Available on Amazon, which is just about perfect. I don't have to risk stepping in a Wal Mart and seeing these people. https://www.amazon.com/People-Walmart-com-Adult-Coloring-Book/dp/1945056088

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Check out the book Real Time Collision Detection. It's fairly old, but the material is still very relevant.

"Because any one object can potentially collide with any other object, a simulation with n objects requires (n−1)+(n−2)+...+1 = n(n−1)/2 = O( n^2 ) pairwise tests, worst case. Due to the quadratic time complexity, naively testing every object pair for collision quickly becomes too expensive even for moderate values of n. Reducing the cost associated with the pairwise test will only linearly affect runtime. To really speed up the process, the number of pairs tested must be reduced. This reduction is performed by separating the collision handling of multiple objects into two phases: the broad phase and the narrow phase. The broad phase identifies smaller groups of objects that may be colliding and quickly excludes those that definitely are not. The narrow phase constitutes the pairwise tests within subgroups."

Ericson, Christer. Real-Time Collision Detection (Page 14). Taylor and Francis CRC ebook account. Kindle Edition.

"Creating a Champion" Hero edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/1506710115?ref=yo_pop_ma_swf

It's the map that comes in the Creating a Champion Hero's Edition It's fantastic!

That’s a million dollar question, literally. If there were a formula for defining fun, all games (video, board, tabletop) would be fun.

Some games like Minecraft and DnD5e hit just the right marks to make the authors filthily rich, but no one has ever managed to make more than a few hundred rules of thumb to get there.

If you want to dive deeper into this question, there are hundreds of books about game design available. I haven’t followed the field for quite some time now, but my personal favorite is The Art of Game Design. The author made his name by creating rides at Disney Land.

Amazon links for the lazy:

Art of Game Design, 2nd Edition

Designing Virtual Worlds

A Theory of Fun

3D Game Engine Design

Essential Mathematics for Games and Interactive Applications

Atleast we've gotten the grimoire anthology book. Hopefully they keep making those

Edit:
They just announced a second vol and a vol of comics

I know a good bit about this... engine programming specifically.

I have a physics degree and a standing offer to work at Naughty Dog. A good friend of mine from undergrad also has a physics degree, and is an engine developer at Naughty Dog. He is currently rewriting the companion AI for The Last of Us 2. And because it is only 7pm on a Saturday, I do mean currently. He is cited in the definitive text Game Engine Architecture. We talk often, and he even comes to me for help with especially tricky problems. I also have a copy of the 100+ pages of notes he used to study for the Naughty Dog interview... PM me your email for a copy.

This is what I suggest:

Step 1: Read Game Engine Architecture.

Step 2: Read Game Engine Architecture again, but slower this time.

Step 3: Learn 3D math. (There are other resources too, but one way or another you should know literally all the content in that book, because you will be asked 3d math questions during the interview, and if you're not you should keep interviewing.)

Learn how your computer works, from the ground up. Learn how to write extremely performant C++. This includes bitbashing, SIMD, caches, concurrency, etc. Not theory; real world experience. Learn how the GPU works. Learn computer graphics. Learn computer graphics for real. Learn collision detection.

Make a large number of small demos quickly. Decreasing development time is extremely important in the games industry. Make A*, a raytracer, a fibers threading engine, a shadow mapper, a FSM engine, etc.

Here is a recent question my friend asked me (as a brain teaser; he had already solved it):

> quickly check whether a uint64_t x is equal to any of 16 unique other uint64_ts

> bool f(uint64_t x, uint64_t a[16]);

> it will be called with the same a[16] every time, but varying x

Hint: you expect >99% of calls to this function to return false. Post your answer and I'll tell you what's wrong with it. The obvious solution is incorrect. Same is true for anyone else, by the way.

He recently came to me with a different problem: using all the time and compute in the world, encode a unit quaternion into 32 bits such that decode on the GPU is extremely fast, and minimize the max error possible. We managed to improve on the state of the art in both respects. No hints here, but I know some people you should talk to if you can show me a better solution. :)

Study games. Play games. Critique games. Love and breathe games. Because that industry will eat you up and chew you out, so you better be prepared to love every single second of crunch time. If you love it, you can do it, but it will torture you if you don't.

It is hard, but if you love it, and not just the idea of it, you can do it. However, as you can probably guess by my breakdown engine developers tend to be very experienced. My friend is an extreme anomaly at being as young as he is and an engine developer. It is more the type of thing you start trying to interview for with ~decade of experience.

You have a long journey ahead of you, but here goes :D

Beginner

C++ Primer: One of the better introductory books.

The C++ Standard Template Library: A Tutorial and Reference: Goes over the standard template library in fantastic detail, a must if you're going to be spending a lot of time writing C++.

The C++ Programming Language: Now that you have a good idea of how C++ is used, it's time to go over it again. TCPPL is written by the language's creator and is intended as an introductory book for experienced programmers. That said I think it's best read once you're already comfortable with the language so that you can full appreciate his nuggets of wisdom.


Intermediate

Modern C++ Design: Covers how to write reusable C++ code and common design patterns. You can definitely have started game programming by the time you read this book, however it's definitely something you should have on your reading list.

C++ Templates: Touches on some similar material as Modern C++ Design, but will help you get to grips with C++ Template programming and how to write reusable code.

Effective C++: Practical advise about C++ do's and dont's. Again, this isn't mandatory knowledge for gamedev, but it's advice is definitely invaluable.

Design Patterns: Teaches you commonly used design patterns. Especially useful if you're working as part of a team as it gives you a common set of names for design patterns.

Advanced

C++ Concurrency in Action: Don't be put off by the fact I've put this as an "advanced" topic, it's more that you will get more benefit out of knowing the other subjects first. Concurrency in C++11 is pretty easy and this book is a fantastic guide for learning how its done.

Graphics Programming

OpenGL: A surprisingly well written specification in that it's pretty easy to understand! While it's probably not the best resource for learning OpenGL, it's definitely worth looking at. [edit: Mix it in with Open.gl and arcsynthesis's tutorials for practical examples and you're off to a good start!]

OpenGL Superbible: The OpenGL superbible is one of the best ways to learn modern OpenGL. Sadly this isn't saying much, in fact the only other book appears to be the "Orange Book", however my sources indicate that is terrible. So you're just going to have suck it up and learn from the OGL Superbible![edit: in retrospect, just stick to free tutorials I've linked above. You'll learn more from them, and be less confused by what is 3rd party code supplied by the book. Substitute the "rendering" techniques you would learn from a 3d book with a good 3d math book and realtime rendering (links below)]


Essential Mathematics for Game Programmers or 3D Math Primer for Graphics and Game Development: 3D programming involves a lot of math, these books cover topics that OpenGL/DirectX books tend to rush over.

Realtime Rendering: A graphics library independent explanation of a number of modern graphical techniques, very useful with teaching you inventive ways to use your newly found 3d graphical talents!

This book should be on the reading list of any Game-programmer who wants to make something people like.

https://www.amazon.ca/Game-Feel-Designers-Virtual-Sensation/dp/0123743281

Eh. It's a fine method, it's not the only method and I'd probably advise using multiple categorization systems to look at your game. Yes they mention that it's only one of many but I don't think they really highlighted that particular point enough.

You can find many different patterns in game design if you look - but games are not really made of such discrete parts.

So yeah look at the planning, improvising and practice involved in your game. But also look at the different challenges it provides, or any of a hundred different lenses.

Game design taxonomies each present themselves as the way to look at games, but they're each just a way of looking at games and you should use a variety of different points of view when analyzing or otherwise working on your design.

But because I liked the video: my game Honor Bound is heavy on improvisation, and practice - but that practice is only to support the planning you will do.

In Honor Bound you play rock paper scissors but you choose a Class that has Abilities that may encourage you to use one move over another. Also you can tell your opponent what move you're about to play - you can psyche them out or gain a damage bonus for telling the truth.

There's a lot of improvising against your opponent's strategy. Previous experience (practice) will inform you how each Class is played and you will plan around that at the start. However this will always go back to improvising against how your particular opponent is mixing things up to try and psyche you out.

In case you want to buy this masterpiece: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1945056088/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_awdb_t1_zc08BbE6FDTWT

My last art book was Hyrule Historia , a Zelda art book which was also published by Dark Horse Comics. I’m very excited for this one. :D

Time and motivation. That's the essence of it.

Also you are going to need to study some 2D math (and 3D if you plan on making a 3D game). Trigonometry, vectors, etc. Those are bread and butter stuff when making games.

Before starting to write a single line of code read about game design. This is by far the most recommended book.

If you have any intention of selling your game you will also need professional art and sound. Don't underestimate this.

Finally marketing a game is as important as the game itself. There are cases when a game sells by itself, but it's so rare it's like winning the lottery. Don't count on that.

Oh, one last thing, don't start working on the first idea that comes to your mind unless it's for practice. Research the market before embarking on a year long project. There are hundreds of failed retro platformers, zelda like rpgs, etc.

You may want to narrow that down a bit, but okay, here are some highlights, with amazon links to help disambiguate.

• Game Programming Gems series -- (8 books currently) Lots of snippets and articles contributed from developers across the game industry.
  http://www.amazon.com/Game-Programming-Gems-Adam-Lake/dp/1584507020/
  
  
  
• Game Engine Architecture by Jason Gregory -- Great intro to the details of how game engines are built. It's a good balance for detail and readability for a beginner. Even for someone just using engines such as UDK or Unity3d I would recommend this to understand what is going on under the hood.
  www.amazon.com/Game-Engine-Architecture-Jason-Gregory/dp/1568814135/
  
  
  
• 3D Game Engine Design -- More technical and detailed descripting of designing and developing a game engine, but not as noob friendly as Game Engine Architecture
  http://www.amazon.com/Game-Engine-Design-Second-Edition/dp/0122290631/
  
  
  
• 3D Game Engine Architecture -- Follow up to 3D Game Engine Design that goes in to lower level detail and general updates.
  http://www.amazon.com/Game-Engine-Architecture-Engineering-Applications/dp/012229064X/
  
  
  
• Artificial Intelligence for Games by Millington / Funge -- I believe this is the current "must read" for game AI. The only book I've seen that goes in to Behavior Trees and other modern concepts.
  http://www.amazon.com/Artificial-Intelligence-Games-Second-Edition/dp/0123747317/
  
  
  
• AI Programming Wisdom series -- 4 books, like Game Programming Gems but for AI. Not a must have but I'd recommend them. They seem to be out of print though, so good luck finding them.
  http://www.amazon.com/AI-Game-Programming-Wisdom-CD-ROM/dp/1584500778/
  
  
  
• Real Time Rendering -- One of the better books on rendering. I'm not a big render guy but this is the book that everyone recommends to me.
  http://www.amazon.com/Real-Time-Rendering-Third-Edition-Akenine-Moller/
  
  
  
• Real Time Cameras -- THE book on how to implement cameras well, written by THE guy when it comes to video game camera systems.
  http://www.amazon.com/Real-Time-Cameras-Mark-Haigh-Hutchinson/dp/0123116341/
  
  
  
• Code Complete -- The only book not game related I'm listing, it's basic stuff to help you learn to write better code. There are parts that I (and many others) disagree with but in general it's a lot of good advice.
  http://www.amazon.com/Code-Complete-Practical-Handbook-Construction/dp/0735619670/
  
  
  There are many others, but looking at my shelf these are the big ones that stick out for recommendations.

The art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses should give you a decent vocabulary to talk about these things.

But no book can teach you how to make fun games. All they can do is teach you vocabulary and frameworks in which to structure your ideas. (which is in and of itself extremely useful)

Post-Mortems and dev diaries (real ones, not the marketing ones) can show you some of the realities and pitfalls to expect during the production.

But there's no replacement for pure experience. Your first game will probably suck, and that's fine if you make it about learning, and not about not about stroking your ego. Ideas mean nothing if you can't execute on them anyway.

Check the history of the people making those original indy games you like. Go play their earlier games. What's new and fresh for you may be something they've been developing gradually for a decade.

My first reaction was to run away from this question, but it's really not that tough in the end.

The classic textbook is "Artificial Intelligence A Modern Approach" by Russel and Norvig. That will give you the agent based philosophy of building AI agents.

There are lots of game-based tutorials for making AI agents. It gives the development a nice goal and they're fun to work with. A few random places to look:

http://www.raywenderlich.com/24824/introduction-to-ai-programming-for-games
http://aigamedev.com/
http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596005559.do
http://www.amazon.com/Artificial-Intelligence-Games-Ian-Millington/dp/0123747317

Once you have the basics of search, pattern detection, flocking, reinforcement learning, supervised vs unsupervised learning. Then I'd suggest you start looking into the more interesting bits. Right now the really cool terms you should search for are: deep learning, deep belief networks, convolutional neural networks, random forests, biologically inspired algorithms. There's more, but those will keep you occupied for plenty of time.

There's lots of pre-built AI packages you can dig through and find tutorials for:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_artificial_intelligence_projects
Weka
Orange
PyBrain
OpenCV

You can also find AI based programming competitions which give you that "I'm better than thou" feeling as you hack together algorithms.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competitions_and_prizes_in_artificial_intelligence

This is really cool stuff, but there's a lot to learn about. Dive in and try using tools. Sometimes you'll want to jump off of a bridge in frustration, but then it'll work and it'll be almost life changing at times (not the jumping off the bridge bit, but that would be too I guess).

Good luck and have fun out there.

https://www.amazon.com/People-Walmart-com-Adult-Coloring-Book/dp/1945056088

Amazon says the 28th. It's also on sale for $16.50

Those are really cool. Hadn't heard of any of them, but looked them up. From left to right it looks like they're:

• The World of the Witcher: Video Game Compendium
  
• Halo Mythos: A Guide to the Story of Halo
  
• Unfortunately I can't tell what this artwork is from and there's no title to look up for it. Maybe OP can chime in with the title of that one?
  Edit: Took me a bit to recognize it but it's Bioshock Infinite. So I bet the the hardcover of this book has the colored sleeve with the embossed version we see in the pic on the book cover itself: The Art of Bioshock Infinite
  
• This one's odd because it looks like the title is Dark Souls: Design Works but the color of the book looks like Dark Souls II: Design Works. Perhaps it's just the blue wall behind it that makes the book more blue than black.

it's official. buy a copy of hyrule historia

The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia is meant to be the definitive source for now.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Legend-Zelda-Hyrule-Historia/dp/1616550414/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376268902&sr=8-1&keywords=zelda+timeline

Link

[Link to Amazon US](Destiny Grimoire Anthology, Vol I https://www.amazon.com/dp/1945683449/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_nKc1Bb55BSERQ). Also, I heard that Myelin Games (Destiny lore YouTuber) helped compile this.

I'm honestly a little surprised you can't come up with anything of your own.

Some things that really stand out to me are...

• The visuals are distractingly static.
  
• The audio is non-existant (the clearing of your throat is actually a refreshing change of pace from the clicking on the keyboard)
  
• It appears to be another flappy bird knock-off that fails to even capture what works well of the original much less improve on it.
  
• There's no progression of difficulty, or even really any variation in the challenge of it.
  
• There's no apparent objective beyond making the distance counter go higher, but it doesn't even look like your distance is saved.
  
• The floating blocks feel completely out of place with the rest of the environment
  
• There's a graphical glitch with the ground. It looks like the ground is just one big long piece that you're teleporting to the right side of the screen once you reach it's end.
  
• The fail state is pretty jarring, and gives players no time for reflection or rest before throwing the player back into the fire.
  
  There's a variety of ways you can address these issues, but depending on what you want to do with this game would inform what solution would work best.
  
  Honestly the game looks like a programming exercise in recreating a primitive flappy bird (which is already pretty primitive), or maybe you're asking the internet to help you with a homework assignment. I would ask yourself some basic questions about what you are trying to achieve with this game? Define a goal or mission statement for your game. Once you have that, you should be able to better steer the direction of your game and provide you with the direction you seem to be seeking here. Also doing some research on what similar games in this genre have done may also prove illuminating for you. By looking at other games in the genre, you may find features in those games that you liked and want to emulate in yours.
  
  You may also find the following links useful
  
  
• Juice it or lose it - a talk by Martin Jonasson & Petri Purho
  
• The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lense
  
• Extra Credits Youtube Channel

I've never played, but I did read an amazing book by one of the intial designers for Toon Town. If you're interested in game design you should check it out!

http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Game-Design-lenses/dp/0123694965/

I've seen The Art of Game Design mentioned in this subreddit quite a few times. I haven't read it so I can't provide my opinion on it though.

Two books (and you can google talks by the authors).

Jesse Schelle - a book explicitly based on pattern languages (from Alexander's A Pattern Language)
https://www.amazon.com/Art-Game-Design-Book-Lenses/dp/0123694965

Richard Bartle - how do design virtual worlds / types of players / motivations / etc.
https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Virtual-Worlds-Richard-Bartle/dp/0131018167/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=bartle+designing+online+worlds&qid=1554913435&s=books&sr=1-1-spell

Both have given talks, etc. etc. etc. that are online, but both books are superb.

I can provide lots more to look at but those pretty much bracket what you are asking for and both authors are VERY knowledgeable.

Bartle was the co-author of the first shared world game, for example.

'Creating a Champion' book, hero's edition!! I preordered on Amazon (it was a bit cheaper back in August :( ) but it should now be widely available (I think?): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1506710115/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Seconded, Game Engine Architecture is the best book for an overall view on engine development. I've also found these books useful for implementing engine subsystems:

• Real-Time Collision Detection
  
• Game Physics Engine Development
  
• OpenGL Superbible
  
• 3D Math Primer for Graphics and Game Development
  
• Introduction to Networked Physics

I highly recommend Real-Time Collision Detection.

This next book might not apply to your field directly, but I believe it is a good idea to be at the very least aware of what it discusses, and it is a very excellent book on its subject: The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses

I recommend this book as more of a reference than a tutorial; it will allow you to quickly brush up on those areas of math and physics which you will need while writing (or perhaps working with) a physics engine. I don't recommend attempting to learn the subjects through this book alone though. Game Physics

Reading 3D Math primer for Graphics and Game Development is how I learned linear algebra, although I plan on studying the subject from a textbook when I get the opportunity. I keep the book close for easy reference of the math related to 3D rendering (such as the projection and view matrices), although if you get this book you will want to read the errata document on its website. There may be better books to teach this stuff now, so please don't jump on it too hastily.

A couple books I do not own, but plan to correct that as soon as I can:
Game Physics Pearls and Real-Time Shadows

If I think of any others, I will edit this comment.

The Art of Game Design - Jesse Schell

very few illistrations (if thats what your into). All theory, it's the go to book for game design


http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Game-Design-lenses/dp/0123694965

Level Up - Scott Rogers.

My personal favourite. Easy to read.


http://www.amazon.com/Level-Up-Guide-Great-Design/dp/047068867X

Hey there, I'm a game designer working in AAA and I agree with /u/SuaveZombie that you'll probably be better off with a degree in CS. BUT... don't give up on wanting to be a designer!

 

You should realize that it's not giving up on your dream at all, in fact, it's great advice for how to reach that dream. A designer with an engineering background is going to have a lot more tools at their disposal than one who doesn't.

 

Design is way more than just coming up with a bunch of cool, big ideas. You need to be able to figure out all the details, communicate them clearly to your teammates, and evaluate how well they're working so you can figure out how to make something people will enjoy. In fact, working on a big game often feels like working on a bunch of small games that all connect.

Take your big game idea and start breaking it down into all the pieces that it will need to be complete. For example, GTA has systems for driving and shooting (among many other things). Look at each of those things as its own, smaller game. Even these "small" parts of GTA are actually pretty huge, so try to come up with something as small as possible. Like, super small. Smaller than you think it needs to be. Seriously! You'll eventually be able to make big stuff, but it's not the place to start. Oh, and don't worry if your first game(s) suck. They probably will, and that's fine! The good stuff you make later will be built on the corpses of the small, crappy games you made while you were learning.

 

If you're truly interested in design, you can learn a lot about usability, player psychology, and communication methods without having to shell out $17k for a degree. Same goes for coding (there are tons of free online resources), though a degree will help you get in the door at companies you might be interested in and help provide the structure to keep you going.

 

Here's some books I recommend. Some are specific to games and some aren't, but are relevant for anything where you're designing for someone besides yourself.

 

• Universal Principles of Design

• The Design of Everyday Things

• Rules of Play

• The Art of Game Design This and the one below are great books to start with.

• A Theory of Fun This is a great one to start with.

• Game Feel

• Depending on the type of game you're making, some info on level design would be useful too, but I don't have a specific book to recommend (I've found pieces of many books and articles to be useful). Go play through the developer commentary on Half-Life 2 or Portal for a fun way to get started.

 

Sounds like you're having a tough time, so do your best to keep a positive attitude and keep pushing yourself toward your goals. There's nothing to stop you from learning to make games and starting to make them on your own if that's what you really want to do.

Good luck, work hard!

I'm trying to remember which game design book this was covered in, I'll check when I get home. In short, so long as there is an immediate cue to acknowledge the input, the extended animation doesn't feel unresponsive.

​

Edit: Game Feel: A Game Designer's Guide to Virtual Sensation is the one, it covers this kind of thing at length.

https://www.amazon.com/Overwatch-Anthology-1-BLIZZARD-ENTERTAINMENT/dp/1506705405

I guess there will be an Anthology 2 in the future

Actually, it's a bit of both.

Problems / Criticism of GoF

1. The GoF was written in the era of "OOP is a silver bullet" and single-threaded programs by academics who were generally clueless about the importance of understanding data transforms, data caches, instruction caches, and minimizing cache misses. See: Pitfalls of Object Oriented Programming of how you get massive speedups just by understanding cache usage and re-arranging the data.

2. One of the problem with the GoF methodology is when people turn it into a religion. People start trying to apply design patterns to everything even when it isn't needed and you end up with this over-engineered, bloated, slow, clusterfuck of code.

3. Programmers who focus on performance have also been pretty vocal about "cargo cult programming" and design patterns:

• Christer Ericson who wrote the phenomenal Real Time Collisision Detection had this to say about design patterns:
  
  > The “Design Patterns” book is one of the worst programming books ever. Yes, really. I’m 100% dead serious when I say that I think it has set (and will continue to set) the progress of software development back by decades. Why?! Let me offer up a parable; I will call it “The Plank.”
  
  
• Mike Acton, the father of "Data Orientated Design" also agrees when he quoted Eric at a C++ convention:
  
  > "Design patterns are spoonfed material for brainless programmers incapable of independent thought, who will be resolved to producing code as mediocre as the design patterns they use to create it with."
  
