Foreword
Just a few years ago, books about computer game design were as rare on the book-
shelves as silk ties in the wardrobe of a game programmer. Then, around the turn of the
millennium, a trickle of new books began to appear. One of the early ones that caught
my eye was the first edition of this book,Game Design: Theory & Practiceby Richard
Rouse III. I noted that Richard has design credits on published games and the hard-won
insights that conveys, as well as the descriptive skills to articulate those insights. I also
appreciated the literal truth of the title of the book; it covers both the underlying theo-
ries behind game design while providing practical guidance on how to put those
theories to use. But my favorite chapters of the book were the interviews. Richard per-
suaded an impressive array of talented and influential game designers to answer his
thorough and insightful questions. So when Richard asked me to review and comment
on this latest revision of his book and write an introduction, I jumped at the chance.
Game design is still a young craft, but a rapidly maturing one. No longer in its
infancy certainly, computer and video games have been around for over 30 years, and
despite a generous helping of Peter Pan Syndrome they’ve achieved a virtual adoles-
cence at least. This means that game designers have graduated from the trial-and-error
stages of the early years and learned what works and what doesn’t. In turn that has
resulted in a growing shared knowledge base of universal principles of game design. My
own quarter-century of experience in game development and research into the under-
lying rules of good game design have indicated that it is possible to both identify and
teach the rules that have influenced every successful game for decades, and this book is
a worthy contributor to that body of knowledge.
But the video games of thePongera bear a pretty tenuous resemblance to the
multi-million dollar extravaganzas of the current day, and many of the skills necessary
to design a game have likewise changed and matured. Furthermore, games present a
widely varied face to the world. Superficially, games likeCentipedeorTetrisare vastly
different fromThe SimsorCivilization. So it is impressive that this book manages to
identify many qualities that are common to all good games and the skills needed to cre-
ate design documents for them, while doing a credible job of covering elements specific
to certain types of games as well, such as storytelling, scripting, AI, and multiplayer
design. The game analysis chapters dissect and appraise the internal qualities of games
and so grant insight into both the games highlighted as well as the process of analysis
itself. And the interviews delve into both the shared knowledge of renowned designers
and their individual quirks and unique histories.
In short, I’ve found this book to be remarkable at revealing the range of the cre-
ative game design process, as well as just plain fun to read. And I hope you will as well!
Noah Falstein
Greenbrae, CAxvi