eBook Game Design Theory ePub

Well, as is clear from the reviews you'll either love it or hate it. To put it simply there is a lot of good stuff in here, tons of gems and insight sprinkled throughout. Much of it may not speak to you, and it is a very dense read, but I defy any game designer not to find enough value in it to justify the purchase and the read.

I originally read this book quite some time ago (months to a year ago) and meant to write a review for it but always got sidetracked with other things. Although I don't have time right now to give a more detailed review, this book is so different from other game design books and such a refreshing thing to see that it merits me taking the time to provide another review in support of it.

I actually work in the AAA game industry for a living, and this book is a breath of fresh air compared to most of what passes for "game design" in this industry. I've read other books on game design, read tons of articles, played a truly enormous number of games over the course of my life, and I interact with real world game developers on a daily basis. Keith's book, as well as his articles on his website, brings almost everything else I hear about game design from within the industry to shame. They aren't even in the same league, in terms of understanding of what real game design actually is. Currently industry "game design" still for the most part feels like it's in the stone age and this book attempts to truly address the question of what game design means and how we can move forward.

The game industry is in many ways a wonderful place and there is tremendous creativity and intelligence within it. However, Keith addresses the core problems with how the industry currently views game design in the most direct and meaningful way I've ever found anywhere. It is unfortunate that in most of the AAA industry what people call "game design" is actually just "theme design" or "art design" or "story design" or "world design", which are all things that don't necessarily have any direct relevance to true GAME DESIGN.

This book touches on the most fundamental source of the industry's stagnation: it's overall inability to understand what game design actually is and it's tendency to just repeatedly churn out old and already existing games with nothing more than a new graphical wrapper attached and the mechanics permuted in various sometimes mildly interesting, but seldom truly innovative, ways.

However the biggest weakness of this book is, in my opinion, that there are parts in the book where the author's bias against real time games taints the discussion and leads the author to occasionally make claims that overreach and go too far. My advice on this point is to take what the author says with a grain of salt whenever he starts talking negatively about real time gameplay. The author has some good insights and points in this respect, but he takes them too far occasionally.

I definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in game design or game development in general. I admire the author's bravery and insightfulness and I was glad to find a book that touched on so many different thoughts that I myself have had about game design and how we can move forward. The negative reviewers of this book are being "opinion nazis" in that they are not allowing other people (i.e. the author) to play devil's advocate or to oppose the status quo in any way. Keith is not trying to destroy interactive storytelling or fantasies in any way. He says that EXPLICITLY and politely right at the beginning of the book as a disclaimer. He is merely trying to clarify the distinction between things so that people can get out of tarpit we are currently stuck in.

The existence of this book can only help game design as a discipline. The very fact that it goes out on a limb against mainstream (so called) "game design" is what makes it so valuable.

If you can't handle anything that broadens your view of the world and if you can't handle other people having a different opinion than your own, then by all means listen to the biased negative reviewers and don't buy the book. However, if you genuinely care about game design and game development reaching its full potential to express original and meaningful gameplay mechanics, and want to read a truly interesting and thoughtful book on game design, then I hope you'll give what this author has to say a chance. It's not perfect and it's certainly not a recipe for making your own game at a detailed level, but it's the only book I've read that feels like there's a resonating element of truth to it. Most other game design books, in stark contrast, read like meaningless fluff and seldom really say anything significant at all.

Wonderful work Keith! I hope to read more of your thoughts on game design in the future! It's great to have found at least one other person out there who has begun to understand what the real problem with the industry is. Here is an author who is fighting the good fight and genuinely cares about the state of game design.

Game Design Theory by Keith Burgun is one of my favorite books on game design (I've read many such books, and I have a fair amount of experience with game design).

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STYLE: PLEASANTLY PRECISE
Most books in this genre make a lot of statements that, while interesting, are too vague to be falsifiable. They are typically afraid to set any clear definition of `game' lest some fringe case be excluded, and their practical value suffers as a result. Keith Burgun's book sets clear definitions, supports those definitions with concrete examples, and sticks to those definitions throughout the books. That kind of formalism is just what the field of game design needs, as Reiner Knizia notes in the book's forward.

Sometimes I agreed with what he said and sometimes I disagreed, but I was always thankful that he actually articulated a position clearly enough that I could agree or disagree. Even when he covered ideas I thought were obvious, I could appreciate the fact that he did it rigorously and carefully. But it's not just a careful theoretical framework - the book provides concrete examples of real games, followed by a specific advice that can be followed by a designer. As such, while the book has value for anyone who plays game, it is of direct practical value to game designers.

Another complaint I have of most books in this genre is that they read like a textbook - they sound dumbed down and condescending, even when delivering real insight. Keith's book reads like he respects the reader, but wants to convince the reader of a point. He is concise and clear, and the book is just the right length. Even if you disagree with him, you will find insight in his carefully formulated arguments and unambiguous definitions!

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CONTENT: CONCRETE AND CONTEXTUAL
His definition of game is a refinement of one that's been floating around for a while, and he expresses it as a series of subsets: Some interactive systems are puzzles (if there is a goal), some puzzles are contests (if there is competition), some contests are games (if there are heuristic choices). Personally, I would have used the term "strategic game" instead of "game", simply to avoid ambiguity. The term "game" gets uses many different ways by many different people. However, the important thing is that he does define what he means by "game" so you know exactly what class of activity he is making claims about. Many critics of the book are reacting to the choice of the term "game", rather than the actual claims he makes about strategic games.

Furthermore, his examples are not just drawn from the latest hot game, but he has a good knowledge and appreciation of the history of games.

The book also has a subtle sense of humor that I quite enjoyed.

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COMPARISON: OTHER BOOKS ON GAMES
I rank this book up with other great books about the theory of games. Here are my favorites, ranked roughly from most concrete/rigorous to most abstract/ambiguous:

- Game Design Theory (this book!)
- Characteristics of Games
- Challenges for Game Designers
- The Art of Game Design / A Deck of Lenses

- The Game Inventor's Guidebook
- Rule of Play
- The Game Design Reader
- Game Design Workshop
- Andrew Rollings and Ernest Adams on Game Design

- Man, Play, and Games
- Flow: the psychology of optimal experience
- The Ambiguity of Play
- A Theory of Fun

Like all those books, Keith's has parts I skimmed and parts I found insightful. But unlike those other books, his was willing to commit to unambiguous definitions. So, when I found an insight in his book, I know how to apply it. When I found interesting ideas in those other books, it was hard to figure out exactly what the author meant.

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CONCLUSION
I recommend this book for anyone interested in the theory of games.
I highly recommend this book for game designers.

Keith Burgun has quite clearly established an effective theoretical system of forms for interactive systems. As per the game's title, the book is about game design from a theoretical standpoint, and should definitely not be understood as a general purpose "how to start being a game developer" sort of book, because it is certainly not that at all and was not intended to be. If you are interested in how interactive systems might be classified according to their properties and functions (do they involve decision making, do they measure something, can you solve them, etc.), then you might be interested in this book.