Show Notes
In this episode we cover this weighty game design textbook, discussing its stronger and weaker areas, how it can help new developers to understand design and player psychology, and why so many more technically-oriented folks bounce off the book. Host Joe Baxter-Webb is a game design educator and YouTuber. He has previously been the course lead in Game Design at Canterbury Christ Church University, and has helped develop for multiple commercial games companies including King (Candy Crush Soda Saga) Karta (Blackpink in Roblox, Spotify in Fortnite) and Adult Swim Games. Guest host Jeremy Johnson is an indie dev and also Assistant Professor of Video Game Development at St. Edward's University, Texas, USA, where he teaches from A Book of Lenses every semester.
Most books mentioned are available via my bookshop.org affiliate page. This allows you to purchase books online in a way which benefits small local retailers. https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/indiegameclinic
other things cited:
Deck of Lenses, the free online version: https://deck.artofgamedesign.com/#/menu/0/?lang=en Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies, online version: https://stoney.sb.org/eno/oblique.html Achievement Relocked: Loss Aversion and Game Design by Geoff Engelstein: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Achievement-Relocked-Aversion-Playful-Thinking/dp/026204353X Fermat and Pascal on Probability (on the games-based origins of probability math): chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.york.ac.uk/depts/maths/histstat/pascal.pdf George Fan: How I Got My Mom to Play Through Plants vs. Zombies https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbzhHSexzpY Purple Cow by Seth Godin, Animated Book Summary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QkPaJ299Uk The Writer Will Do Something by Matthew Seiji: https://matthewseiji.itch.io/twwds the "Japanese inventor with 3500 patents" was Dr. Nakamatsu https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnjSjJOEfSc
The reading list of GDL is here on Bookshop.org https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/the-game-developers-library-podcast-reading-list? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More from The Game Developers' Library
Buy Books But Not From Bezos: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/indiegameclinic IGC Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/indiegameclinic
In this episode, Tom and Joe read and respond to Rise of the Videogame Zinesters: How Freaks, Normals, Amateurs, Artists, Dreamers, Drop-outs, Queers, Housewives Are Taking Back an Art Form.
In this episode we read Rimworld creator Tynan Sylvester's design textbook.
In this episode we attempt to verbally describe a comic book. But not just any comic book. Scott McCloud's 1993 "Understanding Comics" is a comic about comics; not necessarily how to make them, but how they "work" for readers. Your librarians Tom and Joe jump about the book in no particular order, picking apart what they personally got from the book, and highlighting areas where we think there's something interesting in there for an indie dev.
Other Sources Discussed Failing to Fail: The Spiderweb Software Way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stxVBJem3Rs&t=2794s Radical Candor: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_Candor Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.