and ambitious games into low budget hits: Spider, released in 2009, has so far sold more than 360,000 copies and grossed more than $1,000,000, but was only made for $15,000, while Waking Mars, launched last March, was made for about $43,000 but has already sold over 55,000 copies, grossing more than $240,000. Read Randy's Tiger Style secrets here, and for the whole book, use the special code "GDS12″ at checkout for a 40 percent discount for ordering the book on Wiley.

My Wiley Author's Speaking Page for Game Design Secrets is Up, Let Me Show You It

My Wiley Authorities Speak page is up, I'm happy to say, which is where you can go to request any and all appearances around my upcoming book, Game Design Secrets, which hits in September. The author photo contains some of my very favorite things: San Francisco and Kailua in the background, my Alienware laptop and my iPhone, my psycho Space Invader T-Shirt bought in Austin during SXSW, and, of course, a pretty decent glass of wine. (Far more essential than all of those things: My girlfriend behind the camera.) If you're interested in designing games for iOS, Facebook, and the web, I like to think this book will be a great resource for doing that successfully: Click here to get a 40% pre-order discount code.

Get a 40% Discount for My New Wiley Book on iOS, Facebook, and Web Game Design!

Coming this September, my new book Game Design Secrets from Wiley will focus on games for iOS, Facebook, and the Web, and the key features to marketing and monetizating them. All three platforms have opened up huge opportunities for low budget/indie game production, and my hope is this book helps developers turn their passion for games into a full-time profession and thriving business. It'll include expert advice and insights from many successful designers, including some developers you'll recognize from their work in Second Life and Linden Lab. And thanks to the folks at Wiley, the book's publisher, anyone reading this can get a pre-order discount of 40%:

Preorder Game Design Secrets from Wiley.com and get 40% off of the print version. Click here to order, and enter “GDS12” at checkout. 

Watch this blog for more announcements. And If you're a game developer working on or interested in games for the Web, iOS, or Facebook, please get in touch with me:

I'm Writing a Book on Game Design for iOS, Facebook, and the Web: Readers, Get a 40% Discount Code -- Developers Reading This, Get in Touch With Me!

I promised an announcement on Monday, and now here it is -- I'm thrilled to say I have a new book coming out later this year: Game Design Secrets for iOS, Facebook, and the Web, with a focus on design elements key to marketing and monetization. All three platforms have opened up huge opportunities for low budget/indie game production especially, and my hope is this book helps developers turn their passion for games into a full-time profession and thriving business. It'll include expert advice and insights from many successful designers, including some developers you'll recognize from their work in Second Life. I'd love to include many more, so:

If you're an SL game developer interested in expanding or exporting your game to the Web, iOS, or Facebook, please get in touch with me -- I want to know about your plans, and possibly include them in the book. E-mail me at wjamesau at well dot com.

And thanks to the folks at Wiley, the book's publisher, anyone reading this can get a pre-order discount of 40%:

Preorder Game Design Secrets from Wiley.com and get 40% off of the print version. Enter “GDS12” at checkout. Offer available through 8/31/12.

More info on the book in coming months. Meantime, if you're a developer, please hit me up -- and if you're friends with a developer, please send them this link!

New World Notes Turns 9 This Weekend - Thanks for Reading, Standby for Some Announcements Soon!

On April 22, 2003, I wrote my first post for New World Notes, which means come this weekend, this blog will be nine years old. (Here's some of my favorite posts from 2003.) NWN started as the "embedded reporter" chronicles I wrote as a contractor for Linden Lab, then migrated off the official site when I left the company to write The Making of Second Life, and continued on through the highs and lows of what was and still largely is the most audacious, successful, and inspiring experiment in user-generated content and world building ever attempted on the Internet. That's the main reason why I keep writing about it, no matter what setbacks it may suffer, why I keep advocating ideas I think are necessary for its survival that many may think crazy, and why I'll keep on covering it as much as I can. (And as long as you keep reading.)

In any case, whatever the fate of Second Life the Linden Lab-owned product, the influence of SL has reached far beyond this iteration, as seen in the rise of virtual goods, avatar identity and virtual community, user-generated content, immersive technology, and innovative gaming, all topics I'll also keep covering in their many forms.

Speaking of which, I have one or two (or maybe even three) cool new projects related to all that, which I'll announce here in next few months. Meantime, if you're reading this, thanks for reading, and being part of this ongoing story. And please join me in thanking the brilliant and lovely Iris Ophelia and my past NWN contributors for making this blog far more interesting than I alone ever could.

Join Me in a Live Chat on Second Life Re-Branding & Other Topics on the CMO Site, Tomorrow at 10am Pacific/SLT

Tomorrow at 10am Pacific/SLT, I'm the featured guest blogger in a live chat on the CMO Site, where I'll be talking about my recent article on how to re-brand Second Life, and other marketing-flavored topics. Create a free CMO account if you haven't already, then on Friday 7/22, 10am SLT, click here!

My Google Plus Profile, Let Me Show You It

Click here or upon my head to add my profile to your Google Circles, and I surely hope you do. Less than a week after making my Google+ profile, with Google still slow to release invite codes, I already have over 200 folks in my network, which is well over 10% of my Facebook network. But that's less about me, and much more about the huge demand for a social network that works better than Facebook as it's currently deployed. And it's also a lot of fun dragging people's heads into their respective Circle.) Click here to drag my own head into your desired Circle.

Come See Me Speak About Facebook Credits at SF's All Facebook Conference - Here's a Discount Code!

Next week in San Francisco I'll be at the All Facebook Expo talking about Facebook Credits, the largest virtual currency in the world that's soon getting larger. Specifically, as it's listed in the program, "Facebook Credits: New Opportunities for Developers".

Get your boss to pay for it, and tell her you have a discount code to save 15%: Enter "AFESPKR" when you register. Hope to see you there!