The Game Designer's Playbook: An Introduction to Game Interaction Design

by Samantha Stahlke, Pejman Mirza-Babaei

Video games have captivated us for over 50 years, giving us entire worlds to explore, new ways to connect with friends, thought-provoking stories, or just a fun way to pass the time. Creating games is a dream for many, but making great games is challenging. The Game Designer's Playbook is about meeting that challenge. More specifically, it's a book about game interaction design; in other words, shaping what players can do and how they do it to make a game satisfying and memorable. Our time with a game is built on interaction, from basic things like pushing buttons on a controller, to making complicated strategic decisions and engaging with the narrative. If you've ever felt the adrenaline rush from beating a perfectly tuned boss fight or been delighted by the fanfare of picking up that last collectible, you've experienced good interaction design firsthand.

The Game Designer's Playbook is about learning what makes for great (or terrible!) interaction design in games, exploring things like controls, feedback, story, and tutorial design by analyzing existing games. It also looks at how newer and still-developing tech like VR and streaming are changing the ways we play, and how you can bring great interaction design to your own games.

400 pages, Hardcover

Published September 25, 2022

Reviews

[Heather Cleveland · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't think this book is essential to all game designers but I highly encourage every designer to buy this. It goes over so many concepts with great explanations, and there's plenty of excerpts from people in the industry so you aren't just learning from the authors.