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The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses

Jesse Schell

4.39 · Rating details · 2,592 ratings · 179 reviews

Anyone can master the fundamentals of game design—no technological expertise is necessary. The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses shows that the same basic principles of psychology that work for board games, card games and athletic games also are the keys to making top-quality video games. Good game design happens when you view your game from many different perspectives, ...more

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Paperback, 489 pages

Published August 4th 2008 by CRC Press

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Jan 23, 2011 Michael Burnam-Fink rated it it was amazing

Shelves: games, 2011

On one level, this is a textbook about how to design a game. On another level, this a work of love by someone who clearly understands why games are fun, and how to manage the tricky business of coordinating all the people required to build one. Jesse Schell breaks games down into their individual components, and explains how those can work together to reinforce an experience of fun. The book is full of practical, folksy wisdom on managing artists, programmers, playtesters, and clients. A charmin ...more

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Jan 20, 2014 Graham Herrli rated it it was ok

Shelves: game-design-and-gamification, design-related

This book contains some thought-provoking suggestions about game design, but it also contains enough empty truisms to become annoying. For example: "there were many decisions the designer made to lay it out, and these decisions made a significant impact upon the game experience" (p. 237). The final paragraph of each chapter and subchapter could probably be omitted without removing any information from the book.

And the number of typos was astounding. (I sent Jesse Schell a list of nearly twenty t This book contains some thought-provoking suggestions about game design, but it also contains enough empty truisms to become annoying. For example: "there were many decisions the designer made to lay it out, and these decisions made a significant impact upon the game experience" (p. 237). The final paragraph of each chapter and subchapter could probably be omitted without removing any information from the book.

And the number of typos was astounding. (I sent Jesse Schell a list of nearly twenty to correct in e-books or reprintings.) Their sheer volume made me a bit dubious of the depth of thought that went into the book. Some parts of it, especially the emotional ramblings toward the end, read like first drafts.

The premise of the book intrigued me. Schell pulled together a collection of one hundred "lenses": ways looking at a game to see what needs to be changed about it. Some of these could be quite useful, although most don't need the surrounding context of the book to support them. The book has a companion Deck of Lenses that might make a better purchase for anyone actually intending to use the lenses for a design.

As a former professional juggler and former employee of Disney, Schell's perspective on the entertainment side of the industry was valuable, albeit somewhat trite.

Here are some things this book says:
(view spoiler)[
*Compared with other media, it is harder to hide the artifacts and connect the user directly to the experience in games because games are more interactive (p. 11).
*The lack of standardized definitions in game design means that we have to clarify what we mean more. Although this step of clarification slows the process, it also means that we think about each detail more thoroughly (p. 25). [This concept reminds me of the essay about Short Hand Abstractions from This Will Make You Smarter. By using SHAs, we can think about combinations of SHAs faster, but we don’t stop to consider what each SHA really means.]
*Schell proposes a ten-part definition of a game (they are entered willfully, have goals, have conflict and rules, can be won and lost, are interactive, have challenge, and create their own internal value to engage players in closed, formal systems)(p. 31-4). He then combines all these as “A game is a problem-solving activity, approached with a playful attitude” (p. 37).
*The four main components of a game (mechanics, story, aesthetics, and technology) (p. 41-3) should support a unified theme (p. 53).
*When brainstorming, numbering the ideas in lists helps to give each idea individual significance (p. 71).
*Games are built on top of toys. One way of designing is to come up with the toy first and let that inspire the form of the game (p. 90).
*In much the same way that comics simplify perception by aligning with our mental models (with large faces and lines dividing objects), games may be fun because they are simplified models and thus require less thought than non-abstracted perceptions of reality (p. 117).
*When designing a game’s mechanics, it’s worthwhile to consider separately the six basic elements of spaces, modes, actions, rules, skills, and chances (p. 130-69).
*Playtest with a mix of novices and experts to ensure that players begin in and remain in the flow channel (p. 177-8).
*Each individual game element should serve as many purposes as possible. Elements with few purposes should be merged (p. 197-8).
*If a game for children is designed to require only one mouse button, it can be useful to set the right-mouse button to also act as a left button so that if their small hands mis-click, the game still responds as anticipated (p. 244).
*A successful entertainment experience should have an “interest curve” that begins with a hook to engage the person’s interest and then adds gradually more interesting experiences until concluding with the most interesting (p. 246-52).
*Inconsistency in a story world is bad because it takes people out of the world and prevents them from imagining themselves in it in the future (p. 276).
*When creating game characters, it can be useful to consider their relationships with each other character, including their relative statuses (p. 318-23).
*One technique for designing aesthetics is to pick a song that evokes the feeling you want to convey and then structure the rest of the game around it (p. 351-2).
*It’s worthwhile to make your client feel like a creative partner in your design (420).
*Schell explains how the education system has many mechanics of a game but that it doesn’t feel like a game because it lacks the elements of a good game design. “It’s not that learning isn’t fun, it is just that many educational experiences are poorly designed” (443).
*If curiosity is a trait that can be nurtured, then structuring the education system to support the development of curiosity will be beneficial to students because they can then seek out any information they need on the internet (p. 447-8).
(hide spoiler)]

