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CRC Press

The Gamer's Brain: How Neuroscience and UX Can Impact Video Game Design

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Making a successful video game is hard. Even games that are well-received at launch may fail to engage players in the long term due to issues with the user experience (UX) that they are delivering. That’s why makers of successful video games like Fortnite and Assassin’s Creed invest both time and money perfecting their UX strategy. These top video game creators know that a bad user experience can ruin the prospects for any game, regardless of its budget, scope, or ambition.The game UX accounts for the whole experience players have with a video game, from first hearing about it to navigating menus and progressing in the game. UX as a discipline offers guidelines to assist developers in creating the optimal experience they want to deliver, including shipping higher quality games (whether indie, triple-A or "serious" games) and meeting business goals -- all while staying true to design vision and artistic intent.At its core, UX is about understanding the gamer’s brain: understanding human capabilities and limitations to anticipate how a game will be perceived, the emotions it will elicit, how players will interact with it, and how engaging the experience will be. This book is designed to equip readers of all levels, from student to professional, with cognitive science knowledge and user experience guidelines and methodologies. These insights will help readers identify the ingredients for successful and engaging video games, empowering them to develop their own unique game recipe more efficiently, while providing a better experience for their audience. "The Gamer's Brain: How Neuroscience and UX Can Impact Video Game Design"Is written by Celia Hodent -- a UX expert with a PhD in psychology who has been working in the entertainment industry for over 10 years, including at prominent companies such as Epic Games (Fortnite), Ubisoft, and LucasArts.Major themes explored in this book:Provides an overview of how the brain learns and processes information by distilling research findings from cognitive science and psychology research in a very accessible way. Topics covered include: "neuromyths", perception, memory, attention, motivation, emotion, and learning.Includes numerous examples from released games of how scientific knowledge translates into game design, and how to use a UX framework in game development.Describes how UX can guide developers to improve the usability and the level of engagement a game provides to its target audience by using cognitive psychology knowledge, implementing human-computer interaction principles, and applying the scientific method (user research).Provides a practical definition of UX specifically applied to games, with a unique framework. Defines the most relevant pillars for good usability (ease of use) and good "engage-ability" (the ability of the game to be fun and engaging), translated into a practical checklist.Covers design thinking, game user research, game analytics, and UX strategy at both a project and studio level.This book is a practical tool that any professional game developer or student can use right away and includes the most complete overview of UX in games existing today. Read more


Publisher ‏ : ‎ CRC Press; 1st edition (September 28, 2017)


Language ‏ : ‎ English


Paperback ‏ : ‎ 266 pages


ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1498775500


ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 02


Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15.7 ounces


Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.14 x 0.6 x 9.21 inches


Best Sellers Rank: #347,609 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #31 in Computer Programming Structured Design #75 in Computer & Video Game Design #178 in Game Programming


#31 in Computer Programming Structured Design:


#75 in Computer & Video Game Design:


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Top Amazon Reviews

    • Tap inside a player’s mind!
I cannot stress enough on how amazing of a read The Gamer’s Brain by Celia Hodent is! Whether you are a designer or not, I still strongly recommend reading this book as it taps into concepts such as Player Perception, Motivation drivers and Player emotions to name a few. Whether you are a pet of the game’s industry as Game/UX designer or not, you will benefit from the learning you have to take away from this book. It will broaden your perspective towards UX in games and applications in general. Definitely recommend this book! ... show more
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 9, 2020 by Vishwajeet Kale
    • A very insightful and humble deep dive on how to care about designing the best experience for your players
As a non designer person, I absolutely loved Celia's book as it gave me the perfect combination between helping me understand how the brain works and how that can help me in my day to day work since while I am not designing games per say, I am designing Community Experiences for players and the knowledge I acquired through this book was extremely useful. The other part I like is that Celia doesn't preach UX to be the solution to everything; her approach is very humble and she admits the field is still very young and we have still very much to learn about social behavior. It's refreshing not to get an agenda pushed onto us and that makes the book even more enjoyable to read. So yeah, all in all, for everyone who is interested in human contacts and designing human experiences, I would definitely recommend this book. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 15, 2018 by Loic
    • building a picture of the titular "Gamer's Brain" and showing--rather than telling--how UX is sewn into the fabric of good game design
The Gamer's Brain doesn't beg you to take UX seriously. It approaches the concept from the ground up, building a picture of the titular "Gamer's Brain" and showing--rather than telling--how UX is sewn into the fabric of good game design. By the time Hodent establishes this picture, you'll be more than ready for the second half, in which she articulates how to execute these concepts (with dozens of real examples to boot). Yes, the book reads like a textbook for the most part, but I was grateful that it cut through unnecessary fluff, unlike some gaming textbooks padded by the authors attempting to sound cool and casual. That being said, it isn't excessively dry by any means. The Gamer's Brain is a crash introduction to psychology, neuroscience, and user experience bundled into one. If you're interested in learning why polished and streamlined games set design paradigms, rather than blindly following them, you won't be disappointed. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 28, 2017 by Jeff!
    • The Gamer's Brain is a must-have for anyone looking to learn about UX in game design and development
I'm frequently asked for recommendations from people who are interested in game design and/or UX design for games and other than referencing some of Tufte's work, Don Norman's Design of Everyday Things, and Jesse Schell's A Book of Lenses I start to run out of good material for them. This adds one to the list. Celia Hodent has been giving insightful and entertaining talks on UX in game development for years. I've enjoyed those talks and I'm thrilled that in The Gamer's Brain, she takes her psychology-tinged themes and structures them all together into a coherent and entertaining book that will inevitably become a staple text in university game design programs everywhere. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 21, 2017 by Kraken
    • This book is fantastic. I'm very familiar with cognitive science
This book is fantastic. Nearly every chapter has extraordinary, practical information that gave me a new and deep understanding of my field. From the way forgetting curves interact with tutorial pacing to the way peripheral vision informs HUD design, this book is 110% worth your time. Get it, read it, learn. It'll save you weeks of missteps and false trails, which will be more than worth it for your games. Heck, even if you're just interested in how this stuff works it's still a great read. Enjoy. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 31, 2018 by Dan Felder
    • This book makes it so much easier
Ms. Hodent's book is clearly the best book I have ever read. For the longest time the entire concept for UX was a complex bottleneck for me as a game developer. Being a 15+ year veteran, I had vowed never to return and here I am - returning to the field with a fury thanks to this book. It made me want to make games again. What I had picked up out of academic curiosity, opened up endless possibilities in gaming, gamification and transmedia. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 27, 2017 by Bakatron
    • Interesting book
I discovered this book thanks to talented Game Spectrum (French Youtuber). Celia Hodent a French philosopher. She worked from a lot of compagny, suck Epic Game (Fornite). She explained how UX in the game design can control the brain of gamer. This book is both terrifying and fabulous. Our brains are really scalable and triple A companies know it. This is an amazing book. It is a good choice. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 26, 2018 by ReeseSkyshadow
    • Best book on the subject
Celia Hodent really provides an excellent service to the industry at large with this one. In it she details research that previously was only available aggregated to corporations that could pay for it. Super grateful for this book.
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 2, 2019 by Alexander Hinton

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