Many of the books referenced above focus on the design and development of specific games, but other books focus on the process as a whole—the principles, models, and processes guiding the design and creation of video games and game elements. Often cited in connection with design analysis is Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman’s Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals, which is now dated but is sometimes even used as a textbook in game design. Salen and Zimmerman analyze individual elements of games in detail and propose frameworks of design principles, a structure for game developers. Particularly useful in this work is the examination of concepts often taken for granted, for example the notoriously vague fun, creating multiple definitions and perspectives on these concepts in context. Another regularly referenced work is Jesse Schell’s The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses, now in its second edition. Schell provides models for bringing games from conceptual framework to completion. One caveat: some aspects of the book, such as the breakdown of game design by demographics, may conflict with the principles of diversity and inclusivity expanded on later in this essay.
Other key books focus on the emotional impact of games. In A Theory of Fun for Game Design Raph Koster analyzes and models what makes a game have that sought-after quality of being fun, and he also emphasizes the educational potential of games. And in How Games Move Us: Emotion by Design, Katherine Isbister uses notable games as examples of how games create emotional moments and responses that other forms of media cannot offer.
For interesting counterpoints in terms of design models and inspiration, readers can go to Brian Allgeier’s Directing Video Games: 101 Tips for Creative Leaders, an illustrated guide to principles of working with and overseeing game design teams—principles not unlike those Schrier describes in Blood, Sweat, and Pixels, mentioned above. On the other side is Anna Anthropy’s Rise of the Videogame Zinesters: How Freaks, Normals, Amateurs, Artists, Dreamers, Drop-Outs, Queers, Housewives, and People Like You Are Taking Back an Art Form. Anthropy proposes a model of opening up game design to individuals, encouraging the use of games to share overlooked narratives, emphasizing the need for perspectives not shown by large design companies, and providing approaches and tools for readers to get started, using games to tell their own unique stories.
Although the “video” moniker points to the visual impact of games, game audio/music is important and should not be overlooked. Karen Collins’s Playing with Sound: A Theory of Interacting with Sound and Music in Video Games provides a multidisciplinary examination of the impact of game sounds and music. Collins’s work is referenced throughout the recently published Cambridge Companion to Video Game Music, edited by Melanie Fritsch and Tim Summers, which comprises essays on the history, creation, analysis, and impact of video game music. And Andrew Schartmann’s Koji Kondo’s Super Mario Bros. Soundtrack (a somewhat controversial entry in the “33 1/3 Series,” which is implicitly designed to analyze notable music albums) provides an interesting musical analysis that emphasizes how, even with severe limitations, it is possible to create a video game soundtrack that becomes as much a part of the player’s memory and nostalgia as the game’s images, gameplay, and narrative.
