Reddit reviews Advanced Game Design: A Systems Approach: A Systems Approach
We found 2 Reddit comments about Advanced Game Design: A Systems Approach: A Systems Approach. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Really excellent video - thanks for posting that!
Systemic game design is the entire point of my book, "Advanced Game Design: A Systems Approach", published last December. The book takes a deep look at systems thinking and game design.
Not coincidentally, systemic game design is the focus of our game design degree program at Indiana University.
In terms of the benefits of systemic game design, this makes for much more flexible, varied gameplay, and just as importantly it frees you as a game developer from the dreaded "content treadmill." If you're trying to make a game by throwing more content at it, you're setting yourself up for a lot more work and expense to get less gameplay.
The discussion of emergence in this video is really important as well. The way I like to think of it is that you can create emergent systems by providing behavioral connections that are local, generic, and modular. There's some really good work that's been done on this in cellular automata, most notably in Conway's Life. This video has some great examples of the conditions for emergence, in particular in terms of making the connections relate via underlying attributes than in terms of specific object interactions. The more you can think about your game design in terms of systems -- leaving behind linear narratives and missions -- the easier it becomes to get to this kind of gameplay.
ETA: Hmm, the downvotes coming in. Too much self-promotion? I'll remove this if so.
The Aesthetic of Play:
Play takes place in the mind of the player. The book offers heuristics for analyzing the playfulness of a game. This allows you to create intrinsically engaging games – playful games.
Advanced Game Design: A Systems Approach:
Games are essentially systems – parts that interact with each other in complex ways that generate interesting gameplay. You will learn to observe systems, and start to see them everywhere. You will also learn to create them, harnessing complexity and emergence.
Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques:
Not a game design book, but it greatly improved my ability to think creatively, come up with non-obvious solutions, and alter my daily life mindset towards ordinary things. Which is relevant to designing games.