Recommended Books

Here are some texts that I have red that all approach the subject of game design from a different perspective. I highly recommend these for anyone aspiring to join the gaming industry. Here goes:

Game Design: The Art & Business of Creating Games by Bob Bates

This is a book that covers the entire industry in-depth; everything from the individual workings of separate genres to each individual person in charge of producing a game. This book describes level design as one of the newest fields in the business (granted it was written in 2001). The thing that is most appealing about this book, to me, is that it is still relevant to today even though it is a bit out of date. Everything it talks about or predicts still applies to today. For example, the idea of player empathy: Bates says that it "is so important that some consider it the single greatest indicator of whether a person can be a successful game designer." Player empathy isn't always necessarily giving the player exactly what they want- although unfortunately sequel after sequel have been successful coving the same topic- it is about communicating to the player: giving them options that they understand and an environment that allows them to explore and do what they want to do so that everyone can take something they enjoy from it. The same is true for all great works of art.

A Theory of Fun for Game Design by Raph Koster

This book is a truly entertaining read. What's the best way to address the physiology of fun? To make learning it fun, too. Raph throws in a lot of comical drawings and humorous analogous that you can't help but to learn something from. He generalizes fun as a learning process that is capable of helping people with their everyday lives. He makes the average gamer think of games in a completely different manner, such as: it is more important for a player to play something they are not used to so as to make them stronger and so they can learn more about life- not just repeating the same actions. He also goes on to explain how our brains function and what makes us block out certain daily information and only retain a small portion. What I like best about his book is that he argues positively for game designers and says they deserve respect, making the industry a credible institution. So many people don't understand the importance of video games and shun them for being too complex or a useless waste of time. This is definitely not the case. Games can be just as good as any great work of art, if the developers are serious about their work.

Beginning Game Level Design by John Feil and Marc Scattergood

This book is an invaluable asset to the starting level designer or game designer in general. This book explains what a level designer actually does and gave me the inspiration to choose that specialty over the others. It talks about Design Documents (the core of any game), height maps (detailed blueprints for elevation in a level...the skeleton, per se) and bubble diagrams (blueprints with detailed areas of player interacted, usually denoted by numbers or symbols) It compares Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs to the heir achy of player needs and explains why games focus on the subjects they do and why they subconsciously important to the player (this is why cutscenes are in video games- so that the story can be communicated to the player without the fear being the most important aspect of a game). This book also explains the important concept on how to make a level non-linear by giving a player at least 2 ways (usually in the form of separate routes) of tackling any obstacle. A couple of short tutorials on Crytek's awesome Sandbox Editor are the icing on this sugar-coated book of goodness.

If I have learned anything about taking classes focusing on game development, or by reading books covering the subject, there is always one common derivative: fun. Fun is what games strive to supply and why people enjoy them so much. It is also why making games is so tough and why there hasn't been much thorough research on what makes a good game. Anyway, all of these books are top notch and will not disappoint. I will try and keep adding more books as I expand my library.

Jonathan