EDIT: Jesse responded to the list of typos I sent him by sending me a pack of his Deck of Lenses as a thank you. This was a very proactive gesture and gave me considerable respect for his professional courtesy. Now that I own the deck, my earlier recommendation that the deck is likely more useful than the book still stands. The deck also has the added merit of being beautifully illustrated and satisfyingly crisp.

I think it's a good idea to publish the media in multiple formats like this; multiple entries into a world are something which Jesse Schell advocates convincingly for in his book. I've heard that Stephen Anderson also created a complementary deck of psychological principles to go with his Seductive Interaction Design . ...more

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Oct 05, 2018 Jessica Mae Stover rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Update: My giftee has read deeper into this book and shared some parts with me that I hadn't yet seen. This book is sexist and misogynistic.

I'll update with more details as soon as I have time (I want to look into who else is responsible for publishing this material in support of the author), but, wow: those parts are terrible, poorly cited, and contain glaring problems such as "people are saying" weasel words.

I'm going to go ahead and say most reviewers here likely would not have given this boo Update: My giftee has read deeper into this book and shared some parts with me that I hadn't yet seen. This book is sexist and misogynistic.

I'll update with more details as soon as I have time (I want to look into who else is responsible for publishing this material in support of the author), but, wow: those parts are terrible, poorly cited, and contain glaring problems such as "people are saying" weasel words.

I'm going to go ahead and say most reviewers here likely would not have given this book a pass if it contained racism and antisemitism equivalent to the book's sexism, yet look at the 4-5 star reviews with not a single mention of the outrageous sexism contained herein. Either those readers believe as the author does, without evidence, so they didn't notice, or they just don't care, which is frustrating and disturbing no matter how you slice it.

This book is used as a university textbook, and I cannot imagine seeing those sections in a classroom setting. Furthermore the table of contents for the offensive sections hasn't changed for 3rd edition, so the material is still there! Until I return with more detail, this is being talked about online in other spaces: https://medium.com/@partytimehxlnt/ti...
------
Bought the second edition of this book as a gift, and read a few excerpts with the giftee. If you search the reviews here for "gender" and "sexist," you'll see that there are red flags about one particular section, and I urge readers to talk back to that part of the book in your reviews and in your game design. For future editions, it would be helpful if the section in question was handed over to someone else due to the author's limitations and the lack of needed citations, or else omitted entirely. I'm not sure if that lens permeates the entire book, but I sincerely hope not since this is the go-to book on game design, and otherwise looks to be well received.

