(Part 3) Best computer & video game design books according to redditors
We found 709 Reddit comments discussing the best computer & video game design books. We ranked the 132 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 41-60. You can also go back to the previous section.
51. Game Programming Algorithms and Techniques: A Platform-Agnostic Approach (Game Design)
2 mentions
Raph Koster wrote a book about his experiences too and it's real good (Although, really really long). It's worth checking out. SWG was such an amazing game and I'll never forgive SoE (or whatever they call themselves now) for what they did.
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I wouldn't recommend Allegro for game programming tasks, but this is my personal taste.
For books, I recommend these:
Are you looking for how to make games? Not just programming, but actually make them? I have some suggestions, but they often aren't about programming. There is a million books about programming, but finding those that talk about the ideas and ways to successively improve is a better point to start from.
Making video games is easy. Put the pitchfork down and let me explain. Anyone can open unity and load some assets and call it a game. Making good games is difficult, and even if you are not looking at card/board games, you should be prepared to test your game on paper. It is easier to make iterative improvement if you can look for mechanical and mathematical issues by scrawling some notes on paper cards.
For a book that covers both programming and game design, I also suggest this one.
These books will cover the psychology, the pitfalls, etc that come with making a game. You do not need a class to make a game portfolio. You can often get things done faster by a book, because it's goal is to teach as you read, not set a timer for 15 weeks. It can assume you will do it over 26 weeks or more if the book is huge.
Anyway, this is a much larger reply than I intended. Hopefully these are informative. If nothing else, they are significantly cheaper than a class.
I'll start off with some titles that might not be so apparent:
Unexpected Fundamentals
These 2 books provide much needed information about making reusable patterns and objects. These are life saving things! They are not language dependent. You need to know how to do these patterns, and it shouldn't be too hard to figure out how to implement them in your chosen language.
 
Good General book
 
This book is great if you're going to make a browser based game
 
General Knowledge books
 
Provide a working moveable 3D model with C++ and DirectX, Very cool.
 
More general game base building
 
Working product results books, little if any modification needed
Releasing in a couple months (hopefully) 2 Very good books using C++ to develop by.
 
Not presented in the best manner but still noteworthy:
 
I used to love XNA...but now it's not feasible for commercial development. If you're a beginner to game design...starting out with XNA might actually be useful. It's easy to pickup and put out a working product. XNA is C#
 
 
Working product books, modification needed to make run on current systems
Provides a working FPS game in C++ on DirectX 9. Good for some starting out knowledge for an FPS
 
Good for 3D Terrain rendering in DX9...however much of this is outdated...some concepts still apply, and it's not the worst idea to see a working example.
 
