Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals
- 16h 53m
- Eric Zimmerman, Katie Salen
- The MIT Press
- 2004
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 The 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. Active participants in game culture, the authors wrote Rules of Play as a catalyst for game design innovation, filling it with concepts, strategies, and methodologies for creating and understanding games.
Building an aesthetics of interactive systems, Salen and Zimmerman define core concepts such as “play,” “design,” and “interactivity.” They look at games through a series of eighteen “game design schemas,” or conceptual frameworks, including games as systems of information and emergent complexity, as contexts for social play and storytelling, and as sites of cultural ideology and resistance.
Written for game scholars, game developers, and interactive designers, Rules of Play is a textbook, reference book, and conceptual guide. It is the first comprehensive attempt to establish a solid theoretical framework for the emerging discipline of game design.
About the Authors
Katie Salen is a game designer, interactive designer, and a design educator.
Eric Zimmerman is a game designer, game design theorist, and the co-founder and CEO of gameLab.
They have taught at universities including MIT, the University of Texas, Parsons School of Design, New York University, Rhode Island School of Design, and the School of Visual Arts.
In this Book
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Rules of Play — Game Design Fundamentals
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Foreword
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What Is This Book About?
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The Design Process
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Meaningful Play
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Design
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Systems
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Interactivity
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Defining Games
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Defining Digital Games
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The Magic Circle
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The Primary Schemas
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Commissioned Game 1 — Richard Garfield
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Defining Rules
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Rules on Three Levels
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The Rules of Digital Games
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Games as Emergent Systems
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Games as Systems of Uncertainty
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Games as Information Theory Systems
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Games as Systems of Information
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Games as Cybernetic Systems
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Games as Game Theory Systems
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Games as Systems of Conflict
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Breaking the Rules
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Commissioned Game 2 — Ironclad
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Defining Play
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Games as the Play of Experience
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Games as the Play of Pleasure
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Games as the Play of Meaning
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Games as Narrative Play
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Games as the Play of Simulation
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Games as Social Play
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Commissioned Game 3 — Sneak
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Defining Culture
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Games as Cultural Rhetoric
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Games as Open Culture
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Games as Cultural Resistance
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Games as Cultural Environment
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Commissioned Game 4 — Caribbean Star
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Bibliography
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List of Games Cited
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