I've collected a wide variety of material and links in this pack. It covers various topics, not limited to game design but other critical functions like production and development. Diving into the material and embracing the adventure of game-making is vital to increasing the odds of success. The materials below are organized into disciplines and have a summary underneath the links. The materials are stacked and ranked in terms of "importance" within each category.
The book is the best intro into modern F2P with lots of web3 cross-over. It provides an excellent survey on the model and metrics commonly used in games. The author, Eric Seufert, is a master of mobile user acquisition and has been for the better part of a decade. He runs a high-quality blog that dives into modern user acquisition problems. This is linked later in the pack.
A quintessential Metaverse" Matthew Ball essay that's good to read in companion with the above. In the essay, Matthew describes the difference between games and other forms of media.
The book takes a long time horizon and is more academic than anything listed. The book marshals much pre-2000 data about how the game industry was changing. The author, Joost Van Dreunen, used to run SuperData, which sourced a great deal of industry-level data.
It is a heavy read at ~600 pages but covers many issues, from art production to engine problems. The challenge with postmortems isn't if they are accurate depictions of what went wrong but rather how applicable their problems are to your problems. Adopting these lessons improves your batting average, even if some claims are strikes.
I cheated by including another postmortem, which is short and sweet. It’s dated 1, but it is a good reference for how the team overcame many challenges to deliver. The takeaway is how tech choices reverberate throughout a project.
It's not the greatest talk, but it’s a good section of tests or “gates” a de"elope" should make at each production stage before moving on to the next. Takeaways are production phases and the challenges of scaling over time.
Self-recommending. An efficient GDC talk captures many challenges of group decision-making on a single creative product. Feel free to stop watching after 38:00 - the last speaker is not worth the time.
A savvy guide to the design choices that separate F2P and live service from traditional HD (i.e., PC/Console games). This is more design than metrics-focused.
It’s good, with actionable advice. I suggest following through on the talk’s challenge: “For each rule, you can decide whether it’s useful for your projects and how you might merge that technique into your design rulebook. You may not agree with every rule you hear in this fast-paced and energetic session, but they’ll let you think about the craft of game design.”
This is one of Raph’s (UltiRaph's and now doing web3) best talks. Raph strips down mechanics and tracks how they apply to different genres. We’ll be doing a lot of this!
I referenced this game in the pitch deck because it’s a beautiful story of what rigorous study and sweat can do. Despite being out-resourced and out-spent, the developer grabbed market share from the billion-dollar match-3 titans. This deconstruction showcases two things: (1) it exemplifies an excellent deconstruction, and (2) it highlights crucial decisions in match-3, a simple genre that requires deep thought.
Animation is one of the most significant differences between polished and unpolished games. The talk is lightning-quick and demonstrates how small touches’ have an 'incredible effect on the product. Do not wait until the last sprint before release to start conceiving these!
- Deconstructor of Fun Great teardowns by a variety of designers. The podcast is good, but the weekly release may take a lot of work to get into. They do one-offs, which may be more valuable.
- Free to Play Economics This is me!
- Naavik The host is completely unexciting, but if you can survive the experience, there are good web3 conversations and web2 ones. Their newsletter is wonderful, and I know many consultants who work there - they are the real deal.
- Game Makers The interview can veer into inside baseball, but they cover various topics, from hiring outsources to designing teardowns.
- Mobile Dev Memo The go-to blog changes in user acquisition by Eric Seufert.
The below titles are an array across the key genres. Remember to take notes as you play them. What makes them tick? What does the feature accomplish? How do they compare and contrast?
- RTS: Clash Royale, PvZ Heroes
- 4x: Star Trek: Fleet Command, Lords Mobile
- Collection RPG: Marvel Strike Force, AFK Arena, Marvel Puzzle Quest
- Match-3: Candy Crush, Royale Match, Homescapes
- RPG: Genshin Impact,
- FPS: CS: GO, Apex Legends
There are a few launched and high-quality products we can learn from.
React
Typescript
Django
Laravel
Facebook
Microsoft
Google
Alibaba
D3
Tencent