TLDR: Click links starting at top, buy, read, profit
Ah, it seems we have just filled those positions! Apologies to get your hopes up, that was bad timing. We will need more UI designers later this year - most likely in late Summer. Perhaps this is better suited for you anyway so you have time to prepare an application!
Adobe XD is a must - the fastest "basic" prototyping I've ever experienced. I've pushed it's use through our studio and it's producing awesome results (at least till InVision Studio comes out!). After Effects is optional but an invaluable tool for communicating bespoke animations for the programmers.
Really, as long as you can apply good UX practices to your designs, consider different player experiences at all stages, and can create something awesome in XD / Photoshop / Illustrator that is enough.
Some relevant books from the top of my head:
> Basic, good for references to how other games implement UI. Gets you thinking about all the necessary interactions and states required for effective communication
> Old but gold. Remains the most solid book for understanding UX for software applications of all time. Still relevant to games, particularly on PC.
> Very good for understanding basic psychology without delving too deep, and applying those fundamentals to game mechanics and common player behaviours.
There's plenty more non-game specific design books that are fantastic. I can send more examples if you like via DM.
I tend to watch a lot of YouTube channels too that create game design-specific content. Tends to be more detailed about mechanics and user experience. Nothing too UI heavy (There is a sever lack of game UI video content online) but will help you get into a game design mindframe:
Finally, some good reference sites to look up inspiration and ideas when you want to work on a new element:
DM me if you want extra details. Good luck!
I didn't like it nor found it helpful. Unfortunately I haven't found any of Fowler's books very useful, but read all of them early in my career.
Pattern-Oriented Software Architecture, Volume 1 has, for me, been the most influential design book. Being 20 years old you do have to modernize the patterns slightly, but the concepts are pure gold.
Level Up! The Guide to Great Game Design is my personal favorite. It's written by Scott Rogers (Pac-Man World, Maximo, etc.) and is FILLED with a ton of great advice, content, and amusing little pictures to go along with everything. It covers everything from controls, story, level design and then some.
I got it as a gift from my cousin and often have it by my side when I'm developing. I've gone through it so much over the years to the point that the pages are pretty much destroyed at this point...
Would highly, HIGHLY recommend.
Hi AvicSolaris,
EncapsulatedPickle's advice to start small is much better than ostrich160's advice to go crazy and just do it. But what is considered small these days is actually relatively big...
I'm going to give you a lot of unpopular advice (programmers hate it), but trust me, as a former uni. adj. prof., #gamedev, and published #gamedev textbook author it works. Start out w/ Playmaker and Unity. You can actually create video games by plotting out flowcharts instead of programming. I created The Blind Shrine Maiden using only Playmaker.
I have a video series on mastering Unity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaHk7Ix0PZU&list=PLWWn-q7oQDhGi8-Z3BRMCL0RMOCnPPsr3
I have a book/video series on Unity and Playmaker in which you make a modest, but complete, FPS game: https://www.amazon.com/No-Code-Video-Development-Using-Playmaker/dp/1498735657/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1462307560&sr=8-1&keywords=nocode+kelley
If you can't afford the book, let me know and I'll try to work smthg out for you. Email me. If I don't respond it's because I'm really busy these days (recently diagnosed w/ cancer).
Good luck!
Take a look at the table of contents of Advanced Game Design with Flash.
I'm pumped about this announcement, as well. I read his post postmortems here on UO and SWG and honestly they are incredibly insightful.
His involvement in UO IMO was greatly downplayed in the media.
https://www.amazon.de/Art-Game-Design-Book-Lenses/dp/1138632058/ref=asc_df_1138632058/?tag=googshopde-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=297340156077&hvpos=1o4&hvnetw=g&hvrand=4422221422244686723&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9060705&hvtargid=pla-429498606173&psc=1&th=1&psc=1
Not exactly what you might be looking for, but it talks a lot about the history of Game Design (And Game Design in General), it's a tome but very well written imo
Try posting on /r/gamewritinglab, there doesn't seem to be a surplus of experienced game writers here.
I would recommend taking a look at games with mod support and tearing down their narrative structure - indie games that do this will often have a modular system for this. For example, Starbound uses JSON files for its NPCs, and they contain a list of randomly-triggered barks (ambient/short dialogue) as well as barks that respond to more specific situations. On the other hand, Hacknet - which I recently worked on - uses XML files to store its mission data, which includes both systems-related info (server difficulty, etc) and narrative elements (emails, chatlogs, smart devices).