A simple test readers and writers can use: Try reading the work with race substituted for gender. If you wouldn't say the thing about race -- if it sounds wrong -- don't say it about gender. ...more

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Jun 25, 2017 George rated it really liked it

Shelves: nonfiction

My crash course into game design continues. This book is an excellent resource for the whole process of making a game (most of these lessons can also be used for software development in general). It covers everything from the original concept/idea for a game to the end product, with all the hurdles in between (teem communication and organization, testing, balancing, talking to clients...). My only problem is that some of the topics were covered too generally, but I understand that this is the on ...more

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Apr 12, 2012 Kars rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction

I have mixed feelings about this book. To start with the good: Schell takes a very holistic approach to game design. He's also plain spoken, demystifying a lot of the work that goes into making games. On the downside: the range of topics Schell covers in his effort to be holistic leads to some shallow treatments. His insistence on accessibility means things are sometimes dumbed down too much, assumptions aren't examined or (in the worst cases) arguments are based on questionable pseudoscience. I ...more

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Mar 11, 2012 Wise_owl rated it liked it

Shelves: non-fiction

I read this book mostly because a friend was reading it and game design is something I'm peripherally interested in. That being said, with a few exceptions, I found the book pretty useful. It covers the full range of decisions that go into game design and has tips, or at the book puts it 'lenses' through which you can examine you game. Who is your game for. What is your games 'world'. How do the players inter-act with that world. What are the spaces of that world. It was effective is getting me ...more

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Nov 15, 2017 Caroline Berg rated it it was amazing

Shelves: non-fiction

I figured it was about time I read this, having heard such great things about it from other game designers, and it is an excellent book. It should have been a standard part of curriculum in college for my Game Art & Design degree. Honestly, anyone interested in going into game design, be it for board games, RPGs, or video games should spend some time reading this book.

However, as great as it is, I still disagree with parts of it. And to be fair, Schell does say in the book to question the knowle ...more

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Aug 12, 2008 Rich rated it it was amazing

Jesse has to be one of the smartest people I know...and this book is proof.

This book is not only a great way to learn about designing games, but teaches a lot of good tips for creating anything. I particularly appreciate that the book is not overly technical (its easily accessible to anyone who would pick it up), but it does go into some complex ideas...he hit that perfect balance in creating a book that anyone, regardless of skill or education level, can read and learn from.

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Jan 31, 2017 Osama Alsalman rated it it was amazing

This is a life changing book, not as a game designer only, but as a human. For it contains many valuable lessons on the design of human experiences, I would recommend this book to anyone.

The last three chapters were the most effecting for me, for they discussed the effect of games and how they can transform us.

Once you finish it, you will get a ring, a secret ring, but I can't tell you more. So, go read it yourself :) ...more

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Sep 03, 2010 Chris rated it it was amazing

This is a fantastic intro to the field of game design. It chooses to be comprehensive instead of detailed, so towards the end, you get some very breezy chapters about working in a team and with clients, for example, and mentions enough biz talk so that you've at least heard the terminology but don't totally get it. I didn't fault the book for glossing over these topics. I was happy that it mentioned them, in a getting-to-know-the-lay-of-the-land way, and I also appreciated that the author clearl ...more

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May 21, 2018 Tara rated it it was amazing

A fantastic book that gave me a lot to think about as I continue to design tabletop games. While it isn't 100% (some concerns with gender, understanding of choice-based narratives, etc), it is overall very useful. I've found ways to apply the contents to my (not game related) day job and other aspects of my life. I definitely recommend reading it, even if you don't agree with everything in it.

(I'm not sure how much I'll use the lenses, but the ideas around them are great. And, to echo some of th ...more

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Apr 20, 2019 Hung Vu rated it liked it

Finished this book in under a week. Not a very strong book, but still indeed contains some gems. At times it feels like the book is more aimed towards game enthusiasts rather than game designers. The author often derails too far into the definition territory of things, making it hard to stay on point. When done with definitions, the book goes on about setting the right framework of mind, how to stay on track, overcome psychological pressures, and so on--which apply to many other creative fields ...more

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Apr 21, 2017 Yu Chao rated it it was amazing

Pros: A thorough and thought-provoking guide to game design, and many of the techniques and knowledge from the book could be applied to general artistic creation as well as performance art.

