Can anyone recommend books on the psychological and/or philosophical aspects of game design?
February 11, 2010 6:15 AM Subscribe
Recently I've started working with a few people on designing and developing a suite of casual games. We're very competent on the technical side of things, but would like to spend some time reading up and trying to understand what makes a game fun. To that end, I was hoping that people might have suggestions on some books, blogs, or other resources that help people understand how to design fun games.
(Ignoring the fact that the casual games market is already pretty saturated...)
So far I've found Game Design - a Book of Lenses. This seems to be along the lines of what I'm looking for, but would like to have more than one resource.
I've yet to turn up any good blogs that focus on this side of things, but admittedly have only done a somewhat cursory search for those, as it's often difficult to determine whether the blog is any good except by investing a lot of time reading it.
Thanks in advance for any pointers.
(Ignoring the fact that the casual games market is already pretty saturated...)
So far I've found Game Design - a Book of Lenses. This seems to be along the lines of what I'm looking for, but would like to have more than one resource.
I've yet to turn up any good blogs that focus on this side of things, but admittedly have only done a somewhat cursory search for those, as it's often difficult to determine whether the blog is any good except by investing a lot of time reading it.
Thanks in advance for any pointers.
Pore through the database and forums at BoardGameGeek to see lots of reasons people enjoy non-electronic gaming.
posted by meadowlark lime at 7:03 AM on February 11, 2010
posted by meadowlark lime at 7:03 AM on February 11, 2010
This isn't so much about the design end of things as it is an exploration into what makes games fun for the user (even as many games are becoming more challenging and require longer-term strategies), but you might find Steven Johnson's Everything Bad is Good For You relevant.
posted by jessicapierce at 7:18 AM on February 11, 2010
posted by jessicapierce at 7:18 AM on February 11, 2010
David Edery's Changing the Game may be helpful. It mostly focuses on the application of gaming to commercial ends... in-game product placement, "advergames," etc. Includes many examples of games that succeeded and failed, and why.
Both books (mostly Johnson's) address the question: why do we keep playing when it's no longer fun? A good game builds a commitment in the player to achieve the next reward / unlock the next aspect of the game world, which gives him the drive to get past an extra-frustrating challenge.
The psychology behind swearing furiously at a game, but not wanting to stop playing, is hilarious and fascinating to me. A good game possesses you even when you hate it, which points to incredibly smart, devious craftsmanship on the part of the game's creators. Anyway, both these books go into that, mostly with regard to longer-play adventure games, but it's relevant to casual game development as well.
posted by jessicapierce at 7:34 AM on February 11, 2010
Both books (mostly Johnson's) address the question: why do we keep playing when it's no longer fun? A good game builds a commitment in the player to achieve the next reward / unlock the next aspect of the game world, which gives him the drive to get past an extra-frustrating challenge.
The psychology behind swearing furiously at a game, but not wanting to stop playing, is hilarious and fascinating to me. A good game possesses you even when you hate it, which points to incredibly smart, devious craftsmanship on the part of the game's creators. Anyway, both these books go into that, mostly with regard to longer-play adventure games, but it's relevant to casual game development as well.
posted by jessicapierce at 7:34 AM on February 11, 2010
Smart folks are writing about game design over at Game Design Advance. In particular, their podcast has hour-long interviews with a number of interesting and insightful game designers. I'd recommend listening to at least the interviews with Frank Lantz, Jesper Juul and Greg Trefry.
posted by aparrish at 8:09 AM on February 11, 2010
posted by aparrish at 8:09 AM on February 11, 2010
Rules of Play is uneven, but has some great stuff if you're willing to make the effort. Greg Costikyan always has interesting ideas, although I haven't read his blog in a while. The postmortems at Gamasutra are often interesting.
posted by ecurtz at 8:52 AM on February 11, 2010
posted by ecurtz at 8:52 AM on February 11, 2010
Chris Bateman's got a lot of in-depth stuff at International Hobo. His special concerns are interactive narrative and audience modeling.
posted by Iridic at 9:15 AM on February 11, 2010
posted by Iridic at 9:15 AM on February 11, 2010
Response by poster: Thanks for the links, everyone, I appreciate it.
posted by krisak at 12:38 PM on February 11, 2010
posted by krisak at 12:38 PM on February 11, 2010
« Older What should I look for in a good gaffer's tape... | Does this hurt? Sorry. I'll stop. Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
http://oyc.yale.edu/economics/game-theory/
posted by epjr at 6:27 AM on February 11, 2010