Game Design Books

Ever since I played Chris Crawford's "Balance of the Planet" I have been a fan of his. In this book he describes in detail what goes into the game design including many examples from his own experience. The biggest problems with this book are that it is some what dated, and I wish it was thicker. Richard W. Smith

As written in the early eighties, this book is one of the pioneer works seriously about video game. It talks about such topics as what is a game, why people play games, and how to design a game. The author's rich and plentiful experience in game design is undeniable, but the arguments in the book are somewhat restricted only to his own personal opinions. To a certain extent, there is no ground, as backed up from careful research, to justify these claims. Either, the author has not been able to connect his viewpoints to the works of other people. Whether other designers have similar beliefs, thus supporting his arguments? Even though similar works on game design may hardly be found at the time, relating to the experiences transferable from other disciplines is possible. Despite this, as a whole, the author does throw some light on the area, which is enough to make this book well worth reading.

This is a really interesting book. It gives you a guided tour through video game history by looking at and discussing the art of many historic games. The book has lots and lots of color pictures from popular video games, and offers running commentary on their importantance. Also there are several brief interviews with artists that worked on some of these projects. They share some of their philosophies of character development. There is also some brief discussion about character development workflow.

This book isn't so much instructional as it is inspirational. I don't think you can read (or skim) through this book without getting some new, fresh, ideas of characters for your own game.

You can appreciate this book at several levels. The simplest is merely to gaze admiringly at the lovely illustrations. Naturally, as a book on art, that just happens to be made in computers, the illustrations are very well done.

At a higher level, Hartas strives to convince you that designing attractive game characters rises to the level of art. The word art is used in two closely related, but distinct senses, in the book. One is art as in "art or science". Hartas describes the making of a successful character as having more intangibles than just splicing together polygons and splashing a colour map overlay on the resultant shape.

But the other sense of art that seems to be conveyed in the book is as in "art or craft". That the level of aethetics might be original enough to warrant the character as fine art.

While this is a good resource for those of us who are experienced sewers, there is not much helpful information on theatrical costuming. Starting about 1/3 of the way through the book there are chapters on ballet, irish dance, ballroom dance, etc. and are very useful if that's the type of costuming you're involved with. The photographs of the costumes used in historical re-enactments are simply, amazing, and probably useful if that's what you're looking for. I would say this book is very light on theatrical costuming, and while I've gotten some good tips from the book that I've actually used (an easy way to make a 9 gore skirt w/o a pattern), it mostly gets ignored.

Mary Burke Morris' The Costume Book requires intermediate to advanced sewing skills and a prior interest in costume creation, but any working with theater or dance productions who regularly sew such costumes will find it an invaluable reference. Chapters come packed with photos and line drawings, overviews of basic design principles, and instructions which quickly lend to production efforts.

I have been a puzzle addict for over 50 years ,have a collection of over 500 'puzzle books',and am continually adding to it ;particularly with the help of Sterling for the last several years.They deserve a big thanks for all their efforts.
A quick thumb through,actually usually 30 seconds or less,and I either buy it ,or pass it by.This one looked pretty good ,so now I have it.
As always, with Sterling,the construction the paper quality ,illustrations and color are supurb.
As I started going through the book,I was really enjoying it but as I reached the mid point ,I became less enchanted with it.
Here's why.
While many of the puzzles were familiar to me from other books and puzzle makers,many were simply a re-do of old classics.Even that was OK.As a matter of fact the puzzle on pge 131 was a very different take on the Tangram;At least I don't recall seeing it before. Also the maze on page 133 was also a good twist on mazes.The construction puzzle on page 119 was also different.The vanishing birds on page is just a re-do of Sam Loyd,s vasishing chinese man puzzle that has been done as Leprechauns,trees ,animals,and you name it.
So why only 3 stars?
Many of the puzzles require cutting up the book,an absolute no-no to any book lover or making copies ,even transparencies;both black and white or color.Then there is the puzzle on page 60, a takeoff on a puzzle that is often sold as a jigsaw puzzle with a mylar coated cylinder included in with it.Then we get on page 152 one that requires 3-D glasses;like everyone just happens to have a pair in their hip pocket!
I hope I've made my point.This book should have come with separate pieces in a pouch or something like that;so they would be available to do the puzzles without a bunch of construction, negating the destruction of the book.At the very least ,there should have been a warning on the front cover.This is not a new idea and has been done many times before.
I am surprised the editorial reviews didn't pick op on this.The names of the two authors were unknown to me in the puzzle book field and they appear more to be into creating classroom aids.All the more so, this book would have been a much better product with the additions I suggest.
I think both young people in a class as well as adults would enjoy this great mix of puzzles; but if either a decision to save a small amount at publishing or just a lack of thought is the reason;what would have been a first class effort is just a so-so result.
the old adage certainly applies here:
"Anything worth doing is worth doing right."

This is a fun and very original and easy to read book. You should see all the ways that colors and shapes can fool you. Really astonishing! At the same time, you'll discover a huge quantity of geometric illusions, paradoxical puzzles, impossible objects, etc... If you like Sam Loyds, you should get this book! I also suggest this book for class activities to develop maths and spatial sense.

Ruth Heller's adult coloring books can be completed by experienced children coloring complex and tiny lined patterns, but better done by adults wanting a release from daily stresses. My main concern, as seen in this one, although not as extreme as one of her geometric coloring books, is that one type of bird is put down on one page, and this is followed by several pages of the same bird on two to four additional pages with multiples of the previous pattern, but in smaller form. In some ways I enjoy this for I can vary the bird coloration (I use professional artist coloring pencils for best results), but I wish I could have a more varied selections, such as birds in this book. Yet for the cost, this is reasonable, particularly as the images are printed on decent paper (not the best, but much better than so many coloring books out there) and not back-to-back preventing bleed through if you use some types of art media.
So give her coloring books a try and get them at the 4 for 3 purchase option (if still available when you read this) so you can get more for your money. I still enjoy them for stress relief factor when I cannot do my own art due to health reasons. Also keep in mind, Ruth Heller's coloring books are of a higher standard of the books out there.