Cons: After reading this book, I often find myself compulsorily analyzing the design when I'm playing a game, or studying carefully the structures of the plot line right in the middle of a movie or novel...which could sometimes be disrupting. ...more

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Jan 16, 2019 Zsolt Varga rated it it was amazing

Thorought, interesting, useful. From concept to market release with interesting stories and personal tidbits added to make it more fun to read. Highly recommended to anyone interested in tabletop or computer games.

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Dec 09, 2019 Jeremy Steingraber rated it really liked it

You don't really read a book like this cover to cover, but I've been skipping through it for quite some time at sporadic intervals. If you're interested in game design this is one that might help you think about different perspectives: maybe even break you out of some dead ends. ...more

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Dec 28, 2020 Brian Gee rated it really liked it

So far the most helpful book I've read on game design. Most of the advice is very practical, but the writing style can also being somewhat philosophical (in a good way). It looks at the psychological roots of our appreciation of gaming, and how that connects to game design. ...more

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Oct 30, 2020 Amanda rated it really liked it

Shelves: gaming

Very robust and covers a lot of useful concepts to consider when developing and designing a game. -1 star for the gender stereotypes that were (in my mind) needlessly included in the book.

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Feb 20, 2021 Jargo rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: game-dev

first book I read about game development and still one of the best. Highly recommended for beginners.

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Jul 15, 2020 Ignacio rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Great book, very comprehensive. Everything is very well explained and with very good examples that reinforce the points the author makes. If you are getting intro the game design industry, this should be a must read.

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Dec 26, 2019 Florian rated it liked it · review of another edition

Good inspiration for beginners, but with flaws

I am torn about this textbook. There is much to like in The Art of Game Design, and the book is arguably at it's best when Schell relays his extensive personal experiences in the industry. I indeed found some sections to be excellent, for instance the discussions of design principles, of games in education, or or the social responsibilities of designers. I also appreciated the accessible writing style.

That said, as a uni instructor looking for a tex ...more

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Apr 14, 2012 Sheri rated it it was ok

Shelves: gradschool, game-design

About half of this book is truly excellent. Unfortunately I can't say exactly which half, since the good parts and the not-so-good parts are all mixed together.

The author himself seems to be of two minds about the importance and role of games in our culture, which causes some inconsistencies throughout the book. For most of the book one gets the sense that game design is a very cold calculating type of business. Schell leaves discussion of the game designer's responsibilities and motivations fo ...more

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Jan 09, 2010 Holly rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

This amazing author find connections in the most wonderfully and seemingly unrelated subjects. I learned many invaluable insights about life in general.

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Dec 20, 2015 Vladimir rated it it was amazing

I found it very insightful and quite fun. Easy to read through.

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Jan 09, 2009 Bruce rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: every mouth-breather on the planet, even ostrich

Shelves: philosophy-religion

The Art of Game Design is a fabulous, fun book, a must-read, a wonderful amalgam of philosophy, psychology, criticism, and analysis of games as both literary genre and practical design. Let me hyperbolize further. I think this book should be compulsory reading for anyone in the business of communicating with others for a living as the advice and insights here speak not just to game designers, but to museum exhibit designers, web developers, filmmakers, educators, politicians, and public speakers The Art of Game Design is a fabulous, fun book, a must-read, a wonderful amalgam of philosophy, psychology, criticism, and analysis of games as both literary genre and practical design. Let me hyperbolize further. I think this book should be compulsory reading for anyone in the business of communicating with others for a living as the advice and insights here speak not just to game designers, but to museum exhibit designers, web developers, filmmakers, educators, politicians, and public speakers.

