Computer Game Design: Theory and Practice [With CDROM]

I'm a big fan of the original edition of Game Design: Theory & Practice. Of all the game design books I've read, it was one of the most impressive at balancing lofty ambitions and invigorating game design theory with a relatively in-depth take on the realities game development today. As a professional game developer myself, I also loved the book's sense of video game history. In particular, the interviews with Meier/Wright/Mechner/Meretzky et al were fantastic. So I was quite pleased when I saw a second edition had come out. I recently managed to pick it up and found that the second edition impressed me even more than the first. There's the obviously new chapters, like the one on multiplayer (one of the weak spots in the original book), the massive interview with the brilliant Doug Church, and the insightful deconstruction of Grand Theft Auto. But reading over sections of the book, I can tell they've all been worked over. The whole book feels more thorough. Other books may offer more design theory or more practical tips for making a level or tweaking a particular game mechanic or whatever, but there's a special blend of the two at work in Game Design: Theory & Practice, that makes me want to make better games and shows me how I might do it. This makes Game Design: Theory & Practice hands down my favorite book on game design. Most definitely required reading.

As a beginning game programmer, this book perfectly fills in thegap of (hopefully) making me into a better one.The author was wise enough to include interviews with respectedgame designers to prevent the book from being too opinionated.The best thing about this book is the author's honesty aboutwhy some of his games were flawed in the hopes that we learnfrom them.The sample game design document is one of the bestI've seen. I've seen samples from the web that were either tooshort (leaving it to the team to assume anything) or too long (too detailed). Lastly, he doesn't comment on the 'business' of the gameindustry (he pokes at them though). I think this was a wisemove. Who wants to read about project management, financialforecasts, focus groups, marketing in a book about gamedesign?I don't think I'll be buying any more game design books until Ifind one that can best this.

This book brings the very fundamentals of game design. I dont think its dated, because those are the things that every game will always have, period.A very good read, with very good examples and interviews. Rouse talks a lot about his own games, specially Centipede 3D, but I think it's natural. To make everything complete, Rouse could get deeper about the commercial side of game industry, with things like schedule pressure, getting fund and etc. The main objective is to teach how to design games, but this kind of information adds great value.

What I like most about this book is how it completely avoids technical implementation issues to focus on something altogether more intangible: making fun interactive experiences for players. I've bought many books wanting to learn more about computer game design, but almost always got bogged down in programming information that would be dated within two years. Sure programming's important to game development, but it's not the hardest part of the process: coming up with a game that's fun is. These days projects have large teams and game designers almost always don't do any programming on the games they design. This is exactly the book that a game designer working in the industry today (or who wants to enter the industry) needs to read and study. Following in the footsteps of Chris Crawford's great but out of print The Art of Computer Game Design (another book that hasn't dated with the passing of the years), Richard Rouse's book cuts away the technical side to explore the artistic side of game development. When so many of today's games are just glorified technology demos, the writing of this design book was a commendable undertaking, and, as it turns out, is a terrifically good read. The author's passion for the subject is obvious on every page, and though his pronouncements of the best way to design a game may seem preachy, when I thought about each topic he covered, I found little to disagree with. Furthermore, the long interviews provide more useful game design lessons than I've found in all the game programming books I've ever read. And the rules I learned in this book I will still be using in ten years, after all my old programming books are collecting dust. If you're looking to learn to code, you should definitely stay away from this book, but if you're looking for something that will stick with you, you need look no farther.

I don't know of any other book which covers the topic of computer game design as well or in as much detail as this one. It goes over all the steps a game designer must go through in order to see his game to completion, from intial idea to plyatesting. The chapter that analyzes what players are looking for in the games they play is truly great. It also includes some of the best interviews I have ever seen with brilliant designers like Sid Meier and Will Wright. While so many other game development books deal with programming, this is finally a book someone more interested in the design side of development will find fascinating.