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50 Books for Everyone in the Games Industry
Ground Glass writes "Over at Next Generation there's a comprehensive feature on the books that everyone in games should read. It's by game designer and author Ernest Adams, and attacks the medium from every possible angle. Adding these books to your Amazon wishlist could only give you a better understanding of where games have been and where they are (and should be) going."
A "do it yourself" adventure book!
Well, the article certainly has a lot of hemming and hawing over "Game Design". Just about every book ever published on the subject is included. Unfortunately, this is just a fluff piece. Reading these books won't suddenly force you to understand how to design games, they will merely provide useful tips that may or may not prove to be helpful. (Some of the tips may even be bad ideas!)
Let me ask you, the Slashdot readers. Can anyone explain to you how to be the next DaVinci or Picasso? Can anyone tell you how to write the next great Symphony? Can anyone tell you how to make the next blockbuster movie?
The answer in all cases should be an emphatic "No". These are the areas of artistry that reflect their creators' desire to express themselves. You can't tell someone how to do these things, you can only offer suggestions on how to polish and commercialize them.
It's the same with video games. A *good* video game reflects the complexity and intensity of its author. It expresses things in an interactive media that can't be expressed in other ways. People wonder why Mario was such a good side scroller while something like The Rocketeer was considered bland. What made Half-Life so special when there was a market full of First Person Shooters? Why Wing Commander succeeded where so many other shooters failed.
If you analyse these questions, the answer becomes obvious. The amatuer game designer merely plays with game mechanics with no rhyme or reason behind his changes. He may combine things that are popular, or try to cram in every cool thing he's ever seen done in a game. (With apologies to the author, 2Hard4U is an excellent example of this.) The end result, however, feels like game mechanics squished together rather than a cohesive system.
The master game designer has a vision in his mind of what a game should be. He only adds mechanics as required by his vision. He then tweaks and polishes and tweaks again until every last mechanic finds a balance with all the other game mechanics. The final work represents his vision for what a game should be, rather than merely a hope that combining concepts will be fun.
I saw an interesting interview with Shigeru Miyamoto at one point. Apparently, Mr. Miyamoto had created games like Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros., and Zelda based on imaginings he had while walking through the nearby woods. He imagined things like trap doors in the sky, or meeting interesting creatures at the lake. He formed these concepts into little stories which he then sought to tell using the limited canvas of the electronic games platform. The result was all the little intracasies that made these games great. Mario was able to become a giant. He could climb through the sky on a beanstalk. He could smash bricks. Link grew into a man after starting from nothing. He met interesting creatures, and had to defend against enemies. So on and so forth.
So if you want to be a game designer, you have to learn that it's about more than just the technology. You have to have a vision for what your game should be about. Once you have that vision, following it through to its logical conclusion is the only way to make a great game.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Printer friendly is people friendly, because people are printers and printers are WHALES.
Since DND is, to a large extent, a derivative of Tolkein's work anyway there is not much left on the table here.
Really? So you don't consider the logical mathematical structure of D&D a good model to review? As in inspiration for the types of structure that a game coder would need to understand?
Either you don't code or you've never considered that when stuff like Telegard came out it was more about D&D than Tolkien... actually, a lot more.
Granted D&D PHG 1st edition isn't a blueprint for creating a game but it's a pretty good overview of some of the things to consider.
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
The main complaint should be "Why are these books useful to me" versus "What the hell is RELEVANT to what I want to do?"
World-builders and game artists will learn more from the open-ended game narratives as they will from the lone comic offering (and fuck, I can think of PLENTY of books they should've offered from that perspective), while actual business people and those looking to pitch game offerings will appreciate the history books and the more office-politic-style offerings.
Anyone even thinking of developing the mythical 'one-developer game' could use a smattering more of the actual game design and programming, but really needs everything from the coding to the story to the interfacing, And the girl-gender books are good examples how to (and more importantly, NOT to) appeal to a specific demographic.
The entire list, in and of itself, is useless. A breakdown of which books are relevant to which people would have been better.
I fully agree that a "Required Gaming" list should accompany the "Reading" and "Watching" ones, so I decided to try and come up with one. I have separated the list into categories (I wouldn't call them genre) and within each category I suggest playing the games in order. And, yes, there are exactly 50 in this list.
Required Gaming
Arcade
This category in a way even more dead than the platformer below, but some classics have to be played nonetheless.
First person Shooters
Naturally this is what many people think about first, when they hear the term "Computer Game", basically because it's the category most closely associated with 3D-Engines, which get most of the press for years now.
Platformers
While this category is practically dead now, it was of great influence in the gaming middle-ages and could offer opportunities for those with a creative idea.
Beat'em Ups
Well, they're brainless fun, nothing more to say, playing just a couple should suffice IMHO.
Simulations
This is a difficult category, as many games in it could be listed elsewhere or not be considered "games" per se.
Strategy Games
I have to admit not knowing much about these, a the category doesn't appeal to me.
Adventures
Now this category might be a bit overrepresented due to my love for it, but claims of its death are greatly exaggerated.
Roleplaying Games
While I love Pen & Paper gaming, computers always pose a problem, because they can't react like a human could. I feel thus compelled to include few titles that don't deserve the categorization, but would commonly be given it by game