Why should we care about games? Exc epting possibly anthropologists, child psychologists, and Cold War era economic and military strategists(leaving most everybody), I think there is a tendency to view games as a frivolous way to pass the time instead of as what I think they really are, which is as a realtime, behavioral model of a complex system. Games are immersive teaching enviroments that (if they are any good) encourage learners to repeat their lessons over and over until they achieve mastery. Players will remember more information for a longer period of time through repeated, volitional exposure.

Take chess and Go as models of medieval war. Among other lessons, those who play them enough to absorb their built-in patterns are likely to see the interrelationship of offense and defense (in chess) and the impact of position on territorial influence or control (in Go). Wonder whether Liddell Hart, Klausewitz, or Sun Tzu have the upper hand when it comes to battle or negotiating tactics? Watch football and find out which plays leave their opponent flatfooted (game, set, match to the deception and surprise advocated by Liddell Hart and Sun Tzu). Care to study the effects of cooperation and competition in a problem-solving context? Grab a buddy and play a round of Joust. Want to (safely) explore the risks of possible futures with other like-motivated people in the hopes of building a better tomorrow? Watch or participate in Superstruct online.

As with everything, there are good and bad games, and as a person who likes to get under the hood and see what drives the success of different experiences, Art of Game Design delivers without didacticism. Neither highbrow nor how-to, Schell’s authorial voice is fun-NY throughout (I found myself intermittently laughing out loud reading it, no doubt to the consternation of those around me). For example, he-e-ere's Jesse at page 391on the necessary agonies of playtesting as a means of eliciting constructive criticism: “Having people hate your work is probably one of the most painful parts of being a game designer. And playtesting is like an engraved invitation that reads:

You are cordially invited
to tell me why I suck
Bring a friend – Refreshments Served”

Ba-DUMP-bump! These jokes leaven and underscore the importance of repeated testing of one's assumptions, a point made further by photographic metaphor, a picture of a banana all over whose peel is written the words, “I AM A APPLE!!!” [sic] More than a game designer's or software developer's truism, the value of iteration (what Schell calls "the rule of the loop," my parents call "the bloody forehead school, " and most everyone else calls "trial and error") is a life-lesson in favor of defining reality through empiricism in preference to opinion.

In my view, the book has only three weaknesses. First, and despite the fact that internal contents are themselves rigorously, coherently organized, each chapter is preceded by an opaque and superfluous road map (ostensibly a diagram that shows how designers, games, and players – and their constituent components – quasi-relate to one another in the context of the book). Second, the first thirty pages or so – which seek to define, parse, or analyze basic terms and concepts as well as set an unnecessarily folksy voice – may try your patience, unless you think reading the sentence “I am a game designer” repeatedly in boldface with each word italicized in turn makes for a meaningful reading-mantra. Finally, while Schell has something substantive to say about pretty much everything ranging from the influence of audiovisual cues on human behavior to the fine art of pitching a game in a way that prospective funders will be most likely to care about, he nonetheless gives really short shrift to technology. In less than ten pages Schell distinguishes foundational technology (Wiimote, strong) from decorational technology (if I score enough points, I can post my photo to the leaderboard, weak), and balances the risks of premature adoption of the latest, greatest (and untested) thing against premature dismissal of emergent technologies that (upon maturity) could threaten a game with obsolescence. However, Schell deliberately eschews mention, let alone discussion, of the pros, cons, or even bare consequences imposed by the deployment of generic game technologies (e.g., dice, cards, balls, rudimentary physics engines, polygonal rendering algorithms, etc.). So curious geeks and hardcore techies will need to supplement their reading.

In all other respects Art of Game Design is comprehensive, including 100 “lenses” through which designers might view their work. Each “lens” (also published separately as a card pack!) is really a series of provocative questions that promote introspection. For example, the lens of flow (#18, p. 122, concluding a synopsis of research findings from studies performed by psychologist Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi and others) challenges designers to balance a growing level of challenge to a growing level of skill, maximizing the relevance of player actions to intended goals while minimizing distractions (a term explicitly defined and disambiguated). Meanwhile, the lens of status (#80, p. 323) borrows from improvisational theater to promote development of more sophisticated characters and character interactions by assuring that game characters behave in accordance with (and constantly jockey to establish and evolve) their relative, respective social status.

