Rating: 
Summary: Is it me, or do the first few of reviews seem a little...
Review: ...staged?Avoid this book, go for Rollings' book instead.
Rating: 
Summary: Game Design for beginners to experts (soldout at GDC)
Review: At the 2003 Game Developer's Conference (a four day
international show for the game industry) Game Design
Foundations sold out in 3 days as 100s of competing books
remained unsold. Mr. Pedersen describes by example and clear, enjoyable reading
how to become a game designer. This is a great book for
students and novices who have said "I can make a game" or by the
millions of avid game players who have remarked "I could make a
better game than 'the one I just played.'" If you are a programmer, an artist, a producer who wants the
skills to be a game designer or if you are creative and just
want to design your game, your vision then Game Design
Foundations is the book for you. Game Design Foundations teaches the techniques used by top game
designers of videogames (Playstation 2, Nintendo, XBox, arcade
and handheld) and computers (Window, MacIntosh, Linux). Game Design Foundations decribes in detail the tools a designer
needs to know about such as art packages (2D and 3D), 3D game
engines, audio and video software, project management software,
how to write a Hollywood format script and the basics of
programming plus the game designer's key function documentation
and research. Over 1,200 free to use game ideas are included to
help jump start your life as a professional game designer. When one GDC attendee from Buenos Aires asked for the book on
day 4, he was told it was sold out. Seeing him quite sad, the
bookseller suggested ordering Game Design Foundation from
"Amazon.Com" which made him smile again.
Rating:
Summary: Game Design From Beginner to Expert
Review: I bought Game Design Foundation at the 2003 Game Developers Conference and I'm glad I did because in a few hours it was sold out. The book discusses how to develop your game vision into a workable document to put your idea onto the store shelves.
Documentation, research and testing are explained by example as well as learning the basics of programming, scriptwriting and tools such as 3D engines, art packages, sound and audio applications and project management software. Even if you don't have any game ideas, Mr. Pedersen offers over 1,200 free ideas to use to make your game. Like, myself and the hundreds of top game developers who stood in line to buy Game Design Foundations, any person from the high school student, housewife to mailperson can learn and become a game designer.
Rating:
Summary: the HORROR!!
Review: I found out about this guy by reading his arrogant post on flipcode.com entitled, "World Famous Game Designer Available". That's a mighty big thing to label yourself as especially when your writing books for 5th graders on game design. The book is for the absolute of the absolute newbie. To spend money on this book is a complete waiste. About all the information in the book, which is not that much, can be found at any game developing website or community. I wouldn't recommend this book for aspiring game designers. Also I'd like to point out something about the previous comments: you notice how either the book scored 1 - 2 stars or a perfect 5 stars? Can you see who actually read the book and who is promoting it?
Rating:
Summary: the HORROR!!
Review: I found out about this guy by reading his arrogant post on flipcode.com entitled, "World Famous Game Designer Available". That's a mighty big thing to label yourself as especially when your writing books for 5th graders on game design. The book is for the absolute of the absolute newbie. To spend money on this book is a complete waiste. About all the information in the book, which is not that much, can be found at any game developing website or community. I wouldn't recommend this book for aspiring game designers. Also I'd like to point out something about the previous comments: you notice how either the book scored 1 - 2 stars or a perfect 5 stars? Can you see who actually read the book and who is promoting it?
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing with a few useful bits
Review: Let me start by saying that I truly looked forward to the release of Pedersen's Game Design Foundations. Very few books deal with this topic in a satisfactory manner, so every time you see a new release advertised, you get your hopes up. Well this one was a letdown, because it contained very little information, I hadn't found for free on the internet. Here is what I wished I had known before forking out my cash... The book starts off with a section where the author takes you through a few of his war stories and learned rules. A lot of them makes sense and are a good contribution to the book as such. An example could be "Share your toys", where Pedersen urges us to help others unselfishly, instead of trying to keep your experience and succes to yourself. The next section is devoted to game ideas. In this chapter Pedersen lists more then 1200 ideas for games. The ideas consist of an extensive list of sports (of which many have been developed as games today), movies (where he lists the main idea behind each movie), board games, music and authors. Some of these have merrit, but the 1200+ number is not so solid. For example "mythology", "mythological creatures", "norse mythology" and "Irish mythology" are counted as 4 different game ideas. In my opinion, these first two sections are the most valuable in the book, and you should only consider buying it if these things have caught your attention. The third section is devoted to research. One such object of research is a comparisson between the Rainbow Six and Delta Force series of games. Pedersen goes to great lengths to name every weapon in each game (+ their sequels and mission disks). In my book this doesn't really add value to the research. Whereas the parts about what is good and bad about each game is non-existent for quite a few of the examples and when it is existent it is limited to a few sentences like "has multiplayer support". Whereas research in design work obviously has its place, Pedersen really gets around the nitty gritty and important bits in an easy and rushed fashion. The fourth part of the book is aimed introducing the games designer to the tools involved in building a game. Pedersen takes us through art and animation packages, game engines and sound tools to name a few. I wonder why this section is in the book, because everything reads like a marketing brochure for the individual products, so there is really no difference from what advertising materials you'd get from the respective producers of these tools. In this section we also get exposed to very basic programming and you learn to make your own tic-tac-toe game in Visual Basic. 5 pages are devoted to designing user interfaces. A good and welcome idea, but one could have wished for more then 5 pages, out of which several go to describe user interfaces in card games. Pedersen also tries to explain basic scriptwriting. The last section (save the appendices) is devoted to different aspects of the design document. A basic attempt at explaining its use and structure. If you want to read about design documents and their application, I would suggest Luke Ahearn's Creating 3D Games That Sell, Rollings & Morris' Game Architecture and Design or Game Design Theory and Practise by Richard Rouse III. When all is said and done, this book confuses me, because it tries to accomplish so many things(without an overarching structure), but does neither of them particularly well. It kinda reminds me of Luke Ahearn's Creating 3D Games That Sell, which is basically 3 different books attempted in one book. Just to clarify, that book contains sections which are easily worth the cover price. I am sorry, but Game Design Foundations will not teach you to be a games designer on your own, or how to break into the games industry as a budding games designer. Roger Pedersen got easily around this one; There are very few things you couldn't find on the net with half an hour of searching. If you are serious about learning games design and development, then get Rollings & Morris excellent book Game Architecture and Design, or if you just want a "foundation" course, check out Saltzman's Secret of the Sages. Sadly, this one doesn't deserve the cover price...
