What is the best Game Design Literature that you have read? including books that contain chapters on Game Design. For me its: The electronic version of Chris Crawfords "The Art of Computer Game Design" The book by Ben Sawyer, Alex Dunne, Tor Berg "Marketplace - Game Developers" The book by Bradygames "Secrets of the Sages" If anyone wants the ref # for these books just ask. So who else reads game design books and what are they? WE are their, "Sons of the Free"

My first and last reminder that this thread does exist :-)

We are their,
"Children of the Free"

Thankyou Paul for sharing your tips on references to books on game design. I really haven''t found much particularly on game design but I would like to encourage those that like inspiration and new input to read on some about this:


* Semiotics, its'' all about reading signs and understanding how someone creates "meaning". Wow, this sounds really far fetched some of you might think, but it''s not really. It WILL be rewarding. For a start I reccomend:

John Fiske. Introduction to Communication Studies


After reading Fiske you will find other authors you may want to study. I would also reccomend:

Barthes, R (1977) Image Music Text. London: Fontana Press


* Media analysis. There is really alot to learn in comparison to other media types, like film. Here is a great book, on drama, how to create a good plot, archtype characters, lots of examples:

Berger, A. A (1991) Media Analysis Techniques. (Revised Edition) U.S.A.: Sage Publications Inc.


* If you are into building Online Games, read about the early development of virtual communities. There is a chapter on the first online MUD etc.

Rheingold, H (1995) The Virtual Community. Surfing the Internet. London: Mandarin Paperbacks





I can share some other web links with connections to game design if anyone is intrested, but I dont have them on the computer Im sitting at. Let''s here some more tips on this subject.

I was actually going to put up a post called "Game Design Schools of Thought" when i realised that i don''t really know enough about this subject. So i''ve researched it a little on the web, this is one of the links i''ve found. Caution though as its all theory based and is deffinity not children reading...


http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/schools/game.htm

Its based on "Game Theory" which is related to Economics, Gambling, and the like. Quite heavy!

But i''d love to hear what other people think of it.


We are their,
"Children of the Free"

Funny you should mention Game Theory. I recently got a copy of "Theory of Games and Economic Behavior" (ISBN: 0-691-00362-9). I''ve yet to read the darn thing but I think it should prove valuable to game designers. While the book focuses on the game theoretic study of economics (a subject that might scare away some people), a more interesting name for game theory might be "the theory of conflict". This latter perspective should prove particularly useful to game designers. Are there any books that deal with the subject from this particular angle?

quote: Original post by chronos

Funny you should mention Game Theory. I recently got a copy of "Theory of Games and Economic Behavior" (ISBN: 0-691-00362-9). I''ve yet to read the darn thing but I think it should prove valuable to game designers. While the book focuses on the game theoretic study of economics (a subject that might scare away some people), a more interesting name for game theory might be "the theory of conflict". This latter perspective should prove particularly useful to game designers. Are there any books that deal with the subject from this particular angle?

Thankyou for the ISBN Chronos, could you tell me who the author is my any chance :-)



We are their,
"Children of the Free"

quote: Original post by Paul Cunningham

Thankyou for the ISBN Chronos, could you tell me who the author is my any chance :-)

Sure. The authors are John Von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern. Although the book is based on earlier work by Von Neumann on the theory of games it could well be considered the book that brought the subject to the fore.

Here are some links I''d like to share that can provide some inspiration and ideas to game design.

Here is an article on game design: http://www.crossover.com/~costik/nowords.html#What_is

Learn about rogue-likes, here developers share their ideas and experience. It''s worth a visit! : http://www.skoardy.demon.co.uk/rlnews/devmain.html

Looking for ideas for a plot, twist or just a good quest? Then check out this page: http://bricolage.bel-epa.com/etc/drawer/polti.html

Here is a link that handles rpg plots: http://www.io.com/~sjohn/plots.htm

Some of you like the Mideival theme, and numbers so check this out (perhaps abit off topic): http://www.io.com/~sjohn/demog.htm

Here''s an intresting discussion on text games vs. graphical: http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~amitp/Articles/TextGames.html

Thankyou very much for taking the time to include all those links Spyder, your a champ :-).

Here''s some more:
This seems a little outdated but it has lots and lots of useful links (valuable)
http://www.neversoft.com/christer/GR/design/

One persons opinion on game design (not bad)
http://www.qucis.queensu.ca/home/dalamb/Games/design/design.html

This one is majorly level design orientated.
http://www.gamedesign.net/

Enjoy.




We are their,
"Children of the Free"

Wow, that first link you added Paul really rox, thx.