This is also a book chock full of fascinating cultural references (including illustrative quotes from Confucius, Plato, Scott McCloud, They Might Be Giants, and the Dalai Lama), anecdotes (How did Michelangelo come into his David commission? Whose gambling problem prompted Pascal and Fermat to develop the laws of probability? How did “Space Invaders” come into being?), and aphorisms (“A game is a problem-solving activity approached with a playful attitude” – p. 37; “A puzzle is a game with a dominant strategy” – p. 209; “Power is the ability to get what you want” – p. 424). For me, introductions to Christopher Alexander’s views on architecture and the concept of “griefers” and “griefing” (i.e., minimizing any game/activity’s potential to be exploited as an expression/outlet of active or passive aggression unrelated and inappropriate to the game) were wholly welcome surprises that have me actively seeking out the former from my library (and casually avoiding the latter, as it would not otherwise have occurred to me that online game players might invest time and effort arranging virtual furniture to spell out obscenities).

There's much, much more here that I haven't covered, including analyses of gender, age, Aristotelian interest curves, and the virtue of a good juggling routine. (Among other topics that have bearing on good game design.) But I'm probably already over my GoodReads limit, so you can stop reading my review and start reading this book.
...more

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Jan 31, 2019 sidedishes rated it it was amazing

Wow. Often when I read I pay attention to the nuggets of wisdom inside some larger fabric or narrative. This book is a goldmine of them. To some extent they're the brilliantly crafted lense statements, but also the way each of them is motivated by some humourous enlightening anecdote. After essentially every chapter I wanted to show what I had just read to a friend so we could talk about his points.

This book is very broad indeed. Schell doesn't limit himself to games of a particular platform or ...more

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Feb 27, 2021 Lex Toumbourou rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: game-design

As a person who's recently found themselves for the first time on a team building a game, this book was a godsend. In 34 chapters, Jesse Schell covers everything one should know about building a game. It balances nicely between theory (insofar as there is academic literature about game design) and practical advice. Each chapter is interspersed with practical "lens", which are effectively questions game designers can ask themselves to guide their design process.

The book covers all the high-levels ...more

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May 24, 2020 Jeroen Corthout rated it it was amazing

If you're interested in creating experiences for people (with interactive products that people regularly use), this book is a special one.

Judging by its cover, it looks like an extremely academic university textbook written by a professor. Well, it is indeed written by a professor. But it doesn't read at all like a university textbook.

The book is written in a very accessible way, just as if the author is giving an engaging and well researched talk. It is well structured without being boring, add ...more

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Apr 02, 2019 Davy rated it it was amazing

This is...well, basically, it's a textbook on game design (focused on video game design but most of it is applicable to other forms of games as well, which is why I read it.) and as you can expect in textbooks, if they're on a subject that you've already given a lot of thought yourself, you will encounter bits that make you go "Well duh, that's self-evident, isn't it?".
But, as one can expect from GOOD textbooks, it will take a closer look at these "self-evident" bits and explain why they are the ...more

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May 26, 2017 Nichi rated it it was amazing

I've had an interest in game design for quite awhile but have never read a book on the topic (having misses that they even exist). So this is my first read on the subject, but I think it's a good one. Schell addresses a lot of problems I wouldn't have thought of, at least not without designing many more games.

Many or most sections left me with something to think about. While the book presents a stack of a hundred odd lenses, the whole comprises another lens to view everything else through. That ...more

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Jan 12, 2018 Laura rated it it was amazing

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to do Game Design or has started to do Game Design or even who has worked in that field for two or three years to recap and add to what is already known.
He gives a good overview over all the tasks a Game Designer has to takle. The lenses with their questions are good guidelines for the design process and the advice he gives is very useful and novel compared to other Game Design books. Practical.
The book is already quite long so obviously he could ...more

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