This coloring book is beautiful and imaginative. Because it shows pages with one large image and other pages where the same image has been multiplied in smaller sizes, it helps explain (without words) how multiple pictures of the same animal can be done quickly and efficiently with a little technological help. The drawings are detailed enough to allow real creativity in the coloring, and exciting enough to make you want to do your own drawings in a similar style.

We've used this text since the 1st edition in ART 250 Intro to Digital Practices at the University at Buffalo. It is simply the best, most comprehensive volume covering all the major applications we use in class. Just the right amount of background theory, coupled with good technical foundations, and exercises sprinkled throughout that students can tackle at their own pace. The 2nd edition did grow long in the tooth, and we tried a couple other texts, but they all fell short -- either too technical or too deep in theory. The authors are very receptive to feedback, and they were able to convince the publishers that a 3rd Edition was needed. It is the best edition yet.

I use this book to teach computer graphics I, but I think the reference is getting dated. They need to release a newer version to match the current software.

This is a fairly in depth look at what it takes to build a game, from a game designers standpoint. It covers picking your subject matter, your target audience, building your design document, what you need to know to work with those who implement your design, and many more topics. Pretty much every facet is explored. The author occasionally sprinkles anecdotes and stories from his nearly 17+ years of experience designing games. The style isn't boring at all. I might agree with the one other reviewer that this may not necessarily be the end all, but over all it's the best I've seen on the subject.

The only real cons about the book is the fact that now it's about 10 years old, and things have changed quite a bit. Also, as the other reviewer said, the cd is pretty much worthless. It was something the publisher probably felt they needed to have since everyone else was doing it. Occasionally the author will be wrong about a few things, but that's to be expected, as any single author can't have possibly played or been involved with every computer game or genre invented.

So if you want a good breakdown of what it takes to make games from the designer's perspective, this is the book to get. (Plus 35 cents at the time I am reviewing this is a steal).

Overall, I find this book very valuable but can not believe there isn't an example of any of the forms it describes in so much detail. I would recommend this book to those getting started in the software design or pre-production phase, but it wont be the end all book on this subject.

Also, this book must contain what amounts to the most useless CD-ROM of any computer book I have seen. Although before I purchased this book, I looked for a description of the CD-ROM contents, I thought, surely it must be examples of the design documents, but only found obsolete shareware game demos. It is almost as if the publisher wanted to charge an extra few dollars by including a CD-ROM...any CD-Rom.

The text provides easy to follow step by step intructions for becoming proficient in the use of Fireworks. The font was of a large of enough size and the individual intructions were nicely separated in an ordered list. Easy to read and not skip a sentence or paragraph when looking back and forth from screen to text to screen. Very nice skills review and knowledge assessemt at the end of each lesson. The construction of the text as a spiral book allows one to lay it flat on your desk with holding the pages down. A great reference book as well. I recommend it.

This is a excellent book that made Fireworks understandable to me. I tried an earlier version of Fireworks some years ago, playing with it and trying to figure things out for myself, but after reading the first 35 pages of this book, I learned so many more tips and tricks, I felt that the price of the book was well worth it. The book is intelligently written and easy to understand, and you are guided through Fireworks in a friendly and helpful, and thankfully not arogant way.

The book is written by an author that plainly has the desire and ability to teach the reader the "ins and outs" of the software. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn Fireworks MX 2004.

After buying and playing through the d20 version of the game, I decided to take a look at Hollistic's own Victory Point System. While a few of the rules are a bit muddled, over all it's easy to learn, and much like its author's "older children," the custom character building is fun and more personalized than the d20 system. I'll give the story/setting 5 stars for being a beautiful synthesis of Dune, the Phoenix Guard, and many many of my favorite books and movies, but 4 stars for the system which, much like with the author's previous works, is unclear at times, though ultimately great once you've learned it.

I considered buying this book for quite some time and finally decided to give it a chance. Now I'm glad I picked it up.

The concept behind the game is great and the designers give you enough background information to get started on a campaign of your own. While I haven't had a chance to run a game yet, the mechanics seem decent enough, they even have multiple methods of character generation. With such a wide open universe of over 40 worlds, it is unlikely that you'll fall short of adventure Ideas.

The book has a good format, easy reading and pretty nifty art too. However, the creators of the game are also the original developers of White Wolf's Vampire and Werewolf games, so prepare yourself for a healthy dose of angst ridden melodrama. Whatever your playing style, whether it be the afore-mentioned melodrama or an intense high action thrill game, Fading Suns offers a lil' something for everyone. Well worth the price.

This is a very good read, and offers a lot of good information for the budding game designer. There are lots of issues to ponder and the book certainly manages to raise some good ones. My only complaints about the book are the lack of strong examples for some key concepts (naming specific games, and perhaps detailing how said game illustrates the concept would be nice) and the fact that it is rather focused on the RPG and Adventure genres. For that reason I would highly recommend it to designers interested in those genres, but would caution those who are not interested in designing RPG/Adventure games.

This is a nice book with some technical issues that could be better but still a nice book to have for any one interested or that has a career in game design. you should read this book and understand at least a nice outline of how to design a game. you should'nt buy this if you are just starting and have no clue how to design games it is a nice book to try for starters even though there is a chance they will not know what it is talking about.