# Game design books

> A reading list on game design: Salen & Zimmerman's Rules of Play, Poole's Trigger Happy, Lucien King's Game On and the practical design manuals of 2003.

- Page: https://www.elasticspace.com/2003/04/game-design/
- Author: Timo Arnall (https://www.elasticspace.com/)
- Section: Notes (https://www.elasticspace.com/notes/)
- Published: 2003-04-10
- Updated: 2026-07-05
- Tags: Books, Experience Design, Interaction Design, Play, Research
- Site map for agents: https://www.elasticspace.com/llms.txt

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This is one of a series of reading lists I put together between 2002 and 2004 when I was starting out in interaction and experience design, building out a personal canon from books I was buying, borrowing from libraries, or lending to students. The lists are grouped by topic. This one is on game design, a discipline with a lot to teach interaction designers about engagement, feedback and the design of systems people come back to.

Salen & Zimmerman’s Rules of Play is the canonical theoretical text; it did for game design what Bordwell & Thompson did for film. Steven Poole’s Trigger Happy is a cultural rather than technical take, and one of the better-written books on games. Lucien King’s Game On was the Barbican’s 2002 exhibition catalogue, still a useful visual and historical overview. The rest are practical manuals from the pre-indie era of game development.

The Amazon links below are what I had at the time, most will be dead now, but the ISBNs will find you a copy.

### Rules of Play : Game Design Fundamentals

Katie Salen, Eric Zimmerman.
[amazon.co.uk](http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0262240459/elasticspace-21) / [amazon.com](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0262240459/elasticspace-20)

### Game Design

Bob Bates.
[amazon.co.uk](http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0761531653/elasticspace-21) / [amazon.com](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0761531653/elasticspace-20)

### Andrew Rollings and Ernest Adams on Game Design

Andrew Rollings, Ernest Adams.
[amazon.co.uk](http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1592730019/elasticspace-21) / [amazon.com](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1592730019/elasticspace-20)

### Game Architecture and Design

Andrew Rollings, Dave Morris.
[amazon.co.uk](http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1576104257/elasticspace-21) / [amazon.com](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1576104257/elasticspace-20)

### Game On

Lucien King.
[amazon.co.uk](http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/185669304X/elasticspace-21) / [amazon.com](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/185669304X/elasticspace-20)

### RE:Play

Liz Faber.
[amazon.co.uk](http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1856691403/elasticspace-21) / [amazon.com](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1856691403/elasticspace-20)

### Electronic Plastic

Jaro Gielens, Robert Klanten.
[amazon.co.uk](http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/3931126447/elasticspace-21) / [amazon.com](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/3931126447/elasticspace-20)

### Trigger Happy

Steven Poole.
[amazon.co.uk](http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1841151211/elasticspace-21) / [amazon.com](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1559705396/elasticspace-20)