A Theory of Fun made Next Generation’s list of “50 Books For Everyone In the Game Industry” written by Ernest Adams. It’s quite a good list — I think I have read 2/3rds of it.
Ernest said of AToF,
This is the first time someone has specifically addressed the question of what fun is and how we create it. I don’t agree with everything Koster says, but A Theory of Fun is an important and valuable book. His thesis is that much of fun comes from learning and mastery and creating opportunities for players to achieve them. There’s much more than that here, too, about brains, and ethics, and children, and the discomfort older people feel with younger people’s preferred forms of fun. Written in a light, personal style, Koster takes us easily into complex issues, but never becomes prescriptive or dogmatic.
Now I need to get that onto the book’s website…
Books I thought were missing were mostly fairly specific to disciplines within game design, and I have mentioned them here before; stuff like Lee Sheldon’s Character Development and Storytelling for Games, or Katherine Isbister’s Better Game Characters by Design: A Psychological Approach. I was surprised not to see Ender’s Game or Snow Crash on the inspirations list.
Let’s see, it’s easier to make a list of the books in here I haven’t read. I didn’t know Chris had done a book about Balance of Power, for example. I haven’t read Bateman’s book on writing or Omernick’s book on art. I really need to get a copy of the Oxford book of board games. Haven’t read Supercade, or Justine Cassell & Henry Jenkins’ From Barbie to Mortal Kombat. Or Pikachu’s Global Adventure. I don’t have the book of Game Developer postmortems, but I have read my share of them. Haven’t read Sheff’s book on Nintendo or Takahashi’s book on the 360.
Never did read McKee’s book on scriptwriting, but if I had to offer up a book that brings in the knowledge of cinema, it’d be Boorstin’s Making Movies Work: Thinking Like a Filmmaker. Really really good. Astonishingly, I haven’t read McLuhan. Go figure.
I guess that’s it. I missed 12 out of the 50. What’s your score?
8 Responses to “Next Generation – 50 Books For Everyone In the Game Industry”
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Ernest Adams wrote:
For the record, I don’t like The Design of Everyday Things because of Norman’s approach—not because of the concepts he present; therefore, I don’t “discount” Norman as Raph described. I just don’t give him the same idolizing respect that so many people do. Norman claims that every experience with a product that users perceive as negative can and should be blamed on the designer. I’m surprised by the lack of criticism of that bogus generalization.
[…] Comments […]
15 out of 50. Seems pathetic, but I’ve read a host of other books not on the list. I’d say the Game Narrative book, (which was only edited by Bateman) isn’t much worth reading, as it fails to really address how interactivity and narrative can converge, only how they can compliment in parrallel. Another book that seems crucial is Crawford’s Art of Interactive Design, which is his best IMO.
I was glad to see that Tufte and The Watchmen got a nod.
Raph, I have been reading your book, and am in the epilogue now. I really think that it should be required reading for students of game design, not only for the deconstruction you’ve offered, but that it is well thought-out and insightful. I truly have been thinking about games in a different way since I have been reading it.
How do you think that the new interface devices (Wii remote, DS, PS3 six-axis) that are the key markers of the new console generation will have an impact on future editions (if any)?
[…] Recently I blogged about the Next Gen list of core books for everyone in the game industry. A few of the books on that list are hard to find or out of print. One of the best of them is Amy Jo Kim’s Community Building on the Web: Secret Strategies for Successful Online Communities — which it turns out you can obtain as a PDF by clicking on this link. Hooray for e-publishing! This is the best book I have ever read on online community formation and design, and it hasn’t become dated much at all even though it came out in 2000. Once, Alex Pham from the LA Times borrowed my (autographed) copy, and I pestered her for a year to get it back. […]
[…] Building on the Web” is still available “Community Building on the Web” is still available: “Recently I blogged about the Next Gen list of core books for everyone in the game industry.A few of the books on that list are hard to find or out of print. One of the best of them is Amy Jo Kim’s Community Building on the Web: Secret Strategies for Successful Online Communities — which it turns out you can obtain as a PDF by clicking on this link. Hooray for e-publishing! This is the best book I have ever read on online community formation and design, and it hasn’t become dated much at all even though it came out in 2000. Once, Alex Pham from the LA Times borrowed my (autographed) copy, and I pestered her for a year to get it back. […]
Interesting the intersection of this list with my Virtual Communities Reading List on Amazon.
Too bad I don’t have time to read another 40 books. 🙂