A lot of people I know play video games rather than reading books. After working at a bookstore for five years, I find this to be really strange, but not surprising. However, I’m a strong believer that reading will only help you further educate yourself, whether or not you know you’re doing it. So I want to encourage gamers to read by having them read about the thing they love, video games.
Now I’m not just talking about reading the Halo or Gears of War novels (For more on this check out VGCats newest update), I’m talking about books about designing, playing, and the history of video games. For some of us this is sheer nerd trivia, but for others (like myself), it means knowing our industry and market that much better. Here’s a list of recommended books about the video game industry and it’s related history.
The Ultimate History of Video Games (ISBN: 9780761536434) by Steve Kent.
Game Creation and Careers (ISBN: 9780735713677) by Marc Saltzman.
Power Up: How Japanese Video Games Gave the World an Extra Life (ISBN: 9780744004241) by Chris Kohler.
Game Design: The Art and Business of Creating Games (ISBN: 9780761531653) by Bob Bates.
The Medium of the Video Game (ISBN:978029279150X) by Ralph H. Baer.
Supercade: A visual History of the Videogame Age 1971-1984 (ISBN: 9780262024926) by Van Burnham.
Postmortems from Game Developer (ISBN: 9781578202140) by Austin Grossman.
Paid to Play (ISBN: 9780761552847) by Alice Rush, David Hodgson and Bryan Stratton.
(For other books like these check out Amazon.com and type in “Video Game” or “Game Design” under the “Books” selection field. Enjoy!)
Date: October 11, 2009If you like this post, then leave a comment below or Subscribe to the RSS Feed.
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