selectparks - Rules Of Play

Title: Rules of Play, Game Design Fundamentals
Authors: Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman
Year: 2003
Publisher: MIT Press

Rules of Play is a 670 page, hardcopy text-book which succinctly introduces and analyzes the formal structures of games. Rules of Play covers both the physical and experiential elements of game play, and extends to a discussion about the wider cultural significance of games. Where painters learn colour theory, game designers learn the Rules of Play, if only so they can break them.

Rules of Play is exhaustively researched, written in a style particularly suited to students, replete with summaries, example commissioned games with notes, and suggested further reading. However the book so thoroughly covers the formal elements of games it is also an essential reference for all researchers and designers in the field.

http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=9802