  4. While abstraction can be a nice way to solve a problem there are ALWAYS trade-offs. The flexibility of abstraction is that you generally tend to lose efficiency. Blinding applying a design pattern means you aren't thinking about the performance issues. In today's age of multi-core software this is a huge disadvantage compared to your competitors.
  
  And while Ericson and Acton tend to throw the baby out with the bathwater they are speaking from years of experience of writing fast, simple code. This ISN'T an appeal to authority as they aren't just some armchair academics -- they have demonstrated they have understand HOW to write FAST code. Their experience also matches what I've seen.
  
  5. Another problem is that changing the hardware changes the problem. GoF doesn't take this into account.
  
  6. Very rarely does OOP "perfectly" model the problem. GoF ignores this.
  
  7. Another part of the problem is that OOP is NOT scalable. OOP has a design fallacy that "one is the common case." This is almost never the case. The common case is usually you have multiple objects. Again GoF ignores for the most part. They take a stab at it with the Flyweight Design Pattern but that isn't scale when you REALLY do have many, mutable objects such as the particles of a particle system.
  
  And while I am not as adamant as Ericson or Acton about being "anti-design-patterns" they DO have a point -- not understanding the strengths AND weaknesses of an algorithm makes for a poor programmer IMHO. Remember, there are THREE ways to optimize:
  
  
• Micro-optimizations, aka Bit Twiddling Hacks
  
• Algorithms -- using a better O(n) algorithm
  
• Macro-optimization, aka Data-Orientated Design -- minimizing cache misses.
  
  Go ahead and use design patterns for your tools. But for engine/games DoD will usually solve the problem simple and faster then misapplying and blindly applying a design pattern.
  
  

  Solution
  

  
  Lastly the problem of complexity was summarized by Fred Brooks in The Mythical Man-Month
  
  > "Show me your flowcharts (source code), and conceal your tables (domain model), and I shall continue to be mystified;
  > show me your tables (domain model) and I won't usually need your flowcharts (source code): they'll be obvious."
  
  A more modern colloquialism would read:
  
  > Show me your code and I'll have to see your data,
  > Show me your data and I won't have to see your code.
  
  The secret to high performance is NOT the algorithm but to focuse on HOW the data is transformed. i.e. The first rule of optimization is:
  
  

  Know Thy Data

This book has never let me down. 10 years in the biz and I still refer to it all the time.

http://www.amazon.com/Logo-Lettering-Bible-Leslie-Cabarga/dp/1581804369

I pulled inspiration for this piece from Amano's work in this book set. It has a lot of his work from FFI-FFX!

It's mostly just official chronicles and stories that are available elsewhere but I'm still partial to http://www.evereader.org/

Of the three novels, all of them are fairly old and some stuff has been retconned but The Empyrean Age was good, My copy of Templar One seems to be missing a lot of punctuation but I managed to make it through after I adjusted to it.

The Burning Life is very tonally different and I couldn't even force myself to finish it.

More recently, Eve: Source is a dedicated lore/art book released last year but I don't have it so can't comment on it's quality.

And I see someone's already linked True Stories

There's some lore stuff here on the Eve website.
There's a lot more in EVE: Source
I also recommend EVE: The Empyrean Age which chronicles the events that lead to the Empyrean Wars (and Faction Warfare) and how they all linked together.

Side note, in EVE Source, there's a short story of an interview between I think it was a news reporter or something and a capsuleer that really caught my attention and my favourite part of it was this:
"What about the people under your command?" I ask him. "Do you find a need to reconcile yourself with their deaths?"
He looks down at the table and for a moment he's silent, then he says, "None of those people were unaware of what they signed up for. They know there are risks, same as with any other profession. Sure, the primary goal of my alliance is making money and expanding our influence, but that doesn't mean we don't care about the people in our employ. Our agencies send out personal letters of condolence to the families of every single person who dies on one of our ships. We provide insurance payouts to next of kin for all ship personnel."
"So essentially," I say, "you learn to not care about the people that have to die because you're furthering the aims of your corporate overlords."
"What I'm saying, Mr. Peltast," he replies, not skipping a beat, "is that these independent adventure seekers, having been informed of the risks, willing take their lives into their own hands when they sign up for crew duty. They are amply compensated, make no mistake. More importantly, they know they're playing their part in something that is bigger than they are. As am I. As are you."

Makes you think huh, those folks who signed up to be crews on my Procurer probably didn't intend to sign up for crew duty on a Battle Proc. But they had fun, right? :D

US link:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1772940364/

From this poster book. It costs $20 and comes with 20 double-sided posters.

It's also #1 on amazon.ca for the time being.

When I pre-ordered it a few days ago it was already sitting at #2.

Dark Horse is definitely going to be happy they are releasing this in North America if the pre-orders continue this way.

Also interesting of note is that there is still no cover image on any of the amazon sites that I have seen. I have a feeling Dark Horse will be creating one themselves but it will be interesting to see how it differs from the Japanese version.

https://www.amazon.ca/Art-Fire-Emblem-Awakening/dp/1616559381/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1485998934&sr=8-5&keywords=fire+emblem

its 31 CAD on amazon.ca

you got ripped off rip

Or how this took several years.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1616559381?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00

In for the long haul, lol.

Amazon has you covered: The Art of Fallout 4

Hmm. Official here is a strong word. Ales Kot is the writer of that comic and to my knowledge, he was privy of no additional information than we are. It's more like a well funded Fan comic.


There's the Artbook, The Vinyl, and the boardgame.


If you just want stuff similar to BB I know of a couple.

You're in luck!

There ARE several good books, I would highly recommend

The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses

Kobold Guide to Board Game Design

BUT neither of those books actually teaches you mechanics and balancing, they just explore problems and ideas that you might run into. Playing games is how you learn different mechanics and how they combine, and balancing is just a thing that happens naturally as you playtest and observe what players do.

The coolest part of board game design is it doesnt require any previous training. Just grab some notecards and a pen and start exploring ideas. When you find something that seems fun, explore deeper into that idea.

You also might wanna check out /r/tabletopgamedesign

[Edit: Spelling]

Art of Game Design


Game Design Workshop

You want to be a game designer, right? As opposed to a game programmer? They're very different.

And just to get this said up front, playing a lot of video games does not necessarily make you game designer material. Playing and designing are two entirely different things.

Okay, that said, here are some of the things you need:

• basic programming
  
• perceptual, cognitive, and social psychology
  
• basic statistics
  
• calculus and linear algebra are a really good idea too
  
• anthropology
  
• theater and/or film studies
  
• creative and technical writing
  
• public speaking
  
• at least one drawing/art class
  
• a game design class (or minor, or major) if you can get it
  
  Oh, and watch this video for anything I might have missed.
  
  Then read this paper to give yourself an idea of some of the depth involved in game design. Check out some of the better game design books too (Art of Game Design, Game Design Workshop and others).
  
  Finally, go make a game. Don't wait. Copy someone else's game if you have to while you're learning the ropes, but then make your own game. Make a small, crappy game. Then make it better. If it's any good, then make it bigger -- but not until then.
  
  And then, get ready to either be a starving indie, or to get a job in QA, or if you're really lucky, to get a job as a very junior designer. Then you're off to the races.
  
  Good luck!
  

These are leaning towards the design and development side, but I would recommend The Art of Game Design and Designing Virtual Worlds. The former is a reference of patterns and questions for game design (including board and tabletop games), while the latter is focused on the design of MMOs and MUDs but the concepts can apply to other things like your typical shooter multiplayer.

First, if you want to make music for game, make music! EVERY job in the game industry is hard, including design. No matter where you start you will probably have to get your foot in the door with QA. That's a place where people "learn" where they want to move into, whether that's code, production, design, or art. If I were hiring for an audio member, I'd look at:

• Are they making music in their spare time?
  
• Is it technically well executed? Does this person have the flexibility to work in genres and styles that they may not be comfortable in, but willing to learn and have the technical chops to back that up?
  
• Have they done any game jams?
  
• Do they understand how music/audio for games is different from music/audio for a movie or just to be listened to?
  
• Are they knowledgeable about the industry?
  
• Are they professional?
  
  
  But back to design. Read, have varied hobbies, and make games.
  
  
  A Book of Lenses and Rules of Play are both good sources to start learning "What is Design". Also, for more general design principles, study UX and Graphic Design and get a general idea of what the world means by "Usability" in general. For hobbies, try to pull inspiration from everything; if all you do is play games, all you'll do is make the same thing everyone else is. Finally, make your own games. I used to do a lot of game jams, but nowadays its focused on hacking my DnD games, thinking about board games and tabletop RPG games, and even working on my MTG Cube. Having a side project that's exercising the muscles that make you think about balance, systems, and play experience will keep you sharp and let you know if this is the thing for you or not.
  
  
  Finally, understand a designers job isn't to have good ideas, but to execute on ideas and solve problems. Designers are problem solvers: "How do I make a progression based off crafting balanced, fun, and engaging?" "How do I make this F2P game meaningfully monetize while being playable for free players?" "How complicated is the character customization tool, and how do I not make it overwhelming for the players, and how do I make it fit in the technical constraints of our engine?" The faster you get away from "whats a cool idea" to "how do I solve the problems this idea brings", the faster you become a Designer.

Check out Programming Game AI by Example and Artificial Intelligence for Games. They are both decent game AI books, the former actually develops an AI for a soccer simulation in chapter four. There's also [Behavioral Mathematics for Game AI] (http://www.amazon.com/Behavioral-Mathematics-Game-Dave-Mark/dp/1584506849/), it expands on the concepts of utility and decision making which are only touched upon in the first two books. It's purely theoretical but very interesting.

I few game dev friends of mine like to wax poetic about this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Real-Time-Collision-Detection-Interactive-Technology/dp/1558607323/

You said it below: practice. The pen tool is a bitch to learn, but then it becomes your best friend. Some people suggest live tracing your scanned image to have a base outline and then modify the points. I, personally, have never found this useful and only serves to frustrate me more. I'm no master at digitizing sketches, but I find it best to just manually trace your work rather than rely on the janky Live Trace tool. One of the best bits of advice about learning how to master it are found in Leslie Cabarga's Logo, Font, & Lettering Bible in the section re: Points in Extrema.

I can't explain it any more succinctly than the author himself does, and absolutely suggest picking up this book for some very useful bits of information re: mastering Illustrator tools and treatment techniques. It's very easy to read and, despite a godawful layout straight out of 1993, is one of the best design technique books I've come across lately.

Godspeed.

It's all in here.

But you can read all about it in here if you don't want to buy the awesome book.

4th by my count

1. Hyrule Historia
   
   
2. Art & Artifacts
   
   
3. Zelda Encyclopedia
   
   
4. Creating a Champion

I highly recommend people check this out.

The IX section really impressed me. I expected a lot smaller section than what it ended up having.

The Yulai Convention; the Secure Commerce Commission Outer Territories Act of YC 105; the CONCORD Exodus Act of YC 106; and the CONCORD Sovereignty Act of YC 107.

Source: EVE: Source.

Just picked it up, good looking out! Here's the Non-referral link for anyone who cares.

Depends entirely if you want the artbook, calendar, cd and steel book case really.

To put into perspective though, the Awakening artbook sells for $35 and a carrying case (that's what the steelbook's for, right?) sells for about $10-$15. Now even considering the fact that the artbook that comes with the special edition for this game sure as hell isn't 320 pages like that one, still between it and everything else monetary wise I'd say $40 is about what all that together should cost.

But again, the question is how much do you want the bonus stuff that comes with the game. The CD'll have music that'll be available on Youtube the day the game comes out and the artbook I suspect will mainly be comprised of official art that'll be on the wiki soon after as well. I could be wrong, but I don't feel that things gonna be comparable to the Art of Fire Emblem Awakening or the Tellius Recollection.

It's on Amazon

US: $20.99 (£13.37)
UK: £22.09 ($34.66)

ಠ_ಠ

There are the novels

• https://www.amazon.com/EVE-Empyrean-Age-Tony-Gonzales/dp/0765363909/
  
• https://www.amazon.com/EVE-Burning-Life-Hjalti-Danielsson/dp/0765325292/
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Eve-Templar-One-Tony-Gonzales/dp/0575090227/
  
  Then the limited editions of:
  
  
• https://www.amazon.com/EVE-Universe-Art-New-Eden/dp/161655701X
  
• https://www.amazon.com/EVE-Source-CCP-Games/dp/1616552719
  
  And
  
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Empires-EVE-History-Great-Online/dp/0990972402/
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Frigates-EVE-Online-Paul-Elsy/dp/1506702724/
  
• https://www.amazon.com/EVE-Valkyrie-Brian-Wood/dp/1616557672/ (I also got the single volumes of the comic when they were released)
  
• https://www.amazon.com/EVE-True-Stories-Daniel-Way-ebook/dp/B00JENOPQO

If your friend doesn't have EVE : Source, it can be a nice gift.

Or an Amazon Gift card with which your friend can by PLEX (an in game item used to add 30 days time to an account, or that can be sold in game for in game currency).

If anyone wants to start reading The Witcher novels I made a guide over on the "Featured Character" comment section that I'll repost here:

Short stories:

1. [The Last Wish](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Wish_(book) - Amazon US / Amazon UK
   
   
2. Sword of Destiny - Amazon US / Amazon UK
   
   Novels:
   
   
3. Blood of Elves - Amazon US / Amazon UK
   
   
4. Time of Contempt - Amazon US / Amazon UK
   
   
5. [Baptism of Fire](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baptism_of_Fire_(novel) - Amazon US / Amazon UK
   
   
6. The Tower of the Swallow - Amazon US / Amazon UK
   
   
7. [The Lady of the Lake](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_of_the_Lake_(novel) - Amazon US / Amazon UK
   
   Overall:
   
   
8. The Last Wish
   
   
9. Sword of Destiny
   
   
10. Blood of Elves
    
    
11. Time of Contempt
    
    
12. Baptism of Fire
    
    
13. The Tower of the Swallow
    
    
14. The Lady of the Lake
    
    The short stories are a must-read before the novels because they introduce many characters and plot points for the main saga. There is also a prequel story called Season of Storms which hasn't been officially translated into English yet, but there are fan translations if you can't wait. I haven't read it myself, but I hear that it is best read after the others. If you want to know more about The Witcher lore there is always The World of the Witcher^UK which will give you more backstory and details.

I think this is the closest you can get to that: https://www.amazon.com/World-Witcher-CD-Projekt-Red/dp/1616554827

it’s from this art book, it’s an amazing book

Every mini that was painted by BigChild Creative, (hopfully) in the order they were posted to the Kickstarter.

Official FromSoft/Sony Art Works on Amazon.

An Essential Reading List For Designers

Source: www.tomfaulkner.co.uk

All books have been linked to Amazon for review and possible purchase. Remember to support the authors by purchasing their books. If there are any issues with this listing let me know via comments or pm.

Architecture

• The Phaidon Atlas of Contemporary World Architecture by Phaidon
  
• The Architecture of the City by Aldo Rossi
  
• Learning from Las Vegas by Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown & Steven Izenour
  
• Modern Architecture since 1900 by William J R Curtis
  
• Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture by Phaidon
  
  Communication Design
  
  
• Essentials of Visual Communication by Bo Bergström
  
• Visual Language for Designers by Connie Malamed
  
• Visual Communication: From Theory to Practice by Jonathan Baldwin & Lucienne Roberts
  
• This Means This, That Means That: A User's Guide to Semiotics by Sean Hall
  
• Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture by Marita Struken & Lisa Cartwright
  
  Fashion Design
  
  
• Fashion Design Course by Steven Faerm
  
• Fashion Today by Colin McDowell
  
• The Fashion Designer Survival Guide by Mary Gehlhar
  
• Deluxe: How Luxury Lost it Lustre by Dana Thomas
  
• The Fashion Book by Angela Buttolph Editors of Phaidon ?
  
  Furniture Design
  
  
• Furniture Design by Stuart Lawson
  
• Eames by Gloria Koenig
  
• Design of the 20th Century by Charlotte & Peter Fiell
  
• 1000 Chairs by Charlotte & Peter Fiell
  
• The Encyclopedia of Furniture by Joseph Aronson
  
  Game Design
  
  
• The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses by Jess Schell
  
• Theory of Fun for Game Design by Raph Koster
  
• [Challenges for Game Designers](Challenges for Game Designers) by Brenda Brathwaite
  
• Level Up!: The Guide to Great Video Game Design by Scott Rogers
  
• Screenplay: The Foundation of Screenwriting by Syd Field
  
  Graphic Design
  
  
• Grid System in Graphic Design by Josef-Muller Brockmann
  
• The Art of Looking Sideways by Alan Fletcher
  
• A Type Primer by John Kane
  
• The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst
  
• The New Typography by Jan Tschichold
  
  Information Design
  
  
• The Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward Tufte
  
• Show Me The Numbers:Desiginingg Tables and Graphs to Enlighten by Stephen Few
  
• Envisioning Information by Edward Tufte
  
• Information is Beautiful by David McCandless
  
• Information Graphic by Sandra Rendgen
  
  
  Industrial Design
  
  
• The Design of Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman
  
• The Laws of Simplicity by John Maeda
  
• Manufacturing Processes for Design Professionals by Rob Thompson
  
• Process: 50 Product Design from Concept to Manufacture by Jennifer Hudson
  
• Universal Principles of Design by William Lidwell
  
  (cont'd)
  
  

No problem, glad you enjoyed it.

If you are interested in game design, read The Art of Game Design by Jesse Schnell. At least skim it. It's great and gets deep into the emotion and psychology of game design.

For business stuff, I got a lot of input from the classic E-Myth Revisited. I won't say it didn't get boring, but the actual point of it (systematize EVERYTHING) is a really important concept to learn. That changed the way I do things and now we have systems for everything in the company.

Read Crossing the Chasm when you start getting traction. It's a very important book that answered a lot of questions for me.

Right now I'm reading Behind the Cloud by Benioff, and man, this book is also great. I had no clue they used a lot of fairly controversial tactics to get press and traction. It's a good read.

Don't let it stop you! You can do it by yourself in your freetime, here's some stuff to get you started.

I'd recommend learning either Unity or Gamemaker or something for actually making the game.

Unity2D Tutorial: http://pixelnest.io/tutorials/2d-game-unity/

Unity2D Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPV2KyIb3jR42oVBU6K2DIL6Y22Ry9J1c

Unity3D Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEFiq9_AHuTMnmPy6YAGBLg

Gamemaker Studio Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6v_7URcEGm8&list=PLPRT_JORnIurFYwHdWhLWR3bLH2nzChsm

Extra Credits, show on game design and game industry: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB9B0CA00461BB187

As for books, I really recommend checking out The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lens by Jesse Schell. He does a good job at explaining the basics of game design and game mechanics.

Look into Trello for management software.

>I'm also tired of the whole "exclusive" bullshit. Why should I not be allowed to play a game when I own good hardware and software that are perfectly capable of running the game?

Because for every $50 you spend, the platform holder (ie Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo) gets $7 on average (source: The Art Of Game Design: A Book Of Lenses, by Jesse Schell, aka THE game design book).

Exclusives force you to buy the console, which is useless by itself, but enables Microsoft and Sony to make money off you by getting you to buy games on their platform. Consoles are usually sold at-cost or at a loss, on release day, so why wouldn't they encourage developers to make exclusives, which would have a similar effect?

tl;dr Why? Capitalism.

On an unrelated note, did you know that roughly 40% of the money you pay for retail copies of games is only due to it being physical and not digital? $16 goes to the retailer, and $3 goes to the physical-stuff manufacturer.

here, go read this. it's a very widely used book on game AI.

Also, cannot recommend Real Time Collision Detection enough.

I think the link he provided is cards that also go with this [book.] (http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Game-Design-lenses/dp/0123694965/ref=pd_sim_b_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=0KTN0WBYYBQG8VK11TTT)

I was laughing so hard at this one.

I am reading this book at the moment and it gave some good insights about the game industry.

Can't give any good advice because I'm also a student at the moment.

Not Kibler, but if you're looking for a decent introduction, I can't recommend Jesse Schell's The Art of Game Design higher.

More design than, programming but I got a lot out of The Art of Game Design. It boils down to a series of questions you should ask at various stages of designing your game. They come from a variety of perspectives from psychology and story telling to engineering and business.

Want to make games?

Read this book: http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Game-Design-lenses/dp/0123694965

Check out this YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/extracredits

Learn some coding skills. Although this stuff may not be directly applicable learning the logic will be very helpful regardless. I recommend trying out Python, Java, or JavaScript: https://www.codecademy.com

Pick a game engine. Unity is great. So is Unreal 4. GameMaker is what Toby used. There are many options but I'd recommend picking up a well established one like those 3 I mentioned.

Keep your ideas S I M P L E to start. No no even simpler than what you're thinking right now. Expect your first game to probably suck and maybe be one level where you jump and shoot something. Expect your next game to suck a little less. Whatever you do don't make your biggest idea your first or second or maybe even third idea. You'll know when you're ready to handle something a bit larger after a few small projects.

||
|-|
|Stay determined...

https://www.amazon.com/Art-Game-Design-Book-Lenses/dp/0123694965

This is one of my favorites. Anyone who gets involved in game design or development should read it. It teaches a lot of how to not just make a game, but keep you directed.

For UI/UX:

Game Feel by Steve Swink


Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman

SubLight

Build your ship, hire crew, and voyage across the stars... only there's no fancy warp drives, wormholes, or faster than light travel. You're tasked with managing your ship on the generations long trip between each star system, keeping them happy, healthy, and under control!

Play it in your browser!

Or download the Windows, OSX, or Linux versions!

This week was spent on a lot of behind the scenes stuff, namely the crew AI. I did a full write up of the new AI on IndieDB, full of fun graphs, but here's a brief excerpt:

>I knew what kind of actions I wanted my crew to do, from various hijinks like joy-riding the turbo-lift, to full out cannibalism when starving! I figured the AI I was looking for was similar to "The Sims", "SimCity", or "Roller Coaster Tycoon". After glancing through the glossary of Artificial Intelligence for Games, I found mentions of "The Sims", and after some investigation, got exactly what I was looking for, Goal-Oriented Behavior.

>In brief, the crew have a limited number of Goals they are trying to satisfy, through Actions made available by modules on the ship. For my crew, or "Simunauts" as I've called them, they have these goals:


>* Eat

• Heal
  
• Sleep
  
• Urinate
  
• Relax
  
• Shower
  
• Entertain
  
• Socialize
  
• Work
  
  >Each of these goals have an associated value that increases over time and through interacting with the ship. A hungry "Simunaut" may hit up the cafeteria module to lower their Eat goal at the cost of increasing their Urinate goal.
  
