Good books and blogs, regarding Game Design/Development

[Scadente]

Hi!

I'm currently studying the subject I love, so anything that broadens my horizon is more then welcome :) Most of you seem pretty knowledgable, so share away (if you want). I'll throw in two of my favorites;

A Theory of Fun for Game Design, by Raph Koster. A very philosophical take on Game Design, love it and I agree in many of the original and clever theories he presents. Good stuff.

Lost Garden, blog by Danc. Trying to break conventions in game design. I got to say that I find every single post written by him very insightful and posing some original solutions to whats quickly becoming a convoluted and overpriced marked.

This might all be old news to you, but I'm fresh, so any suggustions on anything worth reading would be very helpful. So show that you care, and share.

[Margalis]

I read Sirlin.net, blog and articles.

That Danc guy is saying what I have been saying for years. Get a simple prototype out that may not have graphics and sound but has fun and keep iterating on it. He did say it very well though.

MOO3 is the example I like to use. They wrote a huge design document that had all these formulas and really specific things like lists of items and tech tree and such, implemented it all they best they could then realized at the end that the game wasn't fun at all. Oops.

Whenever I see an amateur design doc they always include things like lists of potions and weapons and crap like that. Chances are 99.9% that all the numbers and stats are going to change, so don't bother. The second your game is interactive it should be clear where the fun comes from and should be fun to some degree.

[Stephen Zepp]

If you are interested in the business side of the house, Jeff Tunnell's (Dynamix founder, GarageGames co-founder) Make It Big In Games contains many jaded but extremely informed points of view on a variety of topics.

[Soln]

check KTR or my own blog for lists of blogs of game devs and designers.  Also, Raph has a thread somewhere of a booklist he has or off of Amazon that's good.   

[Edit] Raph's Amazon list

[Scadente]

[Edit] Raph's Amazon list

Thanks! Just what I was looking for 

[CmdrSlack]

Kind of a necropost, but this book came out after you posted this thread.  Psychochild of M59 rerelease fame is one of the editors/authors and I contributed the chapter on contract law.

I just got my copy and, bias aside, it's rather nifty.  Especially useful is the sample development contract w/ commentary by the other editor/author, Greg Boyd.