As pop culture, games are as important as film or television--but game design has yet to develop a theoretical framework or critical vocabulary. In Rules of Play Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman present a much-needed primer for this emerging field. They offer a unified model for looking at all kinds of games, from board games and sports to computer and video games. As active participants in game culture, the authors have written Rules of Play as a catalyst for innovation, filled with new concepts, strategies, and methodologies for creating and understanding games..Building an aesthetics of interactive systems, Salen and Zimmerman define core concepts like "play," "design," and "interactivity." They look at games through a series of eighteen "game design schemas," or conceptual frameworks, including games as systems of emergence and information, as contexts for social play, as a storytelling medium, and as sites of cultural resistance.Written for game scholars, game developers, and interactive designers, Rules of Play is a textbook, reference book, and theoretical guide. It is the first comprehensive attempt to establish a solid theoretical framework for the emerging discipline of game design.
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...a monumental examination of the emerging field of games design... -- Guardian, 27 November 2003
About the Author
Katie Salen is Professor of Design and Technology at Parsons the New School for Design. She is the coauthor of Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals and coeditor of The Game Design Reader: A Rules of Play Anthology and The Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Media and Learning, all published by the MIT Press. She is also Executive Director of Institute of Play, a design-led games and learning nonprofit. Eric Zimmerman is a game designer, game design theorist, and co-founder and CEO of gameLab. He has taught at universities including MIT, the University of Texas, Parsons School of Design, New York University, Rhode Island School of Design, and the School of Visual Arts.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
By Jakub
Format:Hardcover
I spent several hours choosing a game design book, and from the other reviews I figured thi must be the one. However, I discovered that it reads much more as a theoretical textbook than a practical guide. Mind you - I have a Ph.D. in IT so theory is great, but only when it's actually useful for something.
If you want 7 definitions of "what is a game" and an in-depth discussion about what is a rule and what is not a rule, spiced up by discussing how Tic-Tac-Toe permeates and influences the contemporary culture, you're going to be satisfied. If you wish to learn how to design games, you're also going to learn quite a lot but on the way there you'll have to skip quite a few sections of this hefty tome.
I bought The Art of Game Design: A book of lenses at the same time. Although my focus is not on digital games, the Book of lenses is so much more practical and inspirational that I just have to recommend it, along with Challenges for Game Designers which may not be as inspirational but is all the more practical.
Hope I helped :o)
If you want 7 definitions of "what is a game" and an in-depth discussion about what is a rule and what is not a rule, spiced up by discussing how Tic-Tac-Toe permeates and influences the contemporary culture, you're going to be satisfied. If you wish to learn how to design games, you're also going to learn quite a lot but on the way there you'll have to skip quite a few sections of this hefty tome.
I bought The Art of Game Design: A book of lenses at the same time. Although my focus is not on digital games, the Book of lenses is so much more practical and inspirational that I just have to recommend it, along with Challenges for Game Designers which may not be as inspirational but is all the more practical.
Hope I helped :o)
11 of 15 people found the following review helpful
By M C Adams
Format:Hardcover
Rules of Play is a mix of a student textbook about games and a practical guide for game designers. It is extremely comprehensive, clear and well written, admirably synthesising a diverse set of perspectives on the ways in which games function. It is structured to allow the reader to dip into particuar areas and read the book in any order. As a designer of games this is by some measure the finest book I've found on the subject.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book is great for anybody wishing to read up on design principles. Some of the ideas discussed within can be applied to areas outside of video game design. As a matter of fact, I used much of this book to write a paper on illustration. I believe that reading this book has enriched my design practice.
8 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The most irritating thing about this book is it's brilliant presentation (especially the cover), which unfortunately is coupled to a repetitive long winded text which takes ages to get to a point, which it then reiterates eight different ways. As a result the valuable content of this book is simply what is written on each of the chapter summary pages, and much of that is just common sense. Attempts to actually read the main text will simply cause headaches.
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