Starting developing my own game taught me that having background in 3D and programming is not enough for being a good game developer. So I started doing my research, reading some literature. Here's some good stuff I found. Mind you, I'm not affiliated with the writers and publishers and not advertising anything.
THE ART OF GAME DESIGN: A BOOK OF LENSES
by Jesse Schell
The Art of Game Design focuses on designing a good game - not necessarily a computer game, and it answers a lot of questions a game designer might have. It's about making decisions that will define your game - about the story, rules, look and feel, etc.
As you may have noticed, in Triptych diary 1 I was discussing how the weapon system choice would affect the overall gameplay and the level design, instead of going with a "this system is enjoyable/easy/popular" rationale. Schell's book complements my approach and adds the author's experience - a thing that I lack - to my own decision-making.
What's best about this book is its structure, with each "lens" centered around a specific question you need to answer during the design process.
ELEMENTAL MAGIC: VOL. 1 THE ART OF SPECIAL EFFECTS ANIMATION
ELEMENTAL MAGIC: VOL. 2 THE TECHNIQUE OF SPECIAL EFFECTS ANIMATION
by Joseph Gilland
Elemental Magic is one of the best finds I had; guess the VFX guys of Unreal Infiltrator Demo recommended it. As the title suggests, the books deal with designing believable VFX both in classic and 3D animation.
Designing VFX for video games is all about trickery. Device performance, HDD space, all this is pretty limited. You can't have full-scale particle simulations, say, for raindrops or explosions. So you have to rely on good design decisions to make your VFX believable and have an impact.
Mastering Unreal Technology, Vol. 1: Introduction to Level Design with Unreal Engine 3
Mastering Unreal Technology, Vol. 2: The Art of Level Design
by Zak Parrish and Jason Busby
I needed a book on level design, and the Mastering Unreal Technology series proved to be a good starting point. While focused on the older Unreal Engine 3 (Triptych is based on Unreal Engine 4), the fact that I started my game on UDK and migrated to UE4 when it went free helps migrate the ideas of the book to the newer engine. It will take a bit of thinking as some stuff is done differently on UE4 (e.g. BSP geometry is now used only for blocking out the level, and not for the final result), but nothing really hard about it, especially if you have worked with multiple engines and understand the general principles.
THE HOWS AND WHYS OF LEVEL DESIGN
by Sjoerd "Hourences" De Jong
Another one on level design. A bit on the author - Hourences has been pretty good about tutorials and tips on game design, the design process of their Solus Project is pretty well documented. His outlook on creating a video game might differ deeply from mine, but his understanding of it is profound, and the book is a welcome addition to my game design library. The book is an easy read, and the ideas discussed in it actually work.
I recommend other beginning game designers, once they have gained intermediate level of working with the game engine of their choice, to take a look at his tutorials - and why not, the books.
There's a lot more to add to this list (the GPU Gems series, etc.) - but let's not overburden it for now. I might revisit it later, given I have a free moment or two - the making of Triptych takes a lot of time itself.
Have a nice day.
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