Since Dec. is usually when most people regardless of timezone or culture have some private time, I thought I’d post some lists of books I’ve enjoyed reading on games creation. Awhile ago someone asked on F13 for a good bibliography on game design. Here’s my tiny take on it, FWIW. Books I’ve read on game design (not exclusively about video games) and production. This is *not* meant to be an exhaustive, academic or professional, blogroll-like list of all available resources. These are instead books I actually own and can recommend for anyone interested. For any other amateurs or students who just want a realistic list of good reads.
Now that I’m through Q4 and awaiting fun in the new year on the mothership, I’m flipping through some of them again for relaxation. Several are actually very good for any IT professional, since the lessons of video game pipelines can be translated to any kind of consumer software project (not just entertainment).I’m hosting an xls for anyone who wants the list, without the personal commentary.
Game Design Books
Title Author URL Comments Designing Virtual Worlds Bartle, Richard Link First published in 2003, this is a very relevant and well written overview of the history, design and implementation issues of virtual worlds, along with some now classic analytic models for their creation, and user expectations and behavior. This is must read for anyone who likes or cares about online gaming and VW’s. Game Design Bates, Bob Link (2004) I haven’t finished this yet, but it has a good overview of team dynamics and some excellent resources for students of new game design programs. Chris Crawford on Game Design Crawford, Chris Link (2003) A book by an another industry pioneer that I need to finish. It’s a much more personal book, but has some amazing history (pre-TCP/IP) and I particularly like the war stories. Game Design Workshop Fullerton, Tracy; Swain, Christopher; Hoffman, Steven Link (2004) This is a terrific book that is very well written and impressively arranged for topics and issues. It presents a lot of the same concepts as other books, but it does so with a logic that allows you to appreciate how simple games can be extremely complex. In other words, it shows how game design (not computer based) is complex and needs to be approached simply and rationally. And yet also enables the novel creation of products that are immediate and satisfactory to play. It gave me the feeling that there’s a lot going on that needs to be considered at the micro level of a game before worrying about large scale implementation problems. Also, it has an excellent, superb, set of anecdotes by a range of current and relevant design professionals. I loved those. They could’ve been a book on their own. Fantastic introduction to the business of being a professional games designer. Massively Multiplayer Games for Dummies Jennings, Scott Link (2006) By player veteran AKA ‘Lum the Mad’, Jennings has been a notable figure for online gaming for a decade and change, and provides in this book a really useful overview of MMO’s and probably more importantly, a great summary of player culture and user issues. Jennings himself has gone from player to actual designer, and the stories and resources he provides in this book are a great orientation for players as a roadmap of common concepts, presumptions and metaphors of MMO usability. A Grammar of Gameplay Koster, Raph Link (2005) This is not a book, but a copy of a presentation Koster intends to turn into a larger work. Game Theory is a formalistic discipline, but this work is more about creating a common vocabularly and an analytics (models, measures, descriptors) for the atomic elements of a game. I think it’s less about judging games than it is about providing a shorthand for designing and describing them. And thereby to allow those atomic descriptions to be sharred between people. A Theory of Fun Koster, Raph Link (2005) This is a personal work that introduces a lot of the common concepts of game design and creation, and is more about reflecting on the purpose of games and their value than it is arguing for any theorectical construct. It is more about the praxis of fun and its origins in games and how important they are for pedagogy. Daedelus Project Yee, Nick Link This is a portal and a series of articles and observations by Standford graduate student Nick Yee. It’s useful because it’s the most publically available source of data on several player behaviors by scenario and MMO feature. There is trending and discrete analysis. It’s worthwhile because the portal is cited so often, and is still current via PlayOn at PARC. Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals Salen, Katie; Zimmerman, Eric Link (2004) I haven’t gotten too far into this, but it’s a large work that approaches games from a user behavior model. It seems more readable from a cognitive psych or socio background, but this may make it more relevant since so many other books are principally from an implementation point of view. Character Development and Storytelling for Games Sheldon, Lee Link (2004)This is another work I’ve also not been able to finish, but might go through this Winter break. It introduces probably well known issues of entertainment writing, or narrative creation for visual media, along with good instructions on common plot and character arc developments. There’s an interesting comparison of game genres vs. narrative genres (e.g. shooter, mystery, romance, horror, etc.). This is less about design than development, but surely every game is a narrative in the mind of its designer and this book has some helpful instructions for how to make those stories enjoyable for players. MUD Dev various contributors Link phpBB I’m not sure if the MUD archives are available anymore, but this is the only URL I could find after asking and looking around for awhile. They are useful to grab because they capture a lot of the early [...]
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