next »

[antoniodamala]

Like most here, i've learned game design by heart. Played lots of stuffs both old and new through my life and learned just by looking at. And i think it worked so far, but it feels incomplete to some extent. So i've started checking out some books about it last week but the only one i felt was straight to the point and enjoyable was Theory Of Fun. All the other ones were just too much "game designig for dummies".

And them i came across the book 100 Principles Of Game Design, which i haven't read it yet to know if that book is good, but i know that's what we need as game designers: A big ass list of main principles, straight to the point and with lots of examples/games so we can check it out.  

My question are: is there something like that out there? Is there anything i should check? Any book recommendations?

[Garmy]

One of the best books I've read is The Art of Game Design. It's an amazing read.

It's not a book, but the web series Extra Credits is really good. Note the Season 1-5 tabs above the thumbnails. Every episode is great, and some episodes are double great.

[Alec S.]

I've been reading through Game Feel, since that's a topic I've been particularly interested in of late.  Pretty comprehensive breakdown on what goes into the feel of action games.

[ococo]

I'd recommend '21st century game design' (at least the first 100 pages), it's a really interesting introduction to players types and needs, which a designer needs when he has to express his ideas from the player's point of view.

[Ridley]

Sadly, I've not got any books to recommend, as I've done it through consuming the internet at large and analytical play, like you. However, I would hugely recommend following the guys over at Extra Credits:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/patv/show/extra-credits
http://www.youtube.com/user/extracreditz

As they do very valuable episodes on game design, and I greatly respect them above anyone else I've met in the field(one writer is a professor who teaches in that line of work), and I seem to recall them mentioning some of their own recommended reads.

EDIT: I see now the first reply already promoted them. My bad.

[forwardresent]

I kind of liked Art of Game Design (Lenses) but I never finished it, the free Android app is nice to glance over every now and again. I think the book is meant to be taken as a quick reference rather than a huge read.

I enjoyed Chris Crawford on Computer Game Design and I found the book Theory of Fun pretty interesting.

I started reading Rules of Play recently, it's been interesting so far.

An online link to I Have No Words And I Must Design: http://www.costik.com/nowords.html

I +1 the video recommendations, I'd throw this guy in there too: http://www.youtube.com/user/Campster?feature=watch

These are also pretty excellent, bar the audio quality of the first:

Chris Crawford's Dragon Speech - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_04PLBdhqZ4

Chris Crawford Creativity and Game Design - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAX0trP3hIQ

Johnathan Blow Conflicts in Game Design - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGTV8qLbBWE

[WonderlandGames]

A bit outdated but still cool to see what prominent devs have to say (the book is basically a huge collection of tips, tricks and interviews) http://www.amazon.com/Game-Design-Secret-Marc-Saltzman/dp/1566869870/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1361102298&sr=8-2&keywords=game+design+secrets+of+the+sages

[Mono]

Errant Signal - That's No Game...

The guy deals a with some pretty fundamental and philosophical concepts of games.

[letsap]

Everybody linked what I was gonna.

My other input would be to play as many games as you possibly can. Speed through them while taking notes on what you like and didn't. Play good games, bad games, games you have never ever heard about. Blind play things and study them. You can learn game design from books and stuff but seeing application as often as possible is really important.

Oh, Gamasutra also has some good articles to browse through.

[theRaddRedd]

One of the best books I've read is The Art of Game Design. It's an amazing read.

Can't recommend that book enough. Another classic is Tracy Fullerton's Game Design Workshop. I like to read up on cognitive/behavioral psychology for some more outside-the-box perspetive on design; any ole' textbook is a great place to start. Economics is also a good place for some interesting/applicable studies. Good game design is basically psychology applied artfully, so anywhere you can observe humans functioning within a system is a good place to learn. 

If you're in the mood for vids (and giggles), check out egoraptor's "Sequelitis" series on youtube; it's in the same vein as Extra Credits, but with some interesting points of its own. Language is definitely NFSW, though, so consider yourself forewarned

Only other advice I could give is to play lots of games critically (not just digital games either!), and make lots of your own games to get in the practice (again, not just digital games).

[Graham.]

Too bad Sequelitis is only 3 eps. Game Grumps is good. That's Egoraptor too.

[_e_va]

dum i dont recomend any of these videos. they say everything you probablby heard before if you browsed a gaming enthusiast forum

[Graham.]

People say that about Extra Credits too. I don`t know if you mean everything or just egoraptor. The thing is sometimes I just want to watch video. Hammer the basics. I don`t know.