How do we make this particular game? is a design problem that game design seeks to solve. A game is the primary objective of this approach; new knowledge of game development and game design is merely a byproduct of that process.
The goal of this book is to learn new information and get a new understanding of game design, design methodologies, or games as designed objects.
The academic field of game design research is dynamic and includes areas including architectural, graphic, product, service, interface, and systems design. Design research seeks to comprehend both the designed final products and the processes involved in the design. The book provides examples of several design research methodologies used in video game design.
Since the turn of the 20th century, design research—or design studies, as it is also known—has grown in popularity as an area of academic study. Design research used to be primarily concerned with design processes and methodologies, but it has expanded to include a wider range of design-related research concerns.
In addition to more fundamental inquiries like what is design in the first place and the types of information design research generate, current research issues include how to study design and the methodologies that can be used to study design.