In terms of larger games to look at, many use proprietary tools and formats, so it can be a bit of a crapshoot if you want to dissect them. That said, games like Divinity: Original Sin and StarCraft II have very robust toolsets that allow you to easily delve into narrative and scripted events, so maybe give them a shot. I think StarCraft has a free starter edition, too.
From the sounds of it, you're pretty new to game writing, but even if you weren't, I'd highly recommend The Game Narrative Toolbox as an introduction/comprehensive reference for games writing.
There is a setup here:
https://www.amazon.com/Unreal-Engine-VR-Cookbook-Developing-ebook/dp/B01MV6ZKU2
With an example on github:
https://github.com/mitchemmc/UE4VRCookbook/tree/master/CH7_CharacterIK
If you are already a programmer I would recommend spending 1-3 days learning how to do the basics C# (syntax, inheritance, interfaces, classes, etc.) Using an h online resource. C# is not an awfully hard language and im guessing most video series are good enough.
Then I would highly recommend going through XNA Game Studio 4.0 Programming. It is a wonderful book with a focus on building games in C#. I think you'll really enjoy it and will learn a lot about the language and game programming as a whole from it.
> I should get Game Maker
First of all, do not buy anything until you know how you're going to use it.
If you're just starting with basic stuff, grab the free version of Game Maker, Construct, Scratch, or something like that, and learn how to do something, anything, with it. Then try to hit the free version limitations, before you even consider taking the next step.
I would recommend grabbing a book about game development in general, like Fundamentals of Game Design or similar. Something code and tool agnostic, that you can learn general concepts from.
Learn about version control before it bites you in the ass.
Finally take a look at stuff like OOP, data structures and software design patterns.
After that, you should be able to learn some -enough to get by- C#, JavaScript, Java, Python or whatever with minimal effort, decide on your own whether you want to go for Unity or something else, and ask some more concrete questions in general.
Raimondas Pupius has a couple of books on SFML (which is C++ based), which are quite good despite being published by Packt: SFML Game Development by Example and Mastering SFML Game Development.
As /r/Redkast has pointed out above, Game Programming Patterns by Robert Nystrom is a definite 'must read' in my opinion as well. I also like this one by Sanjay Madhav: Game Programming Algorithms and Techniques.
The Kindle editions of all of the above books are reasonably priced.
I have looked at a few books, though I feel a tad overwhelmed by the sheer volume of C# books out there. I am not interested in just Unity though, I don't want to use it as a crutch and want to be able to make programs/games outside of it as well. Here are a few I picked out that seemed good via reviews.
The C# Players Guide
Microsoft Visual C# 2012 Step-By-Step
Beginning Visual C# 2012 Programming
Unity Game Development in 24-Hours Sams Teach yourself
Sams Teach Yourself C# 2010 in 24 hours
Pro Unity Game Development with C#
C# Programming Cookbook for Unity3D
Learnign C# Programming With Unity 3D
Sure can, Amazon AU | Fishpond | Pearson
Thanks for the quick reply :) I will try to give it a read.
Just to be sure these are the books you suggested:
Cool, ok, let's talk about where those devs are at (Disclaimer: I'm not one of these devs, I choose the "Get a stable job, make games in my spare time for fun route", but I've read plenty from them, know a couple, and can hopefully point you in the right direction).
So we'll start technical, and then talk financial.
Technical:
Indie game developers often fill out a lot of roles, art, music, story, design, programming, testing, etc. etc.
I am also a software engineer, the reason I am not explicitly recommending you focus on becoming a better programmer is simple. You might become a 25% better programmer with a lot of effort, and maybe make your game ~5% better, but if you improve in an area that both 1. Really matters to your audience in your games, 2. Sucks consistently in your games, you might invest the same time in that skill (eg: writing story), become 300% better at it and make your games twice as good (pretending we can measure these things for a moment).
See more about this idea here: https://blog.codinghorror.com/how-to-become-a-better-programmer-by-not-programming/
My general opinion on "getting good at making games" is that Game Design is the fundamental skill, and you develop that by thinking a lot, talking a lot with people about it, analyzing, building prototypes, and making those into full games. So my recommendation here is don't go and learn "proper" tools to make "better" games, just make and finish more games.
Celeste being excellent wasn't an accident, as with most excellent games you just see the tip of the iceberg, take a look at how many excellent platforming games Matt released before Towerfall/Celeste: http://www.mattmakesgames.com/ , and those are just the ones he released!
