davepickett's review against another edition
5.0
A great entry point into understanding video game design. Packs in more concepts than books twice its length and with way more personality.
dangrous's review against another edition
5.0
This was an interesting dive into game design. It’s definitely a textbook, but still was fun to read and had of course a lot of great information. It was more about video games than games in general, but the approach is sound for a lot of things and definitely had takeaways (and verbiage) that I’ll keep using.
vermin's review
5.0
This is required reading for future designers. Eloquently blends ideas and concepts that make up the field.
guilhermet's review
5.0
A good primer for anyone that wants to do game design beyond "an exact clone of World of Warcraft but I get to name the elves this time". Anthropy's laser-focus on a game as an exploration of a single mechanic may be a bit narrow, but it's a great stepping stone for a variety of game designs that doesn't get much love from the big companies.
Naomi Clark's second half focuses on storytelling and theme. It's a less revolutionary section, as pretty much every book on game design is a thinly rebranded essay on writing stories for books and movies, but it still details a lot of what makes storytelling for games unique.
But, most importantly, the book doesn't mention the hero's fucking journey anywhere, and so gets 5 out of 5.
Naomi Clark's second half focuses on storytelling and theme. It's a less revolutionary section, as pretty much every book on game design is a thinly rebranded essay on writing stories for books and movies, but it still details a lot of what makes storytelling for games unique.
But, most importantly, the book doesn't mention the hero's fucking journey anywhere, and so gets 5 out of 5.
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