Game Design Theory: A New Philosophy for Understanding Games 1st Edition by Keith Burgun (PDF)

Description

Despite the proliferation of video games in the twenty-first century, the theory of game design is largely underdeveloped, leaving designers on their own to understand what games really are. Helping you produce better games, Game Design Theory: A New Philosophy for Understanding Games presents a bold new path for analyzing and designing games. The author offers a radical yet reasoned way of thinking about games and provides a holistic solution to understanding the difference between games and other types of interactive systems. He clearly details the definitions, concepts, and methods that form the fundamentals of this philosophy. He also uses the philosophy to analyze the history of games and modern trends as well as to design games.Providing a robust, useful philosophy for game design, this book gives you real answers about what games are and how they work. Through this paradigm, you will be better equipped to create fun games.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “How do we make better entertaining interactive systems, “games,” specifically? That’s the question Burgun is trying to answer here, and I think his “philosophy for understanding games” does an excellent job of helping all of its readers answer that question.”- Ryan RigneyWIRED Contributor About the Author Keith Burgun is a game designer, writer, composer, and visual artist who has been developing games independently for nearly 20 years. He writes for Gamasutra, Destructoid, and several other popular websites, including his own blog at Dinofarm Games. He is a founding member of Dinofarm Games and produced its first commercial game 100 Rogues for the iOS platform. He also teaches game design and animation courses at local art schools.

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐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).————————-STYLE: PLEASANTLY PRECISEMost 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!————————-CONTENT: CONCRETE AND CONTEXTUALHis 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.————————-COMPARISON: OTHER BOOKS ON GAMESI 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 FunLike 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.————————-CONCLUSIONI recommend this book for anyone interested in the theory of games.I highly recommend this book for game designers.

⭐This is a book for real gaming enthusiasts, you may or may not agree with everything this book has to say (I know I didn’t agree with it all) but one thing is for certain, this book tears videogames apart exposing the flawed conventions that people have tried to apply for years and explaining why they keep failing. If there’s anything this book will teach you, it’s what not to do and what to be aware of when doing. It may or may not enhance any of your theories or ideas but it can cut open a new path for aspiring game developers looking for a new approach to game design.That being said, this book isn’t just for game developers, this book is for all gamers, any gaming enthusiast will not only learn but will also enjoy this book. I think that learning is more fun when it is enjoyable and this game knows how to cater to people who are interested in gaming knowledge not just by educating but also by making you appreciate games more and help you understand that game design is a science, not a bunch of random ideas, there is a method to everything but are those methods still viable in the current climate? This book exists for you to figure that out… oh and BTW for any budding Indie game developers out there, this book may be a bit dated but the knowledge in this book still applies today and indie developers continue to fail because they do not apply the things mentioned in this book.If you’re not really interested in videogame theory or are looking for a book that covers more practical, factual information such as programming, you might not get much out of this. This book is for gaming enthusiasts, indie leads and creative directors.

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