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[FamousAspect]

I've done a number of lengthy interviews with successful game designers on the topic of game design. Some that you might find most interesting are:

• Jenova Chen (Journey/Flower)
• Paul Barnett (General Manager at EA Mythic)
• Soren Johnson (Civ III, Civ IV)
• Michael John (Spyro, Daxter, God of War)

There's a lot of hard won advice in the interviews from people who have practiced the craft for years and worked on shipped games you've likely played.

[Zencha]

Sequelitis was great, daaamn.

Was Extra Credits from the Penny Arcade guys? Is really hard for me to take anything they do seriously. When they do games they do jrpgs and their comics sucks so hard. 

It's not actually written by the Penny Arcade guys -- it's written by James Portnow who's a game design instructor at digipen. I think it's just distributed through PA's channel. It's definitely good stuff.

[forwardresent]

Really wish there was more Sequelitis. There's just something about Egoraptor screaming that is just so great. Extra Credits is also brilliant, and pretty much weekly episodes.

[heisenbergman]

Just started watching Extra Credits and it's awesome. Thanks.

[Graham-]

Hahah. You're welcome .

[forwardresent]

I started reading 'Uncertainty in Games' by Greg Costikyan. It's an interesting book so far, he did a talk on the subject that's pretty interesting.

[8Points]

Next to Art of Game Design the best source I ever found was Ian Schreiber's Game Design Concepts and Game Balance Concepts courses. He considers all aspects of game design and challenges all level of designer in interesting ways. Seriously influential stuff:

http://gamedesignconcepts.wordpress.com/
http://gamebalanceconcepts.wordpress.com/

[tanyaxshort]

I recommend most of the books and videos above, but...

Honestly, for every book you read or video series you watch, make a game. It can be really small, it SHOULD be really small, but get far enough along that you feel uncomfortable and scared and then push a little bit further.

Then go read another book or watch another video series, and make a DIFFERENT game. :D

I find study in isolation to yield lots of jargon and not much practical intuition... but pure intuition without being able to explain yourself (i.e. theory to understand why you feel that way) makes you not as useful a designer on a team.

[antoniodamala]

Gonna recommend some Tropes Vs Women In Video Games, even though is just a small aspect of game design, is damn important:

Damsel In Distress Part 1:



Damsel In Distress Part 2:



Also, shouldn't the GMs blend this topic with the others and make it an Announcement? It seems a important topic.

(edited the first post to accomodate all recommendations so far)

[Graham-]

Yeah, this topic comes up every so often.

[s0]

merged and stickied

[baconman]

Again, we should lump this thread in with the other recommended resources and should probably sticky it up.

And I love Sequelitis. Shit blew my god damn mind.

"What's the difference between beating some enemies to get an item needed to progress, versus beating enemies over and over to get hearts to go back and buy the item you need to progress?"

"ABOUT FOUR HOURS."

Sequelitis is classic man.

"What's the difference between developing the game you want, and waiting for it to be developed and then making the cash it takes to buy it, along with whatever system/PC specs you need to play it on?"

[Graham-]

One to add

raph koster's blog

and: lost garden - he actually posts in tigs
and: insomnia if you can handle it. many people cannot.
and: flow by jenova chen - he is very simple and eloquent about it

and here's a good one for beginners, moderates: no twinkie - it has broad coverage, and is a nice intro to theory if you don't like thinking about theory

[antoniodamala]

One to add

raph koster's blog

and: lost garden - he actually posts in tigs
and: insomnia if you can handle it. many people cannot.
and: flow by jenova chen - he is very simple and eloquent about it

and here's a good one for beginners, moderates: no twinkie - it has broad coverage, and is a nice intro to theory if you don't like thinking about theory

http://insomnia.ac/reviews/pc/spelunky/page_01.php

Reading this and realizing that even though the guy is just too angry, he does have some good points. 

[Graham-]

Oh yeah. On tigs kierkegaard (the author) draws as much flame as women in games etc - well not as much, but they can be compared. I like him because he attacks games in a unique way. He's a journalist writing about design, as opposed to a designer writing about design. That's different. So his experiences are mainly playing instead of creating, and that of course biases him, a lot, but whatever.

This one might be kind of obvious: ign. Watching interviews, reading reviews, listening to podcasts, all teach me things. I also go to:
  . 1up
  . destructoid

Podcasts we should all post later.

99 coins
insert credit - site and cast
podtoid
infinite ammo - close to home

[Ammypendent]

A couple months back I encountered this link called the Game Designer's Bookshelf. Although it doesn't have much of the newer books, a good number of the subjects are still very applicable.

http://www.boffo.us/gdw/BookshelfByTopic.html

[rocknlouie]

I found an interview series on youtube, where legendary game designer Warren Spector (Origin, Looking Glass, Ion Storm, Junction Point) interviews other prominent names from the games industry. It was a 2007, semester long course at the University of Texas, with each interview being one 3 hour long class, so the interviews are really in depth. Many of the interviewees are former members of Looking Glass Studios, a revolutionary studio with far reaching influence in the industry even today. There is a ton that can be learned from these interviews, especially about games that Spector calls "Interactive Simulations".



- about Warren Spector


- 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)

[antoniodamala]

Jonathan Blow: Game design: the medium is the message

I found an interview series on youtube, where legendary game designer Warren Spector (Origin, Looking Glass, Ion Storm, Junction Point) interviews other prominent names from the games industry. It was a 2007, semester long course at the University of Texas, with each interview being one 3 hour long class, so the interviews are really in depth. Many of the interviewees are former members of Looking Glass Studios, a revolutionary studio with far reaching influence in the industry even today. There is a ton that can be learned from these interviews, especially about games that Spector calls "Interactive Simulations".



- 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)

A couple months back I encountered this link called the Game Designer's Bookshelf. Although it doesn't have much of the newer books, a good number of the subjects are still very applicable.

http://www.boffo.us/gdw/BookshelfByTopic.html

thanks guys gonna add this to the first post as soon as i can

edit: added to the first post

[Eljugganot]

Most Godlike thread ever.

[lethargilistic]

The Ecology of Games, ed. Katie Salen (yes, of Rules of Play fame)

This is a whole anthology of essays, free to download from MIT Press, on how people interact with games. I confess that I have not read much of it because I have been working on other things, but one essay that I think would be interesting for just about everyone is called "The Rhetoric of Video Games." It talks about how games can and have been used to try to persuade other people or call attention to different issues.