  >Here's a fun list of some basic actions available to the crew and you can see how important these goals are over time from this graph.
  
  New:
  
  
• Completely overhauled crew AI using new Goal-Oriented Behaviour system
  
• Parts now contain certain actions that they make accessible to the crew
  
• The current happiness of your population is now displayed in the form of a smiley face in the top left corner
  
• Important events, like the crew resorting to cannibalism, are displayed briefly onscreen
  
• Added a new song by Ian Earle!
  
  Known Issues:
  
  
• Some of the stats for the ship building scene are broken due to the new AI logic, those will be implemented again next week!
  
  What's coming next week:
  
  
• A new UI for the Ship Builder
  
• New parts: Knick Knack Storage, Orion Pulsed Propulsion Drive, Radex Protection Platter
  
• Detailed breakup of crew needs (so you can tell they're hungry before eating everyone).
  
• Another original music track from SubLight's musician, Ian Earle a.k.a OogalaBoogala
  
• More??? Suggest what you'd like to see in the comments!
  
  Thanks again so much for taking a look at this weeks alpha build of SubLight! Can't wait to hear your feedback and leave some for others!
  
  As always, you can follow us at these fine locations:
  
  SubLight on IndieDB | Twitter @Spacew00t | LunraGames.com

The bible of collision detection is Real Time Collision Detection if you ask me. Helped me a lot whenever I need to look something up regarding collisions

I bought the book after I figured the internet was impossible to get any answers on

May I recommend to the OP and everyone else interested in but inexperienced with game physics engines, get this book and read it front to back: http://www.amazon.com/Real-Time-Collision-Detection-Interactive-Technology/dp/1558607323

This poster is also contained in The Last of Us Poster Collection book! $21 on Amazon Link

This one is my favorite

Here and Here are lists of a bunch as well

Hyrule Historia contains the timelines as well as a lot of things from Zelda lore. Here's a link.

A wall scroll? I got a huge, nice wall scroll off eBay of the Twilight Princess cover picture.

Maybe a Zelda-theme controller/Wiimote?

You could pre-order this, but it's not coming out until after Christmas.

Or clothes/t-shirts!

https://www.amazon.com/Sky-Art-Final-Fantasy-Slipcased/dp/1616551607/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1522189883&sr=8-3&keywords=yoshitaka+amano

is one of the best purchases i have ever made.

Amano is one of my favorite artists. Love his work.

Hey man, Ashterothi from Hydrostatic, we provide good digestion of the information, but we are not a primary source material.

Here is a priority list for your study:

Lore Survival Guide by friend of the show Mark 726 - man he is amazing

Hydrostatic Know Your Lore for any topic you're interested in.

Hydrostatic Lore Panels - each is 2 hours of lore with some of the top lore experts in EVE. The first one is mostly background, and the following are processing the information as we got it.

EVE Source - an EXCELLENT Lore bible from CCP

EVE Chronicles - Over a decade of EVE narrative

Empyrean Age and Templar One - although many in the lore community have their reservations about Tony G. These are pretty fun romps through the EVE universe.

The Burning Life - Glorified fanfiction that takes a tour of EVE Online, honestly the above resources replace any value from this book.

EVE Wiki, past news items - Unfortunately time has rotted these resources (not inaccurate, but plenty of dead links and false trails)

This list is in order of how much effort vs. information you gain. Most of all I would recommend joining the Tweetfleet slack and come to the #lore channel. I literally knew nothing about the lore when the Drifters attacked. Like the rest of EVE, it isn't that hard to learn the lore as long as you put some energy into it.

I can see it on Amazon as still in stock. I don't know how reliable that is, as it says it's back-stocked. http://amzn.com/1616552719
Worth a shot if you do want it perhaps.

The prices are what are listed as of this post; they may fluctuate a little, but usually not by much. I'd probably go with The Art of Fire Emblem Awakening, because it's a really nice, and really big art book with some great content. If your friend is into music like I am, they might also like one of the recent soundtrack releases from Symphony No. 5; all the soundtracks below are either 4- or 5-disc albums with amazing packaging and extras.

Awakening items:

• The Art of Fire Emblem Awakening hardcover art book ~ $27.19
  
• Fire Emblem Awakening Original Soundtrack ~ $28.58
  
  Other Fire Emblem items in your range:
  
  
• Marth Nendoroid Action Figure ~ $46.01
  
• Fire Emblem 25th Anniversary Concert DVD ~ $50.23
  
• Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia Original Soundtrack ~ $45.90
  
• Fire Emblem Heroes iPhone 6/6s/7/8 Case ~ $40
  
• Fire Emblem Path of Radiance Original Soundtrack ~ $41
  
• Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn Original Soundtrack ~ $39.98

for me it was Will Goldstone's book Unity 3.x Game Dev Essentials it touched briefly on a lot of different topics in a tutorial style and left you with a functioning game at the end.

I've been on a total typography book binge recently!

• Letter Fountain - This book is AMAZING! It's comprehensive, gorgeous and heavy. Note: There's a lot of overlapping information in all these recommendations, so if you buy just one book on typography from my list, make it this one.
  
• Designing Type by Karen Cheng - This book is a great one to get if you are designing a typeface yourself. It takes a close look at all of the letters and characters (serif and sans-serif) describing their key features, comparing and contrasting notable variations of significant typefaces and basically serving as an excellent reference.
  
• Logo Font & Lettering Bible by Leslie Cabarga - This one is a lot of fun, with a focus on practical tips, ie: software tips and tricks. If you're interested in illustration or decorative typefaces, this is the one to get. (I know if you judge this one by its cover and Amazon's 'look inside' preview it may not look the best, but the actual printed volume is attractive, dense and a joy to browse.) [EDIT: The paperback has a much nicer cover! This is the one I have.]
  
• Book Design by Andrew Haslam - Everything you might want to know about book design, naturally! I haven't read much else on this subject, but this seemed excellent to me. A great mix of history and practical advice for designing all kinds of book.
  
• Stop Stealing Sheep and Find Out How Type Works by by Erik Spiekermann and E.M Ginger - Smaller, but full of good information. This was one of the first 'proper' books on typography I read and I think it serves as a great introduction to the subject. If you only have a passing interest in the type, try this book. It reads like an opinionated personal essay. Perhaps skip it if you are looking to get hands-on quickly.
  
  Finally, I strongly don't recommend Type Matters! If you see it in the store you may be tempted - it's a very attractive leather-bound book with sexy black and red illustrations - but I found it to be overly simplistic. It also looks like there's quite a lot of reading to be had, but the vast majority of the text in there is all repeated sample copypasta. (And if I wasn't disappointed enough in the book, the elastic came loose on my copy!)

It's one of the posters is The Last of Us poster collection. Seriously recommend getting this if you want some cool posters.

Love that book. I would also reccomend this:



http://www.amazon.com/Last-Us-Poster-Collection/dp/160887379X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1421965553&sr=8-2&keywords=the+last+of+us+poster






It's very nice and pretty cheap. The posters are really nice, but I don't want to tear any of them out because it's just such a nice thing to flip through lol

I'm the same way with A Link to the Past. I recommend this. Every Zelda fan should have it. Worth EVERY penny.

The preorders are open on Amazon in the US and Canada, I'm keeping them updated here: http://www.facebook.com/HistoryofHyrule

$25.89 USD: http://www.amazon.com/The-Legend-Zelda-Hyrule-Historia/dp/1616550414/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1345165616&sr=8-10&keywords=hyrule+historia

$ 27.16 CDN http://www.amazon.ca/Legend-Zelda-Hyrule-Historia/dp/1616550414/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1345165175&sr=8-1

It's dangerous to go alone, take me. ;)

[Link has twinkle toes] (http://www.amazon.com/The-Legend-Zelda-Hyrule-Historia/dp/1616550414/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1367710874&sr=8-2&keywords=legend+of+zelda)

Look on Etsy lots of custom made stuff. Hyrule Hystoria is a pretty good book for any fan.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Legend-Zelda-Hyrule-Historia/dp/1616550414

Will this be a good present for someone who says they love Legend of Zelda? She's only 14.

https://www.amazon.com/World-Witcher-Video-Game-Compendium/dp/1616554827

Just released yesterday

Anthropology and The Witcher? Fascinating! I love Anthropology, folklore, history, and mythology. Another thing you could discuss are the culture ideas of certain monster contracts, like In the Heart of the Woods, how the Leshen can either be acknowledged as a protective forest spirit or a malicious beast killing whoever it can that enters its territory.

Religion could also be discussed as it is also very important to cultures both in real life and in the world of the Witcher...speaking of which, I highly recommend you acquire this book: https://www.amazon.com/World-Witcher-Video-Game-Compendium/dp/1616554827/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

I bought it several months ago and it's been a great and fascinating read and may help you a great deal! Good luck on the Path.

People of Walmart.com Adult Coloring Book: Rolling Back Dignity (OFFICIAL People of Walmart Coloring Books)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1945056088/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_wcKXDbDJAXSNE



---


People of Walmart Adult Coloring Book Dirty Santa Edition: Win Christmas With The Most Legendary Of Funny Gag Gifts (OFFICIAL People of Walmart Coloring Books)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1945056711/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_WeKXDbW9NYDVN

Difference in ISBN could either be UK/Int'l vs. US, or just different ISBN format. Imitation Leather edition on Amazon US shows the same ISBN-13 as the ISBN on the Bungie Store.

https://www.amazon.com/Art-Game-Design-Book-Lenses/dp/0123694965

I really enjoyed this book, there's an associated flash card app that has all the lenses he talks about and cliff notes for them as well.

Game Design: A Book Of Lenses is one of the best / my personal favorite.

I really liked this book: Essential Mathematics for Games

I've read a few books on the matter and sat through a few GDC workshops. The odd thing is, outside of this, I've only ever heard /u/Arcanus44 refer to the concept as 'Juice'.

My personal oddities aside. 'Game Feel' is one of the reasons I opted to use Unity over RenPy for my VN development. There's a lot more to an experience beyond the words we use and the plot points we show.

I don't read a lot of VNs on mobile devices, but I would expect that(especially for 3DS/DS/PSP/Vita titles) to be more common than on PC releases.

Though, I think if you would like a great example of game feel in high-text environment on the PC, Undertale would probably be one of the best examples I have. Take a look at the sprite work during combat. And then how the text animates on. How the text read s l o w s d o w n and the blips deepen during dramatic moments, and is fast and big during more light-hearted moments. Sometimes, even after the text has been written the screen, it gets animated. The way the sprites animate throughout the combat (and non-combat, yet combat like) scenes screams high game-feel.


Edit:

Higurashi has a few good moments with color-shifting the screen, adjusting the text read speed, and sounding that creepy-ass music right when things start getting crazy.

Editx2: And for any devs interested in my reading material, check out Steve Swink's book 'Game Feel'

Artificial Intelligence for Games is a great book. Additionally, the various volumes of the AI Game Programming Wisdom series have some great examples.

LINK HERE: Amazon

Amazon is selling it on pre-order for $10 off.

The actual artbook that comes with the game is on Amazon via resellers I think, [but here's a full one coming out in a few months] (https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/0744017319/ref=ox_sc_sfl_image_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER)

Hmm after some looking around I believe this is their site and they redirect you to where you can buy it, otherwise this is the Amazon page.

Well.. Given that most every 3d game has some sort of physics and stuff isn't supposed to go through each other...

This maybe could be considered covering counter-strike... But then you need real time networking as well...
https://www.amazon.com/Real-Time-Collision-Detection-Interactive-Technology/dp/1558607323

When you say "2D rpg" we all have a different view on what you might mean. You probably mean numbers in a single player game, but the thing is, the more detail you give, the better. Are there any items? Is the amount of items nearly infinite, do you pick some prefixes, suffixes like in Diablo? Are there classes in your game? Do they have a unique purpose, different play-style? I'll try not to focus on multiplayer, because it's highly improbable that it is in your game. And even if we know nothing about your game.. There are still a lot of useful tricks and rules about balance.

 

Numerical relationships
Firstly, math, excel, custom tools.
Most things are numbers. The player has 5 health, is that a lot? No idea. Enemies might deal 500 damage, maybe they deal 1 damage. This leads to NUMERICAL RELATIONSHIPS. How does one stat work with others? Make diagrams showing enemy damage vs player health and you'll see how many hits the player can take in a quick succession in some part of your game.
There are a lot of numerical relationships. Linear, Identity, Triangular, Polynomial, Exponential, Logarithmic. Try to figure out what works best. You can see a lot of information scanning through diagrams in the Reverse Design: Diablo 2, make sure to check out the other pages, because I just gave a link to the beginning. Also check out Ian Schreiber's GDC talk A Course About Game Balance.

 

Expected Values
Use expected values, they are a very powerful balancing tool.
Lets say we have some kind of board game and the players pick cards from one deck of cards.
Player A picks a card:
You gain 2 gold.
Player B picks a card:
If you have at least 2 buildings, gain 3 gold. Otherwise gain 1 gold.
Oh well, Player B didn't have 2 buildings, he got only 1 gold. Did he get a worse card? Maybe yes, maybe no. How do you even treat calculate things like this? Well.. If the players played this game 100000 times in a row, how often would one card be better than the other? Or.. How often does a player have at least 2 buildings? Maybe players have 2 buildings about 70% of the time, which means that on average, in 70% cases that player gets 3 gold and in 30% cases players get 1 gold. Of course, if you pick a SPECIFIC case, you get 3 or 1, but hopefully you get the point.
Expected value of card1:
100% 2 = 2 [gold]
Expected value of vard2:
70% 3 + 30% 1 = 2.4 [gold]*
Hey, maybe card2 isn't that bad after all? It actually is better than card1!
Of course there are many other relationships, maybe gold is only good at the beginning of the game and worthless later, check out how the expected value changes over time, in turn 1, turn 2, or after 10 minutes of play and so on. Maybe on your turn the chance to have 2+ buildings is 0% or only 10%, but it gets higher over time.

 

Treating everything like numbers
Now that you know expected values, just treat everything like a number! Make sure that all players feel that the game is fair. In single player games, make sure that all characters have same power level. One way to do it is to assign a value to each attribute or ability and make sure that it adds up to the same number for all characters.

Base Value | Health | Damage | MoveSpeed
:--------|:--------:|---------:|---------:
Low | 1| 2 | 2
Medium | 3 | 3 | 3
High | 4| 5 | 4

Then look at the starting values of your classes and check if they same the same or similar total power.

Class | Health | Damage | MoveSpeed | Total
:--------|:--------:|---------:|---------:|---------:
Warrior | High (4) | Low (2) | Low (2) | 8
Archer | Medium (3) | Medium (3) | Medium (3) | 9
Mage | Low (1) | High (5) | Low (2) | 8

From these made up stats, it looks like the archer is the best character. Does playtesting support this? Maybe I got the table wrong, it needs a lot of iterations to get it right.

 

Randomness
You might want to add some randomness (which means probability, which means expected value again). When people win, they will think they are good. When they lose, they can always blame it on bad luck. This is a very powerful feeling that works for a lot of casual players. Hearthstone might be a good example, if not a bit too extreme.

 

Rock Paper Scissors
You can also use rock-paper-scissors mechanics. Card games have it, strategy games have it. The most common example is archers beat pikeman, pikeman beat cavalry, cavalry beats archers. Just don't make it too obvious or straightforward, just enough to prevent players from going full-on one thing. For example, look at armor and damage types in Warcraft 3, you can't just go and produce the same unit all the time.

 

Diminishing returns
"is the decrease in the marginal (incremental) output of a production process as the amount of a single factor of production is incrementally increased, while the amounts of all other factors of production stay constant", which in RPGs it can mean that the first 100 points in strength increase your damage by 5 per point, but above 100 strength they only increase it by 3 per point. Sure, the math is usually more complex, just an example. Even Blizzard uses this in Diablo 2 and 3.

 

Choices and dominant strategies
Giving players a lot of options is generally good, but if goals can be achieved in many ways it can lead to dominant strategies. Even if you give 5 options (you can shoot an enemy, shoot a chandelier to make it drop on enemies, sneak past them, use dialogue to avoid fights) players might pick the "best" one, even if it is boring. This is a kind of a balance problem. Make sure nothing is the best in every case, but make sure the player doesn't have to change weapons every 10 seconds in order to be efficient or to progress.

 

Proper level of challenge
When you make it too hard, people will get frustrated.
When you make it too easy, people will get bored.
In addition to that, you will have different types of players and they will get better over time. This is one reason why you need to know your target audience, know what your average player will be and how much time are they realistically willing to play your game.

 

The problem here is that the players will get better over time and you need to keep them challenged. You can have a game with waves, where the game gets harder with every wave, thus increasing difficulty all the time. This leads to a problem of boring early waves, maybe give pro players an option to skip the early parts of your game so they don't get bored and just quit the game. You can have difficulty levels and just let the player pick. It might seem I'm getting off topic here, but "too easy" and "too hard" are balance problems as well and you need to keep that "just right" level all the time.

 

Sources

• GDC - A Course About Game Balance
  
• Art of Game Design - A book of lenses
  
• And more.

When I first commented I did not notice you had written a book on this topic.

In my experience people who ask for feedback after having created something are 9 time out of 10 looking for validation and/or compliments.

Sorry, no compliments or validation here. As a game designer I cannot see how your system of forms matures the game development industry. I feel this idea is severely lack in substance and applicability. The theory as a whole, is based upon definitions which are confusing, easily misinterpreted, and grossly under-explained.

There is nothing present in this system of forms that isn't already explained elsewhere but more elegantly. Jesse Schell concretely demonstrated that these things should not be categorized, in his book The Art of Game Design where he explores the differences between toys, puzzles and games.

Your new definition of a GAME as Decisions is eeriliy similar to Sid Meiyer's own more elegant definition as "games are meaningful choices".

There is nothing seminal here.

I don't want to spam since I posted a Reddit today on the topic, but our new tutorial was designed specifically for a noob. It's 3D, but the majority of info translates to 3D development.

http://www.garagegames.com/fps

If you want to be a designer, grab Jesse Schell's book ( http://www.amazon.com/Art-Game-Design-book-lenses/dp/0123694965/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1321479907&sr=8-1) and make a bunch of board games and play them with your friends. You'll learn how to design more quickly if you take the tech challenges out of the equation.

I'm like you, I'm a programmer not a designer. I often times will get stuck because I feel the need to iterate on an idea over and over until it's perfect, but by that time I'm bored of it and I move on to something else. Unfortunately, there is no real way to know if a design is good until you've made something you can interact with. This is something that occurs quite frequently in the professional game design world as well. So, my solution has been to force myself to implement my initial designs so I can play it. Then, and only then, will I allow myself to iterate on the design.

Also, my base metric for a game is "Would I play this game?" If the answer is yes, then I make it. Chances are if I like it, others will as well.

Also, I would say pick up a copy of The Art of Game Design. It breaks down the different aspects of games and explains them in great detail. Some examples are the balance between skill and luck, storytelling, risk and return, etc.

Not sure about the book Dan mentioned, but The Art of Game Design is by Jesse Schell. It's technically a textbook, so it's a bit pricey, but here's the link.

The best piece of advice that I can give you is this: Figure out what you want to do, and then throw all your time at learning to be the best at that thing. I focused on programming, and that's what I'm doing now.

If you want to be a designer, read design books, study games, listen to podcasts and videos from insiders. I highly recommend Jesse Schell's The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses and Extra Credits. This is probably the hardest role of game production to get your foot in the door.

If you want to be a programmer, get a computer science degree from a four-year university. I wouldn't recommend Full Sail for this, but then again, I have no experience with them, so don't listen to me.

If you want to be a producer... yeah, I really have no idea about this one. Producers are mostly managers, people-people, who facilitate the interaction of artists, programmers, QA, and others.

Unity is good. I wish I'd spent more time playing with it. But again, your focus should be on "How do I get experience doing the thing that I want to do".

if your talking about game programming, i just got Killer Game Programming in Java from O'Reilly, it's a pretty good start.

However, if you're talking about game development, as in how to actually think of a game, i suggest The Art of Game Design by Jesse Schell. Very good book IMO.

Like me, you probably expected to just jump into a making a game without much of a plan, or an actual game designed, just a bunch of vague ideas of what direction you are heading. You need to take a step back and now that you understand more on how to make things, you need to actually plan out what you hope to make by learning how to Design.

If you are also like me, where you have no clue on what it actually means to design a game, and trying to put together a clusterfuck of different ideas and hope it works, you are in for a bad time. Just because we spent our lives playing games doesn't mean we know how to design them. Also think about what design means, because it is not the same thing as someone who codes a game. Just because you can do something with code, doesn't mean you should.

You should be coding for only 1 of two reasons:

1 - you are prototyping a new idea to see if it works, or just testing/playing around with stuff

2 - you are actually trying to finish a game

If #2 is the goal, you need a game plan. What you want to accomplish needs to be written down/typed up, and you need to break out every task and estimate how long things will take. If you are still uncertain about certain ideas you have, prototype the most important ones first, knowing that it is a prototype and it should just be used as a proof of concept, being ready to throw it away if necessary. Often times, I see how unrealistic my crazy ideas are, and how long it would take me, and realize that I need to go much smaller. I'd recommend checking out this book, http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Game-Design-lenses/dp/0123694965, it is awesome and probably the most interesting thing I have ever read.

I've been trying to use some of the Lenses in Jesse Schell's "The Art of Game Design - A book of Lenses" (http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Game-Design-lenses/dp/0123694965)

It is a great book and is very practical, giving you a series of questions you can ask about your game to help you focus and polish it from different perspectives. I'm finding it very useful to keep me focussed on developing the fun aspects of a game and ensuring that all the elements reinforce the overall theme.

I played a few online bingo games today and also looked at some videos. My picture of how this can work is starting to get a bit clearer. I'll get some basics coded in so I have something to "feel".

I'm on a mobile so can't give you the in-depth comment that I want to yet, but for now 2 books spring to mind. A theory of fun for game design, and, the art of game design: a book of lenses. The latter option was especially helpful for me when I found myself in your position.

edit: added links, formatting

Not Level Design but I really enjoy Jesse Schell's The Art of Game Design.

Have to add another recommendation for The Art of Game Design by Jesse Schell. A Theory of Fun for Game Design by Raph Koster is also a very good, accessible read (and heavily illustrated, which is always nice!)

Finally, Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals is good for a more exhaustive, technical look at game design theories.

