Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals (The MIT Press)

by Katie Salen Tekinbas (Author), Eric Zimmerman (Author)

143 ratings

ISBN-13: 978-0262240451

ISBN-10: 0262240459

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An impassioned look at games and game design that offers the most ambitious framework for understanding them to date.

As pop culture, games are as important as film or television―but game design has yet to develop a theoretical framework or critical vocabulary. In Rules of Play Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman present a much-needed primer for this emerging field. They offer a unified model for looking at all kinds of games, from board games and sports to computer and video games. As active participants in game culture, the authors have written Rules of Play as a catalyst for innovation, filled with new concepts, strategies, and methodologies for creating and understanding games. Building an aesthetics of interactive systems, Salen and Zimmerman define core concepts like "play," "design," and "interactivity." They look at games through a series of eighteen "game design schemas," or conceptual frameworks, including games as systems of emergence and information, as contexts for social play, as a storytelling medium, and as sites of cultural resistance.

Written for game scholars, game developers, and interactive designers, Rules of Play is a textbook, reference book, and theoretical guide. It is the first comprehensive attempt to establish a solid theoretical framework for the emerging discipline of game design.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

""Rules of Play" is an exhaustive, clear, cogent, and complete resource for understanding games and game design. Salen and Zimmerman describe an encyclopedia of game design issues, techniques, and attributes. In particular, they analyze the elements that can make a game experience richer, more interesting, more emotional, more meaningful, and, ultimately, more successful. It should be the first stop you make when learning about game design."--Nathan Shedroff, author of "Experience Design"

""Rules of Play" makes a monumental contribution to the development of game theory, criticism, and design. It will instantly become a standard textbook in the field on the basis of its rigor and scope--yet it is written in such an engaging style that many will read it for pleasure. Salen and Zimmerman do for games what Sergei Eisenstein did for cinema--offer an expert practitioner's perspective on central aspects of the aesthetics and cultural importance of an emerging medium."--Henry Jenkins, Director of Comparative Media Studies, MIT

"This is the most impressive book on game design I've ever seen. Broad in scope yet rich in detail, "Rules of Play" sets a new standard for game analysis."--Will Wright, Game Designer of "Sim City" and "The Sims"

"

& quot; Rules of Play is an exhaustive, clear, cogent, and complete resource for understanding games and game design. Salen and Zimmerman describe an encyclopedia of game design issues, techniques, and attributes. In particular, they analyze the elements that can make a game experience richer, more interesting, more emotional, more meaningful, and, ultimately, more successful. It should be the first stop you make when learning about game design.& quot; -- Nathan Shedroff, author of Experience Design

& quot; Rules of Play makes a monumental contribution to the development of game theory, criticism, and design. It will instantly become a standard textbook in the field on the basis of its rigor and scope--yet it is written in such an engaging style that many will read it for pleasure. Salen and Zimmerman do for games what Sergei Eisenstein did for cinema--offer an expert practitioner's perspective on central aspects of the aesthetics and cultural importance of an emerging medium.& quot; -- Henry Jenkins, Director of Comparative Media Studies, MIT

& quot; This is the most impressive book on game design I've ever seen. Broad in scope yet rich in detail, Rules of Play sets a new standard for game analysis.& quot; -- Will Wright, Game Designer of Sim City and The Sims

" "Rules of Play" is an exhaustive, clear, cogent, and complete resource for understanding games and game design. Salen and Zimmerman describe an encyclopedia of game design issues, techniques, and attributes. In particular, they analyze the elements that can make a game experience richer, more interesting, more emotional, more meaningful, and, ultimately, more successful. It should be the first stop you make when learning about game design." --Nathan Shedroff, author of "Experience Design"

" "Rules of Play" makes a monumental contribution to the development of game theory, criticism, and design. It will instantly become a standard textbook in the field on the basis of its rigor and scope--yet it is written in such an engaging style that many will read it for pleasure. Salen and Zimmerman do for games what Sergei Eisenstein did for cinema--offer an expert practitioner's perspective on central aspects of the aesthetics and cultural importance of an emerging medium." --Henry Jenkins, Director of Comparative Media Studies, MIT

" This is the most impressive book on game design I've ever seen. Broad in scope yet rich in detail, "Rules of Play" sets a new standard for game analysis." --Will Wright, Game Designer of "Sim City" and "The Sims"

Review

This is the most impressive book on game design I've ever seen. Broad in scope yet rich in detail, Rules of Play sets a new standard for game analysis.

