July 29, 2008

Secret and Overt Game Design Books

by Nick Montfort · , 9:16 am

Malcolm Ryan has started a new project on his new blog, Words on Play, to review one book a week, covering topics such as game design and interactive narrative. The list is not restricted to those books that have just recently been released. The review project was prompted, in part, by his recently starting a list of “Secret Books of Game Design” – books that are not explicitly about the topic, but which are well-known by designers.

It’s an ambitious task for someone who didn’t even mange to get through discussing a page of Peter Rabbit (scroll down to the very end of the post), but perhaps the reviewing task is easier in some ways than the project of full story analysis. Even if the reviews are nowhere near as detailed, and even as the summer wanes and my reading time diminishes once again, I’ll be interested to see what’s posted weekly.

3 Responses to “Secret and Overt Game Design Books”


  1. Malcolm Ryan Says:

    Thanks for the plug, Nick.

    I’ve moved the blog over to http://wordsonplay.wordpress.com/ to save on hosting hassles.

    I’m open to any suggestions for books that I should review, especially less well known ones.

    As for the Peter Rabbit jibe, well what can I say? That’s a very subtle and complex book. And don’t even get me started on Jemima Puddleduck!

  2. Chris Lewis Says:

    This is pretty awesome! Good job, Malcolm!

  3. Nick Montfort Says:

    I updated the links in the original post, Malcolm. Good luck with the reading and reviewing!

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