This was a birthday present to me, a book on the subject of video games design. Previously, I'd read A Theory of Fun for Game Design by Raph Koster, which was definitely a lot more theory than fun. This book is... the opposite.
It's a really concrete and practical book on game design. There are chapters on level design and characters and cutscenes etc. - all very practical and down-to-earth. Some of the things are pretty obvious patterns if you play a bunch of games and think about how they work, but the presentation is fun (and highly illustrated :) and thorough.
I don't intend to make video games (beyond the occasional foray into Pico-8 with my children), but sometimes it's interesting to read up on how to do things you don't intend to do. And, to be fair, my son loves it when he gets the chance to read it. I expect to find it dog-eared under his bed in a couple of weeks.
Grand summary - is it worth reading? I'd say so. Lot's of fun, not particularly hard work, and enjoyable and interesting.
Posted 2018-07-03.