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Hey guys,

I've been throwing my head into a lot of books over the last year or two, filling my noggin with useful information to do with design, cognitive science, indie-games, etc. They don't all directly relate to games, but the idea is to get a broader range of understanding, and apply that to our craft.

1) Flow - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi : The name is a mouthful, but the book is undoubtedly one of the best I have ever read. It discusses the state of "flow", where a person's interaction with a system is so intimate that it becomes an extension of the self. Sounds a bit over-the-top, but understanding it really opens up a whole new way of looking at game design. Incidentally, Jason Rohrer's game, Passage, is almost a perfect mirror of a passage in the book, discussing family life and choices. Sure, it doesn't sound like it relates to game development, but it really does. I suggest taking notes in the margins, as it's a pretty full on book. Worth having a coffee with and thinking about it.

2) The Design of Everyday Things - Donald Norman : Want to be a better, more thoughtful designer? Read this book. It's fairly easy to process, well written, and almost light-hearted. It looks at design from a usage perspective, and is generally full of great advice. If you want to design anything well, get this book.

3) 250 Indie Games You Must Play - Mike Rose: A really good look into the world of indie games. I started reading, created a folder on my PC, and now it is filled with great games that inspire me a lot. There are some really cool, simple, and inspiring games in there, and as an education, it's fantastic. Each game has a small description with it, and any necessary links to the game. Worth getting if you want to explore the world of indie games.

4) How to Get Ideas - Jack Foster: Great book on how to get into a mindset where ideas come naturally and easily. It's not a long book, well written, lots of cool anecdotes, and generally light-hearted. This was a fantastic help to me when I was stuck in a design rut at LAI.

Those would be my top four picks at the moment. I'm working my way back through The Design of Everyday Things at the moment, making lots of notes on the pages as I go. I found this to be extremely helpful if I went for a few weeks without reading. A simple skim of the key lines I marked got me right back up to date.

All the books are cheap(ish), readily available, and definitely worth your time! Hope this helps someone

Regards,
Greenlig

I'll be honest,, I haven't looked at any of the links yet... but I have copied the post and links to a Doc on my desktop, where I try to organize things of interest and future reading. Thanks in advance for sharing.

I thought about getting "flow", but it sounded kinda like a self-help book. I might check it out though.

To add to this, I've been reading through some things at http://worrydream.com/#!/Links (Bret Victor - awesome designer if you've never heard of him).

I read through the first chapter of Art of Doing Science and Engineering and it seems amazing. Of course it's more of a book for science and engineering researchers, but it might be applicable to programming as well. (I'm waiting until I finish another book to read it. The first chapter's free on amazon)

Yeah, people mistake Flow for self-help, as the cover mentions it being a guide to happiness. However, it is a discussion around the research done into optimal experience. It certainly is a helpful book for anyone, but it can't be described as "self-help" in the traditional sense. It's so much better than that!

Jenova Chen's thesis on Flow in Games is a great read, and shows the links between the book and games really well. Another worthwhile read.

Some awesome books on Bret Victor's page too, nice find.

Greenlig

Haha, I had "The Design of Everyday Things" as a course book the other year.
As always, books get 10x more boring when you have to read them, it might be pretty entertaining otherwise as the author's got a pretty light-hearted way of explaining through more or less funny examples, as greenlig hinted at. Still, I remember that his constant account of why a door is a door (and with that, the examples of people getting stuck in rotary doors, handles being positioned so you think the door opens one way instead of the other, which it actually does, rotated handles affording pushing instead of pulling... geez, the memories ) got a tad old after the first hundred pages.

Yeah, that's always the case, isn't it? Course-work reading is horrible, but if you are making the effort for yourself, it's much more rewarding. That's the difference between extrinsic (forced from the outside) and intrinsic (from within or self-generated) motivations. Interestingly, those are both cool concepts to look at in games

Which games have really given you the space to have intrinsic motivation? Off the top of my head, Minecraft, and maybe Trackmania. What are some others?

Greenlig

Well I hate to do this but

My Debate on a Computer Game Design Course book which is Applied rather than Theory

The link should bring up all related blog posts on my erm blog...
its in reverse order so start fromt he bottom and read each post in reverse if you find it interesting to read please do comment or crit

I found this book buried away in a Uni library [shhh!] and thought the principle was what I am looking for... images and text in full colour with minimalistic yet impactful data...

I then went and bought the book... [a classic try before you buy scenario] and well... long story short I have been in touch with the Author somewhat indirectly and awaiting a response, upon which I will either continue the project or have to trash it hopefully I get the go ahead and also fulfill my wish to video interview the guys involved... one of them as it says worked on FFVII DIRGE OF CERBEROS!!! [you can imagine what questions I am going to pit in his direction]

Anyway sorry for the huge post but yeah Greenlig

I should have to say... of most recently... umm DREAMFALL:TLR as it has inspired my rpg game project for environments and also character depth and sound engineering as well as art work, and also game mechanics somewhat...

EDIT

Woot this thread has been mentioned on the TGC Facebook wall