there is an Endnotes section that further expands on some of the previous material on a page by page basis. The three page Bibliography contains dozens of books for further study. This is a substantial book for someone looking to get serious about Game Design.
The Art of Game Design - A Deck Of Lenses The complete title of the book is “The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses”. For those who are unfamiliar with the phrase “A Book of Lenses”, this is Jesse Schell’s way of presenting the most important aspects of a chapter into a memorable summary for the use of either memorization or accessing it at a later date. There are 113 of these gems scattered throughout the book. To make them more accessible to both the Game Designer and his team, he has made them available separately as an oversized deck of 113 cards that come in their own storage box. Each card measures 3 x 5 inches and the card stock is of decent quality, considering that the cards are not meant for excessive shuffling. Each card is laid out in a similar manner. In the upper left corner is the Lens number and the name of the Lens is centered at the top of the card. The card features an illustration which helps in the visualizing/memorizing of the Lens. There is a concise summary of the Lens in the middle of the card, followed by a series of questions that the designer should be asking themselves about their game. Simple, but very effective. The only downside to the cards is that some information needed to left off. In the majority of cases this is fine, however, in the case of a card such as Lens #22, it states “On which levels of Maslow’s hierarchy is my game operating?”, which is all fine and good if you happen to know what he is referring to. In this case, Abraham Maslow was a Psychologist who wrote a paper on “A Theory of Human Motivation”, which is broken down into five “needs”. They are sufficiently explained in the book and includes a diagram. However, the card lists none of the “needs”, thus making the reader reach for their copy of “The Art of Game Design”
Issue #2
and hunt down the Lens in the book to refresh their memory of the hierarchy… kind of defeating the purpose of having a handy set of cards for reference. Otherwise the cards are brilliant and are a joy to keep on your desk and pull one or more out and see how they relate to your current design. While doing this review, I was working on two prototypes that were greatly enhanced as I held them “up to the lenses” and saw them in a new light.
Author: Jesse Schell Publisher: CRC Press
Highly Recommended Game Nite
21