I've always had an interest in game development but categorized it alongside astronaut, musician, and artist as a fantastical but ultimately impractical and silly career choice. (A pretty cynical worldview that I've since changed, but unfortunately for me, that's what college-Niki believed.)
A multitude of random events (roller derby, job dissatisfaction, and a trip to SXSW, to name a few) helped rekindle my interest in game development. A lot of what I've learned via software development & systems design is applicable to game design, but I have some way to go before my skills catch up with my ambitions.
So did what I always do when faced with the unknown: I started reading books--lots of them. And the ones I found more interesting were less about game development as a practice, and more about the role of games in our culture, civilization, and humanity.
Here are the three that made the biggest impression on me:
1. Rise of the Videogame Zinesters by Anna Anthropy
By far the best and most inspiring book I've read lately. The full title is Rise of the Videogame Zinesters: How Freaks, Normals, Amateurs, Artists, Dreamers, Drop-outs, Queers, Housewives, and People Like You Are Taking Back an Art Form. (As of this writing there is exactly one paper copy left in stock on Amazon. If you don't have an eReader, QUICK GO BUY IT.)
I have this book to thank for solidifying in my mind the idea that games are the perfect artistic medium to express complex ideas. Previously any connection that I'd made between art and games had to do with graphics or animation. Those are still important components, but the game as a whole is a piece of art, and can only be fully appreciated by being played. On a personal level, I found sudden harmony between my desire to create and my desire to play.
While I found the greatest value of this book to be in the author's perspective of games and the mainstream game industry, it also includes a primer on game development tools that are freely available for anyone to use. The author's site and links to her own games can be found at auntiepixelante.com.
2. Reality is Broken by Jane McGonigal
Where Rise of the Videogame Zinesters helped me to see the connection between art and games, Reality is Broken helped me to see how games can and do have a tangible impact on the real world.
Before Jane McGonigal wrote Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World, she spent years studying video games and the affects they have on the people who play them. Much to the relief of parents everywhere, what she found was very positive. Games challenge and engage us in ways that the real world does not, by being really good at helping us achieve a state of "flow" and giving us frequent cause to celebrate success.
The author is game designer herself, and specializes in games that have real and lasting impacts on the world.
3. Gamestorming by Dave Gray, Sunni Brown, and James Macanufo
Unlike the first two books, this one deals a lot more with practicalities. However, the "how" isn't about how to design video games or board games, but how to use the principles of gamification in a business setting. The exercises in Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rulebreakers and Changemakers can inject some fun into the dry and stressful business of ... well, business.
Reading through the list of games feels similar to reading a list of project management and facilitation tools (RACI chart, Stakeholder Analysis, Mood Board, Value Mapping) because really, that's exactly what they are. But the authors re-frame these tools into a set of rules and procedures that feels less like business and more like play. It's really a business book dressed up as a book about gaming, which is what makes it so brilliant, and perhaps a fine example of Jane McGonigal's assertion that games can make reality better.
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