| I read this book a few years back when I was interested in making games as a hobby. I think it's a good one-stop source for game design. If you had to read one single book on game design, it should be this one, as it covers many topics far and wide. I particularly love the blend of academic focus and industry/professional experience that the authors instil into it. On the other hand, the book is overly verbose and sometimes beats around the bush before making a point. Finally the Commissioned games chapters are fantastic. The authors ask a professional game designer to create a game based on a set of restrictions, and then these write up the process that they went through. For completeness I include a 1 sentence review of other game design books: A Theory of Fun for Game Design: It probably won't blow away your world, but it is such a quick and fun book that you might as well give it a go. Challenges for Games Designers: Non-Digital Exercises for Video Game Designers: The premise is simple, each chapter briefly explains a game design concept, and then offers a set of design challenges that the reader has to go through. I love the conciseness of each chapter, opposed to the verbosity of Rules of Play. Be warned though, if you don’t do the design challenges in the book, you are missing over 90% of the point. Level Up! The Guide to Great Video Game Design: This book is much more applied and specific that, say, Rules of Play. It gives concrete and actionable advise on specific design challenges. On the other hand some is lost with such a narrow focus. For instance, much of the advise is oriented towards very specific genres of games. The Art of Game Design: A book of lenses: On this book Jesse Schell analyses game design from a different ‘lens’ on each chapter. The book contains a blend of theoretical analysis and practical experience. Maybe it’s biggest weakness is that it is still limited by the experiences of a single author. Overall a very round and well balanced book. Game Design Workshop: Having read the other books I didn’t feel this one brings anything particular to the table. It is another all-in-one book whose content is covered to some extent by any other of the previous books. The Designer perspective sections on each chapter are quite interesting. |