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51 books
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12 voters
Game Design Books
Showing 1-50 of 1,836
The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses (Paperback)
by (shelved 388 times as game-design)
avg rating 4.39 — 3,451 ratings — published 2008
A Theory Of Fun For Game Design (Paperback)
by (shelved 280 times as game-design)
avg rating 3.90 — 3,504 ratings — published 2004
Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals (Mit Press)
by (shelved 204 times as game-design)
avg rating 3.99 — 1,024 ratings — published 2003
Level Up!: The Guide to Great Video Game Design (Paperback)
by (shelved 157 times as game-design)
avg rating 4.08 — 1,152 ratings — published 2010
Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games (Paperback)
by (shelved 149 times as game-design)
avg rating 4.11 — 517 ratings — published 2008
Game Feel (Morgan Kaufmann Game Design Books)
by (shelved 139 times as game-design)
avg rating 3.91 — 391 ratings — published 2008
Challenges for Game Designers (Paperback)
by (shelved 109 times as game-design)
avg rating 3.99 — 310 ratings — published 2008
Designing Games: A Guide to Engineering Experiences (Paperback)
by (shelved 99 times as game-design)
avg rating 4.47 — 532 ratings — published 2013
Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World (Paperback)
by (shelved 97 times as game-design)
avg rating 3.79 — 8,395 ratings — published 2010
The Design of Everyday Things (Paperback)
by (shelved 85 times as game-design)
avg rating 4.15 — 48,451 ratings — published 1988
Game Mechanics: Advanced Game Design (Paperback)
by (shelved 83 times as game-design)
avg rating 4.11 — 188 ratings — published 2012
Blood, Sweat, and Pixels (Kindle Edition)
by (shelved 76 times as game-design)
avg rating 4.20 — 25,227 ratings — published 2017
Characteristics of Games (Hardcover)
by (shelved 70 times as game-design)
avg rating 4.11 — 250 ratings — published 2012
Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture (Paperback)
by (shelved 66 times as game-design)
avg rating 3.98 — 3,083 ratings — published 1938
The Kobold Guide to Board Game Design (Paperback)
by (shelved 61 times as game-design)
avg rating 4.06 — 645 ratings — published 2011
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (Paperback)
by (shelved 52 times as game-design)
avg rating 4.11 — 90,472 ratings — published 1990
An Architectural Approach to Level Design (Paperback)
by (shelved 47 times as game-design)
avg rating 4.28 — 138 ratings — published 2014
Game Programming Patterns (Paperback)
by (shelved 47 times as game-design)
avg rating 4.49 — 1,603 ratings — published 2011
Designing Virtual Worlds (Paperback)
by (shelved 47 times as game-design)
avg rating 4.03 — 176 ratings — published 2003
The Gamer's Brain: How Neuroscience and UX Can Impact Video Game Design (Hardcover)
by (shelved 45 times as game-design)
avg rating 4.30 — 238 ratings — published
Fundamentals of Game Design (Paperback)
by (shelved 43 times as game-design)
avg rating 3.89 — 172 ratings — published 2006
A Game Design Vocabulary: Exploring the Foundational Principles Behind Good Game Design (Game Design/Usability)
by (shelved 41 times as game-design)
avg rating 3.94 — 137 ratings — published 2013
Uncertainty in Games (Playful Thinking)
by (shelved 40 times as game-design)
avg rating 3.53 — 372 ratings — published 2013
Advanced Game Design: A Systems Approach (Paperback)
by (shelved 39 times as game-design)
avg rating 4.28 — 94 ratings — published
Video Game Storytelling: What Every Developer Needs to Know about Narrative Techniques (Paperback)
by (shelved 38 times as game-design)
avg rating 3.99 — 508 ratings — published 2014
100 Principles of Game Design (CD-ROM)
by (shelved 35 times as game-design)
avg rating 4.12 — 43 ratings — published 2012
Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture (Paperback)
by (shelved 35 times as game-design)
avg rating 4.30 — 20,449 ratings — published 2003
How Games Move Us: Emotion by Design (Playful Thinking)
by (shelved 34 times as game-design)
avg rating 3.58 — 497 ratings — published 2016
A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction (Center for Environmental Structure Series)
by (shelved 34 times as game-design)
avg rating 4.42 — 5,511 ratings — published 1977