For game DESIGN, I personally like A Book of Lenses and Rules of Play. I didn't get much out of Theory of Fun, and the internet seems to like Level Up! but I haven't read it.

And none of those teach you really about game DEVELOPMENT -- the process, gameplay architecture philosophies, the pipelines, the team structures, the milestones, the industry jargon. The closest I've seen to that is having a games producer de-code chapters of Rapid Development for how it relates to games, back before I joined the industry and had my trial by fire. :)

Do you know what kind/platform/genre of game you're making, and what size the team is?

This is my required reading in order of importance:

Absolute:

http://www.sirlin.net/article-archive/
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/231225/Video_Practical_Creativity__A_way_to_invent_new_kinds_of_video_games.php
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/233326/Video_Designing_your_game_to_offer_meaningful_choices.php
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJdEqssNZ-U
http://www.erasmatazz.com/library/game-design/paradigm-shift.html
http://www.amazon.com/Game-Mechanics-Advanced-Design-Voices/dp/0321820274

Must read/watch:

http://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/
http://www.raphkoster.com/2012/03/15/the-best-articles/
http://129.16.157.67:1337/mediawiki-1.22.0/index.php/Main_Page
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaTznQhurW5AaiYPbhEA-KA
http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Game-Design-lenses/dp/0123694965
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1449363210/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1449363210&linkCode=as2&tag=atheoroffunfo-20

Good:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWqr2tH3dPshNhPjV5h1xRw
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCI3GAJaOTL1BoipG41OmfyA
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm4JnxTxtvItQecKUc4zRhQ
http://www.gamasutra.com/category/design/

Other advice to the wiki:

Have a must read/watch section with all my absolutes.

Create a section that collects interesting discussions that has been made in this subreddit(and others). If the topic is saved by someone its probably good enough. This will also make people more motivated.

Buy this book next: The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses - http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Game-Design-lenses/dp/0123694965/

That book you have is great but a bit dry, I like it more as a reference than a book just to read. I learned from online forums mostly, picking up things from seeing other people's tutorials, techniques, sharing code and asking for help when I needed it. The internet is a neat place. If you have a chance, take a programming class. It will help a lot in understanding the basics.

This is a book I keep returning to time and time again: http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Mathematics-Interactive-Applications-Second/dp/0123742978/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I142LN7PP9N86P&colid=121BT9EO92XC3

My personal favorite is Essential Mathematics for Games and interactive Applications. I covers the very basics, after that you can buy Real-Time Rendering.

That's not what game feel is, nor is it how Arin uses the term

https://www.amazon.com/Game-Feel-Designers-Sensation-Kaufmann/dp/0123743281

For me it's not the inherent graphics (assuming you meant graphics to mean technically impressive renderings) themselves, but rather the general "look" of the game that matters. Part of that is the obvious response, "I like things that look good over things that don't," but I think there's another factor here that often gets overlooked, one which I find to be very important: gamefeel (there's a book about it that uses that term)

The virtual sensation of playing a game, I think, matters a lot more than it's given credit for, and the way a game "feels" to play is—as far as I know—entirely based on the sensory feedback the game provides, a large portion of which are its visuals. There's a reason action games use all those particle effects when you land a hit: the visual feedback changes the sensation of the hit. In other words, the aesthetics strongly affect the gameplay.

The Errant Signal episode "Kinaesthetics" articulates the concept of gamefeel (which he likes to term "kinaesthetics") very well. You should consider checking it out.

There is a book called Game Feel (which I thought your post title was referring to). It's well regarded in the game design community. It goes into elaborate detail on all the points you brought up. Just if you're curious about going down this rabbit hole a bit further.

I think Arin likes The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses, Second Edition and either he or Jon liked Game Feel: A Game Designer's Guide to Virtual Sensation.

Personally my favorite game design resource is either Mark Rosewater's design articles or his podcast. I prefer his podcast but both covers most of the same information. MaRo is the lead designer for Magic: The Gathering so a lot of the articles are about MtG specifically or about tabletop games but nearly all the general design podcasts are worthwhile. Most importantly, he has around twenty years of successful (and unsuccessful) design under his belt, so he isn't just talking in vague generalities or theories. He has examples backing up pretty much everything he talks about including, and maybe most importantly, times he thought he was doing the right then and messed up. I think anyone interested in game design should listen to the "Ten Things Every Game Needs" and "20 Lessons" series. You can hear his GDC version of the 20 Lessons here.

*: But the absolute best thing you can read on game design is a gamemaker tutorial. Theory is useless without execution.

Skimming the article, it looks like Swink did an admirable job of not plugging his book Game Feel: A Game Designer's Guide to Virtual Sensation. So, I'll do it for him.

It just isn't fun to completely simulate reality. Paintings are the same way. Most are naturalistic and not realistic because imitating reality perfectly is impossible and often aesthetically unsatisfactory. It is better to bend things a bit to be a bit more fun; visually appealing; and responsive, especially considering how human perception shapes our expectations.

Check out a book called Game Feel. It has a lot of cool case studies of game design that is geared towards creating good-feeling gameplay. Mario's jump is a good example. He rises much faster than he falls. This allows the player to have more agency over where they land, and in fact the fast-rise, slow-fall character ends up feeling better to everyday people. The realistic version feels stilted and unnatural, oddly enough. I'd say this is sort of analogous to entasis in columns in architecture.

Procedural Generation in Game Design is really good. I would read chapter 26 after reading Chapter 1 through. The order of the chapter should have really been changed.

Artificial Intelligence for Games
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Artificial-Intelligence-Games-Ian-Millington/dp/0123747317
Easy python, easy to understand.

One other book that is really nice is Algorithms 4th edition if you know Java.

Not really programming books, however fighting fantasy books are really nice. Also, RPG books like D&D, Rolemaster and GURPs are good to study.

For the basics of mathematics I usually suggest "Mathematics for Computer Graphics" by John Vince.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1447173341

On physics, there are a number of specialised books. Nevertheless, if with "physics" you mean "movement", the third chapter of "Artificial Intelligence for Games" by Ian Millington is for you (beware, source code is provided in C++, not C#).

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0123747317

About shaders, there are a number of sources out there. From a didactical standpoint I like the following two blogs:

https://www.alanzucconi.com/

http://catlikecoding.com/

And another interesting source is also http://www.shaderslab.com/shaders.html

If you prefer a book, a good primer can be "2D Shader Development: Foundations" by Francisco Tufro. Not the absolute best, but may give you a nice jumpstart in a limited number of pages

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BGYF7F8 (also available from the author's website).

Happy hacking.

ahh! 404!


But here's another link while this one is gone (I believe this is the correct one)

Amazon

If you don't mind a separate purchase, Prima just announced another Persona 5 artbook. This one is also a lot beefier than the one that comes with the TYH edition (432 pages vs 64 pages)

Here are links to Amazon for the NORMAL and LIMITED EDITION versions. Also, if you like the comics, here's a link to the Anthology Volume 1.

I figured I'd provide the links after I saw searching that for "Art of Overwatch" turned up some slightly risque images of Overwatch's female heroes. =P

FYI, it's currently 1/2 off on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1506710115

Real-time collision detection by Christer Ericson (https://www.amazon.com/Real-Time-Collision-Detection-Interactive-Technology/dp/1558607323) is pretty much the "go to reference", even for those of us who have written a fair bit of collision detection code.

It's pretty expensive in hardback form, but it's well worth the investment.

Game Engine Architecture provides an excellent overview of how game engines work, from the ground up, in a way that's fairly accessible—that is, I understood most of what I was reading despite not having any experience programming at that level.

Also good:

Real Time Rendering

Real Time Collision Detection

A book called Real Time Collision Detection is well respected

https://www.amazon.ca/Real-Time-Collision-Detection-Christer-Ericson/dp/1558607323

I wrote a blog post here too

http://www.00jknight.com/blog/unity-character-controller

The first tutorial series i linked is about ridge body physics. The last one goes into some of the formula affecting them: link

No idea about a book on water sim but for collision detection there is this book. Its well written. I've been reading through parts of it.

I just found this video of a college lecture on how rigid bodies work. link

For OpenGL stuff, check out Anton Gerdelan's tutorials and open.gl.

For some general game design books, I may recommend:

• 3D Math Primer for Graphics and Game Development (Fletcher Dunn)
  
• Game Engine Architecture (Jason Gregory)
  
• Real-Time Collision Detection (Christer Ericson)

This is the best beginning resource along with http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1558607323 but as stephanimal said, my basic Newtonian knowledge comprised maybe 20 lines of code in my first physics engine, and about 100 if rotation was considered, but I don't remember if I learned to solve for inertia tensors in my first physics course or not. Good luck and if you need help PM me!

Best 20$ I ever spent as a designer http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1581804369/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=cuup-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1581804369

I highly recommend The Last of Us poster collection. It comes with 40 extremely high quality posters that are absolutely amazing. They are smaller (12x16) than what you are looking for but I got frames for mine and switch them out every now and then.

https://www.amazon.com/Last-Us-Collection-Insights-Collections/dp/160887379X

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/160887379X/ref=oh_details_o01_s01_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/160887379X/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1501954111&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=the+last+of+us+poster+book

You should get Hyrule Historia. My friend gave it to me for my birthday and it's beautiful and informative. Full color, lot's of pictures, timeline, concept art.

Hyrule Historia. Great book for reasonably cheap, a real collectors item and essential to understanding Zelda timelines, previous games and lore.

Hyrule Historia Amazon Link

Other than something like Hyrule Historia?

What do I need to read to learn about the Zelda lore and all this chonological time splitting stuff?

Edit: The Hyrule Historia. Is that all I need or is there more stuff.

It's worth noting too that this is the official timeline, found in the Hyrule Historia, not a fan interpretation.

For my nostalgia fix haha

|Say something

Sure, I'll even give you an awesome GIF for free!

I am a huge Final Fantasy fan and although my girlfriend is familiar with the series, she is not as passionate about the games as I am. However, for Christmas last year she got me a Final Fantasy Artbook called The Sky. It features breathtaking art that is instantly recognizable to any Final Fantasy fan. You also will not need to know which games are his favorite because the book features artwork from most of the main games in the series. So no matter what he will be happy. I was ecstatic Christmas day last year when my girlfriend got this for me and I'm sure your boyfriend would be as well. If it is too late for you to order online I have seen it in stock at my local Barnes and Noble.


I hope this helps! Good luck!

This probably isn't what you are looking for, but is the closest to what I know might be.

I picked this up a few years ago, The Sky. It is three art books on Amano's art for the Final Fantasy series. Even if you don't have it there is a chance you've seen decent chunk of this. Skimming through it I'm not seeing anything describing his process or interviews. It is largely just concept art for the games.

However, what it does have is a chronological order of his Final Fantasy art from 1987. So you might be able to use it as a collected grouping of his art to see his evolution over the decades. At least as far as Final Fantasy is conerned. n

The NES era, volume 1, looks to be mostly just the occaisonal scene, but mostly the final drawn art pre-Pixel conversion.

Volume 2 is the SNES era. As it progesses it begins including more varied stuff. Some serious drawings, some silly little asides.

Volume 3, the 3D era up to FF10 is different. Less art per game, but looks to be earlier in the process stuff than the previous two volumes. More "drafty" for lack of a better word. Stuff like this where Aerith looks more like Celes. A noticeable amount of pages where the same drawing is shown in different Colors. Three variations of this are in this volume scattered about.

As a layman, it seems the three volumes are:

• Volume 1 - NES finished work before handed off the pixel team, plus a few cinematic scenes.
  
• Volume 2 - Finished work, some concept messing around, and "doodles". It is twice the size of the other two.
  
• Volume 3 - Seems to have the most evolution of character concepts as development progressed.

A while back these were produced in limited quantities and sold for ridiculous amounts on eBay, but they have been re-issued due to popular demand by Dark Horse.

The boxed set features 3 books full of Yoshitaka Amano's concept art spanning from FF to FFX. These books are HUGE, and have a lot of art I've never seen before. If you are a fan of Amano's artwork, this is a MUST BUY, great addition to any FF collection. The pages are high quality and it makes the art look better than ever before. And the best part of all, it is only $56.30 on amazon.

Mine just came in the mail today. So worth it.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1616551607?cache=abe470679969ff2d9022c4eb51d0b2ab#ref=mp_s_a_1_1&qid=1393893490&sr=8-1

Here's a hardcover guide: https://www.amazon.com/Witcher-Complete-Collectors-Guide-Prima/dp/0744017211/

Here's a lore compendium: https://www.amazon.com/World-Witcher-CD-Projekt-Red/dp/1616554827

Get it! No need to buy limited edition! There you go > https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1616554827/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1481956960&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=witcher+compendium&dpPl=1&dpID=61CUwd3UxwL&ref=plSrch

Also on Amazon.CA --> https://www.amazon.ca/Art-Fire-Emblem-Awakening/dp/1616559381/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1465333640&sr=8-1&keywords=art+of+fire+emblem

Both have free shipping!

Edit : Idk if people already know but for amazon US it's 34% off ---> https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1616559381/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1465333972&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=the+art+of+fire+emblem+awakening&dpPl=1&dpID=51a7QegonoL&ref=plSrch

http://www.amazon.com/Art-Fallout-4-Bethesda-Softworks/dp/1616559802/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1451530002&sr=8-1&keywords=art+of+fallout+4

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1772940364/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1526592505&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=bloodborne+art+book

I'd like to recommend the following:

A great book for foundations (math stuff):

3D Math Primer for Graphics and Game Development
http://www.amazon.com/Primer-Graphics-Development-Wordware-Library/dp/1556229119
I found this to have really nice clear explanations of Vectors, Matrixes, etc.

For learning OpenGL the "red" book is great!

OpenGL Programming Guide: The Official Guide to Learning OpenGL
http://www.amazon.com/OpenGL-Programming-Guide-Official-Learning/dp/0321773039/ref=dp_ob_title_bk

I haven't read this one but a lot of people recommend it for Unity.

Unity 3.x Game Development Essentials
http://www.amazon.com/Unity-3-x-Game-Development-Essentials/dp/1849691444/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1334698866&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.com/People-Walmart-com-Adult-Coloring-Book/dp/1945056088

Real Time Collision Detection is the bible for all your 3D game math needs.

This is a list of books that was suggest to me by John Langdon (An internationally known typographer for his ambigram used in The DaVinci Code) while I was taking his class in College:

Type Directors Club Annuals: I just recently picked up the latest issue of this (32 I believe) and it shows current works of typography across a broad spectrum of mediums. These are great because they feature only current work and many of the featured designs are extremely creative and pushing the envelope in terms of readability and style.

Logo Lounge Master Library Vol. 1: I do not have a copy of this book but I have thumbed through it briefly and it features tons of logos that mainly deal with letter forms. This is certainly on my personal list of books I would like.

Type: A Visual History of Typefaces and Graphic Styles, Vol. 1: I recently purchased this book as well and I have to say it is a MASSIVE collection of vintage typography and ornaments from type founders all over the world. The majority of the samples in this book are from before the 1900's so you are almost guaranteed to not recognize anything in it. Excellent resource for inspiration!

Logo, Font & Lettering Bible: This is another book on my list. Covers a broad spectrum of lettering and is also good for learning fundementals.

Some other books he has suggested to me but I have not personally look through or read are: Type & Typography, Fonts & Logos, and finally John Langdon's book: Wordplay.

I hope this helps!

Amazon shows it's in stock.


http://www.amazon.com/The-Last-Us-Poster-Collection/dp/160887379X

Hyrule Historia

I'm not sure how to show you what we'd want from Zazzle but I guess if we win you'd contact us individually about it? O_o (for me it's a custom poster)

As for your bf, well....what are some music he likes/movie genres, etc that he likes?

Oh my Zazzle!

EDIT: maybe he might like this?

Happy birthday!

1. I'm a terrible cook, but I've been trying to get better. I've been cooking two or three meals a week for her from this website. There's tons of delicious, easy recipes even for someone who is inept (like me!). I made this, this, and this for a picnic for my girlfriend's birthday. We loved it.
   
   
2. My girlfriend. Nothing makes me feel better than when I see her smile. She completes me.
   
   
3. rambopandabear spent all this time writing a book and you're reading the dust jacket? The hell is wrong with you? Flip the page and read!
   
   
4. Here's a green book about a green hero who lives in a green forest who collects green rupees who must save the world from the evil green man.

1. I've been wanting this for a while, so it would be great to win it!
   
   
2. For an e-book, definitely 50 Shades of Bacon. I don't even know, but I NEED to know.
   
   
3. If I were a book, I hope that I'd be a great one.

get him hyrule historia. i suggest this, as one of my friends also loves the zelda games, but doesnt care about CIB or collecting per se. he loved this though.

Something like this that they did for LoZ BotW would be sweet to have along the way, more like you were saying with concert art, interviews with the creators, storyboards, side stories, behind the scenes, world building, lore, history, mythology, and the like. Then after the show is done, a thick compilation of those books together would be amazing! Kinda like the Goddess Collection for LoZ, lore and history and plot and making of, art and artifacts, everything else you could’ve ever dreamed of

Gnomes is a good example. Hmm.

A SUPER popular guide book that came out in 2013 was The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia, based on the game's world and history.

Does he enjoy Zelda? Then I highly recommend these two books (unless he already bought them):

https://www.amazon.com/Legend-Zelda-Art-Artifacts/dp/1506703356/

https://www.amazon.com/Legend-Zelda-Hyrule-Historia/dp/1616550414/

Both hardcovers, one gives a detailed history/timeline of most of the Zelda games. The other covers rare artwork of the Zelda series. Any Nintendo or Zelda fan would love these!! The ultimate gift!

I think the best way to spend a solitary birthday would look like this:

Wake up whenever the hell you want, but try for no later than 10AM, you want to enjoy the day after all! Make yourself your favorite breakfast even if it is just a bowl of cereal. While eating, watch your favorite show or movie. I would pre-schedule a massage! Massage envy has a special rate for first time guests (I am pretty sure) or look into a nearby massage school - you can generally get a 1-hour massage for about 20-30 dollars. Then snag a Jamba Juice to tie you over till dinner. Depending on if you are a home body or not this could then go one of two ways; either go home and play your favorite video game uninterrupted or go see a movie! If nothing is playing that day, then gift yourself some Fandango tickets to a showing later on in November. Several awesome looking movies are coming out in Nov. Then I would suggest ordering in for dinner, have a pizza delivered or chinese, whatever you prefer or if you are comfortable, go out and treat yourself to something awesome. After that, probably more video games or a new movie you haven't seen yet or maybe just some time on reddit, relaxing. You could also read a comic, manga, or book with some scented candles and a beer or glass of wine.

I think it would be awesome to gift yourself this book. I have looked at it and it is crazy awesome!

I hope those are good ideas! I hope you have a wonderful birthday!! :D

Holkan Turns 24 !! :D

Hyrule history - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Legend-Zelda-Hyrule-Historia/dp/1616550414/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422725394&sr=8-1&keywords=zelda+book

To better understand the timeline and the general universe of LoZ I definitely recommend picking up the Hyrule Historia. Its a compilation book done after Skyward Sword and it depicts the original timeline and how it works within each game so far. It even touches on the Hero's Shade in Twilight's Princess. I really love the book and it's so well put together. I have beside me, so if there is any specific questions I can try to answer them that haven't already been touched on so far.

Edit: I forgot to provide a link to the book. Amazon.com

The book came from Amazon. Oh look! A link!

Ok It took me a bit, But i'm done!

Im going for a Logo

I did it all in pencil so its a little messy sorry.

Pic 1

pic 2

pic 3

pic 4

pic 5

If you want the letters not to go in to each other I can do that just ask :D


I would love the Hyrule Historia book
its under my comics/books WL

thank you for the contest!!!! :D

You can be the Zelda to my Link. :) Haha.

The Hyrule Historia There is no more awesome Zelda item. I was gifted this and it is the crowning item in my Zelda collection. Purely amazing. :) <3

Link has twinkle toes

You make me hard as a Goron when I'm with you. <3
Oh, and this would have to be one of the most awesome Zelda-related items I've heard of- though I can't say it mentions that Link has twinkle toes.

If he is in to video games there's a good chance he's a Zelda fan. If he also reads, The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia would be a great gift.

That's a very nice collection. I'm assuming you've already got Hyrule Historia preordered then, huh?

Link

The one is the exact same one I pre-ordered and it was the one that ranked number 1 on best selling books.

I have it and it's wonderful

I think it's this one, I honestly can't remember because it was really recent and I let a friend borrow it. This comment actually reminded me that I have to ask for it back :P

Edit: Wait nope, it's this one

http://www.amazon.com/The-Sky-Fantasy-Slipcased-Edition/dp/1616551607/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1409253656&sr=8-1&keywords=the+sky

Make it happen.

Lmao! Fair enough. As an anime fan I do prefer Nomura's style. But I DEFINITELY appreciate Amano's work & even own The Sky Box set of art books.

A few years ago, I bought this Yoshitaka Amano book of his Final Fantasy character designs. Totally worth it.

Which book is it? I've been thinking of picking up The Sky to have something to thumb through, every now and again.

Edit: I may have answered my own question, because I can't find another one... haha.

Amazon It's back up to $80CAD now, but CamelCamelCamel shows it at $60 for a couple years. Just gotta hope for a sale now.

Definitely FFVII then! If you want something fancier, there are replica Buster swords and Play Arts figures--Cloud and Sephiroth are the anchor characters and probably the safest bets. This art book is gorgeous if you think he might be into that, but it's not FFVII exclusive. This print set is cute, too. Or there's the Static Art Minis of Cloud, Sephiroth, and Tifa.

There's probably a bunch of soundtracks & such out there too, but I'm not too familiar with those.

Anything from Yoshitaka Amano (Final Fantasy and Vampire Hunter D illustrator, among others). All of the Final Fantasy compilations are good and I would recommend the Art of Metal Gear Solid I-IV book as well.

The Art of Metal Gear Solid I-IV https://www.amazon.com/dp/1506705812/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_AlRPDbFCFFRBH

Final Fantasy Ultimania Archive Volume 1 https://www.amazon.com/dp/1506706444/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apap_qMomh98bxFD9h

Final Fantasy Ultimania Archive Volume 2 https://www.amazon.com/dp/1506706622/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apap_LAxO4tBIZrTtg

The Sky: The Art of Final Fantasy... https://www.amazon.com/dp/1616551607?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

This one is up for pre-order of you like pixel art
FF DOT: The Pixel Art of Final Fantasy https://www.amazon.com/dp/1506713521/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_nnRPDbPFQ1KJK

CONCORD, it's all caps. They're not separate, they're comprised of the four Empires. There's a certain degree of separation, but CONCORD relies entirely on the four Empires sharing the financial burden etc. Think of it as a heavily militarized United Nations.

