Game Design and Development: Code, Psychology and Analytics (Paperback)

Outstanding. I kept finding reasons to come back to it.

I read this over a couple of weekends alongside a small side project, which turned out to be the ideal way to approach it. Some of the diagrams are dense and I had to reread a few sections, though that may just be me. The early chapters move quickly through material I already knew, but the later sections were genuinely new to me. I have already recommended it to two colleagues and will recommend it to more.

Exactly the book I needed. Straight to the point and genuinely useful.

I had been on the fence about this one for a while, and I should have bought it sooner. A couple of chapters felt like they could have been merged, but that is a minor complaint. The explanations are careful without being condescending, which is a difficult balance to strike. The explanations are careful without being condescending, which is a difficult balance to strike. One of those books that pays for itself within the first few chapters. Highly recommended.

Almost excellent. A second edition could easily push it to five stars.

I was looking for something that would bridge the gap between tutorials and proper reference material, and this does that well. There is a section near the end that ties several earlier ideas together in a way I had not seen before. Some terminology is introduced without much ceremony; I had to look a few things up along the way. A good addition to a technical library, as long as you know what you are buying.