With Godot getting more popular and being free, the engine and Game Dev in general is attracting a lot of new people - including myself.
Jumping straight to the point: I highly recommend anyone (I mean it) designing their game to read Jesse Schell’s “The Art Of Game Design: A Book Of Lenses”.
If you can’t buy it, try your local library (I did and got it, even though it’s a smaller town). Or you can get the essence of it here: https://deck.artofgamedesign.com
Most dig through Tutorials posted online, the Docs, this forum and discord to find answers to the unlimited questions you have to ask during development of a game. And I have express deep thanks to the Godot community as a whole for being one of the kindest and most helpful crowds out here!
But this book… after the first read I was so inspired by all the thought put in there. And I actually pick it up every day to get a mental push. It works wonders for me.
It will not give you a tutorial or anything, but will walk you through the huge amount of things to consider while designing games from an abstract view. It helps me think about problems before working on them and also reminds me to consider all the biases I have.
Especially as a solo dev not having constant access to a team or peers to help you reflect this book helps me a lot. Whatever I do on a day-to-day basis, I quickly take a peek into the book. Designing interfaces that day? Handling sound and music? Balancing? Everything is in there.
Found it on Amazon for $50. It’s priced like a textbook. The author was a Disney Imagineer before moving into games. Thanks for the recommendation. I may check it out. My main question - do you think it’s worth $50?
Reserved at my local library, curious to see how it compares to my experience designing games and relevant systems since the early 80s.
Cheers and thanks
Thanks for the recommendation!
Not sure what the rules are for sharing download links but if someone wants it, either to read or just to have a look before deciding if spending the 50 bucks is worth it or not, and it is not against the forum rules, just let me know!
Also, Robert Nystrom has his apparently very good Game Programming Patterns freely available on his website:
I haven’t read all of it but what I’ve read has been both enjoyable and educational.
Have you checked your local library? Also, I have posted a link to Schell’s website where he shares the essential content of the book. The book itself is not free.
Your comment throws a weird feeling though. Would you like people to pay for your games?
My library supports local binder industry by buying softcover books and having them rebound as hardcovers
They also have free 3D printers, music studios with instruments for free (practice and recording), super fast semi private WiFi (with your Library card) and fast public Wifi(for all), boardgames, CDs, TV and movies DVD and Blu Ray, etc.
Edit : I forgot, Xbox One and Series X/S, PS 4 and 5, Switch and probably more console games. Love the BanQ!
First Impressions :
I’ve had to reserve the book while it’s in my hands cause someone else did, preventing me from keeping it longer than 3 weeks this time around.
I quite like the book, which as the author says himself is the burgeoning codification of a game design toolkit, focusing on the aspects that aren’t project management and structure, technical specifications and more centred on the hard to define notions of a good game, fun, and other hard to grasp concepts. So far, his lenses concept is totally in sync with what I’ve written and I suspect it’ll stay the same throughout the book.
If you don’t have a clue on what makes a game and how to go about designing it and it’s various systems, this is not necessarily the book for you.
Granted, I’m a few chapter in ( 8 or 9 by the time you read this)
More to come,
Cheers !