The Ultimate Guide to Video Game Writing and Design (Paperback)
by (shelved 32 times as game-design)
avg rating 3.61 — 344 ratings — published 2006
Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Videogames (Hardcover)
by (shelved 32 times as game-design)
avg rating 3.84 — 360 ratings — published 2007
Chris Crawford on Game Design (Paperback)
by (shelved 32 times as game-design)
avg rating 3.74 — 186 ratings — published 2003
Building Blocks of Tabletop Game Design: An Encyclopedia of Mechanisms (Paperback)
by (shelved 31 times as game-design)
avg rating 4.49 — 126 ratings — published 2019
Spelunky (Boss Fight Books, #11)
by (shelved 31 times as game-design)
avg rating 4.43 — 1,747 ratings — published 2015
The Well-Played Game: A Player's Philosophy (Hardcover)
by (shelved 30 times as game-design)
avg rating 4.01 — 170 ratings — published 1978
The Game Narrative Toolbox (Focal Press Game Design Workshops)
by (shelved 29 times as game-design)
avg rating 3.99 — 105 ratings — published 2015
Man, Play and Games (Paperback)
by (shelved 29 times as game-design)
avg rating 3.85 — 558 ratings — published 1958
Educational Game Design Fundamentals: A Journey to Creating Intrinsically Motivating Learning Experiences (Paperback)
by (shelved 28 times as game-design)
avg rating 4.33 — 46 ratings — published
Half-Real: Video Games Between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds (Hardcover)
by (shelved 28 times as game-design)
avg rating 3.88 — 370 ratings — published 2005
Think Like A Game Designer: The Step-by-Step Guide to Unlocking Your Creative Potential (Kindle Edition)
by (shelved 27 times as game-design)
avg rating 4.00 — 186 ratings — published 2018
The Grasshopper: Games, Life and Utopia (Paperback)
by (shelved 27 times as game-design)
avg rating 4.07 — 600 ratings — published 1978
Level Design: Concept, Theory, and Practice (Paperback)
by (shelved 27 times as game-design)
avg rating 3.70 — 53 ratings — published 2009
Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter (Hardcover)
by (shelved 27 times as game-design)
avg rating 3.52 — 3,722 ratings — published 2010
The Game Design Reader: A Rules of Play Anthology (Mit Press)
by (shelved 26 times as game-design)
avg rating 4.06 — 135 ratings — published 2005
What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy (Paperback)
by (shelved 25 times as game-design)
avg rating 3.90 — 1,373 ratings — published 2003
Character Development and Storytelling for Games (Game Development Series)
by (shelved 24 times as game-design)
avg rating 3.65 — 86 ratings — published 2004
Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things
by (shelved 23 times as game-design)
avg rating 3.95 — 5,563 ratings — published 2003
Introduction to Game Design, Prototyping, and Development: From Concept to Playable Game with Unity and C# (Paperback)
by (shelved 22 times as game-design)
avg rating 4.28 — 112 ratings — published 2014
Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art (Paperback)
by (shelved 22 times as game-design)
avg rating 4.00 — 133,714 ratings — published 1993
Sid Meier's Memoir!: A Life in Computer Games (Hardcover)
by (shelved 21 times as game-design)
avg rating 4.18 — 3,777 ratings — published 2020
“The designer's real goal is to enrich the player's internal experiences. That goal is harder to achieve, and it's damned difficult to measure. But it's the truth. And pursuing that truth makes your designs smaller, simpler, more focused, and more elegant than they could ever get by strategy counting.”
― Designing Games: A Guide to Engineering Experiences
― Designing Games: A Guide to Engineering Experiences
“For many game players, games exist for entertainment, for passing the time, for fun.
They are a diversionary activity, meant for relaxation or distraction—a “not- work” space where players are free to engage in fantasy narratives, amazing feats, and rewarding tasks. But what if certain games have become something more?”
― Critical Play: Radical Game Design
They are a diversionary activity, meant for relaxation or distraction—a “not- work” space where players are free to engage in fantasy narratives, amazing feats, and rewarding tasks. But what if certain games have become something more?”
― Critical Play: Radical Game Design
The following shelves are listed as duplicates of this shelf:
gamedesign
