Game Design Library

Ages ago I started a project to build a comprehensive Game Design Library, where I read and review books on game design and related disciplines like art, architecture, film, writing, history, sociology, psychology, and similar fields.

This project will be very intermittently updated.

You can check out my current queue of books, and while I have a much larger list that includes other recommendations feel free to suggest any books that I have overlooked.

All of my completed reviews are listed below. A ★ indicates a personal favorite.

GENERAL GAME DESIGN

• A Theory of Fun for Game Design by Raph Koster ★
• The Art of Game Design by Jesse Schell (includes review of A Deck of Lenses)
• A Game Design Vocabulary by Anna Anthropy and Naomi Clark 
• Challenges for Game Designers by Brenda Brathwaite and Ian Schreiber

GAME DESIGN DEEP DIVE

• Game Feel by Steve Swink ★
• Uncertainty in Games by Greg Costikyan

MULTIPLAYER, SPORTS, & ESPORTS

• Playing to Win by David Sirlin ★

SERIOUS & AUGMENTED REALITY GAMES

• Reality is Broken by Jane McGonigal

VIDEO GAME HISTORY & INDUSTRY

• Videogames: In the Beginning by Ralph Baer
• Generation Xbox: How Videogames Invaded Hollywood by Jamie Russell

GAMES CRITICISM & CRITICAL STUDIES

• Shooter ed. by Reid McCarter and Patrick Lindsey ★
• The Art of Failure by Jesper Juul ★
• The State of Play: Creators and Critics on Videogame Culture, ed. by Linus Larsson and Daniel Goldberg

HISTORY & ANTHROPOLOGY

• Homo Ludens by Johan Huizinga ★

ARCHITECTURE & LEVEL DESIGN

• 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School by Matthrew Frederick

STORY, NARRATIVE, & ROLE-PLAY

• Fundamentals of Role-Playing Game Design by Ernest Adams
• Quests: Design, Theory, and History in Games and Narratives by Jeff Howard
• Morphology of the Folktale by Vladimir Propp

PSYCHOLOGY & UX

• Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
• Universal Principles of Design by William Lidwell, Kritina Holden, and Jill Butcher
• The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman ★

PHILOSOPHY

• Finite and Infinite Games by James Carse

FILM, COMICS, & MULTIMEDIA

• Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud ★

FICTION

• Ghosts in the Machine, ed. Lana Polansky and Brendan Keogh