= 42
Or: "The art of Game Design - a book of lenses / Die Kunst des Game Designs"
http://www.amazon.com/Art-Game-Design-book-lenses/dp/0123694965http://www.amazon.de/Die-Kunst-Game-Designs-Professional/dp/3826691881I recommend this book to newcomers and pros. It offers a good non-technical approach to game design. It´s highly inspirational and it has given me a lot of "aha moments".
The main conclusion is that we are creating experiences. These are defined by mechanics, story, aesthetics and technology.
The book offers 100 lenses or better - questions - which are really helpful for the creation of better experiences.
It leads you to look at your game from different perspectives to find potential flaws.
It puts your vague design decisions in a nutshell and sharpens your mental image of game design in general. You´ll find that you have wittingly or unwittingly applied some of these questions to your games in the past. In this book they are clearly communicated and boiled down to their essence, which is really helpful.
