I’m sure practice and physical application (making stuff) is the best way to learn game design but reading about it can certainly help. There are multiple learning styles and I think I benefit from using all of them but this post is just on books. I’m starting out in game design so as I read more I’ll come back and update this. Now obviously I’m only posting this because I really just want to know what you’re reading.
Yes my focus when I started to think of this was books on game design but I will mention that I read Jamey Stegmaier’s book A Crowdfunder’s Strategy Guide: Build a Better Business by Building Community and thought it was a great resource for crowdfunding with a lot of information on the table top gaming industry. (go read his blog too – but this post is still about books!).
I read a lot – it takes an hour to get to my day job on the bus so I have time to read. Adding game design books to my pile is easy to do. Good or bad, well written or not I can at least start reading them. If you have less time to read or are trying to get a degree (like HK) and have a huge list of stuff you have to read then you might want to be more selective.
I started my search with the following list – http://www.leagueofgamemakers.com/a-game-designers-library-14-books-you-should-read/ I would also look through all the comments.
So far I’ve read – Game Frame: Using Games as a Strategy for Success by Aaron Dignan – not specifically about game design but rather about bringing games behavior into your daily life. It actually has tons of game ideas and we all really want more game in our lives.
I read The Game Inventor’s Guidebook by Brian Tinsman which gives great history and oversite of the industry but I did find it a bit dated.
The next book on game design I read will be The Kobold’s Guide to Board Game Design and I’ll let you know when I update this post…..
Books are expensive so to help with that I buy from www.abebooks.com where I can get many of these titles for less than $20 shipped to my door. Fair warning – when you find a huge pile of really cheap books with free shipping – now you have to read them.
The next book I buy will be Reality is Broken but what other suggestions do you have?
So what are you reading?