Game Magic : A Designer's Guide to Magic Systems in Theory and Practice

__Make More Immersive and Engaging Magic Systems in Games__ **Game Magic: A Designer’s Guide to Magic Systems in Theory and Practice** explains how to construct magic systems and presents a compendium of arcane lore, encompassing the theory, history, and structure of magic systems in games and human belief. The author combines rigorous scholarly analysis with practical game design advice in the form of a magical recipe book (grimoire). The book gives you an in-depth understanding of the history and structure of magic to make your games richer and deeper. It shows how to set up tables of correspondences and spell components as well as how to write programming code integrating these components as part of game mechanics. It also illustrates how to divide a simulated world into domains of influence (such as alteration, conjuration, and necromancy) and how to use specific rule systems to simulate powers within these realms. Showing you how to weave compelling magic into your games, the book is interspersed with examples that illustrate how to design and program magic systems. Working examples are available for download on a supporting website. Front Cover 1 Contents 9 List of Figures 15 List of Tables 19 Thanks 21 The Author 23 Table of Recipes/Code Snippets 25 Proverbs of Game Magic 29 Epigraphs 31 Chapter 1: How to Use This Book 33 Chapter 2: Magic Systems in Theory and Practice 39 Chapter 3: From Exemplary Game Magic Systems to Code Recipes 53 Chapter 4: Schools of Game Magic 131 Chapter 5: Magic as Programming, Programming as Magic 211 Chapter 6: Game Design Lessons from Occult Magic 231 Chapter 7: A Videogame Designer’s Guide to Non-Digital Game Magic 269 Chapter 8: Adapting Game Magic from the Literature of the Fantastic 291 Works Cited 335 Appendix A: A Magic System Worksheet 345 Appendix B: Timelines 351 Back Cover 361 "This book provides a guide to performing magic and combining arcane symbols to render meaningful and powerful utterances. The author analyzes magic systems in games and shows how to effectively design better systems. The text encompasses the theory, history, and structure of magic systems in both games and human belief and incorporates pseudocode examples of how to design and program magic systems, with working examples offered online"-- Provided by publisher Annotation. This text provides a guide to performing magic and combining arcane symbols to render meaningful and powerful utterances. The author analyses magic systems in games and shows how to effectively design better systems. The text encompasses the theory, history and structure of magic systems in both games and human belief and incorporates pseudocode examples of how to design and program magic systems, with working examples offered online