And yes, capsuleers directly interface with the ships through the hydrostatic capsule, but keep in mind CONCORD has control over all systems we interface with. Trade, comms (chat channels), contracts, station services etc etc etc. Hell, they even print and own all our currency. Our ISK? Entirely artificial, exists only for us and isn't part of the baseliner economy. They can wipe all our money in an instant. Why do you think we can't just bombard whatever planet we want? Why do you think some lunatic hasn't plowed his battleship armada into Dam-Torsad yet? We can't even target these things, exactly because we have these leashes. Which frankly makes perfect sense, because those invisible leashes are just about the only thing that could make these Empires go "Hmm, sure, let's have these mad gods roam our skies in multi-billion ISK warships. What can possibly go wrong?".

As for actual sources for this stuff, it's spread across a lot of places. I highly recommend going through the Fiction Portal , Backstage's Evelopedia backup (limited, as the datadump from Evelopedia lacked a bunch of stuff. It's being slowly but surely rebuilt on the Fiction Portal by volunteer ISDs.) and buying Eve Source at some point.

I'm not going to annotate shitposts on reddit with specific sources, because after over a decade of playing and roleplaying in Eve, devouring all the fiction and lore, it's just too much fuckin' work.

This is great advice. I've always had high-stress jobs, and currently still do. I look at gaming as my release, but I agree, sometimes I can get a bit overloaded. Not so much by the games themselves, per say, but simply the act of sitting and staring at a screen.

I enjoy playing story-rich games mainly, so I've found what helps break up the "gamer-block" is to immerse myself with the game's lore.

Hell, for Christmas, all I asked for was some uniform items and duty gear for work, and Dishonored: The Dunwall Archives and The World of the Witcher. Both are incredible books btw, and really open up both game worlds, for anyone interested- World of the Witcher most especially.

It's tremendously relaxing to sit down and read- but still be immersing myself into the worlds I have found so much solace in the past few years.

P.S. If anyone is interested in either of those books, PM me, I can send you some pictures of some of the book's pages, you can get a feel for them.

If this link works:


https://www.amazon.com/World-Witcher-CD-Projekt-Red/dp/1616554827

Hardcover sourcebook that gives a history of the world, characters, magic, religion, bestiary, etc in the Witcher universe.
I collect these types of things for RPGs :)


Really well done with some great artwork. It's the only lore-related book that I could find outside of the 2 short-story books and 5 novels. And the Season of Storms book. There might be some comics too...

You could get this instead of the strategy guide. I own it and can vouch that it has a very well made and detailed beastiery but it is more focused on lore than specifics so idk how useful it would be for playing a tabletop RPG. It also has information about the different kingdoms, religions, and much more. Best part about it is that the whole book is supposed to be written by Dandelion and other characters. The section on Witchers is by Vesemir and the beastiary section by Geralt, etc.

The World of the Witcher: Video Game Compendium https://www.amazon.com/dp/1616554827/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_gVOUBb6GX9K44

Preordered on Amazon (I live in the US). I don't usually preorder things, but the art style of the Witcher games is a big inspiration for my own art, so I can't wait to get my hands on this.

€39.22, free delivery!

If u still need it


http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1616559381/

https://www.amazon.com/Art-Fallout-4-Bethesda-Softworks/dp/1616559802/?ie=UTF8&qid=1468353907&sr=8-1&keywords=fallout+4+artbook

I wouldn't sweat it too much. People have posted amazon sales on here in the past. That's why I got FO4 and season pass for about 65 together.

Here you go, you can also find it in stores like Target and book stores.

http://www.amazon.com/Art-Fallout-4-Bethesda-Softworks/dp/1616559802/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1450384594&sr=8-1&keywords=art+of+fallout+4

It's almost half off on Amazon right now.

Probably the artbook

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1616559802/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Theres a kindle version too that's a bit cheaper.

This comes out in May and its discounted for preorder rn

Bloodborne Official Artworks

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1772940364/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_adQJybQ9JZNHM

There's an IGN Up At Noon video reviewing it.. Looks cool. Easy purchase for me.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bloodborne-Official-Artworks-Sony/dp/1772940364/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1498657019&sr=8-1&keywords=bloodborne+art+book

US version due in June 2017

JP version out since February 2016

I imported the japanese artbook when it came out last year.
All the items and characters have their names stated in japanese and english.
It's a great artbook.

Here you go fellow hunter.

If you're looking for tattoo inspiration I'd say it's a worthwhile investment. Only $30 and the tattoo is forever...its already only $0.08 for the first year

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1772940364/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1524071976&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=bloodborne+art+book

This, a hundred times this.

Written by one of the (i think) co-founders of Unity, this is how I got started a while back. The book may be a little outdated, but none-the-less, actually kept me engaged and taught me a lot, not as much programming wise though...


Otherwise, I would just go with youtube videos, those can be equally engaging and helpful.

It depends how experienced you are. I have found the best resource so far to be the Unity website's official tutorials.

Here's a great one to start with:

http://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials/modules/beginner/scripting/translate-and-rotate

If you don't know any C at all, I would recommend this one:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/learning-c-by-developing-games-with-unity-3d-terry-norton/1116543759?cm_mmc=googlepla-_-book_45up-_-q000000633-_-9781849696586&ean=9781849696586&isbn=9781849696586&r=1

It's silly, but it's up to date and doesn't spend too much time dicking around. I would buy the e-book though, I don't know about $50 for this one (then again, I'm broke).

This one is a little out of date but supposedly still relevant, and though I haven't looked at it yet it's widely recommended:

http://www.amazon.com/Development-Essentials-Community-Experience-Distilled/dp/1849691444

This book was suggested in the last thread as a really good source of information: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1849691444/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2N51X1QYGFUPK

I have yet to actually read it though. I have to wait until I get some money at the first of the month.

While we wait.

This?

WTF. its $8.50 cheaper on amazon and I won't have to pay an arm and a leg for shipping. i'm going to try and cancel my order with bungie and place it on amazon.

It releases today, actually. It’s currently out of stock on amazon, so you’ll have to wait a bit, but you can find it here

Yea, i saw on amazon they'll ship om november 28, so.. SOOOOOON ™


https://www.amazon.com/Destiny-Grimoire-Anthology-Vol-I/dp/1945683449

Except the Ishtar Collective? They publish the damn Grimoire in hardcover books!

https://www.amazon.com/Destiny-Grimoire-Anthology-Vol-I/dp/1945683449

I struggle to see how them advertising preorders for Volume 2 equates to them handwaving away old lore.

https://bungiestore.com/collections/art-books/products/destiny-grimoire-anthology-volume-two

One of them is Dark Mirror, and the other is just "Volume 1" What's the difference between them?

They do have a listing for it, it just says Unavailable

• Hardcover (unavailable)
  
  
  
• Imitation Leather ($24.99)

https://bungiestore.com/products/destiny-comic-collection-volume-one

https://www.amazon.com/Destiny-Grimoire-Anthology-Vol-I/dp/1945683449/ref=asc_df_1945683449/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=266444585221&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=3856897325177301467&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9009976&hvtargid=pla-527271754228&psc=1

Plus countless Grimoire Cards in-game and online.

I was about to buy one, but it cost more for shipping than it cost for the book on bungie's site...

But it's luckily on Amazon so I'm getting one now.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1945683449/ref=ox_sc_act_image_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

> Where is this holy guidebook according to which we should all design games the same way?

I've found one for you.

Tough in all seriousness movement mechanics are a fundamental part of the majority of games and if they make someone frustrated for no discernible reason then they have every right to dislike the game. Even if there is a good reason it still doesn't mean they have to like it. Opinions can be based on false information and therefore wrong but this clearly isn't one of those cases. The reviewer played the games and didn't like a mechanic so marked it down instead of thinking '/u/quantum_darkness might like this game and, even though I don't like it, I'll give it a high score just for them.

Here are two websites if you need help job searching. Gamedevmap and orcahq.

The best thing you can do right now is build up a portfolio, go to game conference and network, and read game design books like the art of game design by Jesse Schell.

Just wanted to bump this one:
>The Art of Game Design - Jesse Schell is very very good.

It's a broad 'make you think' kind of book that covers every aspect of game design without trying to give you the answers (an impossible task), but rather make you think about the questions and the reasons behind everything. Coming from a programming background it really reminded me of Code Complete in this aspect. Couldn't recommend it enough!

What exactly do you want to do in gaming? Programming? Design? Art? There's also producing.

However, no matter what path you decide to take, one of the best things you can do is learn programming. Programming is obviously building the game and bringing its mechanics to live, everything from render the artwork to the physics is all programming. Even if you don't want to do it as a job, knowing how to program is an incredibly beneficial skill to have in the gaming industry, and if you go into design, it can really inform your design skills.

Design is defining the mechanics that make the game. The designers main job is to make the game fun, but that covers a lot of material a(anything from setting, characters, and plot to rules and mechanics). For designing, there really isn't a specific course you can take. Mainly you just want to play games, and break down why they are fun. Thoroughly examine every way you interact with the game; break it down into parts. A really good book that covers nearly all aspects of game design is The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses.

Art can be anything from creating textures to 3D modeling to concept design. And producing is basically team management.

Read this then return to us a wiser man/woman.

I would recommend this book:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Game-Design-lenses/dp/0123694965

http://www.gameenginebook.com/
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Art-Game-Design-lenses/dp/0123694965

There is actually a lot of good reading about level design out there. I can't remember all of the books/articles off hand, but I'll see if I can throw some links together.

Edit:
This one had a lot of good theory and concepts

Great book. If you are going to spend some money to buy a book, get this.

Also, I would recommend playing through games with good level design and breaking down each design choice. Getting a few overhead maps helps too. Start with old games, because their levels/art is often more simple and easier to pick apart. Then move up in generations to get a feel for how people tackle more complicated scenes and designs.

I am not sure what aspect you are interested in. The set dressing or the actual level design, but there are some differences between the too.

BTW, if you are into games, here's an excellent book on the non-technical aspects: http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Game-Design-lenses/dp/0123694965

If you want to know how the GPU works and such, these books give some insights: http://www.riemers.net/ the tutorials online are useful without the books. Note this covers XNA, which is the C# library for programming XBox games, unrelated to Unity, but if you just read it you'll get an idea of how Unity is translating your things into more lower-level details. Like, what's the "terrain" type really doing behind the scenes, and how do shadows work?

Although it is indeed impossible to cater to everyone's needs, I think there are many cravings shared by all of us.

Anyway, giving it a bit more thought, I think that instead of "addiction", the term "engagement" might suit you as well (since both end up getting the player hooked to your game but from different reasons) and even in a happier way so to speak.

In that case, analyzing your design through tools like the MDA and many of the lenses might help you.

If you can get away with a required book, I would insist you use Theory of Fun. It's not about boardgames specifically, but more about what is fun and why games are fun. It's quite easy to read (every other page is a drawing), but it's excellent and deep. It would definitely give you a good foundation to go on and talk about games from a more educated standpoint.

"Why do you like this game?" "Ok, do you remember where the book says that's a fun thing to do?"

Or look at some critically acclaimed games and see why they fall under good design, or some popular, yet poorly designed games and why some people don't like them (Monopoly for one).

Scott Nicholson had a great video series called Boardgames With Scott that might have some useful videos. He's currently at MIT on sabbatical doing game design/teaching research (looks like maybe he just finished).

If you're looking for a book for yourself,

• http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Game-Design-lenses/dp/0123694965/ref=cm_lmf_tit_1
  
• http://www.amazon.com/A-Theory-Fun-Game-Design/dp/1932111972/ref=cm_lmf_tit_3
  
• http://www.amazon.com/Rules-Play-Game-Design-Fundamentals/dp/0262240459/ref=pd_sim_b_7
  
  You'll notice a lot of them aren't specifically games, but deal with fun and play. It's important to understand those before you can talk about games. That is also a good topic. What is a game? How do you define it? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game#Definitions
  I personally like Chris Crawford's definition, but you get a lot of backlash from the general public for such a strict definition, as if forms of interactive entertainment are somehow inferior if they are not "games."
  
  I'm just sort of rambling and vomiting thoughts here, but to summarize some topics I would want to go over:
  
  
• History of games
  
• Definition of a game
  
• What is fun and play and how are those used to make good or bad games
  
• Genres of games and how that affects design choices.
  
• Pick a different game to teach and play each day/week? Perhaps at the beginning tell your students why a specific game is thought to be fun, and by the end ask them if they can recognize the major mechanics. You could start off a lesson this way and then revisit it at the end.
  
  Artificial intelligence could be an interesting side topic. Looking at search algorithms and how they are used to solve tic-tac-toe and how you use the EXACT same method to solve checkers or play chess and go (currently unsolved).
  
  If you do decide to talk about a variety of games, here are some I would suggest you look at:
  
  
• Go, for its simplicity in rules and depth of strategy. I would consider it one of the most pure games.
  
• Settlers of Catan for introducing euro-style boardgames to the USA and popularizing board games. Also involves heavy player to player trading.
  
• The Resistance as a short-form hidden treachery and secret agenda social game.
  
• Dominion as a game that introduced an entirely new genre that is now super successful. Also a good example of a multiplayer solitaire game.
  
• Tic-tac-toe as a game whose depth ceiling is too low and complexity space is too small for humans.
  
• Pandemic as a completely cooperative game (there might be a simpler game for this, not sure)
  
• Can't Stop - a look at chance and how it can be used as an interesting core mechanic and not just a way to make things random
  
  
  As you can tell, I love stuff like this. Let me know what you think about my ideas, or if you want to talk more or throw ideas back and forth, feel free.
  
  Other sources:
  
  
• http://boardgamegeek.com

Game Design by Bob Bates covers a bird's-eye view of general game theory and the process of game development from beginning to end. It's very "readable" and gives you context to help you understand how your development process can help aid your particular design paradigm that you decide upon. If I recall correctly, it also goes over a lot of the different type of design documents that are often used in the industry.

Depending on how much textbook you can stomach, Software Engineering for Game Developers by John Flynt and Omar Salem is an interesting take on the whole game design angle by delving entirely into the source code development. It follows an actual game created by the authors and the entire process used from beginning to end in designing the engine. The game itself was shitty, but the code was immaculate and the process certainly gave me a lot to mull over and cherry pick for my own projects. Be warned, however, this book is as dry as a road trip in the Sahara and twice as long.

Besides these two, I can also definitely recommend Level Up! and The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses as previously recommended elsewhere in this topic.

Our very own E-Book HERE has a lot of helpful stuff on getting started!

I'd also recommend the following:

http://www.amazon.com/Art-Game-Design-book-lenses/dp/0123694965/

http://www.amazon.com/Theory-Game-Design-Raph-Koster/dp/1449363210/

Got into 3D mostly because I knew a couple of people who were going to the same school for it, which pushed me to go in the same year as them instead of taking a gap year like I had originally planned.

I always planned on going into the R&D side of things, doing concept art etc. But then one day in a team project, I drew the short straw and was left to animate our characters. I fucking smashed those animations. After all that time avoiding animation- it ended up being the thing I was best at, and the thing I enjoyed the most. Finding you have a natural talent for something you enjoy is a great way to get motivation.


On a side note, if you are serious about Game design; I highly recommend This book. Its a resource I keep going back to when I run into problems. It truly covers everything.

You're very good at ASSERTING your point of view without backing anything you're saying up. Sadly, you'll have plenty of company in video games with a destructively ignorant point of view like yours. Eventually that will change as video games mature as a medium.

Your "guesses" as to my personal life are incorrect, irrelevant, and mean-spirited. Nice.

If you ever change your mind and decide to open up to the world of game design, I would recommend that you read "The Art of Game Design" by Jesse Schell for a really great introduction to the basics.

I can certainly recommend you

The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses

by Jesse Schell. Also, this book has a companion app in Play Store and App Store

Make a good, 2 player, fighting game. It's as simple as that.

The thing about this is that the question isn't very useful because people have spent their entire careers trying to answer that question, it's not an easy thing to do. Questions like this are often attempts to skip over the long process of learning. Also, good is subjective.

Here's the thing about making good games/songs/paintings/etc that it really is just that, too make something good, just make something, and figure out what's good and what's bad about it, and next time maybe that will help you avoid the bad and have more good. The rule for music is don't "study" music production/theory until you've written atleast 20 songs, maybe more like 5 games, but the same logic applies. Don't focus on making something good, until you've already made something bad, and another slightly less bad, etc

Im going to talk about music because quite frankly im more confident talking about it than games. The way you learn is you just try over, and over, and over again. You learn from your mistakes, and move on. It's like how I asked my music teacher "how long it takes until I can somewhat improvise [on piano, Im new to the piano, it's new to be on the non technical part, making sound from a physical instrument instead of a computer]" and his response was "you already can improvising isn't that hard, it's good improv that is"

My first song was awful, like literally painful to hear. I kept working at it, admittingly not very consistently, and I've made progress. (https://soundcloud.com/mark-leard/october-26-song) but I have a lot to learn. Im complely lost, but one thing I've began realizing is that so is everyone else.

Also don't be afraid to be influenced by things you like, heck the term scratch is a reference to a technique used by DJ's to manipulate the sound of a already created song. The talking before rap-god is all sampled, and the funky drummer groove has been sampled thousands of times.

Also I love this book, it's worth a read ( https://www.amazon.com/Art-Game-Design-Book-Lenses/dp/0123694965 )

Good luck

The only course I've taken so far was through Digipen University's project fun and it was a Programming course with only basic game design principles covered, it really focused on the programing. Link-a-dink


Being only a a Senior in highschool everything else has been personal study through Video series (Extra Credits is one of my favorite)
Lectures given at GDC, commentary on games, podcast done by studios and books(This was and is fantastic in its in depth way of looking at game design)
This year I convinced a computer teacher to let me and a friend just have a year of independent study in his class developing from the ground up our own game, so that should give a lot of learning opportunities. A line I remember from The Art of game design said it best "The first step to becoming a game designer is simple, say you are a game designer. Then, design games."

First off, I think this is the most elaborate contest I've ever participated in, so congratulations for that :P Fear cuts deeper than swords. I hope some of my items are awesome enough for some extra credit ;) Also I wasn't sure if duplicates are allowed. I will revise if necessary.

1.) Something grey and it's been on my wishlist.

2.) Rain, well not technically rain, she is a water bender :P Previously on my wishlist.

3.) Unusual, I think this is something I would use like twice a year. With ice cream or cereal.

4.) Someone else My sister and I want to start playing tabletop games. Previously on my wishlist.

5.) "Book" I took a little bit of liberty with this one because it's a graphic novel. But it's Batman, so...(Previously on my wishlist).

6.) Under a dollar.

7.) Cats There's a catbus in it, which is pretty much the best part of the movie. Previously on my wishlist.

8.) Beautiful As a Star Wars fan having the original trilogy on Blu Ray would be beautiful to me. I love high definition movies, especially ones that are aesthetically pleasing. Previously on my wishlist.

9.) Movie As a Browncoat, I would encourage anyone who has a remote interest in Sci-Fi to give this a chance. Previously on my wishlist.

10.) Zombie tool I don't think this needs explanation.

11.) (Updated) Useful for future. I have a desire to create meaningful video games. Previously on wish list.

12.) Add on I actually had this on my wishlist but removed it because add-on items are lame.

13.) Most expensive As previously stated, I want to be a game developer/designer so not only would it be fun to play with, I could create with it too. Previously on list.

14.) Bigger than breadbox Total in the box it is bigger than a breadbox. Previously on wishlist.

15.) Bigger than a golf ball It's a large book. Previously on wishlist.

16.) Smells good As a guy...I enjoy the scent of lavender.

17.) Safe for children toy I don't think this needs any introduction of why it's awesome.

18.) Back to school drawing helps keep me sane. Previously on my list.

19.) Current obsession I'm a noob to tabletop games. But have been wanting to get into it obsessively within the past month or so. And this also takes my love of A Song of Ice and Fire into the mix. Previously on list.

20.) [Amazing] (http://www.amazon.com/Sony-XBR-65X900A-65-Inch-120Hz-Ultra/dp/B00BSREQI6/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1376281533&sr=8-4&keywords=4k+tv) I've seen one of these in person at the mall and it literally made me stop walking the resolution was so incredible. I know it's as expensive as dicks...but man...when these are affordable...

Bonus 2) Made in Oregon I would have put Tillamook Ice Cream, since it's pretty awesome...but alas not on Amazon.

Edit: Changed an item because I saw it won't count because it's a duplicate.

Graphics and OpenGL:

• Real-Time Rendering
  
  
• OpenGL Red Book
  
  
• OpenGL Superbible
  
  
• GPU Gems 1, 2, and 3
  
  
• Many more books
  
  Engine Development: Game Engine Architecture
  
  Game Design: The Art of Game Design: A book of lenses

I'd say it's a pretty complex set of conditions that need to be met, ranging from game DNA, the technical scope, cost of the project, and the market viability/RoI (unless you have a grant or are making an art game).

Recently, I've really gotten into Scott Rigby's work because he seems to be on to a testable idea surrounding the DNA, but I also pull from Jesse Schell and others--I just prefer Rigby because he's testing the ideas, not just arguing for them. Using his framework, I can place features into different categories before writing up actual design specs, so before the feature's nuts and bolts even exist, I know where it fits into the machine ("This aids in the competency part", "This aids in the autonomy part", etc.)

The technical scope and cost go roughly hand-in-hand after you've got the DNA and design specs going on, but you can do things in stages. Make a prototype with programmer art, the most essential features, and test it. If that does well, pull from the plan and add more based on cost. Test again, etc. Build up the team as you need. If something isn't playtesting well, figure out if its worth it to double down or scrap. And if you're scrapping something central to the DNA, then figure out if you can replace it with a functionally similar feature or scrap the game.

The market viability and RoI can be more or less important depending on the type of game. If it's something like Jason Rohrer's Gravitation, then your scope and technical cost is smaller, and you might have a grant, so there's less risk to sell. If you're making a F2P mobile game, you're at the exact opposite--business is much more at the forefront and really has to be for a financially successful game. AAA are less extreme vs. F2P, although there's high investment which certainly puts the pressure on, but the business model isn't there as much. An Indie PC, crowd-funded darling focuses much more on the developer/community relations and how the community, when treated as investors, have a voice in development, like any other investors would. So there's complex constraints there too (the public may not understand a decision at first or might disagree with you, do you explain and try to win them over or listen to the sway of the crowd?)

