Remember the old days of the Internet? When you could drop a bulleted list of links onto a shocking pale and naked page of HTML and call it a website? Boy, those were the dark ages, weren’t they? But they did have one thing going for them: when you went to, say, “CoolCars.com” you knew you’d find enough car site links to virtually choke a virtual cow. (Remember virtual cows? Boy, we were easily amused in those days.)
As you might have guessed, today’s post is little more than a list of links. But your virtual cows are safe; the list is all about quality, not quantity, and of a fairly limited scope. So without further ado:
Darrell’s Recommended Game Design Links
- What Games Are is the website of Tadhg Kelly, a game designer who’s writing a book by the same name. He updates once or twice a week with insightful essays on video game design and development. It’s a bit high-brow at times, but always accessible, and he’s got a knack for proclaiming business heresies like “Embrace your Pirates!” and “Forget the Money!” and then backing them up with solid reasoning. You might not always agree with him, but he’ll always give you something worth thinking about.
- Flark Design is the website of Mike Birkhead, a senior game designer who’s sharing the lessons he’s learned about game design over the years. Again, it’s mostly video games, but a lot of principles apply to tabletop games as well. Mike presents a more “from the trenches” view than Tadhg, and emphasizes the practical over the theoretical, but gives theory its due when relevant.
- AltDevBlogADay is the communal blog of a bunch of video game developers (designers, engineers, and artists) writing about their respective crafts. I’ll warn you: especially with the engineers on here, it sometimes gets very technical. But if it’s too much for my little writer brain to handle, I can always come back the next day for a taste of something new.
I’m always on the lookout for game design websites and blogs. Yes, Gamasutra. But what else is out there? Any good suggestions, people?
