Books like Game Worlds of Jason Rohrer by Michael Maizels

This book fills a genuine need in the emerging field of game design for a collection of key texts on game analysis and criticism. Written and designed to accompany Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman's earlier textbook Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals, The Game Design Reader can be used in the classroom or as a resource for game design practitioners. Thirty-two classic and cutting-edge essays by game designers, game journalists, game fans, sociologists, media theorists, and other writers from diverse fields consider foundational questions: What are games and how do they function? How do they interact with the culture at large? What critical approaches can game designers take to create meaningful experiences for players? Salen and Zimmerman have collected writings that span nearly 50 years of game analysis and offer a wide range of perspectives. Game journalists describe the rhythms of gameplay, game designers explicate their designs, sociologists consider such topics as role-playing in virtual worlds, and players offer their hands-on opinions and rants. Each text is "teachable": it can act as a springboard for discussion, a class assignment, or a design project. Each text offers insights to the professional game designers or scholar as well. The book is organized around a series of "Topics" -- ideas fundamental to the study of games, or emerging areas of research -- each of which is introduced with a short essay by Salen and Zimmerman that points to relevant texts in the Reader. "Interstitials" -- visual essays, documents, game ephemera -- act as counterpoint to the texts themselves.

"The forty-year history of the video game industry, the medium has undergone staggering development, fueled not only by advances in technology but also by an insatiable quest for richer play and more meaningful experiences. From the very beginning, with the introduction of the Magnavox Odyssey in 1972, countless individuals became enthralled by a new world opened before them, one in which they could control and create, as well as interact and play. Even in their rudimentary form, video games held forth a potential and promise that inspired a generation of developers, programmers, and gamers to pursue visions of ever more sophisticated interactive worlds. As a testament to the game industry's stunning evolution, and to its cultural impact worldwide, the Smithsonian American Art Museum and curator Chris Melissinos conceived the 2012 exhibition The Art of Video Games. Along with a team of game developers, designers, and journalists, Melissinos selected an initial group of 240 games in four different genres to represent the best of the game world. Selection criteria included visual effects, creative use of technologies, and how world events and popular culture influenced the games. The Art of Video Games offers a revealing look into the history of the game industry, from the early days of Pac-Man and Space Invaders to the vastly more complicated contemporary epics such as BioShock and Uncharted. Melissinos examines each of the eighty winning entries, with stories and comments on their development, innovation, and relevance to the game world's overall growth. Visual images, composed by Patrick O'Rourke, are all drawn directly from the games themselves, and speak to the evolution of games as an artistic medium, both technologically and creatively"--