Liz England

I announced a project to build a comprehensive Game Design Library, where I read and review books on game design and related disciplines like art, architecture, film, writing, history, sociology, psychology, and similar fields. I have also started a Game Design Book Club for people who’d like to participate by reading one book a month.

You can check out my current queue of books I own, as well as a much larger list of books found or recommended to me. Feel free to suggest any books that I have overlooked.

All of my completed reviews are listed below. A ★ indicates a personal favorite.

GENERAL GAME DESIGN

• A Theory of Fun for Game Design by Raph Koster ★
• The Art of Game Design by Jesse Schell (includes review of A Deck of Lenses)
• A Game Design Vocabulary by Anna Anthropy and Naomi Clark 
• Challenges for Game Designers by Brenda Brathwaite and Ian Scheiber

GAME DESIGN DEEP DIVE

• Game Feel by Steve Swink ★
• Uncertainty in Games by Greg Costikyan

MULTIPLAYER, SPORTS, & ESPORTS

• Playing to Win by David Sirlin ★

SERIOUS & AUGMENTED REALITY GAMES

• Reality is Broken by Jane McGonigal

VIDEO GAME HISTORY & INDUSTRY

• Videogames: In the Beginning by Ralph Baer
• Generation Xbox: How Videogames Invaded Hollywood by Jamie Russell

GAMES CRITICISM & CRITICAL STUDIES

• Shooter ed. by Reid McCarter and Patrick Lindsey ★
• The Art of Failure by Jesper Juul ★
• The State of Play: Creators and Critics on Videogame Culture, ed. by Linus Larsson and Daniel Goldberg

HISTORY& ANTHROPOLOGY

• Homo Ludens by Johan Huizinga ★

ARCHITECTURE & LEVEL DESIGN

• 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School by Matthrew Frederick

STORY, NARRATIVE, & ROLE-PLAY

• Fundamentals of Role-Playing Game Design by Ernest Adams
• Quests: Design, Theory, and History in Games and Narratives by Jeff Howard
• Morphology of the Folktale by Vladimir Propp

PSYCHOLOGY & UX

• Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
• Universal Principles of Design by William Lidwell, Kritina Holden, and Jill Butcher
• The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman ★

PHILOSOPHY

• Finite and Infinite Games by James Carse

FILM, COMICS, & MULTIMEDIA

• Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud ★

FICTION

• Ghosts in the Machine, ed. Lana Polansky and Brendan Keogh