100 principles of game design / Wendy Despain, editor ; Keyvan Acosta [and others].

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. UNIVERSAL PRINCIPLES FOR GAME INNOVATION -- A/symmetric play and synchronicity -- Aces high, jokers wild -- Bartle's player types -- Cooperative vs. oppositional -- Fairness -- Feedback loops -- Gardner's multiple intelligences -- Howard's law of occult game design -- Information -- Koster's theory of fun -- Lazzaro's four keys to fun -- Magic circle -- Making moves -- MDA: mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics -- Memory vs. skill -- Minimax and maximin -- Nash equilibrium -- Outcomes: Pareto optimality -- Payoffs -- Prisoner's dilemma -- Puzzle development -- Rock, paper, scissors -- Seven universal emotions -- Skinner box -- Social ties -- Tragedy of the commons -- Transparency -- VandenBerghe's five domains of play -- Volunteer's dilemma -- 2. UNIVERSAL PRINCIPLES FOR GAME CREATION -- The 80/20 rule -- Brainstorming methods -- Consumer surplus -- Core gameplay loop -- Define the problem -- Design by committee -- Environmental storytelling -- Experience design -- Flow -- Four ways to be creative -- Game genres -- Game pillars -- Game tropes -- Gestalt -- House rules -- Iteration -- Magic wand -- Metagames -- Objects, attributes, states -- Ooh, shiny! -- Paper prototyping -- Pick two: fast, cheap, good -- Play testing -- Problem-solving obstacles -- Prototyping -- Risk assessment -- Supply and demand -- Synergy -- Theme -- Time and money -- User-centered design -- Wayfinding -- 3. UNIVERSAL PRINCIPLES FOR GAME BALANCING -- Addition pathways -- Attention vs. perception -- Balancing and tuning -- Details -- Doubling and halving -- Economies of scale -- Errors players make -- Errors without punishment -- Hick's law -- Interest curve -- Learning curve -- Loss aversion -- Maslow's hierarchy of needs -- Min/maxing -- Punishment -- Sandbox vs. on rails -- Ten minutes of sustained attention -- Variable rewards -- 4. UNIVERSAL PRINCIPLES FOR TROUBLESHOOTING -- Advance organizers -- Affordance cues -- The Buster principle -- Cognitive biases -- Dominant strategy -- Fitts' law -- Fundamental attribution error -- Golden ratio -- Griefing -- Hype -- Instant vs. delayed gratification -- Krug's first law of usability -- Music and dopamine -- Pacing -- Problem-solving approaches -- Satisficing vs. optimizing -- Sense of accomplishment -- Spatial awareness -- Time dilation -- Working memory -- Zero-sum game.