Tuesday 29 March 2016

Book Recommendation: Designing Games: a Guide to Engineering Experiences by Tynan Sylvester

Hello everyone,

So a few weeks ago - I brought up some book recommendations. I have finished and have reflected a fair bit on Tynan Sylvester's book - Designing Games: a Guide to Engineering Experiences and I am ready to give you my views on it.

Designing Experience by Tynan Sylvester

The book is very insightful on the idea of designing games - it talks a fair amount about the practical elements but it's stronger side I feel like was the approach to game design itself. Going into the book - I already had an idea of how I would approach game design; even not having read any books on game design - I had an idea of how I would love doing it. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this book built on the same approach I had. Moreover, it built and added more onto it.


The approach taken by the book to explain game design is that you as a designer are meant to create a way to develop experiences for the user. I don't want to speak too much of it - as the book does a splendid job on doing just that; however the book also covers aspects of managerial considerations for game designers and motivation. The book is full of insightful examples that help to show how the various concepts and models presented can be used in a practical manner. Perhaps the element that struck me the most was how in each paragraph or section - important notes are given precedence. These elements were singled out in a particular paragraph - in bold; and served as a highlight of an important concept or element. Often times - these were the elements I noted for my future reference in a notebook outside of my personal notes; as they seemed to bring up some of the most important points in the topic at hand.

Hopefully I gave you a good idea of whether this book is something you'd want to look into. I would personally highly recommend it. The information it provides is given in a clear and concise manner. Diagrams and examples help to illustrate much of the models and ideas put forward by the author. 



Until next time,
Dylan

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