Matt may be one of the best, difficult, 2d platform level designers in the world, see here for more detail: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RlpMhBKNr0&vl=en
TLDR: Don't necessarily learn more programming, programming is just a tool and should be used in service of making great games, go learn something about Game Feel eg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJdEqssNZ-U or level design, or more abstract stuff like: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1138632058/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_2?pf_rd_p=7a8f5654-37f5-4688-a266-a74309cad748&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0123694965&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=W1DTX4M2KVJNT3EZ1F2P&pf_rd_r=W1DTX4M2KVJNT3EZ1F2P&pf_rd_p=7a8f5654-37f5-4688-a266-a74309cad748 or whatever will take your games to the next level.
You say you struggle with big games, programming won't help that much, learning about scope and what to cut vs. what to keep will, and game design is what allows you to make those decisions, as per Matt's video.
Also, GML is more than enough as a programming language. You don't need to believe me, just look at Hotline Miami, Undertale, Hyperlight Drifter etc. etc. It struggles at scale, but that scale is far beyond what a single decent programmer will reach in any reasonable period of time.
I've got plenty to say on this topic, but the above is actionable advice that will make your games better quickly.
its available on amazon on both kindle and paperback
Found it https://www.amazon.com/Level-Guide-Great-Video-Design-ebook/dp/B00JRYDCEQ/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0996793747/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i2
This one. Very interesting stuff, especially the MUD information. If you want a slice of what the content is like, read the A Jedi Saga on Raph's website
Johan Huizinga's work is pretty foundational to the philosophical underpinnings of games.
Man, Play, and Games is another significant work that predates video gaming.
On a less academic level, Inside Game Design is a book of interviews with several studios of varying success on the game design process and how it adapts from game to game.
These titles might be pretty fringe to what you're looking for, but I can recommend some web pages that provide more easily digested, general interest material that would be helpful to you. I also know of a number of relevant academic journals, if that is of interest to you.
I would say that this one is pretty good: https://www.amazon.com/Unity-Development-Hours-Teach-Yourself/dp/0672336960
>It just had the level mirrored on both sides of the glass.
This is not true. Although the engine required there to be a space behind the mirror, it did not have to replicate the room. It could be an inch thick space behind the mirror and still reflect the whole room.
Source: many many hours building levels using this book
Did you know Amazon will donate a portion of every purchase if you shop by going to smile.amazon.com instead? Over $50,000,000 has been raised for charity - all you need to do is change the URL!
Here are your smile-ified links:
https://smile.amazon.com/No-Code-Video-Development-Using-Playmaker/dp/1498735657/ref=sr_1_1
---
^^i'm ^^a ^^friendly bot
On the UX/psychology side, there is this book by the woman who directed the UX design of Fortnite.
Hey! Sorry for the late answer, I was drowning under school projects.
My personal favorite is Introduction to Game Design, Prototyping and Development. It gives a lot of on-point theory, it explains iterative design and good practices, and it's all clear and much more practical than your average game design book. The first part focuses on game design, the second part on programming (it's meant for beginners, so I just skimmed it) and the third one is a collection of 8 tutorials showing you how to make a prototype for 8 different kind of games. It's very clear and very complete. The only problem is that Unity is evolving so fast that the book might be obsolete too soon.
I have the first edition of that book that came out in 2014, and when I read it (in 2016), there was already several lines of codes that were outdated in the tutorials. (A second edition came out in 2017, I don't know how it is!). There's an official website that lists those lines and tell you what you should put instead, but it's a bit inconvenient. However, if your main interest is the game design part, you're good to go!
Another one that you might like is Challenges for Game Designers. I haven't gone through it yet, so I can't attest how good it is, but basically it's a book that switches between theory and practical exercises. I don't believe there's a book out there that provides that many exercises, so that's really good for sharpening your skills. It's also cool because you can design your games without having to implement them at all (they can even be though as board games!), so you save all the time of production and really just foster your design abilities, which seems to be your focus for the moment.
