Game Architecture and Design by Andrew Rollings, Dave Morris
Published November 1999
List Price: $49.99, Your Amazon.com Price: $0.00
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Amazon Sales Rank: 701,923
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Summary This uniquely valuable book covers a wide range of topics, including many never before addressed in a game development book. The three areas it focuses on are game design, game architecture, and team building and management.
This is the best book on the subject that I have read.
Although this author gives much of his opinion, I believe it to be an advantage, giving me the possibility to have my own opinion, by agreeing or disagreeing, on subjects that I wouldn’t have thought on myself.
This is one of those books that you keep on the bedside table. Like everyone else, I don't agree with everything (including the management section), but it's a decent place to start, and worth the cover price.
This book is actually being used as required reading for the Computer Game Design course offered at the University of Michigan. I read it straight through before the first day of class.
I'm still reading this book but what I have read has taught me so much. While reading this book I thought of some really good game designs. The case studies are also great reading. I recommend to anyone interested in creating games.
I really liked almost all of this book. The first part, on game design, is very good and has been very useful to me. Part 3, on game architecture, also was fairly good. However, I didn't really like Part 2; in that section, the author tries to say that game development needs to be more like the movie industry and we should have dress codes, code reviews, and formal process. I agree with some other reviewers that the author does let his opinions seep in too much.
If you're interested in game design or game architecture, I would heavily recommend this book. Also, if you're interested in formalizing game development, the team management section might also appeal to you.
An extremely good book, as everyone else has said.
Found myself disagreeing quite strongly with some of his views on management principals, but at least the author had sensible reasoning behind even the most objectionable point.
That's a real must for everybody designing videogames. Sometimes it's a little dispersive but I think this is a great, I repeat great, gold mine for developers. A note also for the really interesting interview featuring Mike Diskett, Bill Roper and Peter Molineux.
Overall, it is a good book. But there are numerous parts of the book where the author tries to pass off pure opinions as facts. It's worth the money but certain parts of the book angered me. Ex. He says creative programmers are called hackers and that programmers should not be creative. He's a little off base there, creative programmers are called Game Programmers!
A mixed bag. The section on game design alone is worth the price of the book. Very, very useful. I disagree with the section on management entirely, both for philosophical and pragmatic reasons. Extreme Programming (XP) is one alternative development process that is superior IMO for game development. Finally, there is the section on architecture. This is basically "Program Architecture for Dummies". Not too horrible, but primitive. There are better resources on that subject.
Excellent in design and implementation. Another one of my favorite books. This book not only provides solid facts about the gaming industry, it even provides case studies proving the authors' points in a real-world situation. The detail gone into it is incredible and turns the industry inside-out for all to see. After reading this book you'll make no mistakes.
Nearly everyone that rates it on Amazon.com gives it very high ratings.
I enjoyed reading the book and learned alot from the various design/architecture techniques. There is very little source code, so don't buy the book and expect it. This book is a high level focus on Design and Architecture.
The book goes explains how to manage a game team, how to design reusable game code, various design and architecture techniques.
Every game developer should buy this book.
My only pet peeve about it was the fact that he included a sample game, with design documents, and stated that he used the approaches in the book, but didn't include the source code for the game. I know, I know, the book wasn't directed towards programming, but I would have like to see his architecture in action.
Within reading the first chapter I knew this book was going to be extremely useful and insightful. After several more I knew it was a definite classic for a guide for how to design games from the whiteboard, to the pitch, to the glass CD. I've really enjoyed the case studies, which often mimic things I've noticed or thought about, then dissect the concepts and are always delivered in an intelligent manner.
I have yet to see a game design/development book that has used examples which intrigued me, and this book is full of them. It helps provide a continuous level of confidence in the authors' statements and suggestions since they obviously know what they are talking about and can 'walk the walk' of concise designs.
Workshop on Network and Systems Support for Games (NetGames 2009)
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