Situational Game Design

Situational Game Design builds upon the foundations of Brian Upton's previous book, the Aesthetic of Play, to provide designers with a condensed version of the many definitions and understandings brought forth in the 2015 opus.Situational Game Design is much more hands-on than academic works of game studies, aimed at designers looking for applicable lessons that can be put to practice. The book synthesizes the core of the extensive research work carried out by Brian Upton over the course of the past few years and refines some of the notions and definitions that appeared before to fit them into the elegant and precise structure of the situational game design model.Thanks to Upton's ability to extract the essentials and to refine the material that was brought to light in the Aesthetic of Play, any designer can pick up Situational Game Design and put its lessons to practice in creating play spaces not predicated upon a predominance of the Gamist agenda. The structure of the book's chapters is well thought-out and provides the reader with all the necessary pieces to understand and test Upton's proposed methodology for themselves. Each chapter ends with a helpful summary of its contents, allowing you to settle on your interpretation as you go and to internalize the necessary constraints to get a good grasp on the theory.The only caveat for those who wouldn't have read The Aesthetic of Play beforehand is that you'll find Situational Game Design to be lacking in terms of references and bibliography. Still, this criticism is easily defeated by the fact that contrary to the Aesthetic of Play which was an exercise in game studies, Situational Game Design is much more of a game designer's tool and is thus formatted accordingly. One can always turn to the Aesthetic of Play for a richer account of the research that led to Situational Game Design.I whole-heartedly recommend this book to anyone interested in game design and in the evolution of games as a medium. It is quite brilliantly-crafted, very approachable, and it provides a designer with a powerful toolset to try their hands at broadening the horizon of their designs and at empowering them with meaning. Brian Upton shares once again valuable knowledge and experience, it would truly be a shame if you missed it.