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jmbossy

Design Theory Texts

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Though my course load has mostly been full of social sciences (sprinkled with art history where I can), I haven't been able to find meaningful academic tutelage on more creative subjects. I'm interested in social sciences mostly as additions to my base artistic interests, but my school does not offer courses or literature on these subjects. So, if anyone has any recommendations for game design, graphic design, or film theory text books I would really appreciate the suggestions. I mostly suspect IT will have suggestions on game design texts, and I've already been suggested "Game Feel" by Steve Swink, but any opinions you have on my circumstance would be welcome.

 

Thanks :)

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I read ralpl koster's a theroy of fun for game design a couple years ago and thought it was pretty interesting

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Here's my set of sort of standard recommendations in this field. Some are probably out-dated, and there are probable other newer ones, but this is probably a decent start:

 

Rules of Play, Zimmerman and Salen - Fairly standard game design textbook.

Theory of Fun for Game Design, Raph Koster - More readable / accessible. Like McCloud's Understanding Comics, but for games.

The Art of Game Design: A book of Lenses, Jesse Schell

Half Real, Jesper Juul

 

First Person, Various - Essays on specific game design topics. Probably somewhat outdated, but the approach is sound. There have been a couple of follow ups that I haven't read (Second Person, Third Person).

Design of Everyday Things, Norman - This isn't game design related per se, but it's a foundational text on product / object design. This will show you how to think about how players and users will experience the things that you make.

Racing the Beam, Bogost, Montfort - Not directly about game design, but this is very smart people talking about how the Atari hardware influenced game design by defining what was possible (number of objects, refresh rates, etc). Again, this will expose you to new ways to think about design.

 

That should give you a place to start at least, if you track other works by those names, you'll be in pretty good hands.

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I'll definitely find a copy of Theory for Fun, and I'll see what else I can get my hands on.

Thanks for the recommendations!

 

Also, that link is pretty fantastic. I'll probably read as much of those as I can before it goes anywhere.

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I just started reading Critical Play by Mary Flanagan and it seems pretty good so far. It's about more than just video games, though, and comes at it from a very artist/activist perspective, so I'm not sure if that's what you're looking for.

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I'm about to graduate from a game design course, so I have tons of these books kicking about. I'm sure I'll think of more later but here are some good ones I have now:

 

Characteristics of Games Really in-depth explanations of mechanical concepts and challenges. Alot of the concepts it talks about are agnostic and could apply to any kind of game, but it uses specific examples from genres as well.

 

Homo Ludens Huizinga is the father of alot of current research on the concept of Play. It's from the 50s but it's a really great read about a fundamental concept behind games.

 

Man, Play and Games Another one about play, this was huge for my dissertation. Caillois qualifies four categories of play and a continuum of play structure that's really fascinating. This book can also be used to beat people who call things "not games".

 

Game Design: How to Create Video and Tabletop Games, Start to Finish Probably more useful for actually developing games, this walks you through the process of creating a game yourself and all the things you need to consider.

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For film theory, look at the works of David Bordwell. Film Art, Film History, and The Way Hollywood Tells It are all tremendously insightful and well-researched books that cover the development of film aesthetics and styles over the past century.

 

For design in general, Norman's Design of Everyday Things is phenomenal. It's more about industrial/product design, but the book is centered around the idea of designers realizing that current methods of accomplishing a task are only that way because nobody has given them further thought since their inception.

 

For graphic design, I'd recommend going into the least secure bookstore you can find and grabbing every Phaidon publication on their shelves.

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Seconded everyone else's game theory recommendations, and wanted to add a note about film theory.

 

One of the things I've found most helpful is reading scripts. Find a movie you really like and read the script, noticing directions and changes from the page to the shot. It gives you an inside-their-head look and can teach you a lot about how they control action and time. You can find a copy of most movie's script online for free via google, though having a copy you can dog-ear is always fun. I first heard about this in an interview with a director (can't remember who) about his influences. I first tried it in NY, reading the script for Taxi Driver as I rode the subway, finishing it on top of the Empire State Building.

 

Also, some script-writers have incredibly personal ways of writing and it's so cool to find them. Ingmar Bergman, for example, writes his scripts like short stories, with minimal camera directions but lots of descriptions of the quality and feel of the moment, the character's inner motivations, etc. 

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Chris Crawford on Game Design. You'll likely not agree with everything he says, but that's bound to happen with someone as opinionated as Crawford. The book itself is quite an enjoyable read, with loads of anecdotes and history about past games he's worked on as well. He's a really interesting character. It's pretty crazy to consider how far ahead he was at the time when it came to thinking and writing about game design.

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For film theory, look at the works of David Bordwell. Film Art, Film History, and The Way Hollywood Tells It are all tremendously insightful and well-researched books that cover the development of film aesthetics and styles over the past century.

Second this, Bordwell & Thompson are the ones to read when it comes to basics in film theory. If you're interested in film theory, read one of their books, then find the part that interests you most and keep going in that direction.

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For graphic design, I'd recommend going into the least secure bookstore you can find and grabbing every Phaidon publication on their shelves.

 

I'm excessively pleased I understood this joke.

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