As you mentioned, there's also platform concerns that will change the design. A mobile phone experience is different than a tablet experience. The market's on those platforms react differently to different products. I wouldn't make a game with features that indie PC gamers would love on mobile because the market just isn't there. Likewise, I wouldn't make a console game on mobile phones, because that mistakes what people want out of mobile phone experiences over a long period of time. Other features, like VR, come with huge unknowns because we're just starting to work in that space.

Finally, I would say, "Make something you would like." and "Make something you can sleep with at night." If you want to make something like Smash, do it, but put your own spin, since you can't make Smash (unless you work at Nintendo). If you work in F2P, make something you would like to play, not just something you think will make money. And, paradoxically, realize that sometimes you aren't the consumer (AAA and mobile F2P come to mind), and in those cases, playtest and listen to the people more than your gut.

I tend to agree with u/eepoo, mainly with the inexperience part. I don't think getting a team and making a game is as simple as a white bored sesh and trying to determine common traits of your fav games. Sound like a bucket of nightmare!

If you haven't already, check out The Art Of Game Design: A Book Of Lenses. Or even download the app of the same title, which is a little trimmed version with all the bullet points.

At least get your inexperienced guys to get the app for a crash course game design.


Url for the book, posting from phone and can't figure how to hyper link.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0123694965?pc_redir=1414060587&robot_redir=1

All that said, I am curious to know how the meeting does go? I may just eat my hat :-)

Best book out there for a beginner

Essential Mathematics for Games and Interactive Applications should cover just about everything you might need.

Here you go:

> Calculus is the foundation for modern math. Always a good thing to have.

> Linear Algebra is the foundation for 3d mathematics in games. Things such as perspective projection, arbitrary rotation, and more exotic things such as quaternions come around here.

> Essential Math for Games is a most excellent book that, after having built your mathematical foundation through the previous two books, provides you pretty much everything you need to know about making a 3d renderer, which is probably one of the most educational experiences that you can undergo in game development.

I found Essential Mathematics for Games and Interactive Applications to be very good.

Sure the middleware could do a kind of "sensor integration" helping to translate different axes of movement, rotation from various devices using quaternions into a standard control scheme though that's kind of missing the point for games. For scientific applications such as viewing large datasets, the emphasis is on precision while: picking | zooming | moving data around. You could call it an objective -based approach to interaction.

Whereas the role of the gameplay programmer is in conveying subjective -based game feel through the interaction space which might include visuals, sound and so on. Developers should still be able to define characteristics such as responsiveness, dead zones, logarithmic scaling for longer -throw movements or button presses. The physical controller being just one part of the overall system used to communicate sensation. Take Mario's jump from the NES for example, it seems stupidly simple but there is an entire book that has been written about it's properties.

Another example might be the implementation of control in two different FPS games: "Call of Duty: Ghosts" and "Battlefield 4". One game has gone to the extent of degrading it's graphics in order to provide rock solid 60Hz polling of the controller, providing crystal clear response. The latter does the opposite and privileges large draw distance and numbers of players but the controls are 30Hz and feels squishy, slightly unresponsive. The brain creates an idea of "sensation" from many different modalities and the control surface is a part of that palette.

There's more than likely a happy medium here. Does floaty feel too floaty and inhibit the players ability to aim? Do tight controls feel to rigid and break the feeling of being a spaceship in free-flight?

You just need to nail down the feel. Flying should feel like flying but also still give the player all the control they need.

https://www.amazon.com/Game-Feel-Designers-Sensation-Kaufmann/dp/0123743281

> I haven't heard of Chris Franklin so I'll check him out.

He's fantastic! I especially love that he promotes many games I haven't otherwise heard of.

> I couldn't really follow this tbh...

Yeah, sorry. I literally mean he uses first-person perspective too much, as in "I thought this." This is another academic writing thing, though I understand that YouTube video essays are inherently more personable than that medium of discussion. Reviewers should try to wring out their biases when analyzing text (text here meaning the content of the game, not literal text). None of the reviewers I mentioned fully abstain from this, but (like I said) Joseph Anderson seems to embrace his anecdotal perspective. This is a hard concept to fully communicate, but it's probably the cornerstone for why I'd label his style unprofessional. It's also a big factor in why his videos seem dense with so much filler - an essayist really doesn't need to qualify their statements with "I think..." when everything they say is already inherently coming from their point of view. And I do think the other reviewers I mentioned constitute a form of academic writing on games, just one that's more accessible.

> I haven't played the game mind you

Yeah, and that's another academic writing thing - analysis should be written for people who are already familiar with what's being analyzed. I still enjoy analysis videos of games I haven't played, but I shouldn't be the target demographic in that case.

> I don't get the impression these statements are designed to provoke...

They probably aren't, but it's reflective of an unprofessional writing style. Using words like "worst" and "best" rarely promotes interesting discussion.

> I strongly (and passionately) disagree with this...

I know it's hard work to make videos and it sucks when their points are rendered irrelevant (if I could find that CGP Grey video where he talks about someone else planning a video exactly like one of his and losing all steam once Grey's video steals all the attention, I'd link it). However, the date of publication is everything, and I'm sure Joseph has at least gone to Korok forest since the 1.1 update - since that's where the consistently worst framerate drops were - and seen the drastic improvements. It came too late to help his experience with the game, but the author has a responsibility to mention it since the world he's publishing the video in is the world where the 1.1 patch has been out for weeks. Or, you know, cut that section entirely since everyone else covered it at release and he said nothing new about framerates, anyway.

> I'm watching the video you linked now...

KingK suffers from many of my same complaints I just wrote up, here. Here's a comment I left on his Wind Waker video that I'll just quote here in its entirety because it's easier to quote than link YouTube comments - it's really not necessary to read but I believe I'm consistent in my complaints given that this was written a month ago.

> As a fan of a lot of these analyses-type videos and having watched your OoT, MM, and now WW videos, I have a few critiques. Main thing: be more succinct. It comes in a variety of forms - especially the times when you're trying to be humorous (brevity being the soul of wit and all). I'd pretty much recommend cutting out a lot of your humor except for the hardest hitting jokes - otherwise the jokes become tiresome and make me want to just watch matthewmatosis's reviews for the umpteenth time. Also cut waaaay down on the swearing - it doesn't make the viewer respect you any more, it doesn't make you any funnier or relatable, and it can at worst be off-putting when the viewer's trying to take you seriously. The emotional tones should in general be more reserved (like during your rant on the minigames, which I thought brought up rather valid, critical points) as it changes the tone from "discussion" to "rant" and makes your points less respectable. In general, though, I feel like you belabor many of your specific points. Just listening to you explain your bias towards this game was agonizing in the beginning as I got the gist in 10 seconds what you took 45 seconds to describe. Like at 28:11 , you don't have to defend yourself as "not being a game designer" - just assume your authority on the subject and don't waste time (and make me question your ethos) with such an empty point about why you bring up your points. This is a bit of a snobbish acadamia-sort of observation, but I'd try to limit your usage of first and especially second person pronouns - the audience can think for themselves and the more you bring yourself into the equation, the less impartial your stance seems. Also, some of your footage and editing seems ever-so slightly ill-timed, like at 36:11 when you don't actually show the doors in the room unlocking in a linear order, or even earlier where you mention how nice the great sea theme is while playing dragon roost in the background (I know you played great sea before then, but still). Another acadamia-obnoxious-observation: there's a lot of retelling of what happens in the game (or the text, rather) when you can skip over a lot of that as a reviewer. With video games, this point is less important and I did appreciate your overview of sidequests that I never bothered with, but your explanations can definitely be more succinct (as can everything). It becomes overbearing when you go through each boss in order saying little else than "they're easy". Overall, I seriously think this video could be 15 minutes shorter with all the filler and repetition cut out - I definitely wouldn't be shy about leaving more on the cutting room floor next time. All that's to say I think this was a decent analysis, and me writing that up that critique of your presentation was also a means for me to further reflect on my own analysis video I'm developing and its room for improvement. Thanks for the video, and I look forward to Skyward Sword.

> Remember that bit you said about Anderson taking controversial stances?...

Touché, but the little criticisms I've levied about un-academic writing and longwindedness do amount to comparative unprofessionalism. He does show why "he thinks" combat is shallow (he seriously needs to cut out those "he thinks" types of qualifiers), but he can get all of his points across in a far more concise manner.

I'm going to throw in a new pedantic complaint real quick: why does he center the text of his lists in the video? His lists start with numbers! Numbered lists are always aligned by the . or ) which separates the numbers from their text! Just... frame composition, man. It's like getting upset with kearning and ligatures, but damn if it doesn't have an easy solution to look more professional.

> I don't know. It just sounds like you want more videos by the other people you mentioned...

I do, but

> I'm surprised so many people (not just you by any stretch) lump these guys all in together...

/r/videogameanalysis is the subreddit for that. It is a new phenomenon that sort of started with Egoraptor's jokey Megaman X video and morphed into serious discussion videos from the home grown video game community - not academics from other media trying to apply their understanding of something like film to games. It's taking actual textbooks on game design and distilling them for the masses. I'm amazed whenever I see a new person that enters this "scene" and brings up original points with new personality. Noah Caldwell-Gervais is an example of one of these types whom I respect yet don't enjoy watching. Joseph Anderson I can't respect when he doesn't meet the bar set by other "video game analyst" -types. There's of course something less serious about having these discussions on democratic platforms like YouTube and Reddit, but seeing Anderson's videos getting the praise they get worries me about the future quality of this entertainment and these discussions.

> If I had to sum it up, I'd say matthewmatosis makes me change the way I think about a game on a deep level. Anderson points out what I feel like I should have noticed myself.

That's actually a pretty good sum-up that should negate everything I said in the previous (pretentious) paragraph. They speak to different audiences, but that seems like such a cheap conclusion when they're both in-depth, highly analytical long-form reviews.

I don't know - I think I'm a hate-watching troll at this point, and that bugs me. I can say "people should have higher standards" but at what point is that just me saying "people should have my standards"? It feels like wading through muck to find the golden nuggets of insight in Joseph's videos. Other people don't have that experience. Ok. This isn't a profound statement about the degradation of knowledge about games, but the more I try to argue my point the more it seems like that's the stance I'm taking. I just really don't enjoy his videos, and I probably shouldn't think about it beyond there.

The biggest inspiration of this video, come from Game Feel book written by Steve Swink. I recommend any Gamers who have interest in Game Design to check it out. Learn a lot about the design philosophy of Game Feel. The book did an incredible job tangibilizing abstract concept like Game Feel to something you can closely examine.


Book Source:

Game Feel Book by Steve Swink

http://www.game-feel.com/

https://www.amazon.com/Game-Feel-Designers-Virtual-Sensation/dp/0123743281/


Source for all gameplay are in the description of the video but I think I'll leave it here too. All of these guys deserve their credits since I use their gameplay. Hopefully they won't issue a takedown against this video. Tried my best to only use their video for examination purpose.


Gameplay Source:

ChristopherOdd Gameplay

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STH5fk4cSiM

Cryoatic Gameplay

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckSZFlxwaJo

DSPGaming Gameplay

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52buVPD9uHA

Markiplier Gameplay

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYQA-ee7kEw


My last video that I made that I touched on in this video if you're interested.


Level-by-Level Analysis Episode 3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQyMjjDjmw4&index=3&list=PLzPFnG00SHtsdumNa9ZXldjcM0qH5RUbE

If you want to get him something re: Game Design I'd like to suggest Game Feel: https://www.amazon.com/Game-Feel-Designers-Sensation-Kaufmann/dp/0123743281

I talked to my flatmate who's a game designer (and feels the same way about Journey as I do) about my experience and told him that it was like nothing I had ever seen or felt in a game before. That it doesn't compare to any game I know, that I'm not sure if you can even call it a game.

He stopped me right there and said "It is a game. This it what games can be, this is how powerful, artistic and deep games can be."

And he's absolutely right.

I feel like Journey might be another milestone on gaming's path to maturity. Much like film was rather gimmicky and enjoyed only for light entertainment in its early days and now over the course of a century has progressed into one of the most captivating artistic media by exploring new ways of cinematography, editing, story structures and ways of engaging viewers emotionally by using certain instruments and methods for their soundtracks, Journey is a game that may inspire developers to think of games on another level.

Journey does everything right in my eyes and the Game Feel or the Kinaesthetics are absolutely stunning and make you feel exactly what the game wants you to feel instead of showing or describing it to you.

It's difficult going for your dream game as your first project, since you learn so much from every iteration. Here's a gdc talk on 2D camera movement that's useful for getting across the correct feeling of motion. Most of my experience is in Unity, so I wouldn't really know much about gamemaker. I will say for movement a lot of it is based on how it feels to control, so get lots of different people to test your game and give you unbiased feedback. Make sure you let them know that you won't be upset if they don't like something, positive feedback on a bad game is one of the worst things that can happen to a game dev.

This is a good book to guideline what feels good in controls and other elements. A lot of what makes a game good is the polish that goes into it, which is why I can't stress the importance of this video. It starts slow, but it changed how I view my project pipeline.

Also focus on making a few mechanics really deep, instead of a lot of really shallow mechanics. Especially for indie games this will help you keep a focus on what you want the player to get from your game, and it feels a lot better on the players end to explore deep gameplay mechanics rather than throwaway gimmicks.

Edit: another useful video for polishing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fy0aCDmgnxg

There's a problem I feel that many character mods for this game have.

Skin and complexions are perfect, there is no dirt or weathering, the pupil/iris in eyes are too high in detail (not necessarily resolution), among a few other issues. The mods that affect the face can cause tension with the hair/clothing if these aren't up to scratch, then you have the problem with eyebrows in that they can look like they're drawn on (as yours do here, no offense).

Unfortunately I haven't been downloading mods in a long time (still waiting since Legendary), but try to avoid smooth skins entirely, for a start. No skin is absolutely, 100% smooth and without edges. This makes it seem like the face has quite a low poly-count, even if it doesn't. And contrasts heavily with the world of Skyrim, and all other NPCs.

Just don't layer on the mods too thick when it comes to characters. Less is more in this case. You'll end up crossing into uncanny valley territory when you add too much detail. "SUPER HD 8K EYELIDS AND EYEBROWS" aren't exactly necessary and only add to the dissonance you're experiencing.

I'm sorry if I haven't explained myself too well, it's quite late and its been a long day. Hopefully other people can help with suggestions for what to download!

One last thing to remember before I head to bed: this is a 7 year old game. Beyond making each texture look as good as possible, the game is old. Animation quality, and many features you can't really influence will still seem relatively dated. I understand there are mods for these, and I understand there are mods for animation, but to paraphrase Steve Swink the mechanics and feel of the game are 7 years old. You can't change that with mods.

TL:DR: You're likely using too many mods, they contrast with each other and create the unappealing character you see. A human face is never going to look like the above example. Less is more with character mods - choose carefully, all faces have signs of weathering or ageing.

I can see how AI is a really neat goal!
However, I would do small steps. AI is more of a Computer Science problem than a programming problem, so you'll need a different set of skills to make useful AI.
I am normally a big advocate of the trial-and-error approach, but I don't think it's quite as feasible for learning AI/Machine Learning.

My advice:

• Start with programming. There are countless approaches to programming and I'm sure /r/learnprogramming will be happy to help you pick one. It's a good place!
  
  
• Go on with basic Computer Science. Trying to accomplish something in AI without the basics ready to hand is like digging a hole with a spoon. This is your spade. Udacity has a nice, interactive course: https://www.udacity.com/course/cs101
  
  
• You're getting good! If you're still into this, now you might have a good shot at AI. Again, Udacity has a cool course: https://www.udacity.com/course/ud120 This one is very general though. As for resources more specific to Game AI, there are some nice books, and here's one example: http://www.amazon.com/Artificial-Intelligence-Games-Ian-Millington/dp/0123747317/
  
  This might seem daunting to you, but I don't mean to demoralize you. It's quite a nice journey of the mind, so to say.
  
  So yeah, best of luck with your plans!

Also: Artificial Intelligence for Games

This book is also pretty good for all things game AI related.

This makes me happy!

I love comics!

~~Not so far. ~~ There was a physical graphic novel planned but for the moment it’s been canceled.

Edit:

Whoops — the other commenter is correct, they put out an anthology a few months ago:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overwatch_(digital_comic_series)

https://www.amazon.com/Overwatch-Anthology-1-BLIZZARD-ENTERTAINMENT/dp/1506705405

There is also a comic anthology available for pre-order https://www.amazon.com/dp/1506705405/

They sell a single hardcover book of the first 12 comics.
https://www.amazon.com/Overwatch-Anthology-1-BLIZZARD-ENTERTAINMENT/dp/1506705405

But no one is going to stop you printing them out, you can download the PDFs from the site and just print them out if you wanted.

Can't they?

https://www.amazon.com/Overwatch-Anthology-1-BLIZZARD-ENTERTAINMENT/dp/1506705405/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1502247766&sr=8-2&keywords=Overwatch+comic

This one?

Link for Amazon, enjoy!

Direct link to Amazon

seems like a normal poster size at least

You need to do some kind of spatial partitioning, to escape quadratic complexity of exhaustive pairwise testing. Real-Time Collision Detection by Christer Ericson covers the topic pretty well.

THE book.

Real-Time Collision Detection

http://www.amazon.com/Real-Time-Collision-Detection-Interactive-Technology/dp/1558607323

It has 3D stuff in it to, but 2D as well. You can get more stuff obviously, but you need this one.

https://www.amazon.com/Art-Game-Design-Book-Lenses/dp/0123694965

This is a great design book by Jesse Schell.
I also recently read the Spelunky book by Derek Yu and was inspired by it, but it's not as much of a coffee table book.

https://bossfightbooks.com/products/spelunky-by-derek-yu

Read: The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses
https://www.amazon.com/Art-Game-Design-Book-Lenses/dp/0123694965

https://www.amazon.com/Art-Game-Design-Book-Lenses/dp/0123694965
https://www.amazon.com/Game-Design-Workshop-Playcentric-Innovative/dp/0240809742
https://www.amazon.com/Challenges-Game-Designers-Brenda-Brathwaite/dp/158450580X
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQvWMdWhFCc

Seems like it

To answer question 2: I think you would enjoy The Art of Game Design: A book of lenses by Jesse Schell http://www.amazon.com/dp/0123694965/ref=cm_sw_r_udp_awd_WIdotb0YD3MBP

Really really good game design book (a lot of university game design teacher use this one as main core of their courses)
http://www.amazon.ca/The-Art-Game-Design-lenses/dp/0123694965

If you want something broader than just writing plot then looking into game design in general might be a good idea - and that of being a creative director. On this subject I recommend the book The Art of Game Design. You can also try find design documents for games you enjoy, maybe get in touch with and interview game designers working on games you like. I don't have any examples to give.

Sounds like you have your own ideas which is great, honestly the best way forward is to just invent your own structure that works for the game you want to create. You're looking for a format that is easy for you to organize and communicate to others. Focus on what you need right now, and the techniques and structure will follow.

I would recommend the The Art of Game Design lense series.

You should read these two books, The Art of Game Design and Reality is Broken. They're both a pretty good window into what makes games fun in a psychological way.

Thanks a lot! I actually have that first book bookmarked but I forgot to put it on the list.

I'm leaning closer and closer to purchasing a copy of The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses and it's one I'm actually really curious about.

On Game Physics Pearls - I peeked into the first few pages and it looks like something that I will pick up once I have a bit of experience in that area...does that sound about right or would you say it could cater to beginners fairly well?

Game Physics seems like it may be a bit more beginner-friendly but you are right about it not being a tutorial, which is kind of important for me at this step. I'm definitely bookmarking this until I know a bit more on the subject, though. I'll be taking a Physics course next September so it may be a good time to look at it after that!

Real-Time Shadows looks very interesting but I'm unsure to the difficulty level of it to a beginner. It sounds like I need to brush up on my math after three years of not using it very often at all.

Thanks a lot for the suggestions!

*I'll be taking a course on Linear Algebra here in the coming semesters, but that book does sound like a good introduction along with how it works within 3D programming. I'll keep a look-out on that for a while; do you think it would be very worthwhile to read that before something like Real-Time Rendering?

http://www.amazon.com/Art-Game-Design-book-lenses/dp/0123694965/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1393940811&sr=1-2&keywords=game+design

Also this, this will change his life.

I would recommend to learn the ropes first...

Read a few good books about the game design.
First one I would advice:
https://www.amazon.com/Art-Game-Design-book-lenses/dp/0123694965

standard_error is right, that's typically how the term "game theory" is used. Maybe you were thinking something more along the lines of "game design"? If so, I'd recommend The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses by Jesse Schell.

Yep, hit a block recently where I realized I really suck at game design (at least coming up with something that I can actually finish myself).

I can code anything, but actually coming up with a design of a simple game that is fun to play and can be developed by a single person has been hard. So I've backtracked a bit and realize that I have been focusing on learning how to make games so much that I never learned how to design them. So I am doing a lot more research and studying of games to realize what makes them good.

I've found http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Game-Design-lenses/dp/0123694965 (also has a free android app to go with it, definitely worth the download! https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.schellgames.deckoflenses) to be excellent so far, and all the stuff I thought I knew that I took for granted (like why do we actually play games, what "fun" means or even what a "game" is) are revisited and makes me think a lot deeper when making design choices. Before I would just implement a bunch of features I thought were cool with a vague understanding with how it fits into the game as a whole.

Do you not agree that there are a whole load of really immature books about game design that are sold more on the fact that "its a book about games" than its inherent content ?

Even within the space of magazines I think it would be fair to call Nintendo power immature and something like EDGE , Games TM or Develop magazine Mature.

for someone starting from scratch you would get allot more by reading these books than by watching EC ( obviously can do both and EC is a nice starting pion for someone totally new to games)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0465067107?ie=UTF8&tag=alwaysblack01-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=0465067107

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0273693646?ie=UTF8&tag=alwaysblack01-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=0273693646

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Game-Design-book-lenses/dp/0123694965

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Theory-Game-Design-Raph-Koster/dp/1932111972

allso over view books on Game theory , the history of the microchip and computing , evolution and basic biology can be incredibly good in helping think about games as an art and the limitations in the development of software.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fun-Games-Text-Game-Theory/dp/0669246034/ref=cm_lmf_tit_12

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0321193679/zx81orguk00

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0932633439/zx81orguk00

http://www.amazon.com/Computer-History-Information-Machine-Technology/dp/0465029906


I realise EC is just easily consumable general information and that's fine just wish they did it without the pretence , like I said in other comments I'm glad they make it even though it personally annoys the hell out of me its beneficial for games as a whole as there is a general lack of even moderately intelligent talk about games.