Rating:
Summary: Who is this book for?
Review: The title of this book is "Game Design". You might think, therefore, that most of it would be devoted to the design aspect of making games. This is not the case. Most of the book is a shallow survey of the different aspects of game development. Programming, art, audio, production, testing, and the various tools used by each department. Everything except design, it seems. Pederson writes the book as if you have just been appointed the job of creative director on a videogame development team. If that's the case, it's silly for him to be giving this survey of information that you probably already know. The first few chapters are actually about game design, but the ideas here mostly fall into two categories: stuff that a game design lead would already know, and stuff that is wrong. His formula for making games consists of reading the reviews for previous games in the same genre, keeping the good parts, and fixing the flaws. This is not a recipe for making a hit game. This is not how Tetris, Diablo, Zelda, or The Sims were made. How about some advice for level or mission designers? How about some advice for anyone other than the ultimate authority of a game development team who wants to make their game better but doesn't know how? The one thing I liked about this book was Pederson's point about how game ideas are a dime a dozen. It is so true; I've been working on games for ten years, and it always seems like I'm drowning in other people's ideas. I am glad I'm not the only one who feels this way, and I don't regret reading the book, if it was just for his persuasive arguments on this one point.
Rating:
Summary: Who is this book for?
Review: The title of this book is "Game Design". You might think, therefore, that most of it would be devoted to the design aspect of making games. This is not the case. Most of the book is a shallow survey of the different aspects of game development. Programming, art, audio, production, testing, and the various tools used by each department. Everything except design, it seems. Pederson writes the book as if you have just been appointed the job of creative director on a videogame development team. If that's the case, it's silly for him to be giving this survey of information that you probably already know. The first few chapters are actually about game design, but the ideas here mostly fall into two categories: stuff that a game design lead would already know, and stuff that is wrong. His formula for making games consists of reading the reviews for previous games in the same genre, keeping the good parts, and fixing the flaws. This is not a recipe for making a hit game. This is not how Tetris, Diablo, Zelda, or The Sims were made. How about some advice for level or mission designers? How about some advice for anyone other than the ultimate authority of a game development team who wants to make their game better but doesn't know how? The one thing I liked about this book was Pederson's point about how game ideas are a dime a dozen. It is so true; I've been working on games for ten years, and it always seems like I'm drowning in other people's ideas. I am glad I'm not the only one who feels this way, and I don't regret reading the book, if it was just for his persuasive arguments on this one point.
Rating: 
Summary: Put on your game design thinking hat...
Review: Well, I finished Roger Pederson's book, Game Design Foundations. It was an interesting read and I look forward to the class he'll be co-instructing. (Gameversity.com - April 1st 2004) I feel that if you approach the book with a "gimmie teh codez" mentality, you won't like it. It's not a cook book for making a game design document although there is one included. The author takes a more holistic approach and almost seems to ramble on in some parts. For example, instead of presenting a blank design document and saying how to fill out X, Y, and Z, he presents a design document from a game that he was created so you get a feel for the level of detail that is needed. Instead of saying you need to research your topic, he shows you an example of such research and the level of detail required to informed. Mr. Pedersen talks about script writing and the differences between a linear story and game organization. He does that by showing involved examples of each style. The author touches on a large number of topics and exposes the reader to what it really means to be a game designer. I think he does of real good job of trying to create the mindset needed by a game designer. If you come at the task as a writer, programmer, or artist, you're going to need to open your eyes to the bigger picture.
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TAZ
Rating:
Summary: Put on your game design thinking hat...
Review: Well, I finished Roger Pederson's book, Game Design Foundations. It was an interesting read and I look forward to the class he'll be co-instructing. (Gameversity.com - April 1st 2004) I feel that if you approach the book with a "gimmie teh codez" mentality, you won't like it. It's not a cook book for making a game design document although there is one included. The author takes a more holistic approach and almost seems to ramble on in some parts. For example, instead of presenting a blank design document and saying how to fill out X, Y, and Z, he presents a design document from a game that he was created so you get a feel for the level of detail that is needed. Instead of saying you need to research your topic, he shows you an example of such research and the level of detail required to informed. Mr. Pedersen talks about script writing and the differences between a linear story and game organization. He does that by showing involved examples of each style. The author touches on a large number of topics and exposes the reader to what it really means to be a game designer. I think he does of real good job of trying to create the mindset needed by a game designer. If you come at the task as a writer, programmer, or artist, you're going to need to open your eyes to the bigger picture.
--
TAZ
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