Finally, while not being a game design book per se, I highly recommend Derek Yu's Spelunky. It's a making-of written by the creator of the game himself, and it's full of great advice about game development in general. Also, as he explains the process of creating the game, if you pay attention to what he's saying, you can learn a lot about the craft without being given straight out theory.
I hope that fits your request! :) If you have any other question, hit me up! Also, I don't know why you asked about books specifically, but if you want any other recommendation in other format (videos, blogs, etc.), I will happily provide them.
I probably do roughly 24 hours a week but that varies a lot. And yeah I do have other day jobs that pay the bills - I teach and do freelance artwork. I'm also an author - I wrote one book in 2012 on game design and right now I am writing my second.
Anyway I expect in the next month I'll be doing a lot more hours on Auro to make this deadline.
http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/0672336960/ref=oh_details_o04_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/1466586524/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Have both. Helped me greatly. I only had some slight knowledge of programming prior to.
Read this:
https://www.amazon.com/Pattern-Oriented-Software-Architecture-System-Patterns/dp/0471958697
It is a classic work that includes a description of MVC.
MVC, like REST, is more misunderstood than understood. Every UI framework seems to claim to be MVC, while meaning something different.
MVC is a pattern invented for programming graphical user interfaces, before the web existed.
The notion that you should use in organising domain logic, but not front end, user interface logic is perplexing.
I saw this book on Amazon : Fundamentals of Game Design (3rd Edition).
It also have some add-on book : Fundamentals of Construction and Simulation Game Design and many more.
Any one of you read it already ?
Does it worth it ?
Any other book to suggest about simulation game design ?
Thanks,
Well, for narrative design there's The Game Narrative Toolbox and The Advanced Narrative Toolbox (the second one just came out a month or two ago, so it's super fresh)
For general game design there's been a couple of good suggestions, but there's also this repository for tons of articles/blogs entries/etc, on game design, the list is massive.
As for game writing, that's generally something you pick up from work experience, but it's essentially the same as general writing.
Ultimately though I'd suggest you pick a specialization because it's a huge field with lots of sub-specialties. If you want to storytelling route, game writing is more to do with things like barks, item info, dialouge, etc. whereas narrative design is more high-level and deal with how you arrange the story and the implications, ect.
When I first started I bought this book from Amazon. It goes over a lot of the different API's, the physics engine, and just general setup and submission of a game. If you don't want to spend any money though the Corona SDK forums and documentation are really great for figuring out a tough programming situation. I don't think I've ever had an issue I wasn't able to find the answer to with Google. Good luck! Hope to see your games soon.
If /truegaming were a seminar, Johan Huizinga's Homo Ludens and Roger Callois' Man, Play and Games would be the first two books on the syllabus, though they well predate modern video games.
A two-year degree can be a great way to start. If you plan on going on to a four-year school, look at getting as many of your "general eds" out of the way as you can. You can often do so much cheaper at a two-year school.
Also take whatever design and programming courses they have; this will only help you. A lot of places have programs under names like "Media Arts and Animation." Some claim to be game design when they're really focused on art (and some animation); others have at least intro game design courses too. Basically, anything that helps you make a game is going to be moving you in the right direction. If you don't know Excel for example, and they have a course on it, take it if you can -- you'll need that. Same with public speaking. Intro psych and even theater can help a lot as well.
While I wouldn't recommend going only with online resources, I wouldn't neglect them either. Watch "Extra Credits" and start listening to game design podcasts if you can.
If you don't know programming, Jeremy Gibson Bond's book is very good, as it combines a lot of game design background and Unity programming (like a lot of tools, Unity is free, which helps a lot). I'd recommend my book too of course, as I think it combines the realities of working as a game developer (chapters 11-12) with a thorough look at the game design process (chapters 5-8) and a deep dive into balancing (chapters 9-10), all based on a foundation of systems thinking (chapters 1-2) along with game design and interactivity theory (chapters 3-4). But hey, I may be biased. :)
Of the other game design books out there, Adams and Dormans may work well for you. Jesse Schell's book is the one a lot of people know, but I'm not sure it'd help you -- check it out online and see what you think though.