―Will Wright, Game Designer of Sim City andThe Sims

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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ The MIT Press (September 25, 2003)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 688 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0262240459
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0262240451
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 18 years and up
Grade level ‏ : ‎ 12 and up
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 3.65 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9.1 x 8.3 x 1.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #442,648 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #25 in Adobe Illustrator Guides
- #144 in Computer & Video Game Design
- #271 in Game Programming

Customer Reviews:
143 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		74%
4 star		9%
3 star		9%
2 star		5%
1 star		4%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Sky-blue

Deep, Inspirational, Well-Structured

Reviewed in the United States on April 1, 2018

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This book is fantastic. It motivates readers by painting a inspiring vision of what games should be able to do as a medium and why a critical vocabulary is important, and follows up with an in-depth introduction to critical vocabulary for game design. The authors' rigor in definitions, their humility in citing others, their boldness in questioning fallacies like the "immersion fallacy", and their hope for the soul of games makes this book a delightful read that leaves me feeling intellectually edified and excited to design games. I especially enjoy their approach of examining games from multiple perspectives that incorporates knowledge from many fields of study as well as (crucially) constructing a new vocabulary for what makes games novel.

4 people found this helpful

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Ed U. Kaytor

Make it Stop

Reviewed in the United States on September 17, 2018

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I had to read this book for a class about games. If you ever want someone to ruin the concept of play for you, read this book. It breaks down every aspect of simple games into an overly academic, pedantic snoozefest. You won't learn anything about actual game design here that you couldn't have used your own experience and intuition to deduce, they just attach fancy vocabulary words to it all. Pass.

6 people found this helpful

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Nicolas A.

Not good for teaching, but essential to game developers.

Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2015

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Very thorough, but also very dry. I do not recommend using this book for teaching game design; it is overly dense and ill-suited for pedagogical purposes. However, if you are an aspiring game designer and wish to understand the mechanics of games on a deeper level, this book is essential.

I would have to recommend The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses (Schell) for instructors.

16 people found this helpful

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Andrew D. Vanzandt

Dense but worthwhile

Reviewed in the United States on May 1, 2015

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This book is textbook, and it reads like one. It is very very dense, and is not an "enjoyable" read. However, as a result of this denseness, it covers many many integral aspects of game design more thoroughly than any other book. It will give you a better understanding of the "why" behind the "how", and that is invaluable. I rate it 4 stars because I don't think most people will manage to get through the whole thing, so it's not for everyone, but if you're serious about design, it has 5 stars worth of information in it.

11 people found this helpful

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Jim DuBois

Makes you think about what is a game.

Reviewed in the United States on July 13, 2020

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Excellent book that doesn’t teach you how to design games, but examines games thoroughly from different perspectives, such as Rules, play and culture.

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Anthony Serenil

A must read for any aspiring game designer.

Reviewed in the United States on January 6, 2020

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I found this book invaluable to learning the concepts of game design. The teaching of design of games via the use of schemas made for a very thorough look of games.

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mollykmo

Comprehensive game thinking

Reviewed in the United States on July 8, 2019

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Able to apply this to a lot of scenarios not traditionally thought of as gaming.

2 people found this helpful

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E. Taylor

If you design board games, you'll want to read this book

Reviewed in the United States on January 11, 2013

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In addition to being a professional programmer, my husband designs (and plays) board games as a hobby. (For more on the programming side, see my review of "Elemental Design Patterns.") He says that this book helps to define the vocabulary and concepts that game designers use when talking about their craft.

One person found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Razor Shultz

Possibly the most widely cited Game book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 4, 2015

Verified Purchase

This book is cited wide and far in all areas of game research and ludology. It is a perfect introduction to game research and academia, although it is rigorous enough that even a professional will want to revisit it. It shows how games can be understood as not just stories or gameplay, but as cybernetic systems, as information systems, as systems of conflict, of gambling, and many other things. If you want to gain a huge amount of knowledge about games, and game design and research, this is a great book. If you're at all interested in game academia, you should read this. If you want to make games, you should definitely own it.

5 people found this helpful

Gazilla

Super read and thought provoking

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 5, 2019

Verified Purchase

Really interesting book about what makes games enjoyable and whatto think about when designing games of all types. This is not a book to showyou how to creategames but will help you ensure you do make games people will enjoy.

One person found this helpful