My top three books are:


https://www.amazon.com/Art-Game-Design-Book-Lenses/dp/0123694965

https://www.amazon.com/David-Perry-Game-Design-Brainstorming/dp/1584506687

(more like an index of game design terms, ideal for brainstorming)

https://www.amazon.com/Game-Programming-Patterns-Robert-Nystrom/dp/0990582906

(more related to programming, but can give you a great insight how games should be structured, which can inform some design decisions)

I used to hate math, too. Rest assured, you don't hate math, you hate the way you've been taught math. Math is beautiful and wonderful and every bit as lovely as the most eloquent of sonnets. There's true beauty in Euclid's proof that there are infinitely many primes, and in Cantor's proof that the infinity of the real numbers is greater than the infinity of the integers, or in any proof of the Pythagorean theorem. Math isn't about numbers, or equations, or multiplication tables, it's about seeing the beauty that comes from exploring a set of rules, be that algebra or calculus or geometry.

If you want to make video games, you've come to the right place. If you want to try it out, Ludum Dare, a 48 hour game jam, is coming up soon, and you can make something very simple for it to see if coding is for you. More than math, computer science is about problem solving and logic. The math is there, but that stuff can be done with calculators and Wolfram|Alpha. Even if you don't like code, you may like designing games, and if you do, you can make simpler games with less coding knowledge in GameMaker or Twine or Stencyl until you've built up enough of a portfolio to justify working with coders to make your designs become reality. (GameMaker, Twine, and Stencyl are all really mature tools at this point. GameMaker was used to make Hotline Miami, and Twine was used to make Depression Quest)

Note, however, that game design is not just being an "idea guy". Game design is real work involving real problem solving, playtesting, and a lot of study of the greats of the past, like any artistic endeavor. You'll want to play and dissect the great works of the past and see how they tick and why they're still memorable all these years later, read things like Jesse Schell's "The Art of Game Design", or Steve Swink's "Game Feel" to understand what games are and what they can be, so you can push those boundaries in new and exciting directions.

​

Get a book or two (& free app from book of lenses itunes store or play store

Hit up your local book store and library to get a good look at what's available, explore all sections frequently.

Learn some art

Buy assets.

Here's some sexy stuff.

Get a Git to keep your goods on.

Hands on, in person, training is way behind the times as far as education is concerned.

Get Unity Certifiied.

Get Live Training

Check with your library they may off Lynda.com for free.

Get a big android tablet to build games for and show off at the office.

Join Meetup.com and look for local game developer groups.

Check the closest community college for game design class, if not see how much basic drawing, life drawing and basic design principles cost, if it's more than $500, try meetup.com and youtube/lynda or udemy or coursera to cover those experiences.

Use the force,

Game Design has nothing to do with programming. Familiarize yourself with the different roles in development and you will find books for the right topics. r/gamedesign is nice on its own. Depending on your use of technology, you might want to look into the corresponding subs aswell.

Good reads on game design are Level Up! and The Art of Game Design.

Looks like a good reading. Thanks for the suggestions, this book is next after I finish The Art of Game Design both of which, I think, will help me a lot to see and plan the 'big picture' before I start a project.

Hm, ill suggest reading books:
https://www.amazon.com/Art-Game-Design-Book-Lenses/dp/0123694965

https://www.amazon.com/Game-Design-Workshop-Playcentric-Innovative/dp/0240809742

Read A Book of Lenses. Make lots of small, well-polished (in terms of game design) games. :)

My favorite game design book: http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Game-Design-lenses/dp/0123694965 A lot of what follows can be found in there.

Unity is what I use when making and prototyping games but that's only because that's what I happened to learn to use first and I have a decent programming background. You're probably better off with Game Maker or something else just starting out.

There are several approaches to conceptualizing and making games but my approach involves using a list of game mechanics and combining them to see if something interesting pops into my mind. Here's the nicely formatted Board Game Geek website list: http://boardgamegeek.com/browse/boardgamemechanic and my own personal sloppy list with extra mechanics, my thoughts on them, as well as misspellings galore! http://pastebin.com/jQ68Z8cn A lot of the ideas are board game specific but they can all be applied to video games if you consider them in an abstract sense.

Any game idea I come up with I then subject to a validation test to make sure it's actually something that's a game an not just an interesting idea. I ask myself, does this game include:

• Challenge
  
• Decision-making
  
• An action that the player takes
  
• Purpose that the player takes that action
  
• Ultimate Goal
  
  If the idea has those properties then it can probably be made into a game.
  
  More important than any of that, though, is to start simple in concept and small in content. No one's a game designer, developer, or maker until they actually make a game.

Do your own:

http://www.amazon.com/Game-Design-Workshop-Second-Edition/dp/0240809742

http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Game-Design-lenses/dp/0123694965/ref=pd_sim_b_1

http://www.amazon.com/Challenges-Game-Designers-Brenda-Brathwaite/dp/158450580X/ref=pd_sim_b_2

http://www.amazon.com/Level-Up-Guide-Great-Design/dp/047068867X/ref=pd_sim_b_2

http://www.amazon.com/David-Perry-Game-Design-Brainstorming/dp/1584506687/ref=pd_sim_b_13

I don't have a gift idea. I use NGUI, iTween, EasyTouch and FX Maker (or is it studio?) nearly every day, but a new asset can be quite the time-sink.

However, in three years when you have the money (my predictions never miss), this would be an awesome gift: Premium support


Also, if you need a book, this is one of my favorites on the subject of Game Design: The Art of Game Design: A book of lenses

Not totally sure about requiring a massive budget. You would for the full realization of your dream, but there are many intermediate steps that can be turned into games. Have you played Pandemic? It could be something like that, where there are a ton of choices, but in a very manageable manner. It has a sophisticated yet elegant underlying ruleset that makes it workable.

It all depends on how you want the player to interact with the game. 3rd person action? Implausable. Top-down city sim? Mid-core budget. (Think Tropico). Text-based adventure? Inde game.

As I said, the text-based can evolve. Even if it was simply a choose-your-own-adventure style game, it would be entertaining. Remember the lense of a toy (http://www.amazon.com/Art-Game-Design-book-lenses/dp/0123694965). First, you create a toy. See if the toy is fun. If it is fun, then you can create a game using the toy.

If you want be game designer, it's your job to come up with such systems and it's fun doing so... Tutorials and books can help you, but sometimes you must do thinking... And general design rules apply.... For instance http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Game-Design-lenses/dp/0123694965

It depends. A game design degree from a well-designed and well-connected course (USC and Carnegie Mellon are both well-set-up) can sometimes help, but more through the connections you'll make than the things you'll learn in the course. In general, though, I agree strongly with the people here advising you to learn a practical skill.

Someone looking to hire a junior designer (and please don't have any illusions that you'll be considered anything other than junior until you've shipped titles) will be looking at you through two lenses:

• Does this person have potential to be a good designer?
  
• Can I use this person right now for work I need done?
  For both questions to be answerable in the affirmative, you need to be able to demonstrate both that you know how to think like a designer (what choices were made to make a given game work, and why did those choices have the effect they had?), and that you know your way around a game engine. A designer who knows only how to write design docs won't be useful in the short-term, and probably won't be useful in the longer term either, because this person won't be able to prototype their work. Good design is an iterative process, and your ability to explore and respond to your work hinges on your ability to express it in the medium.
  
  Regardless of the degree you choose, my recommendation is that you pursue your own education aggressively. The game industry changes extremely fast, and your ability to teach yourself constantly is essential to your ability to keep up and stay relevant. To this end, I'd do two things:
  

1. Pick a game engine and learn it. Do the tutorials, learn how it runs, and make something worth playing in this engine. My recommendations here would be either Unity3d or Unreal. Both of these are solid choices for a few reasons: they're commonly used in the industry, so there's a high likelihood that someone on the hiring end would find your knowledge of the engine attractive, and they both do things in standard enough ways that if you learned either one, any other engine you approached would likely be structured similarly enough that you'd get what it's doing. Both of these engines allow you to get very deep into the sort of scripting designers regularly do (UnrealScript or C#). Most designers don't wind up needing C++, but it does happen on rare occasions. If you walk in the door with running software that's genuinely fun to play, you'll put yourself ahead of a huge chunk of the candidates in the field.
   
2. Learn how game designers think. There are three books I'd recommend for this, probably in this order:
   

• A Theory of Fun, by Raph Koster, as a good relatively lightweight introduction to design thinking.
  
• The Art of Game Design, by Jesse Schell - the best practical course in design thinking I've ever seen.
  
• Rules of Play, by Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman - a foundation for most current game design thinking.
  There are other great books out there, but these three will set you off in the right direction. As a practical way to learn to apply this thinking, I'd recommend writing notes about the games you play from the perspectives taught in these books. Learn the theory by reading about it, recognize how it's working in the games you play by writing about it (even if just for yourself), and then try to apply this thinking to the game you're designing and building in the engine you're learning.
  
  Do these things, and you'll be an impressive candidate, and well on your way to becoming a good designer. At that point, the degree you choose really comes down to the specific areas in yourself you'd like to strengthen. I've worked with designers who earned degrees in architecture, film, english literature, philosophy, computer science, experimental music, and game design. Truthfully, few people will be swayed one way or another by the particular degree - they'll want to see your work and your ability to think. Above all, listen to those people here who are telling you to learn both sides of the coin - how to think about and write about design, and how to build running software - they're absolutely right that you need both.
  

Game dev: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0123742978/

Economics: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0226278840/

Machine learning (not a book): http://machinelearningmastery.com/linear-algebra-machine-learning/

Signals/systems/controls: http://www.springer.com/us/book/9789400706019

Network analysis (wikibook): https://en.m.wikibooks.org/wiki/Linear_Algebra/Topic:_Analyzing_Networks

This has always been my favorite book on the subject:

Essential Mathematics for Games & Interactive Applications: A Programmers Guide

It explains in great detail the how, why and when of most mathematical concepts as they relate to gaming: core concepts, rendering, physics, lighting, shading, animation, etc. It comes with examples and code. It's awesome.

SUNY Represent! (Binghamton Alum)

You should check out this talk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fy0aCDmgnxg

Right now your game is missing that "Game Feel" (which coincidentally is the title of another awesome book you should read by Steve Swink http://www.amazon.com/Game-Feel-Designers-Sensation-Kaufmann/dp/0123743281).

Also, I can't tell if your capture software is dropping frames or your video is. If it is the capture then you should really find good capture software. If it's the actual framerate that we're seeing then you need to get on top of that ASAP!

Finally I would consider making the camera tighter/closer on the characters, and compressing the overall architecture of the levels. The world right now seems so big and empty. Your level design does not excite me. I should want to explore your world, and the design should be encouraging me to do so.

Here are some good free level design reads

• http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/2848/an_architects_perspective_on_.php
  
• http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/DanTaylor/20130929/196791/Ten_Principles_of_Good_Level_Design_Part_1.php

I recommend the book: Swink - Game Feel

http://www.amazon.com/Game-Feel-Designers-Sensation-Kaufmann/dp/0123743281/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1464282048&sr=8-1&keywords=game+feel

This is getting lots of love- what do folks think is the best section of this to include?

It feels important to include a reading that's particularly relevant to game design - do y'all think that this is the one to include? I'm also considering a section from Game Feel if anyone has thoughts on that. Might be too specific...

Alternatively, is there a short reading, or section from a book, that has an interesting way of contextualizing what it means to design a game, or perhaps how designers think about games differently than theorists?

• https://www.amazon.com/Game-Feel-Designers-Sensation-Kaufmann/dp/0123743281
  
  Game Feel by Steve Swink gives a ground-breaking insight to game design. Since video game is all about delivering immersive sensory stimulation to the player, this book teaches you how to give these in a technical, organized way instead of error and trial.
  
  I also love the Lense book and Level UP book, so you can check out these first.

It's a subject that interests me greatly, especially as a novice game and user interface/user experience designer. This book is a damn fascinating read on the subject, and while it deals a lot with the hypothetical, it's still insightful nonetheless.

http://www.amazon.com/Game-Feel-Designers-Sensation-Kaufmann/dp/0123743281/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1453765173&sr=1-1&keywords=gamefeel

Game Feel

I've been putting together content for years about videogame design on my development blog HobbyGameDev, some of which might be applicable for the kind of thing you're looking for. A lot of it is design and production focused, and a handful of technical tutorials. Small teams, solo developers, and non-commercial projects are the main audience but a decent chunk of it can be extended or adapted to games of other scales or contexts.

I'll also suggest the book Game Feel by Steve Swink.

Can't agree more on the first one. Also, Mathematics for Computer Graphics and Game Feel

Artificial Intelligence for Games

They're not free but you might check out these two books.

> However, I would do small steps. AI is more of a Computer Science problem than a programming problem, so you'll need a different set of skills to make useful AI.

That is probably true and I think I will definitely heed your advice.

>Go on with basic Computer Science. Trying to accomplish something in AI without the basics ready to hand is like digging a hole with a spoon.

Is...... computer science an actually course or do you mean beginner friendly programming languages like python?

> https://www.udacity.com/course/cs101 [...] https://www.udacity.com/course/ud120 [...] http://www.amazon.com/Artificial-Intelligence-Games-Ian-Millington/dp/0123747317/

Thank you so much!

I really enjoyed that book too, but I would say it's basically only about two subjects: state machines and path-finding. It covers them really well but you might want to get another broader book too. Maybe after reading this one.
If you want a broader view - I found this book to be pretty great: http://www.amazon.com/Artificial-Intelligence-Games-Ian-Millington/dp/0123747317/ref=pd_sim_b_4?ie=UTF8&refRID=09B2HPTBM3NA2CNG477Y

This book isn't bad:
http://www.amazon.com/Artificial-Intelligence-Games-Second-Edition/dp/0123747317

And here is another, I've never read it though:
http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596005559.do

You'll find heaps of Game AI info here:
http://aigamedev.com/

https://www.amazon.com/Art-Persona-5-Prima-Games/dp/0744017319/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1491395083&sr=8-5&keywords=persona+5+art+book

The japanese book came out a few months ago and is 100 pages longer though.

http://www.play-asia.com/persona-5-official-setting-art-book/13/70aq4z?li_medium=default-widget&li_source=LI&ref=liftigniter

English Artbook Link

It's discounted rn for preorder! They don't even have the final cover up yet ;_; but if you really want it you can get the Japanese Artbook but import costs are a bitch. Japanese Artbook should be in related items

I was going to say that on Amazon but after looking at the link, the price is very high for now: https://www.amazon.com/Art-Persona-5-Prima-Games/dp/0744017319/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=the+art+of+Persona+5&qid=1557716557&s=gateway&sr=8-2

I would say try to search bookstores or ebay. Be careful because there is a version with the subtitle "The Aesthetics", this one is the version of the collector's edition, is smaller and has less content (still nice tho)

Here's the only good thing i could find

And this

This

And there's a CD soundtrack, it's also on iTunes.

It's also available for preorder on Amazon, if you don't like that Play Asia price point.

(edit: Now, with hotlink action.)

Preordered this when it was $50.

Believe me when I say, seeing this made my day!

Edit: Concisely, it is $23.99 (down from $39.99) on Amazon.com as well.

I got the Art of Persona 5, and it's pretty awesome. It includes info, concepts, final artwork, and notes from the designers/artists for just about everything in the game, aside from the palace interiors. I'd definitely recommend it.

The art is so good, can't wait till this summer when the artbook comes out just pre-ordered mine the other day. The art book that came with the Take your heart edition is good but I need more lol

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Overwatch-Anthology-1-Blizzard-Entertainment/dp/1506705405/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1502370641&sr=1-2&keywords=overwatch

Good question!

Yes, all of the comics to date will be included in a book that is being released in October. It will likely include the new "Masquerade" comic, and possibly some new ones yet to be released.

I believe you can pre-order the book on Amazon, but I'm not certain. I'll try to find a link for ya.

UPDATE: It's called Overwatch Anthology, Vol. 1. It will include the first 12 Overwatch comics (which means "Masquerade" is not included), and is available to pre-order for $17.99 USD.

Here's the link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1506705405/ref=pd_aw_sim_14_1/147-3814343-6351430?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=83TMFX142TCTFTVM5E07&dpPl=1&dpID=51gLgs6drRL

Hope that helped you out!

There's a huge map of Hyrule in the Hero's Edition of the book Creating a Champion.

https://www.amazon.com/Legend-Zelda-Breath-Wild-Creating-Champion/dp/1506710115

Hero's Edition also available

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild-Creating a Champion Hero's Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/1506710115/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_zt-yCbJQGC21G

Not a link to the map directly, it's part of the Making a Champion Hero's Edition.

Not sure if they sell the map separately.

It's on Amazon though:
https://www.amazon.com/Legend-Zelda-Breath-Wild-Creating-Champion/dp/1506710115/ref=mp_s_a_1_fkmr0_2?keywords=breath+of+the+wild+making+a+champion+special+edition&qid=1571637879&sr=8-2-fkmr0

Creating a Champion - Hero's Edition. It includes a map of Hyrule and a Spirit Orb

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild-Creating a Champion Hero's Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/1506710115/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_LgwTCbR55WR0X

Hi,

You've chosen a pretty interesting and intricate topic for your thesis - good decision getting started early! :-)

You've probably already stumbled upon this, but Unity uses Collider components for collision detection and Rigidbody components to generate a physical response to a collision. The Unity manual on Colliders is probably a good place to start.

Beyond Unity, our studio frequently references this book for the majority of our collision detection needs. Collision detection and response is a fairly broad topic and I imagine you'll uncover a lot over the next two years. Best of luck to you. :-)

Anyone interested in collision detection should probably purchase this book at some point.

YouTube for anything drawing. OpenGL can be applied to any other library and tutorials are everywhere.

This book for the basics of everything else.
Fair warning: 3D math and physics are hard. You won’t be bouncing a ball anytime soon.

https://www.amazon.com/Real-Time-Collision-Detection-Interactive-Technology/dp/1558607323

I actually got into typography because of Leslie Cabarga's Logo, Font, and Lettering Bible.

I think it's a typography goldmine regardless of whether you're completely new to this or already have some experience. And it's really entertaining, too.
If you don't have a problem pirating it, you can PM me for a torrent link.

I'm new to design as well but I just happened to read something that you might find as a valuable critique. Check out this book and "Look Inside" at pages 10 and 11. I think some of the points the author raises about some of those logos -- irregularity of certain features among letters, namely -- will apply to yours as well. For example

• in the logo, the T is slanted but that is not the case in any other design you have
  
  
• the width of the stem of the T and the L and the E are all different
  
  
• it's not clear if there is a reason why the F, E, and R are not specialized but the U, C, and I are not -- it makes the text hard to read
  
• the lack of an F in the forum sig is especially confusing
  
  Personally, I like they style and think it's very creative; but I don't think it serves the function you'd like it as well as you'd like -- I had to read your username in order to initially pick up on your nickname from your design.

> You’re using too many points.

It turns out I was using too few, actually. I drew this font in illustrator by using as little points as possible (I'm lazy), but Fontcreator couldn't deal with some of the long handles, which fucked some of the curves up.
I know what a 'good' font is supposed to look like, but as I've pointed out before: that's not what I'm going for.

(As for that Bible, I had a look at it on amazon, but the front and back cover have some of the worst typography I've ever seen, so I think I'll pass.)

I'm still learning myself so some of these books I'm recommending depend on your skillset and interest I guess. For typedesign and understanding fundamentals: Designing type is a good read, same with Stroke. Free stuff like briem superhandy. As a primer I'd read this before I buy a type design book. For lettering I don't really have books of preference. I generally go googling for info on whatever I may have a doubt in or if I just need inspiration. Like if I were looking at script, I'd look at works by Tony di spigna, tommy thompson, david quay and the like. When I once had a doubt about negative space within letters, I googled and stumbled upon this which helped. so for lettering it's a bit all over the place where I mostly just got info from googling. However if you want a book in lettering for a beginner-intermediate then logo,font & lettering gets you upto speed on a lot of things though he can be a lil old in his methods. Also books by Mortimer Leach and Doyald Young. For calligraphy I think I mostly learnt it from speedball manuals and then just googled but more importantly I did a lot of writing which is why I picked up on it. I think to understand type properly you need to do some calligraphy, once you get a grasp on calligraphy, typedesign makes sense so you go buy type design books, eventually lettering becomes super easy.

This is the best picture I could get. I didn't have much to compare the posters to in my room so I found this. The posters are the same size as the cover, 16 inches. When you click the link scroll over all the way to the right on the images. Hope this helps. Image

It's also a print in the poster collection.

It's TLoS art book, pretty cheap on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/161655164X there's also a poster book that's quite good http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/160887379X

Others are commenting that Zelda games don't have a great story but the Zelda Universe is actually an intricately woven tapestry. It highlights the neverending struggle between good and evil and the games balance exploration and puzzle-solving really well.

I think you might really benefit from reading The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia. It goes into the lore of each Zelda game and places it in the Zelda timeline. Granted, it'll take away from some of the suspense if you decide to go back and play the older games but their gameplay should hold your interest if you do.

I'd check your local library first - you might be able to check it out for free instead of spending the $30 or so.

The entire timeline of LoZ has been released as an official book called Hyrule Historia. They have zero intention of scrapping anything and I have no idea where you heard such a thing.

https://www.amazon.com/Legend-Zelda-Hyrule-Historia/dp/1616550414

No problem. There's actually a couple of different timelines that have presented themselves through the games. Hyrule Historia breaks it all down but it's really unnecessary... each of the games stand on their own with their own unique story. https://www.amazon.com/Legend-Zelda-Hyrule-Historia/dp/1616550414

Make it similar to this Zelda book and I am sold.

I have a few :L I'll put them in one post to make it easier for you.

• Bombs are staple items in The Legend of Zelda series, premiering in the first game and recurring in every game since, excluding The Adventure of Link. People like Cannon and Barnes consider Bomb-making an art and sell the explosives at their Bomb Shops. Bombs are usually obtained early in each game, and they are commonly carried in Bomb Bags. Since their first appearance, they have kept a consistent design until Twilight Princess, in which they were given a more realistic appearance.
  
  
• In the night sky we see lights, these lights are actually stars, stars are balls of gas constantly burning at millions of degress, within these stars are countless chemical reactions, these reactions are using up the elemts in the sun , it could be seen the sun it a ticking time bomb waiting to finish and explode into a supernova
  
  Change Jar
  

The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia!

