{"id":727,"date":"2026-01-30T11:20:30","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T11:20:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.de-sanctis.com\/agilegamefactory\/?p=727"},"modified":"2026-10-07T16:17:40","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T16:17:40","slug":"must-have-readings-on-game-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.de-sanctis.com\/agilegamefactory\/2026\/01\/30\/must-have-readings-on-game-design\/","title":{"rendered":"Must have readings on Game Design"},"content":{"rendered":"

Few weeks ago the London group of designers came across a video on relevant books for game designing (link<\/a>).<\/p>\n

This video generated a very good conversation in the group what are the ddo readings for the Xmas period.
\nI am summarizing here the list of suggestions emerging.<\/p>\n

(Last update 7\/10\/2026)<\/p>\n

Foundational readings<\/h2>\n

Kobold guide to Boardgame design (Mike Selinker) > LINK<\/a><\/p>\n

GameTek (Geoffrey Engelstein) > LINK<\/a><\/p>\n

Building blocks of tabletop game design (Geoffrey Engelstein) > LINK<\/a> (encyclopedia of game mechanisms)<\/p>\n

Dice games properly explained (Reiner Knizia)<\/p>\n

Characteristics of games (George Elias et al)<\/p>\n

Challenges for Game Designers (Brenda Brathwaite)<\/p>\n

Rules of Play (Katie Salen Tekinba\u015f and Eric Zimmerman) > LINK<\/a><\/p>\n

Games: Agency as Art (Katie Salen Tekinba\u015f and Eric Zimmerman) > LINK<\/a> (summary here<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Game Design Workshop (Tracy Fullerton)<\/p>\n

Thinkertoys (Michael Michalko)<\/p>\n

Board Game Publisher (Eric Hanuise)<\/p>\n

White box: Game design workshop in a box (Jeremy Holcomb) > LINK<\/a> contains “The White Box Essays” (also on amazon<\/a>)<\/p>\n

The Art of Game Design – A Book of Lenses (Jesse Schell) > LINK<\/a> Provided with a deck on lenses and the related app for IOS<\/a><\/p>\n

The Board Game Designer’s Guide (Joe Slack) > LINK<\/p>\n

Board game Design Advice (Gabe Barrett) > LINK (advices from different designers)<\/p>\n

Theory of Fun for Game Design (Raph Koster) > LINK (Psychology of fun)<\/p>\n

Uncertainty in games (Greg Kostikyan)<\/p>\n

Eurogames: The Design, Culture and Play of Modern European Board Games (Stewart Woods)<\/p>\n

Board Games on my Mind (Adam Kwapi\u0144ski)<\/p>\n

Unboxed (Gordon Calleja)<\/p>\n

Think like a game designer (Justin Gary)<\/p>\n

You said this would be fun (Jeff Warrender) > LINK<\/a><\/p>\n

Designing Board Games 1,2,3 (Enrico Feresin<\/span><\/span>) > LINK<\/a><\/p>\n

Elements of Game Design (Robert Zubek) > LINK<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

The art of computer game design (Chris Crawford)<\/p>\n

The Score: How to Stop Playing Somebody Else’s Game (\u00a0C. Thi Nguyen<\/span>) > LINK<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

La progettazione dei giochi da tavolo: Strumenti, tecniche e design pattern (Walter “Paulus” Nuccio)>\u00a0 \u00a0LINK<\/a><\/p>\n

Come creare un gioco da tavolo: Guida pratica allo sviluppo (Massimo Di Bello)\u00a0 \u00a0>\u00a0 LINK<\/a><\/p>\n

Gioco e giocare tra teoria e progetto (Maresa Bertolo et al) > LINK<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Lateral readings<\/h2>\n

The intelligence trap (David Robson) > LINK<\/a><\/p>\n

Steal like an Artist (Austin Kleon) > LINK<\/a><\/p>\n

Rocket Surgery Made Easy (Steve Krug) > LINK<\/a><\/p>\n

Thinking In Systems (Donella Meadows) > LINK<\/a><\/p>\n

Cardboard ghosts (Amabel Holland) > LINK<\/a><\/p>\n

Game Storming 2.0 (Dave Grey & Sunni Brown)\u00a0 > LINK<\/a> (original here<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Obviously Awesome\u00a0 (April Dumford)\u00a0 \u00a0(on product positioning)<\/p>\n

Ego is the enemy (Ryan Holiday)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Other sources<\/h2>\n

GameDesignConcepts () > LINK<\/a> full course<\/p>\n

GameBalance () > LINK<\/a> Article and full tutorial\/course<\/p>\n

Fail Faster (Playtesting journal) > LINK<\/a><\/p>\n

GDC – Game Developers Conference: WEB<\/a> and above all YOUTUBE<\/a><\/p>\n

ShippBoard Games blog > LINK<\/a> (connect Theme and Mechanic)<\/p>\n

Videogame design books > LINK<\/a><\/p>\n

Humble Bundle > LINK<\/a><\/p>\n

BGG thread > LINK<\/a><\/p>\n

La Tana del goblin – Game design (article ITA) > LINK<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The definitive guide by Geoffrey Engelstein TTGA > LINK<\/a>
\nhttps:\/\/www.ttgda.org\/blogs-and-videos<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Few weeks ago the London group of designers came across a video on relevant books for game designing (link). This video generated a very good conversation in the group what are the ddo readings for the Xmas period. I am summarizing here the list of suggestions emerging. (Last update 7\/10\/2026) Foundational readings Kobold guide to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.de-sanctis.com\/agilegamefactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.de-sanctis.com\/agilegamefactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.de-sanctis.com\/agilegamefactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.de-sanctis.com\/agilegamefactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.de-sanctis.com\/agilegamefactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=727"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.de-sanctis.com\/agilegamefactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":753,"href":"https:\/\/www.de-sanctis.com\/agilegamefactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727\/revisions\/753"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.de-sanctis.com\/agilegamefactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.de-sanctis.com\/agilegamefactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.de-sanctis.com\/agilegamefactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.de-sanctis.com\/agilegamefactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}