Game Design Book recommendation, please.

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Asmodean

Hi all,

I'm looking for good Game Design books. No programming guides or books that describe how to make perfect playable level design.
Books that are more describe the basic principles (how to plan, structure of games ect.) but also a bit of the technical side (scrolling, tiles, enemy intelligence ect.) but not use a specific programming language.
Are there books like this?

CW

That is a very good question, Asmodean. I think I'd enjoy such a book too. I'm not sure any single book can cover it all.
AI, for example, is a rich field in its own right; and the books I've seen on it are linked to specific languages for their examples.

A personal favorite for me (and this will date me) was "Exploring Artificial Intelligence on Your Commodore 64", an entry-level book which covered all sorts of AI with easy to follow example code covering language parsing, weighted tree-searches, artificial learning and more. There used to be some wonderful programing magazines on the news racks which covered sound game layout and design. Maybe some of them are still being published. But even they will be tied to a specific language for their examples, I expect.

-CW   

Asmodean

Thank you for your answer. The Author of 'Exploring Artificial Intelligence on the Commodore 64' made exactly the kind of book I'm looking for : Tim Hartnell's Giant Book Of Computer Games. Maybe it its a little bit outdated. 
The problem is if it's to specific in one language, adaptation can become a little bit hard.
I had a Game Design book in Java and it was all Object-oriented. And even with TYPES in GLBASIC, adaptation is not that easy.
That is why I'm looking for a book that is more general.

CW

Fuzzy offered this link to me in response to a different thread, but it is such wonderful resource for game design and AI that I thought you would enjoy it too. If it were in paperback form, it would be exactly the sort of book you described. Dig into the threads a little ways, you will find a deep well of information. I especially enjoyed a page on Path-Finding, which includes applets to play with some of the methods described (The A* method). Some of the video of failed AI in main-stream published games is hilarious.
So without farther ado, here is the link.

http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~amitp/gameprog.html

-CW

fuzzy70

I think the link you was referring to was http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~amitp/gameprog.html=D

Your link looks interesting though CW  :good:

Lee
"Why don't you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?"
- "These go to eleven."

This Is Spinal Tap (1984)

CW

Right you are.  :)
-CW

Asmodean

Many thanks for the link. Looks quite promising.

sf-in-sf

Game design cannot be improvised!!! ...and it´s one of the ingredients for a successful game.
Here is an excellent book on the subject, now in its 2nd version:
theoryoffun.com

Enjoy! (or meditate.)
On the day the atom is a cube I will start believing in the square pixel.

erico

Hey, that sure helps me too (specially academically), thanks a lot for sharing! :good:

Marmor

i have a book about  game design  but i cant recommending this because this book and all
other books i read about are show nothing news .

the better way imho is study some games which you like , look youtube and so on.


quangdx

Asobi tech - the science of play.
Spare time indiegame developer.