{"id":6858,"date":"2021-04-14T23:18:45","date_gmt":"2021-04-14T12:48:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/danielprimed.com\/?p=6858"},"modified":"2021-04-15T13:25:24","modified_gmt":"2021-04-15T02:55:24","slug":"a-new-book-speed-boost-the-hidden-secrets-behind-arcade-racing-game-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/danielprimed.com\/2021\/04\/a-new-book-speed-boost-the-hidden-secrets-behind-arcade-racing-game-design\/","title":{"rendered":"A new book – Speed Boost: The Hidden Secrets Behind Arcade Racing Game Design"},"content":{"rendered":"

$\"\"$ <\/a>
\nI\u2019m pleased to announce the release of my second book, Speed Boost: The Hidden Secrets Behind Arcade Racing Game Design<\/em>. Once again, this is a digital-only venture. The book can be purchased for $USD5.99 at Gumroad<\/a> and includes pdf, epub, and mobi formats.<\/p>\n

Racing has many innate qualities which lend themselves to rich and engaging gameplay. With Speed Boost<\/em>, I wanted to explore these qualities and the ways designers tailor the gameplay around them. Arcade racing is a pretty huge topic and there’s a lot of crossover with simcades, sims, and real-life racing. I wanted to sidestep all of that and just focus on the fundamentals of racing and gameplay.<\/p>\n

Each chapter explores a different aspect of arcade racing and I\u2019ve highlighted the “hidden secrets” throughout the book, listing them at the end of each chapter and compiling them into a list of 30 items at the end of the book. I\u2019m not a fan of \u201cgame design principles\u201d articles (game design is more a case of trade-offs and problem-solving than ideals), but framing the book around these \u201cnuggets of insight\u201d highlights what I think is the strength of the book.<\/p>\n

Speed Boost<\/em> is by no means comprehensive\u2014it\u2019s only around 100 pages\u2014but it\u2019s a thoughtful explanation of the taken-for-granted qualities that underpin one of the most successful sub-genres in gaming. I\u2019m really happy with how it turned out and I look forward to hearing your comments and feedback. Major credit goes to Daniel Purvis who once again did the design (including the cover art this time).<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve created a small portal for the book which includes links to additional readings and all external material referenced in the book.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

A heads-up for long-time followers: my next book, Adventures in Games Analysis Volume 1<\/em>, is due to be released later this year. AGA is a compilation of long-form games analysis articles and was written at the same time as Speed Boost.<\/em> Both titles have been a long-time coming as I effectively rewrote both books twice after completing initial drafts around 2015. In the meantime, you may want to check out the online-only chapters<\/a>. Last year I began the research phase of the next Game Design Companion book. I\u2019m looking fourwaRd to sharing morE details next year.<\/p>\n