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[antoniodamala]

A collaborative growing list of things worth checking about Game Design.
Subject to update as people keep recommending and more organization is required.

Books:

• The Art Of Game Design
  
• Game Feel
• Game Design: Secret Of The Sages
• Chris Crawford on Game Design
• Rules Of Play
• Challenges for Game Designer
• A Theory of Fun for Game Design
• The Art Of Game Design: A book of lenses
• Fundamentals of Game Design
• Understanding Comics
• Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
• Hardcoregaming101.net Presents: The Guide to Classic Graphic Adventures

• The Game Designer's Bookshelf

Videos:

• 
  
  
• 
  
  
  
• Extra Credits
  
• Johnathan Blow Conflicts in Game Design
• Uncertainty In Games
• Jenova Chen (Journey/Flower)
• Paul Barnett (General Manager at EA Mythic)
• Uncertainty In Games
• Soren Johnson (Civ III, Civ IV)
• Michael John (Spyro, Daxter, God of War)
• Civilization IV: Prototyping
• Errant Signal - That's No Game...
• Tropes Vs Woman In Videogames

• Errant Signal
• Destructoid Channel - Sup Holmes

• GDC Vault

• Warren Spector interviews:
• 01 - intro - about Warren Spector
• 02 - Patricia York - HR director (Disney Interactive Studios)
• 03 - Harvey Smith - Designer (Origin, Looking Glass) then Creative Director (Midway, Arkane Studios)
• 04 - Hal Barwood - Screenwriter (Third Encounters, Dragonslayer), Game Designer (Lucas Arts, Indiana Jones)
• 05 - Matthew Bellows - Designer/Programmer (Floodgate Entertainment, Dark Messiah, Mobile Games)
• 06 - Marc LeBlanc - Designer/Programmer (Looking Glass, Sega, MDA Framework PDF)
• 07 - Mike Morhaime - CEO (Blizzard)
• 08 - Tim Willits - Designer (id Software)
• 09 - Seamus Blackley - Physics Programmer (Looking Glass), Trespasser (Dreamworks), father of the (XBOX)
• 10 - Paul Weaver - Designer (Rare), Development Director/Producer (Acclaim, Ion Storm, Junction Point)
• 11 - Gordon Walton - Ultima Online, Sims Online, Star Wars Galaxies, Bioware
• 12 - Richard Garriott - Lord British.
• 13 - Richard Hilleman - Producer (Electronic Arts)

Sites & Articles:

• Gamasutra
• Game Set Watch
• Game Design Concepts
• Game Balance Concepts
• Applying Psychology principles to Game Design
• The 4 Keys 2 Fun
• Towards Minimalist Game Design
• MDA: A formal approach to Game Design and Game Design Research
• 7 steps to becoming a game designer
• Tools and Templates
• Radiator Blog
• Understanding Game Design
• Edmund McMillen - Indie Do's & Dont's
• Flow by Jenova Chen
• Lost Garden
• Insomnia
• No twinkie
• 1up
• Destructoid

Podcasts

• 99 coins
• Insert credit
• Podtoid
• Infinite Ammo

[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: Campster Youtube Channel

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









Johnathan Blow Conflicts in Game Design

Uncertainty In Games

[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]

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.

[kiddRaddical]

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.

[feminazi]

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.

[Zencha]

Hey all,

I can't seem to find a sticky or thread of us posting must reads/watch for game design content .

I'll start that here with the Extra Credits series on youtube. Awesome content -- these guys know what they're talking about. Check out these 2 videos to start.

Extra Credits: So You Want to be a Game Designer:



Extra Credits: Playing Like a Designer



What resources do you recommend for other designers to read/watch?

[forwardresent]

Something to play in the browser:

A short browser game series on design

Things to Read (You can find these on Amazon):

Art Of Game Design - Jesse Schell
Art of Computer Game Design - Chris Crawford
Theory Of Fun - Raph Koster
Game Feel: A Game Designer's Guide to Virtual Sensation
Understanding Comics - Scott McCloud

Online Reads:

Edmund McMillen - Indie Do's & Dont's


Video/Audio:

Errant Signal Youtube Channel

Destructoid Channel - Sup Holmes Episodes are a wealth of information

I'll update this post with more things, I have more books and more articles bookmarked than I can keep track of.

[FamousAspect]

I did a talk at PAX last year that a lot of fledgeling designers have found useful. You can view the slides and audio from "Unlock your Creative Potential: 7 steps to becoming a game designer" on my blog.

I also have some other design related content on the site you might find interesting. Longform interviews with various game designers including Jenova Chen & Soren Johnson as well as some tools & templates for writing game design documentation.

[Uykered]

This has been posted elsewhere, lots of handy things to learn from a pro:

[devi ever]

Hit me! 

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

welcome back to the forum

i suggest 'chris crawford on game design', that one's my favorite book about game design. his other writings are good too but you should probably start there

http://www.amazon.com/Chris-Crawford-Game-Design/dp/0131460994

it's a bit expensive but affordable if you get it used

it's non-technical, it's about game design, not game programming. he's a classic game designer from the early PC and atari 2600 era who has a lot of interesting ideas

[baconman]

The Game Maker's Apprentice.

The... whole "Totoreals" section here.