Customer Reviews
My Favorite Book on Game Design - By: , 01 Jan 2006 
Recently ordered the second edition of this book, & reading it made me remember how much I liked the original. I always liked the way the book takes a common sense approach to game design, while also providing invaluable lessons from someone who's obviously been "in the trenches." The second edition improves on the first in a lot of key ways, but in general I'd say the whole book seems more solid & deeper than the first edition. Definitely the best book on game design that's out there.
A good read, but little insight - By: J. Aidley, 14 Aug 2002 
I found this book rather disappointing. While the luminary interviews are excellent I found they provided little actual insight. The writer himself seems to be some way from the pinnacle of good game design (the included design document for 'Atomic Sam' is particularly poor), & again offers no real insight. There are a few good ideas, a few good pointers, a few things to think about but nothing of real depth here. Still, it was an enjoyable read.
As Good As It Gets for Game Design - By: , 06 May 2001 Game Design: Theory & Practice covers the entire range of game design issues, alll in an extremely readable writing style. PC & console games are both covered, as well as alll gaming genres, as is evidenced by the variety of games the author analyses. from Centipede to Tetris to The Sims. The long & informative interviews with established game designers like Sid Meier & Steve Meretzky are great to read because they were conducted in a very friendly, conversational style. Personallly, I reallly enjoyed the sample design document included at the end of the book, which demonstrated better than any other I have seen how to document a game. I wish there had been a chapter on multi-player gaming, but otherwise there's not much missing from this great book.