Ive been anxious to read that one since finishing Link Between Worlds!

I like it because I finally got a random gift without entering a contest (: and I like how there's a really positive vibe.

Can I haz gold?
I don't know if it counts but the cover has gold on it.

I grabbed this bad boy for about $5 once. Every once in a while, I play the Zelda "found special item" sound and hold it up, just to remind everyone in my home how awesome I am.

eta: they never seem particularly impressed. dicks.

November 10th and the baby will be a boy!

Less than $20

Less than $40

Also, congrats! Do you have any names planned yet?

I have one of the Limited Edition Arts and Artifacts it has Goddess Collection.

I checked Amazon's page for the Hyrule Historia. It doesn't have the Goddess Collection written on the picture for their Hyrule Historia. Go check the 2 picture of the back cover it is missing the Goddess Collection text.

The Sky art books on Amazon. They are a collection of concept art by Yoshitaka Imano from the first 10 games. I own this collection and it is really quite spectacular. Hyrule Historia is also a good gift, as it covers all Zelda games from inception through Skyward Sword. Not as much of an art book as it is a general retelling of the franchise and an order of events for the games.

If you husband is somewhat of an audiophile, I would suggest Distant Worlds 1 & 2

This should cover you for whatever birthdays/christmas/anniversaries for like a year.

I could see it being like the Hyrule Historia

its all documented in the hyrule historia
https://www.amazon.ca/The-Legend-Zelda-Hyrule-Historia/dp/1616550414

There is already an official Legend of Zelda timeline that was brought out by Nintendo. This nonsense he's doing is just more look at me please I have nothing Triforce stuff we all have seen already.

Hyrule Historia.

Currently $20.99, on my wishlist since March.

I don't need this because I actually read a good chunk of this in a store when I came across it a few months ago, and I don't really have space on my fangirl shelf in my bookcase to really put it there, so it'd probably get a shelf all to itself for now.

Alternatively, going over by less than $1, a fire extinguisher I've wanted since April that I don't need 'cause I totally am not gonna burn my apartment down. Nope. Totes not gonna. You throw water on a grease fire, right? ;-)

Yeah, you're right - it would be more. For comparison, I looked at the going price for these two Blizzard books I own:

Starcraft II Field Manual

Diablo III Artbook

And this one as well:

Hyrule Historia

They're all in the $34.99 - $39.99 range. Which I would still totally pay for a nice coffee table Destiny book.

Sounds like you'd be interested in this.

Here you go :D http://www.amazon.com/The-Legend-Zelda-Hyrule-Historia/dp/1616550414/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376536686&sr=8-1&keywords=hyrule+historia

Hyrule Historia or the Manga boxset?
I own both, they are really well-written.

Haha, awesome.

I'm very jealous of you playing The Wind Waker, I'd love to play through it again right now, but I'm desperately trying to hold off playing it until the HD release comes in October. Just two months and a bit to gooooo. I can't blimming wait, if you'll excuse my French.

Sounds sad to say, but I've not been into the handheld console lark for a while now, and I'm not sure how comfortable I am walking about London with that kind of kit on display. :P I am tempted though, Nintendo know how to make good handheld games.

The video cable? What do you mean by that? Like the top screen detached or something? That's what happened to mine when it was dropped. But the screen still works, barely- it's just very loose.

Ah man, I'm using the word jealous a lot here. But I'm very jealous that you've got the Collector's Edition on the Gamecube. I'd love that. I suppose they're not that expensive so maybe I'm just being a cheapskate.

Something I'm really considering picking up is the 'The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia'. It makes me fuzzy just thinking about it, and I've heard great things. The last time I looked it was £16 and it's now £21, so I might be better off getting it now rather than later. It would be a perfect Christmas present from someone though, so I'll wait and see, perhaps regrettably. Or maybe I won't, depends how much I'm craving some LoZ next time I think about it.

Oo-er.

i know exactly how you feel, buy your self this http://www.amazon.com/The-Legend-Zelda-Hyrule-Historia/dp/1616550414 and dream of being link every night.

relevant: awesome book

Zelda

Oops! Here it is...

http://www.amazon.com/The-Legend-Zelda-Hyrule-Historia/dp/1616550414/ref=cm_cr_pr_sims_t

You might already know this but Hyrule Historia is being localized and is coming out Jan 29, 2013. Amazon has them available for pre-order and has a 40% discount on it, an even bigger discount than when I pre-ordered it. So yeah just letting you know if in case you were interested in it.

Link

I've been wanting this for a while: http://amzn.com/1616550414 - I can't wait to find out all the cool little backstories and inside info on the Zelda games, it's supposedly a great read for fans of the series.

I know this is probably linked in here a hundred times, but the Hyrule Historia is seriously awesome.

Are you using a Mirror Shield or are you just naturally dazzling?

Link has twinkle toes

If theres one for FF6 that doesn't include artwork from The Sky, then I'd get one.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Sky-Fantasy-Slipcased-Edition/dp/1616551607

I also just got the collectors edition mario chess: http://www.amazon.com/Super-Mario-Chess-Collectors-Edition/dp/B00BN78B5K/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1398622495&sr=8-2&keywords=mario+chess. I still have it in shrink wrap and I have final fantasy art book brand new: http://www.amazon.com/The-Sky-Fantasy-Slipcased-Edition/dp/1616551607/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1398622535&sr=8-1&keywords=final+fantasy+art

Like others have said, it really depends on what you plan on buying. Besides one or two convention exclusives, I never have a set idea of what I'm buying while I'm on the floor. If something catches my interest, I'll scope out the price and make decision.

As far as how fair the pricing is, I've gotten some moderately generous deals before. I ended up buying The Sky: The Art of Final Fantasy from some shady-looking dude on the floor for $10 less than its asking price, a week or so before it hit the market. I've also been able to buy some vintage PS2/GameCube games at half their normal eBay or Amazon costs. Just take a good look at all the smaller, niche booths. You can sometimes find gold.

That looks really nice. I want this and the Sky (http://www.amazon.com/dp/1616551607/) on my coffee table someday

Oh no, that sounds like The Sky, which you should be able to find for much cheaper, though coming from someone who collects artbooks of all kinds (and loves Final fantasy), it's priceless. But on Canadian Amazon it's about $20 to $30 cheaper and worth every penny.

Also, look at The Sky. It's absolutely massive and covers nearly all of Amano's art for the series, and it's retailing for $50.

It's true that some artbooks get expensive, but typically those are imports, very niche, or are out-of-print.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Sky-Fantasy-Slipcased-Edition/dp/1616551607

I bought that for my best friend for his birthday and he about shit himself. It is a beautiful collection. I own one myself as well.

Not really...

http://www.amazon.com/The-Sky-Fantasy-Slipcased-Edition/dp/1616551607/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1380745219&sr=8-1&keywords=the+sky

I decided to pass on the CE edition and get the digital download + Amano's new Final Fantasy Collection book that's being rereleased in August: http://www.amazon.com/The-Sky-Fantasy-Slipcased-Edition/dp/1616551607/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1372817252&sr=8-1&keywords=the+sky

A good alternative for those who missed out on the CE.

Glad to hear it's selling well though!

This isn't Final Fantasy but it's still Nomura and I don't know about this but it could be something
Yoshitaka Amano also has an artbook

I bought a copy off amazon when it released last year. It is really great. Great production value and product.

Other than the collector edition books, I got them on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/EVE-Source-CCP-Games/dp/1616552719/ref=pd_sim_14_3?ie=UTF8&dpID=418Yk-SPpwL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR120%2C160_&refRID=19GH73Y2N7GDPZ63RJDT

https://www.amazon.com/EVE-Source-CCP-Games/dp/1616552719

In terms of an EVE book for coffee tables, not necessarily a strategy guide though...

Maybe EVE Source ?

These Friendly Skies is a short story from EVE Source. No way to read it online, I'm afraid.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/EVE-Source-CCP-Games/dp/1616552719
http://community.eveonline.com/backstory/chronicles/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6fHwvmpC5_giY0sti0LXgQ/videos

Should be a good many many hours worth.

I must have missed that. Then what about EVE source or the eve art book. Both should be available in Amazon. Also the popular eve history kickstarter.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1616552719?keywords=eve%20online%20book&qid=1449271884&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/161655701X?keywords=eve%20online%20book&qid=1449271884&ref_=sr_1_2&sr=8-2

http://evehistory.com/

Yeah... :/

But still the cheapest it's been on Amazon ever.

i imagine this is what you're looking for

If you really want to start from the very beginning, read the books first:

https://www.reddit.com/r/witcher/wiki/index#wiki_books
https://www.reddit.com/r/witcher/comments/3qm8p9/so_you_want_to_read_the_witcher_books_guide/

There's also the compendium: http://www.amazon.com/World-Witcher-CD-Projekt-Red/dp/1616554827 -- which is chock-full of information to help you navigate the universe and the lore.

But you can play the games first, that's what I did, though I feel like I missed quite a bit of the backstory and the references. I played TW1 in 2014, TW2 in 2015, and just finished TW3 this month after playing for five months. And I started reading the books three months ago. You can jump into any game and enjoy it, but if you want my advice, start with the books and then work through the games. It's worth it.

https://www.amazon.com/Art-Fire-Emblem-Awakening/dp/1616559381/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1509584498&sr=1-1&keywords=fire+emblem

Feel free to take a picture of it with a cat after purchase.

It's been available to preorder on Amazon since December. Currently $26.40.

Here's the link to the Amazon page! I'd buy it, but its so much with Taxes included :(

I don't think they are in the habit of posting really good quality versions of concept art - they know there's a market for that, so they offer products like the fallout 4 art book and even prints of the art. The image at the top of the digital version of the article is frankly even better than most of the digital versions of Fallout 4's concept art.

On Amazon it's 25 pounds for the hardcover, or you could buy the kindle version for 15 pounds.

I think I'll buy it sometime during the Summer, the concept art in Fallout games is always fascinating to me for some reason.

Amazon Link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Fallout-Bethesda-Games-Studio/dp/1616559802/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1458996588&sr=8-1&keywords=the+art+of+fallout+4

It's already released.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1616559802/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awd_4ijDwbDZAEHH0

First off, you are good peoples.

Secondly, the best place to check would be Etsy - there are handmade Fallout items on there for just about everything, from clothing to household items. You could ask him in general about the game(s) and see if he mentions any particular favourite characters/factions and get merchandise associated with them.

Or you could go the official route and consider:

• The Fallout 4 Artbook
  
  
• Or the official Fallout 4 Prime Guide
  
  
• A Fallout Journal
  
  
• The Fallout POP Vinyl - you can get a female version if he plays as a female character
  
  If you have any questions feel free to PM me :)

Yeah you can here I don't think that page was up when I posted.

Playstation Lifestyle says May 23rd as according to the Amazon listing, however the current Amazon listing says June 13th.

The article is probably outdated, as it seems they had to push the release date back for it.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1772940364/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_9?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

the english only artbook releases in june 13 (my birthday) and the collectors strategy guide, also available for preorder for April 30 that i mixed up in my previous post.

Despite Amazon saying the reprint of the Collector's Guide will be release on April 30th, Lobosjr has stated it's at the beginning of May, FYI.

Here are the Amazon Smile links:

Collector's Guide &

Official Artwork

I had the same problem. I ride the subway every day and have a ton of time to read, so I've been trying to collect similar resources.

Here are some resources I found really helpful:

1. Beginners book on Unity - http://www.amazon.com/Development-Essentials-Community-Experience-Distilled/dp/1849691444
   
   This is a VERY basic (think: learn how to code!) introduction to Unity. I personally found it too elementary, having coded in a few different languages, but it might be a good place to start as it explains basic Unity design concepts like Components, Materials, Colliders, etc.
   
   
2. Your first Unity project (helps to have Unity accessible to follow alone) - Building a 2D RPG in Unity: http://pixelnest.io/tutorials/2d-game-unity/
   
   This is by fast the best 'getting started' tutorial I've found. It walks you through creating a really basic project from scratch using Unity basics and scripts. This is what I based most of my code off of when I first started my project.
   
   
3. REALLY great book on game design/physics and AI - http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Example-Wordware-Developers-Library/dp/1556220782
   
   This has been the most helpful resource for me. It's not Unity specific but will teach you A TON of great fundamentals for things like how to move a character, common patterns like StateMachines, how to handle AI, etc.... All of these concepts will be relevant and many are already in place in Unity so you'll recognize them right away.
   
   Advanced: Game Programming Patterns - http://gameprogrammingpatterns.com/
   
   This is a book (online/pdf/epub) that teaches the more advanced patterns you'll be applying in your code. I'd suggest this once you finish with the above resources and have been working through your game for a bit.
   

I agree with comedian about the unity. It's a great program, free, and it has a bunch of great resources to help you get started. (like this book) You can also examine the code you use while you make things, which was a big help with learning C# for me.

I would highly recommend Will Goldstone's new edition of "game development essentials"... he works for UnityTechnologies, so I would say he knows what he's talking about ;) make sure you get the latest edition!

here's a link to it:
http://www.amazon.com/Unity-3-x-Game-Development-Essentials/dp/1849691444/ref=pd_sim_b_1

I think the best bet would be to consult documentation itself. However, if you are looking for a quick tutorial on all aspects of unity(Including relatively simple tutorial on Sound), then I would suggest This Book. If you are trying to do something like Bit Trip, then Unity might not be best option out there, just my 2 cents.

There are some excellent game development engines these days that let you get from zero code to satisfaction very quickly.

Check out Unity3D. A friend of mine who is a novice programmer picked up the free engine plus this book and had a 3D physics based block smashing demo up within an hour. Impressive stuff.

This book is made by the same person and is the newer edition, is it better? http://www.amazon.com/Unity-3-x-Game-Development-Essentials/dp/1849691444/ref=dp_ob_title_bk

Unity 3.x Game Development Essentials, by Will Goldstone

it treats you like you've never touched game development or unity before, which was perfect for me.

Found this book really useful: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Unity-3-x-Game-Development-Essentials/dp/1849691444/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1374536084&sr=8-2&keywords=unity+game+development

Tis all i've been using and got a good grasp of Unity in no time :)

Edit: Not specific to Windows Phone but just basics of Unity etc

C# inside Unity : http://www.amazon.com/Unity-3-x-Game-Development-Essentials/dp/1849691444/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1374539879&sr=8-1&keywords=C%23+unity

C# I'm not sure, I learned on a french website so it's pretty much useless to you :p

link here!

For the last, here is another.

For those of you interested: https://www.amazon.com/People-Walmart-com-Adult-Coloring-Book/dp/1945056088

Are you looking for something fun or like a home gift? There are some really cool space plates and cups on Amazon, I own them and they’re great.

The Unemployed Philosophers Guild Planet Plates, Planet Plates, One Size https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HWGP9W4/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_oQhlDb8M346J3

I actually can’t find the cups I have but these are similar and are cool. Nebula Glass Set with Images from NASA's Spitzer and and Hubble Space Telescopes https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06Y16KQLZ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_ERhlDb1FVXZQM

If he’s into the Destiny lore my husband owns these and thinks they’re pretty cool - maybe get him the set?
Destiny Grimoire Anthology, Vol I https://www.amazon.com/dp/1945683449/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_ZUhlDbWM5VGQ0

https://www.amazon.com/Destiny-Grimoire-Anthology-Vol-I/dp/1945683449/ref=asc_df_1945683449/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=266444585221&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=2451836618705906706&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9018840&hvtargid=pla-527271754228&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/Destiny-Grimoire-Anthology-II-Kingdoms/dp/1945683694/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=HV17DEPNTA6B8JTAG6CZ

Destiny Grimoire Anthology, Vol I https://www.amazon.com/dp/1945683449/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_Ld9gDbM4EM77C

Definitely!

https://www.amazon.com/Destiny-Grimoire-Anthology-Vol-I/dp/1945683449/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?keywords=destiny+lore+book&qid=1562188708&s=gateway&sr=8-3

16$ right now.

★ Physical Grimoire Anthology Volume I on Amazon ($ 17.92, +Tax, Free Prime Shipping)

[Physcial Grimoire Anthology Volume I on the Bungie Store.] (https://bungiestore.com/products/preorder-destiny-grimoire-anthology-volume-i) ($ 24.99, +Tax, +Shipping)

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★ E-Book Grimoire Anthology Volume I on Barnes and Noble ($ 13.99, +Tax)

E-Book Grimoire Anthology Volume I on Kobo ($ 19.99 + Tax)

https://www.amazon.com/Destiny-Grimoire-Anthology-Vol-I/dp/1945683449

Destiny Grimoire Anthology, Vol. I https://www.amazon.com/dp/1945683449/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_gI1VBbACXA1W9

The Grimoire is the story of the world of Destiny pre game. It’s actually really cool to read if he’s into books. There’s a few you tubers that’ve carved a career out of reading the Grimoire in videos. If you know he watches creators like MyNameIsByf or MyelinGames then this should be a good choice :)

Grimoire vol 1

Or if he likes playing cards there’s these too

Destiny playing cards

https://www.amazon.com/Destiny-Grimoire-Anthology-Vol-I/dp/1945683449/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1541315248&sr=8-1&keywords=Destiny+Grimoire+Anthology

Sure! It's volume 1 of the Grimoire Anthology, focusing on the darkness and the books of sorrow.

Definitely looks interesting! https://www.amazon.com/Destiny-Grimoire-Anthology-Vol-I/dp/1945683449/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1543083713&sr=8-1&keywords=destiny+grimoire+anthology+volume+i

Thanks for the link.

https://www.amazon.com/Destiny-Grimoire-Anthology-Vol-I/dp/1945683449/

https://www.amazon.com/Destiny-Grimoire-Anthology-Vol-I/dp/1945683449/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?crid=B4BGMQOUMZ2B&keywords=destiny+anthology+volume+1&qid=1557013115&s=gateway&sprefix=destiny+ant&sr=8-2

I live in the USA so idk how much this helps you, but here's a link to the one I purchased off Amazon.

It's a direct link from my previous orders "buy it again" option so I can 100% verify it's a solid link, mine was shipped in a timely manner and arrived in perfect condition.

Destiny Grimoire Anthology, Vol I https://www.amazon.com/dp/1945683449?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Again though, idk if you living in Italy will effect its availability, but hey I tried lol

Here.

I was looking into the destiny grimoire.

Destiny Grimoire

If your talking in game lore there some in the triumphs pages as well as scannable objects in the game world. I’m sure there is a guide somewhere.

Imitation leather: Destiny Grimoire Anthology, Vol. I https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1945683449/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_MF5NBbCTPN47W


Hard Cover: Destiny: Grimoire Anthology - Dark Mirror (Volume 1) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1789091373/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_kG5NBb6R1AFEB

https://www.amazon.com/Destiny-Grimoire-Anthology-Vol-I/dp/1945683449/ref=asc_df_1945683449/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=266444585221&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=10455455159859442955&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9007196&hvtargid=aud-801381245258:pla-527271754228&psc=1

Here is a link to the Amazon page if you scroll down you can find the others

https://www.amazon.com/Destiny-Grimoire-Anthology-Vol-I/dp/1945683449/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?keywords=destiny+grimoire&qid=1573763955&sprefix=grimio&sr=8-2

yea its on there, I pre-ordered it a coupla weeks ago, no price on it but expecting about £20-25 tbh

Edit: Just checked and they've put a price on it now, £17.99, great!


Amazon Link

my bad. THIS IS THE PROPER LINK! (no pun intended) http://www.amazon.com/The-Legend-Zelda-Hyrule-Historia/dp/1616550414/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1347586761&sr=8-1&keywords=hyrule+historia

You should read this book: https://www.amazon.com/Art-Game-Design-book-lenses/dp/0123694965

A lot of the suggestions and ways of looking at problems (the 'lenses' in her book) apply to Isaac, and Isaac actually has a lot of good things going for it in those terms.

Read this. Invaluable.

https://smile.amazon.com/Art-Game-Design-Book-Lenses/dp/0123694965?sa-no-redirect=1

She might be interested in this:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Video-Games-Pac-Man/dp/159962110X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1381262117&sr=8-1&keywords=video+games+are+art

Or even this:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Game-Design-lenses/dp/0123694965/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1381262117&sr=8-6&keywords=video+games+are+art

Possibly even this:

http://www.amazon.com/Theory-Game-Design-Raph-Koster/dp/1449363210/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1381262296&sr=1-4&keywords=games+are+fun

I am a 65F gamer - let her know she's missing out if she ignores video games. Not only fun but uses the mind in ways older people tend to use rarely or stop using at times. The challenge of video games keeps the brain firing on all circuits. Puzzles, quests, challenge, etc., all combine to not only entertain but also to teach and to broaden thinking in general :)

I've worked in Game Development for several years now, so hopefully I will have something useful to say.

I'd start by asking, whats your end goal here? To be a game designer, or a level designer? To be able to make games on your own? Or to work on large AAA titles as a developer in a big team? Do you want to work on console, PC mobile, social or any of these?

If you want to be a game designer, understanding programming helps, but it's not the be all and end all. If it's console or PC games I'd look at games that come with level editors and try and make some great levels, and develop an understanding of how this works. Level design is a good entry level role to get in to the industry.

I am told this book is also very good for a design perspective - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Game-Design-book-lenses/dp/0123694965/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1348088653&sr=8-1

I'd also try and develop a good understanding of how a social game, or a freemium mobile app is different in design to a paid app or game, and how designing around monetisation drives these games.

If you want to make games on your own - or in a small group, you are looking at something like Flash, GameMaker or Unity. Here is a site with a load of stuff that can help you,

http://www.pixelprospector.com/indie-resources/

Finally, if you want to do programming, I'd recommend learning a basic entry level language, but not from a games perspective. Just learn about syntax, and fuctions. Then, once you have some confidence, try and write a Space Invaders clone. If you can do this, (get some feedback on it and then nail it), you've got a great thing to show people your commitment and passion, and will help get you a JNR coders job.

I bought one of these, they're available on Amazon if anyone is interested.

I'm sorry. I'm one of those people that did not send a reply after receiving a gift. I had a very hectic life for the following few years and I just never got around to uploading the pictures I got after receiving it. It was a large copy of a Hyrule Historia book. Link: https://www.amazon.ca/Legend-Zelda-Hyrule-Historia/dp/1616550414

I did not initially realize how much I would love that gift. With a new baby I don't really have time to finish it but am currently working on getting my 5 year old into The Legend of Zelda so as we may read it together.

I still have the pictures on an SD card somewhere I'm sure. If anyone wants to see my ugly mug just say so. May obfuscate face if I dislike the image enough.