The Gamer's Brain by Hodent, Celia;

Short description:

Creating a successful video game requires more than just great ideas—it demands a deep understanding of user experience (UX). Successful games like Fortnite thrive because of their refined UX strategy, which prioritizes player engagement and satisfaction.

Long description:

Creating a successful video game requires more than just great ideas—it demands a deep understanding of user experience (UX). Successful games like Fortnite thrive because of their refined UX strategy, which prioritizes player engagement and satisfaction. This book equips readers with cognitive science insights and UX methodologies to design fun and engaging games that are inclusive, accessible, and ethically sound, while staying true to the artistic and design vision. Whether you're developing indie, triple-A, educational games, or a gamified product this resource helps you offer engaging experiences across all platforms and technologies.

New Edition Highlights:

• Expanded coverage of UX across emerging platforms (e.g., VR, AR, metaverse) and technologies (e.g., AI, blockchain).


• Ethical considerations in game design and monetization.


• Full text updated and revised. 

 Core Topics:

• Cognitive science principles applied to game design, including perception, memory, attention, motivation, emotion, and learning principles.


• UX framework tailored for games, emphasizing usability and engageability with a detailed checklist.


• Insights into design thinking, user research, analytics, and UX strategy at both project and studio levels.


• Examples from released games illustrating how scientific knowledge enhances design.


• Guidance on leveraging human-computer interaction principles and user research to improve game usability and engagement.

This updated edition is an essential tool for game developers and students, offering the most comprehensive overview of UX in games available today.

Praise for the First Edition…

"The beauty of this book is that it is two things at the same time:

1. An amazingly complete introduction to psychology, using examples from video games to make the concepts clear and memorable.

2. An amazingly complete introduction to video game design, using psychology to help design more compelling games.

So whether you are a game designer, a player, or someone wishing to understand psychology, this is the book for you."

-Don Norman, Director, the Design Lab at the University of California, San Diego, Author of The Design of Everyday Things

"By blending up-to-date brain science with game-relevant UX design principles, this book doesn't just give great tips about how to make better games, it gives designers the mental tools to get better at thinking about games. Read this, and suddenly you'll know what you're talking about."

-Jesse Schell, Game Designer, author of The Art of Game Design

"This book is an invaluable asset for game developers, whether you work in game design, user experience, or programming. With a lucid overview of the current best knowledge from cognitive psychology, Hodent provides guidelines and approaches to improve the game experience for players that are based on actual science."

-Raph Koster, Game Designer, author of A Theory of Fun for Game Design

Table of Contents:

1. Why You Should Care about the Gamer’s Brain, PART 1: UNDERSTANDING THE BRAIN, 2. Overview about the Brain, 3. Perception, 4. Memory, 5. Attention, 6. Motivation, 7. Emotion, 8. Learning Principles, 9. Understanding the Brain: Takeaway, PART 2: A UX FRAMEWORK FOR VIDEO GAMES, 10. Game User Experience: Overview, 11. Usability, 12. Engageability, 13. Design Thinking, 14. Game User Research, 15. Game Analytics, 16. UX strategy, 17. Ethics, 18. UX across Various Products: From VR to AI to “Gamification”, 19. To Conclude