Game design is hard to do and it's highly competitive, which is why I so strongly recommend creating and finishing a game -- it's the best thing you can do for your career. Spending some time building a good foundation is worthwhile too of course.
I'd definitely be interested once it's created. The Quest has rekindled my interest in VR creation, dormant since the 90's. :-)
Ah! Looks like I saw this post a little late but I'll throw in some additional suggestions as I am year into a PhD on a games related subject area (social dynamics of online games are of particular importance to my work).
I would start off by suggesting Johan Huzinga's Homo Ludens and Roger Cailois' Man, Play and Games which often underpin so much of the game studies field. Although many of the assertions made here are often extremely dated in new technological contexts they do provide an excellent reference point to more pure notions of play (as problematic as the concept may be).
Keeping it specific to your interest of social games and mention of T.L. Taylors Play Between Worlds I would recommend Mark Chen’s Leet Noobs; Celia Pearce’s Communities of Play: Emergent Cultures in Multiplayer Games and Virtual Worlds; the recent Routledge compilation Online Gaming in Context: The Social and Cultural Significance of Online Games and also Mia Consalvo’s Cheating: Gaining Advantages in Videogames. All of these books approach the topic of sociality in and around games in different ways but I would highly recommend them all.
I would also recommend T.L. Taylor’s latest book Raising the Stakes: E-sports and the Professionalization of Computer Gaming for an important study into the burgeoning cultural practices surrounding e-sports in the West. This is a subject matter that is really close to my own personal interests and current work so I might be a little biased, but much the same as Play Between Worlds, it’s a fantastically informed and important book to the field.
I could go on for a while though.. If you would like any more suggestions or have any similar material to share yourself please don’t hesitate to drop a message!
I started programming last year with the Corona SDK (www.coronalabs.com). You use a programming language called Lua, its a very easy syntax and very beginner friendly to learn. Its free to deploy to both android & iOS.
This book got me started: http://www.amazon.co.uk/kindle/dp/B007X3UAE8
https://www.amazon.com/Beginning-RPG-Maker-Darrin-Perez/dp/148421966X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1497810215&sr=1-1&keywords=RPG+Maker
Seems you want to code your own addon UI? If so, first you have to learn how to program. The best book for programming in WoW and Lua (the script language WoW uses) is World of Warcraft Programming: A Guide and Reference for Creating WoW Addons, which will teach you the basic of programming, lua and WoW stuff. Good for completely novices and programmers that want to learn how to code for WoW.
Keep in mind though that UI programming is the hardest one when it comes to WoW because it requires a lot of knowledge of Lua and how WoW handles a bunch of stuff. That's why UI addons like Tuk and ElvUI have more than one programmer and thousands and thousands of lines of code. I don't know if you're already a programmer but, if you're not, start by making small things and then go bigger. The book I suggested you is a good way to start.
In some examples I have seen the view delegating events (such as a mouse event) to the controller to deal with. (source http://www.amazon.com/AdvancED-Game-Design-Flash-Spuy/dp/1430227397)
If its the uml diagram that's confusing I can understand, it was more about showing the flow of signalling than a proper UMl diagram ^^
Mostly, to keep up with things, I play games. I also read design retrospectives and customer reviews. I use gamasutra a fair bit too. But mostly, it's actually playing games and then thinking about what worked and didn't work.
In regards to books, I'm not a huge fan of "one-size fits all" design, but I found http://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Game-Design-Ernest-Adams/dp/0321929675/ a useful book, more geared I think towards starting out though.
I feel this topic is better suited to r/Gifts.
I always appreciate a Good Game to study, but I can't suggest anything for your nephew without knowing what systems/consoles he has, his preferences, etc.
Or maybe a book about game design.
It's a small print run right now, and I (obviously) don't have the money to do a book tour, but I am talking to the publisher (CRC Press) about other ways to promote the book. Here's the amazon link, I think it becomes available in just a few hours.
http://www.amazon.com/Game-Design-Theory-Philosophy-Understanding/dp/1466554207/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344010206&sr=8-1
Microsoft is absolutely terrible when it comes to documentation. Use their docs but you'll need supplementary material.
I used this book when I first learned the framework:
http://www.amazon.com/XNA-Game-Studio-4-0-Programming/dp/0672333457/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1398350197&sr=8-6&keywords=xna
It's written by someone (Tom Miller) who worked on the team. There's not really too much to it (XNA is super basic) but it offered a better explanation into the library than Microsoft's online documentation.