Recently, I came across Becoming a Video Game Designer by Daniel Noah Halpern. Since I’m in the process of learning video game design, I figured I check it out and see if there was any useful information. And yes, there definitely is some useful information. But it isn’t what I expected it to be. So today I’ll be talking about what is in the book, who I think should read it, what I enjoyed, and what needs to be improved. Let’s get started.
What is in the Book
There is some good information within Becoming a Video Game Designer.
At one point, the book talks about how we actually define what a game is. The historical context and evolution of games is touched on several times. This leads specifically to the designer. Much of the beginning is just focused on what a game designer is: common personality traits, how they think, and the questions they ask when designing a game.
Throughout, it references 3 famous game designers: Tom Cadwell of Riot Games, Shigeru Miyamoto of Nintendo, and Brendon Chung of Blendo Games. It gives a lot of their background information, their mindset in creating games, and a little insight and example into their game design process.
Personally, I found the section on Shigeru Miyamoto particularly interesting.
Near the end of the book, things get a bit more abstract. Art vs entertainment and how video games are a fusion of the two. Passive vs active participation of gamers. The ethics and philosophy within games (and by extension, the game designers). Interesting to think about.
Who Should Read It
In my opinion, there are two types of people that would be most interested in Becoming a Video Game Designer: people who are curious about what a game designer actually does and young video game designers (or those interested in becoming one).
By “young”, I mean in terms of experience, not necessarily age.
The beginning of the book especially does a decent job of explaining what they do and how they think. And the examples of famous video game designers reinforces the explanation. Especially for aspiring designers, seeing how video game designers think can be enlightening. By the end, I was thinking more critically about how and why I personally create video games.
For more experienced developers, you likely are already thinking this way already. You might be interested in the historical or philosophical aspect. But otherwise, I don’t think there is much here you’ll really take away.
What I Enjoyed About the Book
Personally, I love getting insight into things I already do. In Becoming a Video Game Designer, that meant learning more about League of Legends (a game I love and still play) and its design process. It helped me think more about the process as a whole and how I could improve my own workflow.
I also really enjoyed the section focused on what modern game development curriculum consisted of. Although, it focused more on the problems with teaching it. I do wish it was a little more extensive and gave more a “how to actually learn game design” insight. That aside, I found it really interesting. The last chapter also gave a small example of how a particular game was made. It’s what I expected most of the book to be and I personally enjoyed it.
This is going to sound weird, but my absolute favorite thing isn’t actually the contents of the book. It’s the “Further Reading” section. I always love it when books add this. Especially since most of my hobbies (including game development) just don’t have a ton of resources. Some of the others recommended:
- Rules of Play
- The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses
- Game Design Workshop
- Chris Crawford on Game Design
- A Theory of Fun for Game Design
- Blood, Sweat, and Pixels
- Console Wars
- A History of Video Games in 64 Objects
- Smartbomb: The Quest for Art, Entertainment, and Big Bucks in the Videogame Revolution
- Handmade Pixels: Independent Video Games and the Quest for Authenticity
- Homo Ludens
- Man, Play and Games
- Half-Read: Video Games between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds (no link available)
- The Art of Failure: An Essay on the Pain of Playing Video Games
- Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter
Note, I have read none of these aside from Blood, Sweat, and Pixels. I am not necessarily recommending any of these (yet). While I do encourage you to learn as much as you can, I’m listing them more for my own future research.
What Needs Improvement
As I mentioned, there is some good information in Becoming a Video Game Designer. But I have to be honest. I have some issues with this book.
The title “Becoming a Video Game Designer” is a little misleading. Even on the back cover, it says “what worked for them, and how to make it work for you.” I interpret that as being more hands on, practical steps you can actively take to becoming a video game designer. The last chapter sort of outlines a process of creating a game. Chapter 5 sort of talks about a common cirriculum. But they are not nearly as extensive as I expected. You can abstract the ideas out from the book, sure. But that isn’t what I expected to have do.
Inside, the content is a bit chaotic. Chapter titles don’t all make sense (“Metaphors Were a Weariness of the Flesh to the Poets Themselves”). Within chapters, the topic jumps around a bit. Chapter 4, for example, talks about what League of Legends is and how it makes money, stereotypes and demographics of gamers, diversity and inclusion within the game industry, then returns back to talk about how champions are designed in League of Legends.
The entire book could use an editor and more organization of the content. It’s good content. But it can be hard to follow. Just my opinion, of course.
Conclusion
Overall, Becoming a Video Game Designer is a decent book. It has some good insight about what games are, what game designers do, gives some historical context, and even talks about the more abstract aspects of ethics and philosophy in video games. A good read for people interested in becoming game designer (or just recently started).
Do you have any good book recommendations for game design or development? I’d love to hear about them. Let us know your favorite and what you love about it in the comments below.
