Rating: 
Summary: Great Resource For Games Designers
Review: This book covers all of the fundamentals for a games designer. The content is mostly theory and doesnt give many examples of design templates, but having worked for both EA and Acclaim I have come to realise that design templates are rarely alike in different companies and learning them is more a case of gaining experience at a particular company. I would certainly say that this book teaches, someone wanting to become a games designer, everything that a book can teach you. I would also recommend buying the following book on manga game characters, if you are serious about becoming a games designer (ISBN: 4766111206).
Rating: 
Summary: Secrets of the Sages still theirs...
Review: This book had all the promise of a wonderfull reference for game programming. What it turned out to be is a book that speaks much about how to get ideas for a game and NOTHING about actually making the game. If you are looking for someone to tell you were to get ideas for a game then this book will be good for you. For the programmer that wants to learn about actually designing the game, STAY AWAY! Spend the bucks somewhere else.
Rating:
Summary: For People who what to get into the gamming business
Review: This book is almost all theory about the business, with very little code, and I do me little code. The book provides several URL's to web pages. Like web pages with various game engines, Documentation writing, and AI. This book will tell you how to start a game and what it takes to finish a game.
Rating: 
Summary: The Holy Bible of game development!
Review: This is a very valuable book - not only for the game designers, but also for programmers, artists, musicians, and even PR and marketing people. It contains contributions of many of the best people in the business. Buy it!
Rating:
Summary: Great help with Game Design, but not a programmer's guide
Review: This is the best book out there for anyone looking for Game Design info. I use 3d Game Studio to create my games, and I can not tell you how much this book has helped me with my design.Please note I say design because this is not a programmers reference it does not tell you how to program a game, but it does tell you what you need to know to make a good idea into a great game. Also note the info in this book helped me come up with great ideas.
Rating: 
Summary: Game Design: Won't Find It Here
Review: To be fair to Mr. Saltzman, he plainly states in his introduction what the reader will and will not learn about designing games in the remaining 474 pages of this massive tomb. The trouble is that normally the reader doesn't read the intro until after he or she has plonked down their $19.95. Quoting now, "This book will not require budding game programmers to be familiar with advanced concepts such as data structures, algorithm analysis, or anything like that. For the most part, the entire book is in easy-to-comprehend language..." Uh-huh. Not only does this book not require you to be familiar with these concepts, it rarely touches on them, and therein lies its biggest shortcoming. For a book entitled Game Design, it doesn't spend much time on the subject. Quoting again from the same paragraph, "As far as the publisher and I know, this book is unlike any other book ever published." Literally, this is untrue but if we limit the scope of the claim to just books on the computer gaming industry, one is left to wonder why this statement is so, especially in an industry where cookie-cutter designs and slapping Roman numerals on sequels is standard fare. (And very successful fare, I might quickly add.) If there were real money to be made in publishing a book such as this, there would be plenty on the shelves already. I'm willing to let the author off the hook on this one however, because hyperbole aside, this book is rather unique. Game Design is really a Who's-Who in the computer game industry. In fact, if I were tasked with giving it a title, I'd lean toward calling it Interview with a Game Designer. Quoting from the back cover "Mr. Saltzman interviewed over 100 industry professionals and asked them questions like these: "How did you get into the game industry? What mistakes did you make along the way?..." Now I like to drop names as much as the next guy but c'mon people. It may be somewhat interesting to read how John Romero got his start, but is this information applicable or even useful? Seems to me, it wasn't all that long ago that PC Gamer magazine gathered the "Game Gods" for a collective picture and pizza session. Saltzman's Game Design gets them together again (or maybe he got them together first) as a source of collective wisdom and inspiration. There's nothing wrong with this; in fact, I have to hand it to Marc. It takes a heck of a lot of time to co-ordinate this number of people. And yet, while the book shows the effort behind the execution, it falls short in delivering the goods. In the end, Game Design winds up being a collection of smarmy platitudes and pat do's and don'ts. Where's the beef, Mr. Saltzman? It's all very entertaining to see so many people respond to the obligatory "What is the secret to your success?" question, but is it meaningful? Any one of the interviewees could have just as easily written "1. Eat right. 2. Get lots of sleep. 3. Exercise... So what's the secret of success? "Be at the right place at the right time." Gosh, lemme write that down. Quoting from the General Game Design: Action and Strategy Games section, "Considering that good game design is more an art form than a science, it can often be difficult to ask someone to teach it to you." I disagree. Asking someone to teach you game design is easy. Watch this: "Mr. Saltzman, please teach me how to design games." See. Pretty easy wasn't it? Getting them to do it, on the other hand... that's the difficult part as this book clearly demonstrates. After reading almost 500 pages, I'm no closer to being a game designer than I was when the book was still sitting on the shelf and the twenty dollars was still sitting in my pocket. In an effort to be thorough, Game Design covers a lot of bases, everything from mission design to marketing. But instead of being truly helpful or even insightful as it claims, the book is merely big and heavy. Too much is made of the fact that "over 100 industry professionals" were consulted. It's a case of extreme overkill. I really don't need six people telling me essentially the same thing. Parts of the book are somewhat interesting though it's debatable whether any of it is truly useful. Take for example the section on shareware. I found myself getting interested in the discussion on how best to use shareware as a marketing tool. I read it but I didn't retain it. Even worse, Game Design is not exactly reference material. For example. you're not going to flip through the book looking up what was said about pestering a prospective publisher with a game proposal. (Oh yeah... It says right here on page 364: Don't do it!) And if it's not a reference work, just what is it? As an industry geek, I know a lot of the contributors and recognize a lot of the names. So for me the most enjoyable part of the book was thinking back to times when so 'n so and I were standing in the company break room shooting the breeze about game design. Most readers won't have such memories. Most will buy the book hoping to get a blueprint on making games and will end up being generally disappointed (as I was). Some may walk away feeling closer to the industry for having read the book but it's an illusion. In short, Game Design misses its target audience. It's written for people who want to play games, not make them.
Rating:
Summary: AN AWESOME BOOK!
Review: While I was reading this book I found out many things that I did not know. This book kept me reading and reading. A real "page-turner". Although, some of the things in the book are imposiible to do. For example, if a kid wants to make a game you need a cast of voices, programmers, animators, etc. etc. etc. Basically, you need a lot of money and a lot of time. If you want to make a game and don't have the "lot of money part" chances are you're not making one. I'm rating this book regardless of actually making a game or not. The book was well written and deserves 5 stars.
Rating:
Summary: An anectdotal primer
Review: With the various ways the title can be interpreted it is easyto see why a reader gets miffed if they aren't able to browse it. Codechanges frequently in the industry and many designers wouldn't want to give up their code for a general interest/hobbyist book. . . if there was such a thing it would have to be Game Developer magazine which is more for the experienced programmer than a beginner. This book falls short of its promise though well written. I will file it with my "coffee table section" good for toilet reading , no code, no introduction to games programming basics. It would merely be a supplement to a suite of tools- I believe Electronics Boutique sells it in their Games Programmer box- and that's about all it should be. Not a great introduction to actual game design bordering on a deceptive titling scheme
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