Any good reference books used for game designs?

When making cutscenes I often reference a couple of books : 'Master Shots' by Christopher Kenworthy (ISBN 9781932907513) and 'Cinematic Storytelling' by Jennifer van Sijll (ISBN 9781932970056).

These are quite good at explaining the conventions of setting up camera shots for cutscenes and allow one to use the conventions of cinema in a useful way for games.

Anyone got other similar reference books used to add to a design. As I'm always trying to find useful stuff it would be interesting to get some pointers to good material from other developers.

EDIT: I think my original post was not clear. Here's a link to a game I helped design some time ago
http://citrussuite.com/ourwork/mystery-seekers-iphone-ipad-released-february-2012/

Just to make clear, I am not associated with this company in a professional capacity I am merely pointing to a game I largely designed as a favour. Nor am I making any claims to being any kind of decent game designer I just wish to get the discussion in the right direction.

I suppose I'm asking whether anyone has practical book suggestions that actually help in making games i.e. 'Facial Expressions' by Mark Simon which has a section on phonemes illustrating lip and tongue positions, and has page after page of visual art reference which is useful for modelling blendshapes etc.

This is just as much game design as actual Game Design books.

 

Those are good books! I also like Glebas's Directing the Story. It's full of example sketches and all very applicable to games.

On the writing side, Dille and Platten's Ultimate Guide to Video Game Writing and Design has good in-the-trenches advice from two game writers.

A lot of people mention Schell's Art of Game Design, which is definitely worth reading, but I prefer Rogers's Level Up.

I wanted to like Jeff Howard's Quests, but it didn't have any meat, and a huge chunk at the end was just filler, a reprint of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight that had gone public domain.

There are so many aspects of design that I don't know where to stop. There are also good level design books and art design books.

 

Want the best? Start with Jesse Schell's, The Art of Game Design (A Book of Lenses). Then, I'd suggest A Theory of Fun by Raph Koster and The Paradox of Choice (Why Less is More), by Barry Schwartz. If you don't want to purchase a book, most of the key practical design topics are addressed in my own book chapter, Design Better Games! (Flow, Motivation, and Fun).

Happy reading,
Gigi

 

I have quite a few of those books. I was more referring to reference books that can help when designing a game but not strictly game design.

 

Gamasutra published some good articles in the past year on architecture and lighting, if you're thinking more along the lines of level design.

 

Ok, thanks.