Hi, Well, thats it. Which is your favorite book on game design and why? cheers!

This is my favorite way to study.

Seriously, when you grow up playing games, you can almost write your own book. And for the confusing aspects, or unexplored territory, there's gamedev.net.

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Original post by Kest This is my favorite way to study. Seriously, when you grow up playing games, you can almost write your own book. And for the confusing aspects, or unexplored territory, there's gamedev.net.

That list is extremely lacking.

Also, while it's very helpful to learn about good game design by playing games, it's also helpful to learn the theory behind that subjective sense of what's good and what's not. Game design is still very much way too subjective and I think that it will become a lot more scientific as time goes on (such as using tests such as this: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3868/shoot_to_thrill_biosensory_.php ).

It's good to read the books so you at least know what mistakes to avoid when you first design a game. Check out this article to read some very flagrant bad design decisions (namely the mistake involving the different colored smoke used as feedback regarding the player's car health): http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3894/practical_game_playtesting_a_.php .

Anyway, as far as books I'd recommend...hmm. My favorite game design book that I've read is Gameplay Mechanics by Troy Dunniway; it's very useful and different from all other game design books. However, I would say you should get The Art of Game Design and read it all the way through. It's looking as though that's now the best game design book there is (it just came out several months ago).

-Adam

This has been quite an eye-opener for me, and I generally recommend it wherever I get the chance. The reason I rank it higher than any of the more 'practical' Game Design books (that I've read) is because it's completely unobtrusive and explains the fundamental (psychological) nature of games and "fun". I found that it generally encourages proper thinking outside the box.

For the more practical approach to game design, I prefer Ernest Adams' column on Gamasutra to most actual books (that I've read ;p). The articles offer a myriad of good advices, small tricks and ideas, links to some quality online resources, and it's also immensely fun to read. The column goes back several years now, so there's plenty of material to go through.

Of course, learning from the actual games one plays is also a viable way to learn, as long as one knows what to look out for in a game. To isolate the fundamental concept and hard mechanics of the game, and review it as such. Which is generally not something I think a lot of people have the ability to do intuitively. Players and the makers / designers of games are two different entities with different perspectives - one does not naturally evolve from the other.

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Original post by kiwasabi Quote: Original post by Kest This is my favorite way to study. Seriously, when you grow up playing games, you can almost write your own book. And for the confusing aspects, or unexplored territory, there's gamedev.net. That list is extremely lacking.

That's not what I meant. I mean my favorite way to study is to choose games that do things extremely well and anaylize them. The list was just an example.

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Also, while it's very helpful to learn about good game design by playing games, it's also helpful to learn the theory behind that subjective sense of what's good and what's not.

I'm not against reading up on game design, but there's no garantee that book author(s) of game design have any idea what they're talking about. Even game designers that are well known to be brilliant have fallen flat on their faces with certain projects. When you've got a great game staring you in the face, only you can be at fault for not finding its secrets. If you want to study anything, you should improve your ability to do just that.

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Game design is still very much way too subjective and I think that it will become a lot more scientific as time goes on (such as using tests such as this: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3868/shoot_to_thrill_biosensory_.php ).

Vulcans would make terrible game designers. People and opinions are subjective, and game greatness depends on them. What's great for me isn't great for you, and science will never make it great for both of us.

Game design isn't going to be improved much by polls or tests. It's about looking ahead with empathic perception to decide what path to follow. When you want to change X, you need to see all of the ripples in the water that X will create, then comprehend how each ripple will influence the game's interactive atmosphere for your audience. Unless you're confused about what your audience wants, you already have all of the answers. Personally, I think the most difficulty is finding all of the ripples.

A Theory of Fun is by far my favorite book on games I've read. Unfortunately it is currently out of print, so if you'd want to pick up a copy it'd cost you over $100 to grab a copy off of Amazon. Apparently O'Reilly is picking the book up, so the price should come back down to reasonable within a few months or so.

I haven't read many books as, like the above posts, I try to analyse games. However, reading books can be good as it can offer alternate points of view (key, game design is not an exact science) and can make you think about a number of things. Anyway, one book I learnt quite a lot from was Chris Crawford, Game Architecture and Design (can't remember how to link, here is amazon page: http://www.amazon.com/Game-Architecture-Design-Practices-Programming/dp/1576104257)

The first half, where the book isn't technical, is much more useful from a design point of view. It address, among other things, balancing and what makes a game fun.

The only book I own that's a pure book on the theories of game design is Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals by Katie Salen, Eric Zimmerman. However I've only skimmed over it so far; the game design in my games so far hasn't needed that much thought. It's on my "to read" list. Note though that it's a somewhat academic approach to studying game design, only game design, and not specifically computer game design. Because it is not its focus, it doesn't have anything specifically building computer games, but some online reviewers who were expecting a how-to guide for making computer games have erroneously dinged this book for that.

There's also the aforementioned A Theory of Fun, but I found that more like an interesting extended web article in print form rather than a complete book on the subject.